Using Energy and Resources from Space to Raise Living Standards of Across Earth
While Expanding Free Independent Human Societies Throughout the Universe

Characters

"I would rather be governed by the first two thousand people in the Boston telephone directory 
than by the two thousand people on the faculty of Harvard University."
William Buckley, Jr.


"The fatalism of the limits-to-growth alternative is reasonable only if one ignores all the resources beyond our atmosphere, resources thousands of times greater than we could ever obtain from our beleaguered Earth. As expressed very beautifully in the language of House Concurrent Resolution 451, 'This tiny Earth is not humanity's prison, is not a closed and dwindling resource, but is in fact only part of a vast system rich in opportunities...'"
Gerard O'Neill, testimony before a congressional committee, 1978


"We must open the frontier to expand this grand experiment called freedom, because without an arena to feed and nurture the ideals of liberty, individual choice and the right to do and be whatever you want may well perish from the Earth. We must open the frontier to find and create new wealth for humanity, because everyone in the world deserves the chance to have the same fine house, fine cars, and good life you can potentially have. We open the frontier to help save the planet we love from the ravages caused by our ever growing numbers and our hunger for new forms of energy, materials and products."
Rick Tumlinson

“Why join the navy if you can be a pirate?”
Steve Jobs

Noble causes attract characters - space advocates are among the most witty and colorful. Home depicts life on the near-future Martian frontier with support from Earth-based advocates, organizations, and entrepreneurial currently existent real-world companies. Depictions of engineers and scientists working in actual contemporary space businesses on Earth will allow cameo appearances by comedians and real-life space advocates, in such roles as teachers, scientists, space fans, politicians, entrepreneurs, and so forth...

The best stories come as jokes. Make your thinking as humorous as possible. Keep your mind open to observing funny, iconoclastic, unusual odd events that happen to you throughout the day; at the end of the week you should have 20+ sentences or paragraphs describing these occurrences; you'll be surprised how easy it is to map this onto a set of well-defined strong characters who write themselves.

Write literature. Write real people. Write about interesting people who happen to live on Mars. Or plan to go there. Write about entrepreneurs who don't give a damn about NASA, barely remember college, yet get good things done. Portray people who would think it corny to be called astronauts. Make your settlers more interested in settling space, painting murals on hab walls, playing guitar with their children, and understanding Mars than figuring out who isn't following the manual from Houston. (Let Houston's Starfleet Academy worry about an astronaut driving cross-country in a diaper to assault the wife of another astronaut with whom she was having an affair. We have homes to settle.)


“...to the frontier the American intellect owes its striking characteristics. That coarseness of strength combined with acuteness and inquisitiveness; that practical, inventive turn of mind, quick to find expedients; that masterful grasp of material things, powerful to effect great ends; that restless, nervous energy; that dominant individualism, working for good and evil, and withal that buoyancy and exuberance that comes from freedom. People of the United States have taken their tone from the incessant expansion. He would be a rash prophet who should assert that the expansive character of American life has now entirely ceased. Movement has been its dominant fact, and, unless this training has no effect upon a people, the American energy will continually demand a wider field for its exercise. But never again will such gifts of free lands offer themselves. Each frontier did indeed furnish a new opportunity, a gate of escape from the bondage of the past; and freshness, and confidence, and scorn of older society, impatience of its restraints and its ideas, and indifference to its lessons, have accompanied the frontier. What the Mediterranean Sea was to the Greeks, breaking the bonds of custom, offering new experiences, calling out new institutions and activities, that, and more, the ever retreating frontier has been to the United States directly, and to the nations of Europe more remotely. And now, five centuries from the discovery of America, at the end of two hundred years of life under the Constitution, the frontier has gone, and with its going has closed the first period of American history.” Lecture by 19th Century Historian form U. of Wisconsin.

Also, keep in mind: the average American family income is 45,000 dollars a year, the median annual wage per person in America is $25,000. Only 1 out of 4 Americans has a bachelor's degree, only 10% a graduate degree. Everyone pays for space exploration and settlement. The defining event of Generation Zero is the Great Recession. Characters are smart, competent middle-class persons experienced with financial struggle - they are not dilettantes, slackers, yuppies, princesses or playboys. This is a significant difference from Friends, Seinfeld, and M*A*S*H. Characters have difficult unglamorous gritty jobs - they are not aspiring actors or struggling folk guitarists, trust fund coffee shop baristas, or comedians - they are involved in the nuts and bolts, bits and bytes of space development.

