how accurate is the science in the martian?
Better than almost any other sci fi. A lot of it is a bit far-fetched (which is kind of the point), but nothing is outright wrong.
Better than average for Hollywood (I assume this is mostly owed to the novel's own accuracy). Still a few inaccuracies, though. The plastic-and-duct-tape hab repair job was pretty laughable, especially when the fucking wind was enough to cause it to invert.
Probably the most glaring inaccuracy was the one that pretty much ruins the entire premise of the movie - that the team was able to just pick up and head straight home without him. In reality, they could get to the Hermes in Mars orbit, but then they would still be stuck there until the next return transfer window (which based on current proposals would be 2 months from their arrival at minimum, and that's with a costly deep-space maneuver instead of a simple Hohmann transfer).
>>7889468
this is what I've heard
perhaps some issues with perchlorates in the soil?
it didn't make me cringe unlike that shitfest that was interstellar
>>7889448
>muh violent martian storm
A storm on mars is equivalent to a light breeze because of the thin atmosphere
>>7889470
Huh I never thought of that but you're completely right
>>7889448
how much would Hermes cost? it looks like a fucking luxury ship
>>7889470
The pressure inside the hab was at 1 atm while the pressure outside the plastic and duct tape was about 0.6% of 1 atm. So the pressure inside was between 100x and 1000x stronger than the pressure outside. The Martian wind would have never inverted the plastic bubble.
Because of the ion propulsion the Hermes used instead of chemical thrusters, they were not performing the usual Hohmann transfer, instead they would basically accelerate for the entire duration of the trip. It is a very different orbital maneuver and is more efficient the closer the Earth is to Mars (roughly). So it would actually be more efficient to leave immediately than to wait.
>>7889448
>desert bushes in the background
>>7889470
The pressure from the Martian wind would have never tipped the lander to begin with. Even at hundreds of miles per hour, the pressure is far too low to move the lander and there would have been no reason to be worried or take off.
>>7889567
Yeah, ion thrusters change everything. This is an interesting point to examine, but not an obvious problem.
They probably would have spent some time in orbit before leaving, checking things out and planning their trajectory. There would be no urgency in leaving Mars orbit. In fact, they'd likely want to stay in Mars orbit as long as they could, and they'd have extra rations due to being short a crew member.
They're astronauts. They're in Mars orbit. That's still an interesting place for astronauts to be.
Furthermore, it's implausible to the point of absurdity that Mork wouldn't have had half a dozen radios on hand that could talk to the satellites in Mars orbit. Ordinary, non-NASA people have satellite phones on Earth, and that's with all the radio noise. You could probably have a satellite phone network around Mars with a few cubesats, and just link that up with anything that had a link back to Earth.
So he'd probably have been talking to the rest of the crew almost immediately after waking up.
>>7889448
>how accurate is the science in the martian?
What's remarkable about The Martian is how hard they're trying to get it right. They still get a huge amount of stuff wrong, but it references a lot of real science.
>>7889448
Poop fertilizes, martian soil is neutral, potatoes alone will sustain you ad infinitum, high pressure storms form with minutes notice on a planet with a palfrey atmosphere, broken ribs hurt, hydrogen is a key component of water, plastic is cheap, decompression of any degree is explosive enough, gravity gravities, and troy is a spaz.
OP, I'm smarter than you.
>>7890469
>Poo science
>>7889471
indeed it really was a shitfest
>>7890469
explain or citation plz
especially the poop part
>>7890469
Wait, are you listing flaws, or asserting facts?
Broken ribs DO hurt, for instance.
>>7889448
What science? I only saw engineering. :^)
>>7889448
READ THE BOOK.
>>7890629
The book was about equally bad, and worse in some parts. The increased level of detail reveals more of the author's ignorance and laziness at fact-checking.
