In his novel The Martian, author Andy Weir writes about astronaut Mark Watney’s struggle to survive on Mars after a brutal sandstorm led his crew to abandon him. During the five hundred and forty-nine days before his rescue, Watney resides alone on the desolate red planet and spends almost no time worrying about whether he will survive; he just does it. Watney makes use of his background in botany and mechanical engineering to solve problems he encounters along the way while relying heavily on the equipment NASA provided his crew for their original mission. As he reflects on his situation, Watney states with a sense of humor, “[i]f the oxygenator breaks down, [he will] suffocate. If the water reclaimer breaks down, [he will] die of thirst. …show more content…
If the Hab breaches, [he will] just kind of explode. If none of those things happen, [he will] eventually run out of food and starve to death.” (Weir 7). Science plays a crucial role in facilitating Mark Watney’s survival by giving him access to oxygen, water, and the Hab, proving him both the time and resources necessary for him to grow enough food to extend his life until he is eventually rescued. Watney manipulates oxygen and the air inside the Hab in a variety of ways during his stay on Mars.
Because the Martian air contains mostly carbon dioxide with only trace amounts of oxygen, the Hab is outfitted with an atmospheric regulator to simulate Earth’s atmosphere, provide sufficient oxygen, and keep astronauts healthy. When Mark is out on the surface of Mars performing Extra-Vehicular Activities (EVAs), he carries more oxygen than he requires, and the EVA suit’s filters absorb and eliminate the carbon dioxide he creates while breathing. He records in a log entry that “the limiting factor to life support [is] [n]ot the amount of oxygen you bring with you, but the amount of CO_2 you can remove” Weir 5. He is able to make use of his extensive knowledge on the atmosphere and what it is made up of to manipulate the atmospheric regulator and EVA suits, extending the time he is able to survive on Mars after his fellow crewmates abandoned …show more content…
him. Another resource that is necessary in Mark Watney’s survival is water. He not only needs sufficient water to drink, but also must produce enough water to grow potatoes, his only sustainable food source. The water reclaimer collects excess hydrogen and oxygen to create water and regulates the atmosphere within the Hab. When Mark calculates that he will need two hundred and fifty liters of water to grow crops in his soil, he determines that he needs to release hydrogen from the excess hydrazine rocket fuel used in the Mars Descent Vehicle (MDV). By creating surplus hydrogen and oxygen in the Hab’s atmosphere, the water reclaimer will go to work and begin extracting it. To free the hydrogen from the remaining rocket fuel, Watney devises a plan to “run [the hydrazine fuel] over a catalyst […] from the MDV engine [… which will create] five molecules of nitrogen [gas] and ten molecules of hydrogen [gas]” (Weir 26). His effort at breaking down the hydrazine is a success, and causes the Hab to become hot and humid in the process. Mark continues this process for several days, creating a substantial amount of water. During this process, he realizes that releasing the hydrogen is not using as much oxygen as he initially thought it would. This leads him to conclude that there is hydrogen in the Hab that hasn’t been burned up, essentially turning the entire Hab into a hydrogen bomb. The Hab is absolutely crucial in providing Mark with a living and working space during his time trapped on Mars. However, he nearly loses it, and his life, while trying to safely get rid of the excess hydrogen in its atmosphere. His plan is simple: remove the oxygen from the Hab by confusing the atmospheric regulator’s sensors, then burn the hydrogen off slowly by releasing small amounts of oxygen and burning it. As he’s finalizing his plan, Mark realizes that the soil needs oxygen to survive, and decides to simulate winter by lowering the temperature in the Hab and leaving one percent oxygen content in the air. This will keep his soil’s microorganisms alive in their hibernating state. The potato plants cannot survive in the cold conditions, so Mark transfers them over to the heated rover. Watney puts a breather mask on before the air becomes lethal, and once the Hab is cold enough and the atmosphere is down to just one percent oxygen, he turns off the regulator and begins burning the hydrogen. Watney is suddenly knocked violently to the other side of the Hab by an explosion, which burns off all of the remaining hydrogen. If NASA had not designed the Hab for extreme durability it could have ruptured and there is a high probability that Watney would have died. Eventually however, the Hab breaches on Sol 119, and Mark is extremely fortunate that he is inside of the airlock when it happens. The airlock is thrown about fifty meters away from the now deflated Hab, and suffers a small leak. Watney quickly finds the leak by burning some of his hair and following the smoke to where it was escaping, then patches it with Duct tape. After some time, he also patches up the Hab and brings it back to working order. Surviving alone on Mars is the starting point for Mark Watney.