"It is not the critic who counts; nor the one who points out how the strong person stumbled, or where the doer of a deed could have done better. The credit belongs to the person who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; who does actually strive to do deeds; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotion, spends oneself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement; and who at worst, if he or she fails, at least fails while daring greatly. Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those timid spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat." Theodore Roosevelt

Depictions of space development must show international participants of varied ethnicities and genders. Since considerable segments of most episodes take place on Earth we can balance whatever stereotypes may be cast on Mars with guest and secondary characters in flexible Earth settings. A fifth landing on Mars early in the first season also diversifies Amaze.
On Mars
Julia, mid-30s, is Julia Louis-Dreyfus raging, as in: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxkM9l3fuSQ "Buck up, it's called work for a reason." Witty, smart, quick, straightforward. Daughter of Marines. Elder sister of five brothers. Golden-hearted military brat. Mars is easy. Cakewalk with icing. As she says, "a head-wind is better than no wind". "Danger" is afraid to be her middle name. Her facial expressions convey as much as her words - both of which most express disdain for wimps around her (as far as she's concerned: everyone). Not loud or boorish or bullying, she leads by example (to the extent anyone's brave enough to follow). Within moments of meeting her most people stutter, stare at where she stood, and wonder what ___. Julia gets things done, couldn't care less about the judgements of others and is respected by Nature. Her priority is settlement to stay, though overtime Julia will come to realize she would still like to start a family (her husband having been the sole casualty thus far). Perhaps she will meet someone online willing to travel or convince a visiting entrepreneur-explorer to stay? In the meantime she's "making the iron hot by striking it". (See STEM4Girls: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNymzxWwNPU)

John ("Jack", "Half man, half Amazing!", "Falstaff"), mid-30s...a jolly off-Earth hedonistic Friar Tuck. "What happens in the hab, stays in the hab." Falstaff would like something to happen in a hab - anything - with Julia or Flora (both of whom he mistakenly believes flirt with him, constantly). He even thinks 'the Prude' Celia has it in for him, "repressed and depressed, in time she'll blossom for my plucking". No one has any idea why Jack was sent to Mars, least of all himself. Married in theory to Sonita, "or so say her lawyers". Most pioneers at the Amaze Research Settlement wear T-shirts and shorts. As a matter of principle Jack goes shirtless often. The most human human on Mars is John "Falstaff" Tuck. 


Franké (married to Priscilla), mid-to-late 30s, the only NASA employee on Mars. Franké's philosophy of "Failure Favors the Impatient" contrasts with Julia's core organizing principle: "Fortune Favors the Brave." Determined, straight-laced, and by the book, Franké is A fan of safety, protocol, and the rule of law, Frank Foulaway...also known as Franké (pronounced Frank-ay) is everyone's nemesis, especially his own. He would prefer to go by the name he adopted in high school "Franké" but everyone calls him "Frank". Falstaff calls him "Mr. Foulaway, Lord Foulaway, Foulé - anything but Franké." While in high-school Frank worked part-time (Friday and Saturday nights) as a nightwatchman at a computer lab. This significantly warped his personality. Franké's character plays against a negative stereotype too common for African American men nowadays: Franké can't dance, he's uptight, numbers oriented, and thoroughly uncool. (Unlike a more masculine African-American in the fifth landing group.) Still a good guy, solid, smart and well-intentioned, Franké just annoys everybody, all the time, for reasons perplexing to him - but arising from what ought to be identifiable quirks, such as: his belief that he is "obviously going to win every prize humankind offers over time. I've calculated it. The numbers work out." (Selection for Mars settlement really went to his head.) He has a five year plan for "each prize": from which subjects are most likely to receive Nobels to which age is most favored by MacArthurs. He's graphed them all on elaborate Excel wall charts. His wife has written fifteen different acceptance speeches (which Franké practices while shaving).  He and his wife enjoy speaking in a formal academic idiom, using such words as: "individual(s)", "i.e.", "example given", "actually", "rather like", "quote/end quote", "amongst", "whilst", "clearly", "obviously", "et cetera". Franké is not a wimp, just deferential to his wife's florid supernova will. From a long line of police officers and accountants - he thinks of himself as the family rebel, an Astronaut. Constantly claiming to think outside the box, he is in fact The Box. Franké's a winner in his own world - and sometimes ours. (Modeled after M*A*S*H characters Charles Winchester and the well intentioned, less mean-spirited aspects of Frank BurnsSee also: Donal Glover "Black Nerd".)

