0h22m20s17f Andy Weir Downgrades Mars Direct Nuclear Reactor to RTG for Dramatic Tension TR2016a
Channel: Thorium Remix
Date: 2017-04-22

http://ThoriumRemix.com/ You want to see what minimal calorie count looks like? It has been 7 days since I ran out of ketchup.

Andy Weir put his astronaut on the brink of freezing to death and starving to death, by downgrading the Mars Direct nuclear reactor to an RTG.

Even so, nuclear power of some sort was still required, as the author explains.

Andy Weir:
At one point I considered when he's on his long drive to Schiaparelli, I thought, what if the RTG develops a problem? What if it leaks or something like that and he has to live without it? Throws it away and he has to drive away without it? There's just no way you'd survive. You are dead.

Andy Weir interview with Adam Savage from "The Talking Room" https://youtu.be/5SemyzKgaUU