The Martian was originally going to be a computer game about getting stranded on Mars and having to grow potatoes to survive. Once you know that, everything else about it makes sense:
- the player has to be left behind on Mars (even though Mars windstorms aren't that forceful)
- the player has to remain isolated (even though radios are cheap and easy)
- potatoes have to be the only option (why would NASA send a botanist to Mars with no seeds?)
- the option to grow potatoes has to end at some point (he didn't put ANY potatoes in a safe place?)
- a long overland trek using the limited food supply needs to be necessary (why aren't there remote-control vehicles to bring separately-landed parts together?)
All this stuff was clearly dictated by gameplay concerns. Once he assembled his notes for the game, he realized it would be easier to turn it into a novel than actually make a game with all this stuff in it. The flaws were much less forgivable in novel form, but to fix them, he'd be almost starting from scratch.
Did it ever explain why they were on Mars in the first place?
Or why the hab exploded?
>>7891374
Well the hab exploded because for some reason the pressurization airlock on the hab does it's job in 2 seconds flat, which means it's pumping a lot of air very quickly. There was a hole in the airlock, so the sudden huge increase in internal pressure blew out the hole.
And they were on Mars because for some reason we've decided Mars is our destiny.
>>7890892
>martian windstorms
Yeah this made me scratch my head too. Isn't the atmosphere super thin? Why would it be producing gale-force gravel storms?
>>7889582
Top kek
>>7890892
Ohhh so it's Minecraft
>>7891384
>And they were on Mars because for some reason we've decided Mars is our destiny.
So just to clarify, you don't comprehend why one of the two closest planets with the most Terran conditions might be our first bid for terraforming?
that confuses you, does it?
>>7890892
Why would the potatoes have to end?
I haven't seen the movie or read the book but potatoes will grow from offcuts and a single potato can be used to grow half a dozen more plants
>>7891493
They mean as a device to get the player to move on toward the next section of the game. The potatoes get destroyed by an airlock failure.
>>7891507
>The potatoes get destroyed by an airlock failure.
More to the point, the potatoes get killed. Every last one of them. No living plants, and nothing to use for seeds. Plus the water evaporates from his soil. (of course, on Mars, water can be mined -- the air is very dry, but it's also very cold, it's not that there isn't water, just that it's frozen in the ground)
They don't actually get destroyed. They just get freeze-dried. They're still edible, but then he has a fixed food supply, which isn't sufficient for him to just wait for the scheduled Mars landing.
>>7889448
It is possible to grow potatoes.
>>7890892
>(he didn't put ANY potatoes in a safe place?)
Early in the movie, Watney reasoned that if the Hab suffered catastrophic depressurization he'd be dead anyways. He didn't consider the possibility that it could happen while he was on EVA.
>>7889471
interstellar was great, bro
>>7889448
The suit:
the suit would have to be very thick to pressurize the human body, regulate temperature, and provide oxygen. the suit also cannot have any metal or organic material on the outside due to the perchlorates in martian soil and that helmet would need to be IR and UV filtering without getting so hot that your face melts all the while being made of polymers that don't break down in the presence of high frequency UV
/sci/ kills another movie
>>7893601
>implying movies are good
spot the pop culture studies major
>>7893610
>implying i even went to college
nice try
>>7889448
>Needing a supercomputer to compute orbital trajectories
A couple things I noticed
>Magic rock storm breaks satalite dish but doesn't damage solar panels
>Opening the suit on one side in space would've put Damon into a death spiral.
>He still had a hundred or so Sol's before pickup so why not resume growing potatos after the explosion
>Not a single mention if the holocaust despite it being the most important event in human history
>>7894537
>>He still had a hundred or so Sol's before pickup so why not resume growing potatos after the explosion
Would the bacteria have survived? I guess he had the shit in his gut at least, but would it have been enough?
>>7894549
Would have been worth trying even with a m3 of soil
Hydrogen burns UV not yellow
>>7894567
hydrogen is water dumfuck
>>7890629
>the book
https://web.archive.org/web/20120918232919/http://www.galactanet.com/writing.html