Yuuto, mid-30s, happy-go-lucky hapless guy from a seaside Japanese village getting by with little more than outrageous luck. Signed up because his fiancée did, never thought it would result in becoming can accidental superhero on both Mars and Earth. Despite his lack of confidence he may win every award for which Franké aspires. Yuuto gets along 'famously' with everyone…his presence personifies the soft easy-going flow, balanced ups and downs, of heartfelt settlement life. Little does the rest of the world know Yutto's inner life is a heart-palpitating panic of terror, obsessed with the idea he may destroy everything Martian by accident. Overworked, overestimated, and way over-lauded he has buried himself beneath layers of full-fledged Impostor Syndrome. Calm because he can barely muster courage to breathe, Yuuto's need to concentrate on each inhalation has led his many fans to call him "the Zen Monk of Mars". A now copyrighted "wah-ou-rah" sound Yuuto unconsciously makes when psyching himself up for just about anything has become the most widely recognized human utterance in history. He adores Yuutoko, despite her indifference; she is by far the love of his life and possibly his only reason to remain alive. The moment he saw Yuutoko hop out of a Tokyo taxi on her way home from Berkeley he set his fish delivery down in the middle of a sidewalk and swore to himself he would spend the rest of his life with her. Little did he know this would involve years studying subjects for which he had no native intuition, all financed surreptitiously by Yuutoko's manipulative father: planetary geology, nuclear engineering, American English, Flamenco guitar, and motorcycles, but, "Lucky Yutto" got lucky. (And after a weekend riding course granted him a motorcycle license he's never had to ride again.) Originally Yuuto's name was Kamenosuke (Turtle's Helper), but Yuutoko's father changed that too. (Although Franké nicknamed him "Lucky Turtle.")

Sonita (supposedly Jack's "wife"), mid-30s. Smart, but that's not what she's selling. The prodigy of an Indian family she was sent to America to obtain "an important degree from a prestigious university". To Sonita this meant becoming as American as possible: loud, happy, slutty, drunk. Educated now, the former "Bacardi Barracuda" thinks she settled down by moving in with John Tuck. She is the only one who has ever thought Jack predictable. He likes her mostly when he is loud, happy, slutty, and drunk. She likes him best in a similar state too. Which works out quite often. Between the two they'll chew up Mars and spit out a planet the rest of us can recognize as human. Honest, sarcastic, self-depricating, down-to-Earth and real human beings, they both want to have fun and settle Mars in the meantime. As a couple their interactions alone are the subject of several Ph.D. theses. Therapists on Earth profit from a small industry critiquing the usefulness of Sonita and John to off-Earth settlement. Little do they or Jack know "loud, happy, slutty, drunk" is only her attempt to attract someone who would like to start a nice traditional Indian family: Sonita Tuck. Someone must guys would like too.

Yuutoko Yamaha (married to Yuuto), mid-30s, one of the most "un-Japanese" women Japan created. Worldly, independent, fun and forward - she represents the next, Next Generation Japanese. No more quiet and demur than Julia, the two have been friends since UC Berkeley. Her father heads one of Japan's most storied family conglomerates. When he discovered a quiet deferential nice young man named Turtle Helper from the traditional seaside village of Furoshiki had fallen in love with his only daughter - a young woman who wandered off to do gods know what in America - Mr. Yamaha opened every door he could for the newly christened Yuuto. At one time a small team was organized to facilitate Yuuto-Yuutoko Progress Inc. Often live feeds were employed. Yuutoko hasn't been tempered much, but Yuuto's certainly astonished she knows him. And Mr. Yamaha is proud Japan's national hero is his son-in-law, for which Yamaha Guitars imported a luthier's workshop from Andalusia to make a top selling line of "romantic spell-casting Flamenco guitars so supernaturally erotic they are able to get my daughter laid by that lucky turtle loving nerd from Furoshiki". (See Margaret Cho http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oR3btKXAGoE )

