Grete Vogel – Between Concrete and Vision

Born: July 12, 2037 – Essen, Ruhrgebiet, Germany

Education:

– M.Arch in Industrial Architecture, Ruhr-Universität Bochum

– B.Sc in Structural Engineering, TU Dortmund

Mars Assignment: Since Mars Year 65 (Earth year 2067)

Current Role: Lead engineer for expansion and habitat systems, Asteria Habitat,

Specialization: Industrial architecture, modular infrastructure, environmental adaptation

Grete Vogel

When people picture Asteria, they think of gleaming domes, malls, vertical gardens, and Emile’s mirrored casinos pulsing with imported light. They imagine Freja Lindholm stepping into frame—eloquent, composed, unfazed by the storm outside. But behind the façade, beneath the walkways and pressurized corridors, someone else is holding the colony together.

Grete Vogel doesn’t make speeches. She doesn’t do charm.

She was supposed to stay for four years.

A structural engineer and industrial architect from the Ruhrgebiet in Germany, Grete had made a name for herself long before Mars—designing heavy-industry facilities, teaching at Ruhr-Universität Bochum, and translating grit into geometry. She came for the challenge, not the poetry: Asteria needed someone to tame its infrastructure. Grete got to work.

Eight years later, she’s still here.

What changed? The team.

With Freja handling diplomacy and Emile curating spectacle, Grete found her place in the engine room of something bigger. Freja understood she needed clarity, not compliments. Emile? Well—Grete didn’t always follow his logic, but she respected his instinct. Together, they were improbable, but effective.

When the twins from Macau arrived, bearing legacy and capital and a suitcase full of future, Grete was the first to ask the hard questions. Not out of suspicion—but out of faith. Faith in Asteria’s potential, even after the lean years. Faith that, with the right specs and enough steel, a dream could be made livable.

She saw the outlines of a solution while others were still debating optics. Twenty percent expansion? Impractical—but not impossible. Grete didn’t flinch. She phased it. Converted existing zones. Designed the first VIP dome to be modular, cost-efficient, and scalable. No slogans. Just a plan.

Outside of the pressure chambers and boardrooms, she’s someone else entirely. A devoted wife. A loving mother. On Mars, her daughter grew up in domes designed by her own hands. She calls the dust paths home.

Grete runs. That’s her ritual, her rhythm. Back on Earth, it was marathons. Here, she adapted. Designed her own microgravity running circuit, then convinced Freja to join—and Emile to fund a club. Now, every Martian year, she organizes the Mars Marathon. No medals. No flash. Just humans in motion, defying inertia.

If you ask her what keeps her going, she won’t talk about legacy or dreams. She’ll say this:“This place is possible. It just needs good bones.”

And she’s already drawing the next line.

📖 Read the novel Icarus – the beginning of humanity's new chapter on the Red Planet.👉 https://www.themarschronicles.com/blog/categories/book

Disclaimer: All characters, events, and storylines presented on this website are entirely fictional. Any resemblance to real persons, living or deceased, is purely coincidental. Visual representations of characters were created using AI-generated imagery and are intended solely for illustrative purposes.