Ares IV

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In the fictional universe of Star Trek, Ares IV is an Earth spaceship used during one of humanity's early manned missions to Mars, which takes place in 2032 under the command of Lieutenant John Kelly. The other members of the crew are Rose Kumagawa and Andrei Novakovich. The mission is run under the auspices of the International Space Agency.

Ares IV is 46 metres long, weighs 92 tonnes, and is powered by a third-generation ion drive. It is also equipped with a trans-spectral imager, a high gain antenna and large photovoltaic panels.

Mysteriously, the command module of the Ares IV, in which Kelly orbits Mars, vanishes whilst Kumagawa and Novokovich are on a surface mission. The surface team islater rescued, but no trace of Kelly or the Ares IV are found. This disaster almost leads to the abandonment of the Mars exploration program. In the following centuries the Ares IV mission is considered as a precursor for humankind's further exploration of space.

In 2376, USS Voyager locates the remains of the command module inside a graviton ellipse which appeared in the Delta Quadrant. The module's database, including logs recorded by Kelly after the module had entered the ellipse, are subsequently recovered. ("One Small Step")

In reality, NASA has named its Mars spacecraft the Ares I and Ares V.