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Science behind "The Martian"

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Some pretty horrible things befall astronaut Mark Watney in the new movie The Martian: sandstorms, explosions, extreme isolation, even frustrations growing potatoes. It's a series of unfortunate events that's at once highly scientific and very entertaining.

The Martian is the brainchild of author Andy Weir, who wrote the blockbuster novel that inspired the film. As Weir tells it, he'd always longed for some science fiction with greater emphasis on the science.

"I was sitting around thinking about how a manned mission to Mars could actually work using today's technology. Then I started thinking about all the things that could go wrong," Weir tells NPR's Arun Rath.

"So I created an unfortunate protagonist and subjected him to all of it."

Weir began writing the story in serialized posts on his personal website. When he finished, readers asked him to publish an e-book version on Amazon - where it became a runaway best-seller and caught the eyes of both Crown Publishing (for a physical book) and Twentieth Century Fox (for a movie).

"I mean, you fantasize about that sort of thing," he laughs. "But you don't really think it's gonna happen."
Listen to the full interview at the audio link above.
Interview highlights
On how the deals came together
The print deal and the movie deal were being negotiated simultaneously, and ultimately the two deals were agreed to four days apart. That was an eventful week for me. By the way, at the time I was a computer programmer, so I was like in my cubicle fixing bugs, then I'd sneak off to take a phone call about my movie deal, then back to my cubicle to fix bugs. It was pretty surreal.
On Hollywood's relationship with science
The purpose of Hollywood is to make something that's fun to watch. And they will happily sacrifice scientific accuracy for entertainment, and I don't think there's anything wrong with that. ... It doesn't bug me that they do that.

Sometimes it bugs me when they perpetrate scientific myths. Kind of like - what was a recent one? [The film] Lucy - where they said, "You know, humans only use 10 percent of their brain." That's one of those science myths that drives me crazy. I want to beat my head up against the wall whenever I hear that.

It's one thing to say, "Our ship has a warp drive and can travel hundreds of times the speed of light." But it's another thing to actually reinforce a public misconception about science.
On his opinion of the movie
They did a great job. It is fantastic. Matt Damon just completely nails the character of Watney. He's exactly the way I imagined him.

One thing that Ridley Scott [the director] is actually kind of famous for in a lot of his movies are these grand, sweeping panoramic vistas of the setting. And The Martian is no different. There's beautiful shots of Mars and Martian scenery and terrain. That's something that's really hard to convey in a book. There's only so long you can describe scenery and landscape before the reader throws the book over his shoulder. So it was really nice to see that.
On the biggest scientific inaccuracy in the movie
The biggest inaccuracy in the movie is straight from the book, so it's also a big inaccuracy in the book. It's right at the beginning, the sandstorm that strands him there. (So this is not a spoiler; everyone knows he gets stranded there due to a sandstorm.)

In reality, Mars' atmosphere is 1/200th the density of Earth's. So while they do get 150 km/hr sandstorms, the inertia behind them - because their air is so thin - it would feel like a gentle breeze on Earth. A Martian sandstorm can't do any damage. And I knew that at the time I wrote it.

I had an alternate beginning in mind where they're doing an engine test on their ascent vehicle, and there's an explosion and that causes all the problems. But it just wasn't as interesting and it wasn't as cool. And it's a man-versus-nature story. I wanted nature to get the first punch.

So I went ahead and made that deliberate concession to reality, figuring, "Ah, not that many people will know it." And then now that the movie's come out, all the experts are saying, "Hey, everyone should be aware that this sandstorm thing doesn't really work and Mars isn't like that."

So I have inadvertently educated the public about Martian sandstorms. And I feel pretty good about that.

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Sandstorms, Explosions, Potatoes, Oh My: 'Martian' Takes Its Science Seriously

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Some pretty horrible things befall astronaut Mark Watney in the new movie The Martian: sandstorms, explosions, extreme isolation, even frustrations growing potatoes. It's a series of unfortunate events that's at once highly scientific and very entertaining. The Martian is the brainchild of author Andy Weir, who wrote the blockbuster novel that inspired the film.

