Week 9

I had seen the 2015 Martian movie and enjoyed it a decent amount. I knew it was adapted from the book but never bothered to read it so I decided for this week I would do just that. Just like the movie, the Martian is about Mark, a crew member of the Ares 3 Mars mission. The crew traveled an entire year to Mars on the Hermes. When they landed, they used supply drop packages sent before their departure to take care of their biological needs, as well as for equipment necessary for their mission. An unfortunate sandstorm hits and destroys Mark’s monitor that recorded and sent out his vital signs, which resulted in the other astronauts thinking he was dead and left without him. The rest of the book is about Mark trying to survive on his own on Mars with the limited resources he was left with. It is a very sci-fi take on the classic story of the main character being marooned on an island, like Robinson Crusoe. Knowing this, of course I knew Mark would survive and eventually find his way home (on top of the fact I already watched the movie), but it was the little details in between and how he managed to do so in the creative manner that he did that allowed me to enjoy this book despite knowing what happens.