Knowledge

How accurate is the science in ‘The Martian’? Could a man really survive on Mars for so long as shown in the film?

I saw the movie. It was really good. A lot of the science was pretty good, but not all of it. The soil of Mars can grow food but it has to have nitrogen (fertilizer) added. His poop did that. He rode in the rover at night and charged the battery during the day. That could work. The idea of a slingshot around Earth taking the crew back. That might work.

The main thing I found fault with was the dust storm. Mars does have dust storms and they can have winds up to 60 mph. However, the air is so thin it would feel like a 5 mph breeze.

It could never knock him down or launch an antennae into his stomach or tip a rocket over. That was all nonsense. I guess they exaggerated because they had to have some way to strand him on Mars and the crew to want to get away quickly.

They also kind of stretched it with missing the rendezvous and him being just out of reach. That wouldn’t happen if the computer is flying it, but the rescue was more exciting than just docking and saying welcome aboard, so they played it up.

The rover was also ridiculously huge. How would you get that out of a spacecraft hatch? Real rovers will be much smaller.

There was a lot about it I really liked, such as him applying his knowledge and some engineering to overcome one issue after another to get home. That is what an astronaut would do.

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