He has a limited food supply and knows that he must generate additional food in order to survive until he can be rescued. Mark decides to fertilize the Martian soil and grow potatoes with it. He knows that this is possible because “Martian soil has the basic building blocks needed for plant growth, but there’s a lot of stuff going on in Earth soil that Mars soil doesn’t have, even when it’s placed in an Earth atmosphere and given plenty of water” (Weir 12). In order to recreate Earth soil, he hauls in enough dirt to cover all of the floor space ten centimeters deep, then fertilizes the soil using food byproducts in a compost with his own waste. In order to stay alive until the Ares 4 mission arrives, Mark needs to consume a little over one thousand calories each day while also getting enough protein and nutrients to survive. The protein from the food brought on the mission will be enough, and he also has over double the amount of multivitamins necessary to stay healthy. Watney already has the correct atmosphere to sustain the potato growth, but needs to create more water for the soil and the potatoes, as mentioned previously. That problem aside, he devises a way to produce even more potatoes by cutting “each potato into four pieces, making sure each piece ha[s] at least two eyes […] where they sprout from” (Weir 21). Then he will replant the sprouts after forty days, ending up with enough potatoes to provide him
with over eight hundred and fifty calories per day, giving NASA until Sol 900 to reach Watney. However, the Hab breach catastrophe kills all of the plants, and on Sol 122, Watney finds out that he only has enough food to last him until Sol 600. Mark Watney utilizes his background in botany and engineering, combined with materials NASA has provided in ways to innovate and assure his long-term survival on Mars. His scientific background and awareness of his atmospheric surroundings allow him to survive by creating water from jet fuel, repairing the Hab and airlock, and survive every situation he encounters. Using his own bodily waste to fertilize Martian soil gives Watney a new lease on life and allows him to survive until he is ultimately rescued and returns to Earth.
Andy Weir's book, The Martian, is laced with conflict, both external and internal. From the beginning of the book, Weir shocks the reader with the dramatic opening of "I'm pretty screwed." This is the reader's first glimpse that there is conflict between natures bloodthirsty determination to kill the book's main character Mark Watney, an astronaut, botanist and an engineer, and Mark's desire to survive against all odds. In his daily logs Mark narrates his deathly encounters and near-death experiences with nature. Mark's logs record every event in which nature strives to get the best of him and yet he is able to keep his sense of humor throughout. In one of his logs Mark humorously states " I was just one of her crew. Actually, I was the very
Potatoes have become a staple to the diet of humans.They have become so popular since they come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and tastes. They are also cheap and easy to grow, and they taste delicious! Potatoes have changed the course of history in several ways. Who knew that potatoes, just a starchy vegetable, could have helped shape the world in so many ways. First, the Irish Potato Famine killed a million people and caused another million to move out of Ireland. Second, soldiers in the United States army were able to eat potatoes throughout the war. Third, they prevented a famine from occurring in England after there was not a sufficient amount of crops going to sustain the country's cries for food. Many people wonder if potatoes have
In the book The Martian by Andy Weir, Mark Watney is thought to be dead and left on Mars after a sandstorm during Sol 6. Mark has to survive with what’s left on mars and through many obstacles and tribulations in his fight to survive. The way Mark’s character broadens from start to finish shows that Mark is witty, rational, and driven.
