The year is 2050. On the ship Rocky is a team of ten people.
Deep in the astroid belt is the nasa ship the Rocky. This ship and her crew was sent to investagatea an anomily that had been found 5 years before by an unmanned probe. Becouse of the nature of this mission, the mission is top secret. Even the crew didn't know the what the real mission was until 6 months earlier. When they were told to change course from Mars for the astroid belt.
The Rocky had been under construction when the anomily was found. It employs the latest technoligies. It uses an ion pulse engine(which is basically a ram scoop type engine), an artificial radiation shield(which uses the solar radiation that gets stuck in the field to help power the shield), and it rotates for gravity affects.
The rockies mission had been the first manned mission to mars. The US government let that be the covor story for the true mission. Nobody at NASA knew about the new mission except for the top NASA personnal.
The rocky was finished in 2048. It took one year to assimble it in orbit. The ship was to big to launch from the surface.
In 2048 the crew was picked for the mission. The mission commander was Julie Osterloh, the navigator and pilot was Fred Stone. The mission specilists were Daniel Osterloh with phds in geography and electronics. Tom Derck phd in chemister. Felicia Derckphd in space engines. Thelma Stone phd in metalurgy. Mark and Maria Sanchez the ships fix it crew.
The mission being three years long(two years to Mars and back), NASA decided to use only married people to help do away with any uh um stress.
In january of 2049. They launched the Rocky toward Mars. The anomily was in such an orbit that the secret mission remained a secret from the crew until one month from Mars.