Henry ("Hank", "Greenhouse Guy", "Thoreau") (http://youtube.com/hlw4KGttIF0 and http://youtu.be/g7_E4xciKVk ), mid-30s, down-to-Earth on Mars. A laid back clean-living wholesome straightforward soft-spoken and calm normal person. He basically moved into the central greenhouse with his wife, Flora, which they tweaked to resemble a Pacific Northwest rainforest. Although drug-free everyone on Earth suspects him of having turned vast tracts into hemp and poppy fields. Sort of like a rare Boy Scout leader who is actually cool, he's someone who seems ok with his life's priorities, encourages others, and operates with an integrity not requiring approval. An old soul A-type - a leader among the Amish or Orthodox -  his respect and charisma comes from good judgement, wisdom, and common sense. (It was discovered during transit Hank, Jack, and Yuuto had "converted" most of the fruit juice into OFU (Orbiting Fermented Utility, aka space hooch), which, Jack identified as being spiritually similar to himself: "Somewhere in the flavorful state between fresh and rotten but wholly lovable. ") Modeled in part after the normal, decent, wholesome fun M*A*S*H character B.J. Hunnicutt. While most Amaze residents wear casual flats, flip-flops, or sandals - Hank is always barefoot. On principle.

Priscilla ("Celia", "The Prude"), Franké's wife, mid-30s, a solid decent respectable person, just neither as fun nor able to express her need for fun as the rest of us. "Success is the reward of those who 'spurn delights and live laborious days'". Too condescending to be mean-spirited, she holds everyone to a standard only she could long to follow, if that. When first applying to NASA's astronaut program Franké thought by going into space he'd escape her (for a few months every couple of years - cringing in orbit each time ISS overflew Houston). In a charming childish way she makes secular Joel Osteen-like statements, with alarming sincerity, such as: "I am a masterpiece. When society made me it threw away the mould. I am invaluable. Awesome is headed in my direction. I am a wonder. I am crowned, not fearful but fearfully made. I am the world's multi-vitamin." (That last one was all hers.) Georgia Tech may have hollowed out her Baptist upbringing but she refilled what was left of her appetite for maternalistic totalitarianism with secular New Age Puritanism. Single child of a mid-level programmer at Georgia's department of corrections, her father was employed to maintain databases in archaic computer languages only state bureaucracies use. The Prude grew up cocooned in a household at the bottom of a dark tree-lined suburban court where blame was assigned to every accident, whether mistake or unexpected random event. (A habit of fault-finding she continues with Franké.) Determined not to raise a tortured single child, she wants a gigantic herd of "at least nine crazy chaotic children - or else." No one's sure what "or else" means, but she sates it with such neo-religious vigor they will never ask. She's placed herself at the top of the IVF list. Soliloquies of her inner-life would make Freud gasp. Backseat driver to the universe, Celia is on a Mission.

Flora (married to the Greenhouse Guy, Hank), mid-30s, passionate, sensual, earthy. The calm confident determination of this couple lets Mars feel like home, with or without their terraforming. This couple seems to have life's priorities straight and they do not shy from public displays of healthy affection. (Franké and the Prude are convinced Flora and her husband Hank have "gone native" after moving into the greenhouses…it doesn't help to have been caught unclothed and in compromising positions so frequently the Prude refers to their greenhouse as Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights. "You're secreting bodily fluids all over my salads."

Stephan (Anti-Franké, Non-Comedic Straightman) Serious, competent, good-tempered, normal. The hard working type of scientist taxpayers expect on Mars. The Straightman and his wife Ann ("Straightwoman") bring our storyline back to serious Mars settlement. They are respectable background characters: never the butts of jokes, self-depricating, or neurotic - unlike a most others. The credibility of this hard working couple lends a sense of authority to their 20 second "mini-Cosmos" closing each episode.

Ann (Non-Comedic Straightwoman) (married to Stephan), the 'voice of reason' like her husband. These 'straight' non-comedic characters keep the show realistic and meaningful. Hardworking, competent, trained scientists and engineers, they wake up every day with normal human challenges but glad to work for the benefit of humankind on Mars. (Non-comedic background 'straight' characters will be increased in number through a fifth episode landing (composed of persons who also happen to be entirely non-American).)

Rick (Julia's husband, flashbacks only, not in pilot), strong, masculine, confident, uplifting, positive…the way only fond memories of a former lover can be. When the future looks less than promising Julia reflects upon him and what had been their plans for a family on Mars. For a non-religious person, Julia becomes pretty spiritual when thinking of what what he would hope for her now, and, how much their mutual encouragement mattered to her every day. (Sometimes this involves him appearing in her imagination during embarrassing human moments no one wants to share - especially with the memory of a deceased lover.)