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Rovin' Around Mars: The Mars Rover Program

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Rovin' Around Mars: The Mars Rover Program

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Rovin' Around Mars: The Mars Rover Program

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NIU STEAM

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Rovin' Around Mars: How to be an Astronaut

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Rovin' Around Mars: How to be an Astronaut

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Rovin' Around Mars: How to Be an Astronaut

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NASA needs to find the right mix of crew members. Take the quiz on Schoology when finished.

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5 TEDed videos to help understand The Martian

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The science of 'The Martian': 5 TED-Ed Lessons to help you understand the film

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The Martian stars Matt Damon as a stranded astronaut - and Mars as the red planet of doom. Can our hero survive life on Mars? Can NASA find a way to bring him home? To help you better understand th...

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Read the article and be ready to discuss.

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Check out the Martian Math Mania game to calculate your odds of surviving an alien invasion.

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Nine Real NASA Technologies in ‘The Martian’

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Andy Weir’s “The Martian” tells the story of Mark Watney, a NASA astronaut stranded on Mars. He must improvise and innovate to survive. NASA is already working on some of the technologies he uses to try to stay alive.

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Before we get into the subject of gravity and how it acts, it's important to understand the difference between weight and mass.

We often use the terms "mass" and "weight" interchangeably in our daily speech, but to an astronomer or a physicist they are completely different things. The mass of a body is a measure of how much matter it contains. An object with mass has a quality called inertia. If you shake an object like a stone in your hand, you would notice that it takes a push to get it moving, and another push to stop it again. If the stone is at rest, it wants to remain at rest. Once you've got it moving, it wants to stay moving. This quality or "sluggishness" of matter is its inertia. Mass is a measure of how much inertia an object displays.

Weight is an entirely different thing. Every object in the universe with mass attracts every other object with mass. The amount of attraction depends on the size of the masses and how far apart they are. For everyday-sized objects, this gravitational pull is vanishingly small, but the pull between a very large object, like the Earth, and another object, like you, can be easily measured. How? All you have to do is stand on a scale! Scales measure the force of attraction between you and the Earth. This force of attraction between you and the Earth (or any other planet) is called your weight.

If you are in a spaceship far between the stars and you put a scale underneath you, the scale would read zero. Your weight is zero. You are weightless. There is an anvil floating next to you. It's also weightless. Are you or the anvil mass-less? Absolutely not. If you grabbed the anvil and tried to shake it, you would have to push it to get it going and pull it to get it to stop. It still has inertia, and hence mass, yet it has no weight. See the difference?

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Your Weight on Other Worlds | Exploratorium

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Before we get into the subject of gravity and how it acts, it's important to understand the difference between weight and mass. We often use the terms "mass" and "weight" interchangeably in our daily speech, but to an astronomer or a physicist they are completely different things.

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Should we colonize Venus instead of Mars?

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Should we colonize Venus instead of Mars?

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Should We Colonize Venus Instead of Mars?

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How accurate is the science behind "The Martian?"

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How accurate is the science behind "The Martian?"

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How accurate is the science behind "The Martian"?

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THE MARTIAN Scientific Deep Dive with Cast and Crew

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Be one of the first brave souls to leave footprints on the red planet! Supersmooth 3D graphics. Play with thousands of players. Experience a gameplay never seen in browsers before

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Below are the type of questions you may ask yourself if you are a mission planner for a human-rated Mars mission: a. What types of psychological profile of the team should I select for each mission going to Mars to jump-start a colony vs. sustain the settlement? b.

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Solar Wind Strips Martian Atmosphere | The Weather Channel

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Teach With Movies - Lesson Plans from movies for all subjects

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Movie Lesson Plans Based on Films that will Inspire and Motivate Students; 425+ Movie Lesson Plans for High School, Middle School, Elementary and Home School

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Your kids might live on Mars. Here's how they'll survive | Stephen Petranek

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Is There A Better Planet Out There For Us?