All Comments on 'The Martian - Unresolved Questions'

I'm sorry....but accept the movie for what it is........A MOVIE! This may be way out of line, but are you also one who reads the Bible and then gets mad because it's a faith history and not a historically factual document? Lighten up, Francis......It's a movie.

Sure the movie glossed over a lot of detail, but many of your comments are better addressed in the book. From my point of view, the book was way more satisfying.

it is a movie made by Hollywood ... so it has absolutely no relationship to any form of reality or scientific "fact" ... it is "For Entertainment Purposes Only"

I like that you identified various flaws in story (or filming).

However, you didn't mentioned any of my top 5 issues with this movie (except maybe the BSOD moment).

2) IIRC, he did take solar panels, and a bunch of other stuff, but left the O2 machine because of weight/power issues, and used CO2 scrubbers instead (he had a limited supply for the suit and hab, so he couldn't use them for the longer trip anyway. This trip doubled as a test run, since he'd already figured out he'd need to get to the Ares IV landing site to use the radio and contact earth/scavenge supplies.

3) They don't really mention the sites for I and II, so they could be on the other side of the planet for all we know. Also, environmental damage could have ruined the old habs and made the trip worthless.

4)Yeah, the spinning was added in the movie to make filming easier.

9) Weir negated the whole radiation issue as well, by saying that they had developed a material for the hab that was opaque to radiation by that time. That's why he couldn't use the rover to contact Earth from inside, and had to suit up and go out, even radio waves couldn't get through (the original antenna must have had a port which wasn't compatible with the old tech). Presumably, they would line the ship and the suits with the same material to prevent a huge amount of radiation damage.

10) Maybe, but he was more concerned with getting there alive than making the best possible time. If it failed, the panels would break, and he'd go even slower.

11) In the book, the primary purpose was to use the box to save power on the heating, but also produced a small amount of power that extended his drive time by a bit. Resistance heating takes a ton of power, so it would help quite a bit. But again, the landing sites for the other missions could be farther away, or the markers covered in sand by the time he got there.

14)No, but the book had a few other issues that were cut for time.

15) He made a tent out of hab fabric that he slept and worked in on the trip while the solar panels recharged the battery. Literally deflated the hab, cut a bunch of fabric out, and pasted it together with glue (also he fixed the hab after it decompressed in a similar fashion, not with duct tape and plastic wrap). It attached to the rover and had oxygen and heat from its shared systems.

16) Ehh...they cut power to the port before plugging it in, then just activated it again when they needed a spark.

Weir wrote the book by posting the chapters online and taking criticism and suggestions from readers as the plot advanced. That's why there are so many cliff-hanger endings and "Oh crap, I forgot!" moments in the book.

As a side, I first knew Andy Weir through his webcomic, Casey & Andy @ http://www.galactanet.com/comic/ 621 strips of mad sciencey adventure all for free. The art gets...a little better, but you can see why he started writing instead of drawing. Also, a 2nd, unfinished comic "Cheshire Crossing"

re #2: CO2 scrubbers only take excess CO2 from the air - they don't add oxygen back TO the air also. So I can't buy any answer where the O2 generator is not brought along (see Apollo 13 for more info on that point...for one movie reference, at least).

re #3&11: Mars is a FROZEN airless wasteland, even if the Habs for Ares I and II were destroyed/deflated, the harder metal/plastic refrigerated cabinets holding the food would likely have survived, and the food not have spoiled in the frozen, sterile environment (sterile, except for any contamination that was brought TO mars by the previous crews - assuming such bacteria/contaminants it could have survived ambient conditions to somehow rot the food anyway). Ergo, a trip to the I and II sites could have been multiply fruitful for obtaining: the food leftovers, any additional hydrazine from their MAV launch bases (for more water generation), additional HAB materials (more solar panels, spare rover parts/batteries, extra Hab canvas/shielding, intact communications arrays anybody?), and the other buried Thermoelectric Generator (box of plutonium) units - for starters! Presuming, of course, that those older landing sites would have been accessibly close. Even if the markers for the other TEGs were covered over by sand, well, that didn't stop him from finding pathfinder now, did it?

Re #9: unless they invent some spectacularly good new shielding fabric technology, Gamma rays are STILL going to be the major issue. Alpha and Beta radiation are easy enough to handle in reasonable situations already, Gamma is the killer. Gamma rays currently require SERIOUS shielding materials, like FEET of concrete or significant amounts of LEAD (read: serious MASS in either case) ...or miles of atmosphere.

