In his short story, “The Martian,” Andy Weir shows us survival at it’s finest, and how even in our darkest times we can always find a way to laugh. In the very beginning we meet our main protagonist, Mark Watney, whom we quickly discover has been stranded on Mars and is “That’s my considered opinion… Fucked.” We learn that Watney was part of the Ares 3 mission for collection of data, and when a ferocious sandstorm hit he was jabbed by an antenna, being carried away with the storm. With no sign of Mark and the lives of the other 4 crewmates in jeopardy, his leading commander, Commander Lewis, was forced to abandon the Mars mission and Watney with it. With no way of communicating to NASA, Watney uses his knowledge as a botanist and the power of disco to survive his days on Mars. Assuming that no one knew that he is alive (which they didn’t, for a while) he builds a stable living environment in the Hab, farming potatoes for food and using dangerous elements to create water. Throughout his journey Watney records his progress by writing (and later on videotaping) logs, just incase someone came back and he had passed on.
Soon we meet the NASA engineer, Mindy Park, when she discovers that Watney is still alive. She tells senior NASA engineer, Venkat Kapoor and they
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Following instructions from Kapoor, he basically destroyed the Ares 4 launch vehicle by stripping it of everything unneeded. As the crew of Ares 3 flew by Mars, they launched the landing vehicle in hopes of grabbing Watney in space. When Watney's vehicle didn’t quite make it, they compromised Hermes by using an explosive device to slow down without wasting fuel. One of the crew members went out in an EVA and grabbed Watney, bringing him on board. Once everything was settled down, Commander Lewis reported to NASA (and the rest of the world) that all members of the crew were safely aboard, leading the cheers around the