4:00 
a.m.
We can learn a lot from it , in time . '' The sleek , forest green cruiser sped through the vacuum , rapidly approaching the edge of the Asteroid Belt . Six hours and 23 minutes after the destruction of the atmosphere-generating plant on the edge of the Red Sea on Mars , a small iron asteroid struck the plant located just south of the Oxia Palus on an open plain about five degrees north of the equator and fifteen degrees west of the central meridian . It was a few minutes past 4:00 a.m. local time . Six miles away was the settlement of Westcott . Most of the local populace had not heard Lurton Zimbardo 's radiocast , since it had come in just before midnight . The second asteroid followed a near-vertical course and slammed with tremendous force into the ground a half mile from the atmosphere-generating plant .