Chihuahuas several generations have been bred to help determine whether .38 Earth's gravity will present an issue to human gestation. Chihuahuas in settlement plans are actually not unusual (http://www.crazy4mars.com/characters3.html ) several rats and a Chihuahua were artificially inseminated shortly after the first landing to determine intergenerational effects of reduced gravity on small mammals. Home makes the single scientific assumption that humans can live .38 g without health issues. As a morale booster Urchihuahua, the grandmother to them all, has more than compensated for her costs in transportation, food, and attention.

On Earth

Reggie ("The Boss"), mid-50s. Officious, deferential, flatterer, penny-pincher, vainglorious...product of a West Texas family of evangelical ministers, Reggie "Space Pirate King" Rodriguez can't for the life of him imagine why anyone would want to go to Mars - especially with someone they'd married, male or female. A bias perhaps attributed to his father's failure to "pray the gay away" before Reg escaped to Austin. For reasons from hipster days long past he goes by the name Art (when not proclaiming himself Pirate King and/or Unapologetic Earthling). Prone to flights of fancy and manic self-adulation, Reg is fun, boisterous, loud and extroverted. He pretty much loathes everything formal, governmental, and academic - except his college roommate and secret admirer, Congressman Huck from Houston (Rich "The Politician", see below). Reg and Rich now live in a polite Seattle suburb while Reg constantly reminds everyone around him, including himself, that he has been selected to run a company founded by a "certified genius" (Blue Origin). During spontaneous manic phases induced by mundane activities (when mowing his lawn or stuck in traffic) he sends cell phone messages to people on Mars for no apparent reason other than to flabbergast himself. Although he majored in Mandarin at UT Austin "because that's what right-wingers told me everyone would be speaking by now," his unwillingness to lavish corporate funds - his "kingdom's revenues" - on "petty perks and shallow baubles" has enabled him somehow to advance into management of an efficient competitive startup running research facilities on Mars. (While teaching English in China he edged his way into a University of Seattle/University of Shanghai MBA program because "teaching English wasn't going anywhere with hundreds of millions of Chinese speaking it at least as well as I do and Mandarin far better than I could ever fake". To burnish his "rocket co cred" he has been taking private pilot lessons for years, though, they have yet to let him solo (which is perfectly okay with him). "If you think your teacher is tough, wait til you have a boss without tenure. No way in hell will anyone'll give me a job this good again - no idiot's going to make me lose it." Modeled after the M*A*S*H character Henry Blake.

Rich ("The Politician"), mid-50s. Shameless, dealmaking, avaricious, promiser. Strategic cowardice embodied. Congressman Richard "Lionhearted" Huckabee ("the Eighth") makes his fortune chairing congressional subcommittees (overseeing NASA's budget). Between dining with lobbyists and vacationing at their time-shares, he'd be hard pressed to find the P.O. Box listed as his address among the hoi polloi of Houston ("which for some reason is America's fourth largest city but still unknown - don't these people have someplace to go??"). He's especially proud not to have purchased food in over four decades ("Taxes are my expense account; lobbyists, waiters."). His obsession is to be identified with "everything space" - a close second is to never pay for anything, and third, albeit not last, is Reggie. Though he thinks big, about himself foremost, he has trouble with big picture initiatives until they're working and profitable (at which time he's quick to take credit as a backer; "Gore forgets who told him how internets functions."). He's the reason why most entrepreneurs do first and ask the government later. (As a matter of fact, he pronounces "intraprenurs" with disdain..."shabby uncouth cut-throat profiteers"..."legalized pirates".) After college Rich spent a quarter century "on islands somewhere in the Med". After returning he leveraged name recognition from his family's used car and pest control franchises into political office and government pensions...initially a Libertarian, he's now a "member of the class with the most cash in Houston: NASA". Democrat or Republican didn't matter, he jumped in the first open boat and hunted JSC. In fact he's so proud of being bi-partisan he claims not to know which party he belongs to. His literary ancestor is Autolycus from Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale "having flown over many knavish professions, I settled only in rogue"Science literate enough to know "weirdos talk creationism, launches buy lunches". That's Rich. It'll be fun knowing him.

Wayne ("Nightwatchmannnnn"), early 20s, prone to rants, more likely to be arrested than to arrest. If awake he spends time at Blue Origin critiquing sci-fi flicks on his smartphone. Unconvinced he cannot control objects, events, people and/or stock markets with his mind, he can be seen squinting with determination at nothing in particular during such endeavors. His flashlight expands into a lightsaber "when unsheathed" (which he accompanies with a low humming sound like Tuvan throat singing..."for courage". Before embarking upon a day's adventures he mutters to Obi-Wan with sincere expectation of a response. It is unclear if he thinks he's obtained a response. Taking inordinate notice of every woman in his presence, usually while they are not looking, he refers to "the Barista" as an ornament and "Activist Chick" as icing. In their presence. Yum. That's Wayne. We're on Earth with him. One of Lola's tip jars reads "Wayne to space!"

