The Martian is a science fiction novel written by Andy Weir. It was Andy Weir’s first book to ever be written and published. The Martian is about a team of astronauts going to Mars for a month so study and hold experiments. Within the first 6 sols, there is a massive dust storm, so big that they had to abort the mission and leave Mars immediately. One of the crewmates, Mark Watney, gets hit by a satellite and is blown into the darkness of the storm. His crewmates want to go find him, but they assume he is dead and they leave. Fortunately, Mark is not dead, but he is stabbed with an antenna from the satellite. From there on, Mark must survive on Mars alone and with little supplies while he waits for someone on Earth to come rescue him.
The Martian was published in 2014, and within three months it sold more than 35,000 copies. The next year, it was made into a movie starring Matt Damon. Some of the main technologies from 2014 included: 3D printed everything, Copenhagen Wheel, Hendo hoverboard, and the Mangalyaan spacecraft, which was the first Asian spacecraft to be sent into Mars orbit. The Martian was set in 2035, fifteen years from now. Some of the technologies in the book include: The Hab, a lab that keeps Mark safe from the outside of Mars; the rover; The Hermes, the gigantic ship that carries the crew to Mars and back; and finally, Mark’s spacesuit. These are just some of the main technologies in The Martian, but there are many more.
The Martian may seem very far fetched with the technologies, but we are actually very close to having almost all of the technologies in the book. “While the premise is science fiction, much of the NASA equipment and technology featured in the film is scientifically accurate” (Orwig, 2015). The Hab is extremely similar to a real life Mars-suited habitat made by NASA, called the HERA. NASA also has a rover like the one in The Martian, also suited for the harsh Mars surface. One of the most impressive is Mark’s spacesuit, and even though NASA has quite perfected it, they have started working on a spacesuit for the Martian surface. “It’s not as sleek as Watney’s fictional spacesuit, but NASA’s Z-2 and Prototype eXploration Suit could be similar to what the first people to walk on Mars wear” (Orwig, 2015). The Hermes uses ion propulsion to travel over 280 million miles, and so does a NASA ship called the Dawn. “NASA’s Dawn spacecraft runs on ion propulsion, which uses xenon ions to accelerate through space” (Orwig, 2015). These technologies from different times are very fascinating because Andy Weir came up with all of this technology before it was even officially out today.
References:
Orwig, J. (2015, September 24). 9 tripped-out sci-fi technologies in ‘The Martian’ that NASA really uses. Retrieved December 12, 2020, from https://www.businessinsider.com/whats-accurate-in-the-martian-2015-9
Weir, A. (2014). The Martian: A novel. New York: Broadway Books.
Williams, M. (n.d.). Top 10 Greatest Inventions & Technologies of 2014. Retrieved December 12, 2020, from https://www.herox.com/blog/266-top-10-greatest-inventions-of-2014
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