The Martian: an Abandoned Life Far Away from Home

The Martian by Andy Weir is a science fiction novel about an Astronaut named Mark Watney. He is a mechanical engineer and botanist on a mission called the American Ares 3 on its way to Mars, after its two successful missions Ares 1 and Ares 2. Once they get to Mars in a couple of days a giant dust storm interrupts the team’s mission and they are forced to leave Mars. In the sand storm, Mark Watney is hit with a shard of metal (a piece of Hermes(The ship) own antenna).

Watney’s team left him on Mars, thinking he was dead after the occurrence. The Commander of the mission-Lewis leaves Mark and believes it to be the proper protocol for the situation. The Ares 3 team attempts to not grief and get back to earth in the long trip ( few months) back to Earth, while NASA tries to control the fallout, on Earth, from the death of Watney on Mars. After Hermes takes off, Mark wakes up.

When he realizes that the ship has left and that he was abandoned on Mars. The harsh conditions on Mars can easily any man, on the bright side remote imaging shows NASA Mark has moves stuff around. When they see that the rover vehicle varies in position from day to day, NASA realizes that Mark has survived and that he is stranded on Mars. NASA starts a plan to either find a way to help him stay alive until the Ares 4 mission starts or send a rescue mission to get Mark back to Earth. The problem with one choice is the Ares 4 mission is not ready for takeoff for another four years.

Mark encounters various threats on Mars, aside from the harsh weather. He doesn’t have any provisions to give him enough food for long. The air in Hab was only supposed to last a month. If an air leak happens, it mostly won't even last a month. Then Mark tries to see what type of communication he has and realizes that the antenna for the comms satellite is destroyed.

Meanwhile, on earth, an employee of NASA named Mindy Park figures out that Mark is still alive, by examining satellite images of the mission site. This leaves Sanders ( hief of NASA) and Kapoor (Head of the Mars program) in a situation of releasing to the public. They end up seeing a public relations director, deciding to inform the public but leave the Ares 3 team in the dark thinking it will just get in the way. The public goes wild with Non-stop news coverages on Mark while NASA asks the FED for more funding. In addition Mark during this time retrieves an old unmanned probe called Pathfinder, which he brings back to the Hab and finally is able to communicate with NASA.

Mark also brought a tiny amount of Earth soil with him because he is a botanist. He begins saving his feces and leftovers from his feasts to use as a compost which he mixed the compost with Martian soil and Earth soil, transforming it all to crop soil. NASA sent a few whole potatoes that the crew planned to use for a Thanksgiving dinner except Mark using them as his crops. Mark needs water for the crops so he uses the Hab’s oxygenator (the thing that filters Mars oxygen) to transform into carbon dioxide. Once he did that he changed hydrazine fuel into hydrogen and nitrogen. Then Mark slowly burns the hydrogen which made Mark the first person on Mars to make water.

On Day or Sol 119, Mark leaves the Hab through Airlock 1, the Hab canvas breaks, and Mark is thrown out of the Hab. In a few days, Mark manages to repair the Hab, but the soil and young potato plants are destroyed and dead. NASA’s supply probe will reach Mars at Sol 856, but, with all of Marks’s potatoes dead, he only has enough rations to last until Sol 600. Once NASA realizes that Mark won't survive they decide to send a faster replacement mission to pick him up called Iris. NASA rushes the launch of Iris, and the rocket malfunctions and explodes a few minutes after takeoff.

While this was happening NASA researcher named Purnell came up with a maneuver that was the Ares 3 team turn around and get Mark. Sanders instantly vetos the plan, but Henderson gives the plan to the Ares 3 team, who automatically start doing the plan without NASA consent. Mark Watney then has to find a way to get into space. He as to get to the MAV (Mars ascent vehicle). NASA intrusts Mark to pull almost everything off of the MAV. make more fuel with a mixture of water and urine and other chemicals. The adjustments bring failure to a percent of four. On Marks way up the MAV swerves off course forcing Hermes to meet up with Mark’s new location. Then Beck (crew member from the team) is able to lift Mark out of the MAV and abord him on Hermes. Mark suffered some injuries but said it was “He was happy as he's ever been”. Mark back on Hermes and reunited with his team head back to earth.