Martin ("Sarcastic Guy"), late 20s, would work at Blue Origin for free. Would pay to work at Blue Origin. Would pretend to work at Blue Origin if he could watch other people working at Blue Origin. Recruited though from JPL with the promise of his own lab for basically whatever he pleases, he embodies flexible, smart, startup decision-making. Martin joined JPL after graduating Caltech, was subsequently hired by Planetary Resources before being recruited by Blue Origin (where his telerobotic lab has become a legendary cash cow). He is now trying to find purpose in his life as a risk-seeking engineer. Described by "The Genius" (owner of Blue Origin), as "having more operational power than anyone else at Blue Origin except me. There's no one who can tell him what to do or to butt out. That's the way I set it up." Martin's honest sarcasm catalyzes new ventures: "Its perfectly healthy to have an idea tomorrow that contradicts your ideas today. This doesn't mean that you shouldn't have a well-formed point of view, but it means that you should consider your point of view as temporary." With a Skunkworks bias for action, Martin does not think consistency of thought a positive trait: speed matters. "Fail fast and often, succeed sooner." He celebrates calculated risk-taking: most decisions are reversible and need implementation and real-world testing rather than extensive study: "Let's try it." His personal quirk is to critique the meaning of proverbs and platitudes, especially those in the space community (with sarcasm similar to Stewart, Fallon, Colbert, and Conan).

Jane ("Activist Chick" Goodall), mid-20s, hip, smart, perfectly educated: Colorado School of Mines (Zero G Telepresence Construction) and Wharton (Entrepreneurial Management). Instead of buying corporate jets and playing with yachts like many startups, she helps roll profits back into settlement. Jane thinks of space exploration as a kind of intellectual charity. "Blue Origin is the soup kitchen of the 21st Century." At the start of the show she wears an "Occupy Mars" t-shirt, a trend which continues with other not-necessarily-space-related causes; Lola the Barista (see below) picks up this rocket-company trend to wear shirts with such 'statements' as "Remove Before Flight" and "Space is for Lovers". (See Amanda Palmer: http://on.ted.com/Amanda )

Lola ("Barista"...as in "LOL...ahhh"), early 20s, "Quit staring at my tips!" "Don't be a hipster, be a tipster!" "Alderaan Relief Fund"...still learning life is not divided into semesters and summer breaks - and definitely unaware of how few employers are interested in helping her find herself. Lola's greatest accomplishment thus far has been converting the entire Blue Origin lunch-counter to local organic vegan. ("Ruthlessly - without condescension, since everyone's on their own path".) Youngest daughter of Kent anesthesiologists, after art school her parents rescued her from a stint on the Mexican border where she worked as a waitress at an Italian restaurant with "a pothead photographer from the Savannah College of Addicts and Druggies". So she moved into a treehouse on the artsy side of Kent with a three-legged "rescue" dog (she thinks Stubby makes her look compassionate, empathetic, and colorful so it was a mutually beneficial adoption). While employed at a job paying less than the cost of her electronic accessories, her parents supplement a lifestyle nearly equal to Reggie's. After joining her family on a trip to the Canary Islands she looks forward to someday living with the captain of the charter boat they rented...and with whom she stayed for a few extra weeks of Greek. Fortunately she's satisfied Blue Origin's so cool it's okay if she serves coffee there while figuring out how to return "to my Captain in the Canaries". Meanwhile Lola insists she could get Blue added to "those lists of cool places to work" - if they would only give her a budget to "replace the elevators with slides, trampolines, and zip wires". (It's truly only a matter of time until she notices Blue is the coolest place to work, since she's already saving feathers found on its campus "because they came from dreamer's wings".) http://youtube.com/watch?v=FBNss2PMj60 

Telerobotics Team Young, hip, smart: from the same tech savvy, progressive, fun demographic as Amazon's ideal lifelong customers (think of Space as the next Silicon Valley). This team modulates sitcom caricatures elsewhere in the show...they define space exploration and development as vital for the future of Generation Mars. They are cool, and, by extension reenforce the aura of both Amazon and Blue Origin - as cool and purposeful. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vl2SUVEw6hc

The telerobotics team offers an opportunity to introduce background variety : )
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNa34UxSTZE&list=UU_-l9kqvToAhwbLkx7-fO2w&index=16


West Texas and Beyond
Occasional scenes will take place at Blue Origin's launch port in West Texas, 
D.C. Congressional Committee Meetings, Mojave, etc.


