Mambo Media Services news wire
Science Weekly
Tuesday June 21st, 2044
Lance Overmars, ESA correspondent, Kourou Spaceport

**ESA To Pull Hydrostasis Funding**

Yesterday, the European Space Agency dropped a bomb on Kovac Defensive Services. They are severing ties and pulling all funding from the military contractor giants. They aren't cutting back. There is no measured disentanglement over the next few years. The ESA is out. Now.

This is almost certainly due to the papers that InfoLeak revealed last week. The revelation that Hydrostasis severely affects the long-term memory is bad for Kovac. The fact that they knew about it before Red Alpha and didn't tell the ESA is worse. Kovac is in the middle of a public relations nightmare, and the ESA want nothing to do with it.

While there is no evidence (yet) that the use of Hydrostasis had anything to do with the failure of the Red Alpha mission, there are still several questions left to be answered. The investigation into the crash landing on Mars lays the blame on "human error", citing security concerns as the reason a more detailed explanation will not be forthcoming. There is data available for the public to review - but there are no black box recordings from on board Red Alpha in the hours leading up to its uncontrolled descent through the Martian atmosphere. Whatever the crew said or did remains a mystery to anyone outside of the ESA and will likely remain that way for the foreseeable future. Funding for the ESA remains under tight scrutiny, and it is natural to assume they would suppress any revelations that may damage their reputation.

What is known for sure is that the crew successfully woke from Hydrostasis 72 hours before the scheduled Martian descent. There was no indication of any issues with the ship, and the automated guidance system had put them exactly where they needed to be. We know that the ship was had an internal temperature of 23 Celsius, as expected. We know that the water electrolysis system was working and producing oxygen in precise quantities. We even know what time the interior lighting system was simulating - 08:00 UTC to be precise. We know atmospheric filtering showed exactly the right amount of carbon dioxide present in the cabin, suggesting that all six of the crew were up and moving around the ship within a few hours. What we don't know is why Red Alpha went from mission normal to mission critical by 14:00 UTC that same day.

First the ship drifted from its programmed orbit, something that could only happen if the navigation system failed, or by human intervention. Next, the communication relays stopped sending telemetry to Kourou, again either by catastrophic failure, or someone pulled the plug. At 11:57 UTC, the primary propulsion engines were ignited, and the ship started it's final, fatal journey. There, the knowledge of anyone outside of the ESA ends.

Which is why the revelation that Hydrostasis causes long-term memory damage may offer some insight into the problems on board Red Alpha on the day of

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