For those of you who have somehow come this far in your otherwise admirable education without once seeing this influencial film, a brief synopsis: a group of scientists at the North Pole discover a flying saucer buried in the ice, and with it the body of a man from Mars.Unintentionally, they blow up the saucer and melt the Martian.The thawed Martian, or Thing, proceeds to run amok, killing scientists and draining their blood in order to nourish its progeny.Importantly, a group of visiting air force men have taken over in this moment of crisis, a coup which the film seems to believe requires no justification.Thus the major conflict is defined; not, that is, between man and Martian, but between soldier and scientist.The leader of the scientists, Dr. Carrington--who is referred to earlier in the film as both a genius and, more significantly, the "man who was at Bikini," thus aligning him with the H-bomb--is portrayed as arrogant, cold, precise, unemotional, i.e., everything we've come to expect from a card-carrying 1950s egghead.In the four short scenes I'm about to show you, Dr. Carrington demonstrates just what we have to fear.
The Martian is a story that involves a visit to the mars, and after that, the astronauts come out of the Mars leaving behind Mark Watney who his real name is Matt Damon. The team assumed Mark was dead after a strong storm. He tried to survive with the remains of the supplier till he was able to launch his way back to the Earth (MacIsaac, 2015). The story is represented in the Novel, and a movie and these two platforms have some similarities and differences. The movie is the representation of what is happening in the book. Therefore, not everything that it is in the book is covered in the one and half film, therefore several scenarios are left out.
By surmounting the obstacles placed in front of him, how the hero responds shows his true nature and makes his reward that much more worthwhile. Mars is the ultimate enemy in this novel, and it does not care about Mark’s health or survival. It is therefore up to him to use his own ingenuity and training to figure out how to survive. Things for him start out rough: he wakes up, after being impaled by an antenna ray, to find out his crew has abandoned him on Mars. From here on out, Watney must decide how to grow a food source and make use of the resources leftover from the Ares 3 mission to last until the Ares 4 mission. Furthermore, he survives several explosions to the Hab, multiple grueling trips in the landrover, a giant duststorm, having the rover and attached trailer flipped over while going down an incline, and being launched into space. In a way, Watney essentially achieves immortality status. Being stuck on Mars should have meant automatic death, yet he manages to pull himself together, form a plan, and adapt whenever the plan fails and nearly kills him. This also reveals a lot about his character. With the occasional much-deserved griping, Watney meets every setback with sarcasm and the grim reality that he could die at any point before his rescue. He does not complain or excessively lament about his situation like Väinämӧinen did, but instead
Stefan Buchenberger starts his essay with a breakdown of The Martian Chronicles. He starts with “Rocket Summer” and how the rocket takes them from a cold winter to a warm summer like warmth. He ends his summary at “The Million-Year Picnic” which shows a family escaping the nuclear war on earth and the new life they will start on Ma...
The story of The Martian focuses on the obstacles botanist and astronaut Mark Watney must overcome to survive on the planet Mars. His adventure is filled with fictional and non-fictional elements that are most likely difficult for the normal individual to identify what is actually realistic and what is simply fantasy. After taking a closer look, this film contains a lot more realism to actual science and space travel today. This paper will closely analyze and discuss three accuracies and inaccuracies of the film in relation to the content discussed in ESS 102 lectures, labs, and assignments.
But Wilder spoke too soon. During the fourth expedition, instead of adapting and living on Mars the same way as the Martians had, the Earthmen began to plant trees, and other agricultural goods. This may not have seemed like a big deal, but with all the new plants, the Earthmen were increasing the oxygen level in the atmosphere causing an imbalance on the planet which ending up causing changes on Mars. Through this story Bradbury wanted the reader to realize that not only did Earthmen destroy Earth they were beginning to destroy Mars too. “We’ll rip Mars up, rip the skin off, and change it to fit ourselves”(Bradbury 54).