Jo ("West Texas Pistol", Joanne)Blue Origin's Data-Driven Wit. Earth-Mars Coordinator, mid-40s, proud to make a "hunk of Texas bigger than Manhattan the neatest place in the Universe and Everywhere Else." No-nonsense number-cruncher who will launch anything cheaper than anyone anywhere. Jo measures everything: time, distance, mass, opportunity cost, opportunity cost of measuring opportunity cost...after a lackluster Christmas when she was five, she sent Santa turnaround proposals advocating total elimination of reindeer ("animal slavery unbecomes you"), partnerships with FedEx, Amazon, and Skype, a management role for Ms. Claus, and emergency healthcare gym membership for elves who were "evidently too out-of-shape to carry my big stuff". Her favorite words and phrases are: "obviously", "clearly", "without a doubt", "not now right now", "period", "I changed my mind", "I reconsidered that", "I was wrong about ___, let's give it a shot", "run the numbers", "that doesn't add up", "people who are right a lot, are people who change their minds a lot." "If the customer is calling customer service you've already got 'splaining to do. It should launch right first. I don't believe in explosions. Insurance rates are keeping humanity a one planet species. Rapid unplanned launch pad disassemblies are a conspiracy of Stupid." Rockets 'R' Us was her high-school science project. Worked her way up Walmart from cashier to regional supervisor while undergrad at Georgia Tech, later earned an Aero Astro doctorate at UT Austin. Ann Richards was her role model (http://www.youtube.com/channel/HCP2ES686tb98). It was Jo's initiative that led Blue Origin's rockets to be covered with advertisements - and their unpainted interiors furnished with plastic chairs: "frugality breeds resourcefulness; metrics launches miracles". In the middle of the street at noon Jo kills bad ideas.


The Geniuses ("Noble-mindedness Incorporated") working to realize opportunities in off-Earth economies, scientific discoveries, and advances through space ventures for the benefit of all humankind, these men and women define their lives by a passion for expanding human opportunities in space. We can magnify their voices (and, since they literally own the coolest sets imaginable, we can advertise their companies through direct involvement with the show).


NASA Administrators Some are pissed-off ancient curmudgeons still trying to "colonize the Moon"; others are risk-adverse academics who cannot imagine why anyone would want to leave the East Coast, much less Earth; a few are well-intentioned professionals frustrated by an organization that is often anything but professional. Easily confused, flattered, and manipulated these characters offer an opportunity to comment upon NASA's shortcomings (and champion personnel with integrity). 


"Flight" Doctors, Dietitians, Psychologists, et al. Obsessed with achieving closed-loop life-support, inclined to treat paper-patient worst-case-sccenarios, ossified with zero risk tolerance, prone to patriarchy/matriarchy totalitarian micromanagement, anti-heroic, and frankly lame all around. At best their ability to graft themselves onto a Mars program may result in solutions to long-term challenges for outer-system travel post-21st Century. At worst these meddling Professional Cowards are unable to accept their irrelevance. They combine personality traits inimitable to exploration: academic bureaucratic hierarchal cowardice, ass-covering, group-think, and soul suffocation pessimism. These personality types opposed the first human migration out of Kenya. Modeled in part after such M*A*S*H characters as Colonel Flagg and Lt. Colonel Donald Penobscot.