Re #8 & #16: USB ports don't work quite that way. They are always hot provided the power supply for their chassis is hot. Secondly, why put the charge on the INNER airlock door? Why not just leave the inner door open and put the charge on the OUTER door external to the ship (eliminating the hazards of hull damage almost entirely)? If the blast relies on atmospheric pressure waves to do its damage, then it's the wrong type of bomb for the required mission anyway. Would it not simply be better to hack the hatch controls to permit both airlock doors to open that ONE time needed? (If the mission specialist could hack the computer cores to override the Remote Control of Hermes from NASA, then surely this little hack was within her reach.)

You do indeed have me pegged wrong on the Bible thing.

Accepting the move for what it is ...is one fair point, granted. However, in my preface I did point out I was interested in the plot/storyline issues, and under that umbrella, I think I'm entitled to my quibbles - especially since we're on a web site about not just erotica, but sufficiently artful writing/storytelling as well (the "Lit" part of Literotica).

Ok, so what were your 5 top issues, then?

The book is way better than the movie about the details - and yes, the book was written before the movie and not vice versa

In the short clips of life after returning, was't the other female crew member delivering?(or was it just pregnant). Evidently the condom supply did run out. Probably designed like the food with only a 1.5x contingency factor.

Yeah I thought the same thing, but if you listen to the dialog over that scene (from the TV in the background showing the Ares V mission launch) you hear the announcer mention that it is 5 years later, meaning that the new baby was not mission-spawned.

@GrandPaM Sorry about the Bible comment.......I kind of thought I got a little too personal with that comment after I thought about it.

You're entitled to write and say whatever you like. I had some of your same thought watching the movie numerous times, but it didn't change the fact that I find the movie entertaining.

The Hermes was connected to all earth media, internet, and emails from family. It is impossible for the crew not to have found out about Watney being alive. Between the news, emails from family ( Hey, did you hear the good news..). The big drama about whether to notify the crew was completely bunk.

Also the scene where the director of NASA hopes that nothing will go wrong was very unneeded spoiler about he next scene when the Hab blew up.

Still a great movie which I watch very often.

Let's see, you're all alone, nothing but potatoes to keep you from starving to death. Oh, and you're living in a tent! Why wouldn't you put a few potatoes somewhere safe?

In the spirit of being "that guy" you need to read the book if you want to critique these type of movie elements. The book spelled most of these issues out specifically. Most of, if not all of, your critiques are the result of the movie shortening the book to fit in the allotted time. If it helps he book has one of the best opening.ines of all time - it might even fit back in an erotic category, depending upon how literal you take it.

Usually i don't comment on things like this, but this being a space movie the subject is pretty near and dear to my heart. Honestly i think you can make alot of arguments like these in any recent space movie lately. For example

mission to mars - honestly you'd think they'd fire their retro thrusters to slow down the approach to mars and take 5 mins to actually examine their fuel lines as a precautionary measure.

Gravity - now disaster like that aside, my main issue with this is they couldn't have taken 5 minutes and look for another mmu in the wreckage of the space shuttle? Because honestly from what little i know of the space shuttle i would think they'd pack more than one mmu (manned maneuvering unit)

Event horizon - a pretty good space horror movie, my only nitpick here is the wisdom of jason noseworthy (mr justin) character sticking his fingers in the inside of the frigging core of the propulsion unit?

I'm not reading the book unless it has Matt Damon in it too.

I thought the book--I didn't read it has a scene in which Ares3 Commander reprimands two her crew for sexual escapades. I'm told the movie scene of this was deleted for time. All in all, your article here is smartly written. Keep asking questions of everything. Hollywood never let's truth or facts get in the way of a good story, by the way.

I'm sure that's against regulations. As for sex in space, I am sure NASA implanted the women with Nexplanon a birth control device good for a minimum of three years. However, looking at the men on the trip, that would do it for at least six years by itself. Back to science, the ship did not go around the sun, it went around the earth, and then back to Mars, no need for the extra miles on the credit card. The NASA administrator was perfect, an absolute idiot where science was involved. Probably a good administrator, but couldn't get two people to march in a straight line in a hallway. As far as getting a flat tire, nothing to worry about. They use run-flat tires, no air needed here. The one thing you missed was he never lost weight while waiting to be rescued. One-half of one-half of whatever that thing was he was eating, plus a potato or two with each meal, and he never lost an ounce with all the work he was putting in. I wish it would happen to me, actually, I don't, I wish I could gain some weight instead of losing it. I want to thank you for all your comments on my work. I can't tell you how much it means to me as a writer to hear back from good people like you and know that you matter to them. Keep up the good scientific work, and I promise I will also. Bob

Wow those where really Good Points I Never Really Noticed how much Scientific Errors or discrepancies there was. But I well now the next time I watch it. I Truly can not answer those questions as sadly I'm not that smart.