To find out how it might be done, NASA is planning
a sample return mission in the 2020s. The tentative
plan at the moment is for the currently unnamed
2020 Mars rover to collect samples and leave
them on the surface, which will be picked up by
a later lander and launched back to Earth. “That
would form our basis for the same technology and
techniques for a human mission,” said Lavery.
So this one is fiction for now – but only because we
don’t know how to do it yet.
Fact or fiction? Fiction
Communicating with Earth
When the communications system at Watney’s habitat
is destroyed in the (questionable) storm, he has no
way to communicate with Earth until he goes to pilfer
Pathfinder and Sojourner, the lander and rover that
touched down on Mars in 1997. They went silent on
the surface after just a few months, but could Watney
really have repurposed them to make contact with
Earth again?
“Theoretically, it would absolutely be possible,” said
Lavery, and he should know, as he worked on the
Pathfinder mission. “The spacecraft has been sitting
up there since 1997, and it stopped operating because
the batteries finally drained and gave out. But if you
replaced them and repowered it, everything else
should still be functioning.”
Houston, we have a solution.
Fact or fiction? Fact
Gravity on Mars
Watney moves in an Earth-like manner on Mars, but in
reality the Red Planet has about 30% of the gravity our
own planet has, meaning movement would be a little
different. NASA envisages that the most efficient way to
walk on Mars will be a gait somewhere between a shuffle
and a hop. We can appreciate why it wasn’t portrayed
this way in the movie, but hey, a win’s a win for fiction.
Fact or fiction? Fiction
The habitat
Pretty accurate. The idea of using an inflatable habitat,
which is what is used in “The Martian,” is one that is being
seriously considered. Indeed, soon an inflatable Bigelow
Aerospace module will be attached to the ISS, and a
descendent of that could be used on Mars. Whether an
inflatable habitat could cope with having a flat floor on
Mars is another question, as inflatable things tend to
want to form a ball, and in the thin Martian atmosphere,
the pressure on a habitat with an Earth-like environment
inside might be too much. But it’s possible.
Fact or fiction? Fact
Inflatable technology will be key
to the future of manned space exploration.
It’s true, Watney would have been able
to talk to Earth.
Conclusion
Overall, we score that at five for fact, three for fiction
and one tie. And we’ve only brushed the surface
– there were many other things the film got right,
including the aesthetics on Mars, the spacesuits, the
use of solar panels, the Hermes spacecraft (apart from
maybe its rotation speed), the life support systems,
and so on. On the other hand, there’s not much else it
got wrong, aside from maybe the speed at which the
astronauts go from the Hermes spacecraft into space
without proper preparation.
Sure, we’ve picked out a few grievances, but they are
minor quibbles. And compared to other movies like
Armageddon ,they are trivial. We’d have to say “The
Martian” is deserving of its scientific plaudits.
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THE CLAPPER 2015 - 2016