The Martian

A very Scientific Science Fiction

==The Martian (the Book ) / Andy Weir
New York : Crown Publisher, (c) 2014.==

### Summary

Mark Watney is an American astronaut with NASA. He has been sent to Mars on the Aries 3 mission only to be abandoned when his fellow crewmates have to evacuate during a massive storm. He was hit by a satellite dish and was presumed dead, but it turns out he wasn’t so dead. He has to try and survive until NASA can rescue him and creates a log of his experiences interspersed with glimpses of what is happening at NASA and on the Hermes spacecraft his crew mates are on.

This story is a gripping well researched tale of how one man in an impossible situation faces it down one step at a time. On NASA’s required reading list, this book shows how attitude and thinking outside of the box makes all the difference.

### **Characters**

#### **Mark Watney** (astronaut, Martian)

·         A botanist and mechanical engineer with high intelligence and a great sense of humour.

·         Played a lot of Dungeons and Dragons in High School.

·         Attended University in Chicago.

#### **Commander Lewis** (Female Commander of Aries 3 mission)

·       Commander and geologist

·       Had a memory stick of 70s TV shows and disco among her personal possessions

#### **Martinez** (Crewmate)

·         Piloted MDV to Mars surface

·         Formerly air force

·         A devout Catholic, brought a wooden crucifix among his personal items

·         Son turned 3 while he was returning home on Hermes

#### **Johannsen** (Crewmate)

·         Communications

·         Brought Beatles music among personal items

·         Career software engineer

·         The last person to see Watney before hit by satellite dish

#### **Vogel (Crewmate)**

·         **Chemist**

·         Helped Watney set up solar panels

·         German, international participant

#### **Venkat Kapoor** (NASA)

·         Director of Mars operations

·         Doctorate in Physics

#### **Mindy Park** (NASA)

·         Works in SatCon monitoring Mars satellites

·         First one to realize Mark Watney was still alive

·         Put in charge of tracking Watney

#### **Mitch Henderson** (NASA)

·         flight director for Ares 3 mission.

#### **Jack Trevor** (NASA)

·         Works in software engineering

·         Found a way to update systems so they could communicate with Watney

### **Setting**

####  **MAV**-(Mars Ascent Vehicle)

·         A space craft that shuttles astronauts from the surface of Mars to Hermes

·         Held the 3 back up communications systems

·

#### **Hermes**

·         Space Craft- transports crews from earth to Mars and back

·         Powered by ion engines

####           **MDV**-(Mars Descent Vehicle)

          1A big can with some light thrusters and parachutes attached. Its sole purpose is to get six humans from Mars orbit to the surface without killing any of them.

### **The Author**

#### '*2'***Andy Weir-**

·         The son of a particle physicist

·         Background in computer science

·         Started writing the book in 2009 and self-published in 2011. Audiobook rights purchased Jan/2013 by Podium Publishing, Rights to the book were purchased Mar/2013 by Crown Publishing and was republished in 2014 then made into a major motion picture in 2015. The book appeared on the New York Times Best Seller list March 2014 and won the 2015 Alex award.

·         Studied orbital mechanics, astronomy, and the history of manned spaceflight

### **References**

1 p.3, The Martian by Andy Weir, New York : Crown Publishing, ©2015.

2 retrieved from Andy Weir-Official Site at  http://andyweirauthor.com/  on March 25, 2017.