Dear Reader

Time to kick back and let your mind go… You're on Mars now...

"It was stupendous in scale and distance. Arkan had said he wanted to put me in a crater because it was round. He said I would get power from it...the rim might be several thousand feet higher than where I was standing, and miles away. The floor of the crater looked to be two thousand, maybe three thousand feet below me. The land and the sky merged, reddish-brown with pink and blue..."

"The landscape hadn’t changed, not in millions of years...just weathered away, more and more honed, picked up and taken somewhere else...and at times formed almost a mosaic of rectangular tiles."

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"They would sit and see if anything developed. There in the Situation Room, they went back and forth on that question but left it to Mission Control. The other question broached was what they were calling 'Rover Diplomacy.' Now that they were in close proximity to the Chinese Tianwen 2 rover, should they reach out to the Chinese leadership?" The foregoing from: Thing BETWEEN TWO WORLDS.

Outer Space Treaty

​RESOLUTION ADOPTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY

1499th plenary meeting,

19 December 1966.

"Convinced that a Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies, will further the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations…shall be used by all States Parties to the Treaty exclusively for peaceful purposes..."

And from the following Google search, 21 February 2025: "Who is in non compliance with the outer space treaty?"

"While no country has been officially declared in non-compliance with the Outer Space Treaty, there are concerns that certain activities, like the development of advanced space propulsion systems that could be used for weapon delivery, may be indirectly circumventing the treaty's prohibition on placing weapons of mass destruction in orbit, potentially putting some nations in a grey area of non-compliance; however, due to the lack of a clear enforcement mechanism, it's difficult to definitively state who is violating the treaty."

Circling back to ChatGPT, I asked the following: "Given the lack of a clear Outer Space Treaty enforcement mechanism, would such enforcement then be delegated to the Security Council of the United Nations?"

From ChatGPT's answer: "Veto Power: Permanent members (U.S., China, Russia, UK, France) have veto power, meaning a major space-faring nation could block enforcement actions." And this Conclusion: "While the UNSC could theoretically step in, the lack of precedent and political complexities make it an unlikely primary enforcer of the Outer Space Treaty. In practice, enforcement remains dependent on international diplomacy, bilateral negotiations, and the evolving role of global space governance."

NOTE: As of February 2024, a member of the UN Security Council has vetoed a resolution 293 times!

So good luck on that...

Hey, sorry to digress, fulminate or whatever, but when writing The THING Trilogy, this is the kind of in depth research I do to add weight and authenticity to the writing. If you like this sort of thing in the Newsletter, let me know at: newsletter@kendallwilliamsauthor.com

Back to Mars

More great NASA Mars links:

​https://science.nasa.gov/mars/ ... Scroll down for an incredible video of: Perseverance landing safely on the surface of Mars.

​NASA’s Perseverance Rover Reaches Top of Jezero Crater Rim

Another image showing the texture of the Martian surface from an orbiter. The Martian atmosphere is mostly carbon dioxide and is much thinner than earth's, but that doesn't mean that the relentless winds of Mars don't play an outsized role in sculpting its surface.

Let's end with the following from book two, Thing BETWEEN TWO WORLDS, In the Aftermath of First Contact:

November 14, 2032

THERE IN THE Situation Room, things were tense. President Orr paced back and forth. It was decision time. The others sat straight backed with their eyes fixed on the large screens before them. One screen showed Landing Site A and the surrounding area in the Kasei Valles. The Dome could be seen to the far right of the screen. Another screen showed the vast dust cloud building over the Chryse Planitia. Still, another showed the broad entry to the Kasei Valles not far beyond where the Zhurong Rover was indicated. It was obvious that the wind was already entering the mouth of the Kasei Valles. A smaller screen zoomed in on Landing Site A showed tendrils of dust and dust devils on the surface. But the images were old, at least twenty minutes old because of the lag time in the signal coming from Mars to Earth. The window was closing!

“Alternate Site B,” said the President.

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Share your thoughts, what you would like to see in future newsletters, maybe a book you read, a favorite post that might be relevant. This is about you as much as me. After all, we are on this thing, the human journey, together. Reach me anytime at: newsletter@kendallwilliamsauthor.com and follow me on social media.

And check out book two, Thing FIRST CONTACT: A Journey Through the Fabric of Time, and The THING Trilogy. FYI, book three, Thing BEYOND REASON is done and now going through final editing and formatting. Roll out to be in April. Will keep you posted!

Quote from Freeman Dyson, Physicist: "The purpose of thinking about the future is not to predict it but to raise people's hopes."

Until next time, be well and safe journeys.

Sincerely,

Kendall Williams, Author

​kendallwilliamsauthor.com​

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