Mars 2350

Civilian Power (main value)

Population: 4e9. Estimated per-person power: 75,000 W. Mars requires significantly more energy per person than the Sol System average (30,000 W/person) because all habitat is artificial (pressurized domes, temperature control, atmospheric recycling), the terraforming project consumes enormous energy (atmospheric processing, magnetosphere generation), all food grows in pressurized greenhouses, and the military-industrial economy runs heavy manufacturing.

Total civilian power: 4e9 x 75,000 = 3e14 W. Kardashev: log10(3e14) / 10 - 0.6 = 14.477 / 10 - 0.6 = 0.85.

Min (50,000 W/person): 2e14 W, K = 0.83. Max (100,000 W/person): 4e14 W, K = 0.86.

Cross-check: MCR power (3e14 W) = 29% of the Sol System total (1.05e15 W). Earth with 30 billion people would use the remaining 71% at about 25,000 W/person, lower due to half the population living on Basic Assistance. This split is consistent with Mars being the smaller but more industrialized faction.

Epstein Drive Power (hypothetical, excluded from main value)

The Epstein drive produces power output far beyond what civilian infrastructure requires. Including drive power would distort the Kardashev value by conflating propulsion capability with civilizational energy use.

A Rocinante-class corvette (approximately 500 tons) produces 96.8 TW total fusion output and 60.2 TW thrust power (Tough SF analysis). This single corvette outputs more power than the entire civilian infrastructure of Mars.

MCRN fleet estimate (60 ships): 8 Donnager-class battleships (approximately 250,000 tons each, roughly 50 PW per ship), plus 52 smaller vessels averaging 500 TW each. Fleet total at full burn: approximately 4e17 W.

At any given time roughly 30% of the fleet cruises at about 1/5 of maximum power. Active drive power: approximately 2.5e16 W.

Hypothetical Kardashev including drives: log10(2.5e16) / 10 - 0.6 = 1.04 (barely Type I).

The Epstein drive output exceeds civilian power by approximately 80x. This illustrates the drive's implausible efficiency by hard science fiction standards and is the reason drive power is excluded from the main value.

The MCR controls Mars only. MCRN fleets patrol as far as Saturn, but these are military patrol zones, not settled territory. Mars's two moons Phobos and Deimos are not described as significant population centers. At this snapshot, no ring gates exist and no extrasolar colonies are possible.

Unitary parliamentary republic with electoral authoritarian features. The Prime Minister heads the executive, elected by and dismissable by the Martian Congress. Military service is compulsory. The government exercises tight control over economic planning and resource allocation through a fully planned economy. The Martian Cabinet handles day-to-day administration, and the Martian Courts serve as the judiciary.

Derived from the canon 5:1 UNN-to-MCRN ship ratio (TV Season 2). With the Sol System total estimated at 350 warships (UNN ~300, MCRN ~60, OPA ~10), the MCRN contributes approximately 60 combat vessels.

Supporting evidence: exactly 8 Donnager-class battleships were built (canon). The Expanse Wiki lists 43 individually named MCRN ships across both books and TV. Admiral Duarte later defects with roughly a third of the fleet (~20 ships), consistent with a pre-defection total of ~60.

The MCRN organizes its fleet into three commands: the Home Fleet (Mars and inner system), the Jupiter Fleet (Ceres to Ganymede), and the Saturn Fleet (outer system).

The books state Mars has four billion inhabitants. The TV show uses a higher figure of approximately 9-10 billion, but book canon is used here as the primary source. Nearly all Martians live in domed cities and pressurized tunnel networks across the planet's surface.

TL 7 Fusion. The MCR's hardest technology is the Epstein drive: controlled deuterium-helium-3 fusion with magnetic coil exhaust acceleration. Weapons are electromagnetic (railguns) and kinetic (PDCs, torpedoes). The MCR leads in stealth composites and advanced ship design, but these are engineering refinements within the same fusion-era tech base as the rest of the Sol System. No nanotech (TL 8), no FTL (TL 9), no artificial gravity, no energy shields.

Mars, fourth planet from Sol. The MCR's territory covers the planet's surface (144.8 million km²). Major settlements include Londres Nova (capital, in northern Aurorae Sinus), Mariner Valley, and Dhanbad Nova. MCRN fleet patrol zones extend from the inner system to Saturn, but sovereign territory is limited to Mars itself.

Class 7 Interplanetary. The MCR inhabits only one planet (Mars) but projects military power across the entire Sol System through three MCRN fleets. Fusion-powered Epstein drives enable sustained interplanetary operations. The MCR builds advanced warships, maintains stealth technology, and operates independently from Earth's industrial base. Single-planet settlement keeps it at the lower end of Class 7, but system-wide fleet reach and technological self-sufficiency place it firmly in this tier.

The MCR gains independence from the United Nations around 2213, when Mars trades access to the Epstein drive for sovereignty. At the 2350 snapshot, the republic is approximately 137 years old. The exact founding date is not stated precisely in primary canon; fan sources place it at 2213, making the age a semi-canonical estimate.