Karl Cadowitz ("Competitor Space Nazi") Arrogant ruthless rival and The Boss's unredeemable alter-ego. An A Type personality guided by the self-directed adolescent moral compass of a teenage bully. Loud, high-strung, prone to bouts of competition, seethingly jealous, habitually prone to petty one-upmanship. Cadowitz overcomes artless and asocial propensities by applying his officious neurotic intellect and all encompassing psychoses to 16 hour work days seven days a week every week for the betterment of himself, and, himself. Not tasteful enough to be materialistic, not athletic to be physically desirable, spiritually lacking in any wit whatsoever, he set out self-consciously to become: Gold Digger’s Target  #1. Everyone is as uncomfortable in his presence as he is in theirs - before he lets them know he's commando beneath his Scottish utility-kilt. If someone can’t make him wealthier, famous, or the head of his own rocket company, they are invisible until that shortcoming has been remedied (by someone other than Karl). His favorite word is "I"...he uses it often - especially when reminding others how many times he's been suborbital, visited ISS, or "designed a new rocket". If he were likable his engineering talents would have landed him Reggie's job long ago, but the Geniuses behind Blue so loathe Karl they hired Reggie as his boss "just to see what'd happen". (Likewise Reggie refuses to fire Wayne under any circumstances because he is the only person Karl hates more than Rich and Reggie.) The purpose of this character is to provide a negative example within the space advocacy community: loud ego-driven attention seeker who is not a cooperative humanitarian by any measure - Karl is not what we need. Possibly the only good thing about this character is he despises "lowbrow crowd-pleasers who put down damn clever engineers and make scientists out to be neutered nerds". Modeled after both the M*A*S*H character Frank Burns (condescending, combative, uptight) and Parks and Recreation's "Ron Fucking Swanson" with a spirited agenda (libertarian, boorish, insecure masculinity..see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhDHui1BZYA  and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwGat4i8pJI ), Karl Cadowitz is a cad with witz. (Unintentional, let's move on....) 

Fifth Episode Landing = Background Character Variety
During the fifth episode a landing of six persons introduces additional non-comedic 'straight' characters 
and an opportunity to further diversify our cast with an 'international' crew (fluent in English).


Irina ("Russian Woman"), mid-30s, seductive intelligence incarnate. Irina comes from the aristocratic tradition of Russian intellectuals. Calm, composed, intelligent, unique - Irina and Sergei find joy in curiosity, and, sharing their insights with each other. They are the least neurotic, most normal persons at the settlement. Teachers of us all.

Yin ("Chinese Woman"), mid-30s, slightly functionary, eager to please, hardworking but down-to-Earth, encouraging, implacable optimist. Unlike John Falstaff, Yuuto, and Franké, she's a real, normal person - the type taxpayers watching a show on Martian settlement expect pioneers to be: determined but good natured, well-educated but practical, adventurous but predictable, humble, professional, and keen not to waste a single moment on Mars.

Sergei ("Russian Guy"), Irina's husband, mid-30s, an educated gentleman, the opposite of Putin's thuggish bullocracy. Soft-spoken authority, he's slightly older than his friends the Greenhouse Guy (Hank) and the Sarcastic Kid (Martin, on Earth). He and his wife serve the role of a 'sane audience' to the comical everyday events on Mars. Not geeks or nerds, neither foolish nor boring - this admirable, stable, sane couple serves as clear sober spokespersons for space settlement. When all is said and done, their presence says, "Mars is important. Settlement is an end in itself. Mars is worth attention."


Du ("Chinese Guy"), mid-30s, no nonsense yet susceptible to flattery; easily defensive and quick to emphasize the ancient historical firsts of Chinese civilization; eager to prove his worth and the value of Mars settlement - both to humanity in general and the future of China in particular. As the show develops Du becomes outspoken against the current repressive regime governing China. Most formal attempts to codify individual rights and private property originate with him (and Yasmine, the "French Arab Woman", see below). Modeled in part on Fang Lizhi, the Chinese physicist and dissident (see his "Five Axioms of Science").

Yasmine ("French Arab-Woman"), mid-30s, a clear straight-forward voice for religious tolerance and women's rights, she speaks her mind with pointed frankness. Not one to suffer fools, she hangs out with Julia and Yuutoko, often adding the final quip to hammer home a point. Like all non-comedic background characters Yasmine adds depth to our depiction of a functioning Mars settlement.   

Giles ("French Man"), mid-30s, like all characters who arrive through the fifth episode landing, Giles is a non-comedic background character meant to add diversity. Although Franké and Falstaff both develop intense rivalries with Giles, stemming from his casual "je ne sais quoi" disregard of their drama, he is actually compulsively exact, detail-oriented, and one of the hardest working professionals at Amaze. An exact opposite of the stereotype, "The ___ live to work, the French work to live." Giles manages to both with ease. 

IMPORTANT: The audience should laugh at non-scientists - but not at engineers working to develop space. The subjects of self-deprication, the butts of jokes and so on, are: the Security Guard (Wayne), the Barista (Lola), the Politician (Rich), the Boss (Reggie), flight doctors, therapists, administrators, etc. Not settler scientists. Mars pioneers are heroes "with character". They embody a responsible way to settle Mars with joy and purpose. Even Franké, Yuuto, Jack, and Sonita are respectable in the seriousness with which they pursue this noble endeavor.