The beginning of this chapter focuses on the J.R. Simplot Plant which is located in Arberdeen, Idaho and processes around a million pounds of potatoes per day (Schlosser 111). John Richard Simplot was born in 1909 and spent much of his childhood working on his family’s farm. Simplot went against his father and dropped out of high school at the early age of fifteen and began working at a potato warehouse in Declo, Idaho. When J.R. turned sixteen, he became a potato farmer (Schlosser 112). It only took about ten short years for J.R. Simplot to become the largest shipper of potatoes in the West. World War II brought a lot of wealth to Simplot. He sold dehydrated onions to the U.S. Army and he eventually became one of the main suppliers of food to the U.S. American military during World War II (Schlosser 113). By the time Simplot was 36 years old, he was able to grow, fertilize, proces...
The HAB is like a house on Mars; it’s where the astronauts stay when they are not out exploring the surface. Andy Weir is an amazing artist of a writer who paints a picture in the reader’s mind and whose background greatly affected the way he writes. The Martian contains a large amount of suspense and science fiction which make it an exciting read.
Bradbury developed the setting of the story similar to Earth as far aslandscape, atmosphere, and people in order to emphasize his intentions. Themartians are described as if they are American Indians at the time of theAmerican Revolution. For example, in the beginning of the story, Bradburydepicts Martians "they had the fair, brownish skin of the true Martian, the yellowcoin eyes, the soft musical voices." The trees, the towns in Mars, and the grassare all described like Earth landscape. Bradbury's Mars is a mirror of Earth.These plots raise moral issues and reflections of how history may repeat itself. Bradbury portrays Mars as humankind's second world, where we may goafter our Earthly existence. In the episode of "April 2000: The third expedition,"Captain John Black's mother said "you get a second chance to live" (pp.44).Lustig's grandmother said "ever since we died" (pp.40). Humans have a naturalfear of death. Some humans may even have a death wish. Bradbury reveals histhought of death through the connection between Mars and Earth. Through Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles, Bradbury warns us of ourfuture. In the episode of "June 2000: And the Moon ve still as bright," CaptainWilder said, "one day Earth will be as Mars is today...It's an object lesson incivilizations. We'll learn from Mars" (pp. 55). Throught the story, Earth man,especially American think that they are superior than the Martian. Earth mancan do anything and knows everyting. However, Bradbury's message is to tellthem it is not true. Earth man, here American people realize there are manythings that they can learn from others.
Ray Bradbury, often known as the worlds best fiction author wrote The Martian Chronicles. In the beginning of this book are four expeditions. These expeditions all fail due to a misunderstanding. One way or another something is always misinterpreted which brings each crew to their fatal destiny.
“I think humans will reach Mars, and I would like to see it happen in my lifetime” was said by Buzz Aldrin, a NASA astronaut. The former American aeronaut from Montclair, New Jersey believes that since Mars does exist, it is waiting to be reached by humans. When this would happen, he says that the human race would “evolve into a two-planet species.” Present day Mars has a lot of canyons, mountains and volcanoes. Even though the surface is Mars is very old, scientists learned about different younger rift valleys, plains, hills and ridges. According to recent reports, there were lakes and rivers, along with an ocean billions of years ago. The low temperatures on the planet cause there to be polar ice caps and frozen water present. Scientists continue to notice several discoveries on the planet that lead them to think there was once life on the planet. Different clues have scientists wanting to find out about even more. Many scientists in the past few centuries have been curious if life on Mars is possible or if it has ever been before.
...-scale potato chip manufacturing operations are designed to make to be economical, to make money, not benefit their consumers or protect the environment. Only when a regulation is imposed (such as those from the EPA or FDA) are processes and procedures adjusted. Perhaps in the future with advances in technology, large potato chip manufacturers will integrate better ways to dispose of their by-products and create healthier chips at the same time.