The Mars Company, a 2008 free e-novel written by Joseph Roberts

Here is another science fiction novel you can download for free from the self-publishing website Lulu.com: The Mars Company (2008), written by a fellow named Joseph Roberts. The description of the novel (A colony expedition to Mars finds something no one expected) is a bit thin, so here are the opening paragraphs:

Luna Orbit
January 9, 2027

Devin MacGregor shielded his eyes from the sunlight streaming through the viewport as the space station's rotation brought the outsized spacecraft into his line of vision, and he drank in the sight. The Herbert George Wells was the culmination of years of planning and several billions of dollars, yen, euros, and other currencies in investment that had been poured into the project.

One of the more remarkable aspects of the entire Mars colonization effort was that it had been completed entirely without government assistance. The Mars Company had been started by an eclectic group of businessmen and investors just after the turn of the millennium. They had two goals in mind -- to be the first group to colonize Mars, and the first company to establish a profitable business in space. …

Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any biographical information on the author, Joseph Roberts.