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SuperTulle
Since: Nov, 2010
OriDoodle
Since: Nov, 2010
SuperTulle
Since: Nov, 2010
SuperTulle
Since: Nov, 2010

A book about Mars (the planet) and the family that travels there to lay the groundwork for the first martian colony. I've checked The Other Wiki's list of "mars in fiction" and didn't see anything familiar.
As I said, the main characters in the book are a family, because if you're going to found a colony on a different planet, the best people to send are obviously two adults and three pre-teen children.
On the way to mars, the ships computer malfunctions and they have to write commands "old school style" on a keyboard. Thing is, This keyboard is apparently so old school they hadn't even invented letters yet! Instead of pushing keys with letters on, you write in the number of the particular letter you want (Example: "CALL" becomes "3, 1, 12, 12"). Old school indeed.
The third thing I remember from it is that mars' different gravity causes the children to grow faster and taller, leading to them growing out of their spacesuits eventually. Our protagonist, a boy around 12, is saddened when he learns that he can never travel back to earth and meet his grandpa again. Fortunately, grandpa arrives on the first shipment of colonists.