The Martian by Andy Weir

[Motokid600]

Drama? A depressurization of any kind is dramatic. Again I'm not arguing the validity of the hab breach. But the specific manner Andy Weir described the failure. He even went into detail of the canvas creation process.

Yes. The escaping air from the hab blew away the airlock. But the hab didn't fail. In the book the airlock canvas fails. So in order for the hab to fail as catastrophicly as it did it would take some other, much greater issue. One that has nothing to do with canvas fatigue from expansion and contraction. I'm just trying to wrap my head around how that could happen in which it was described. And I can't because I think it's wrong.

So again for the hab to launch the airlock it would've had nothing to do with the airlock itself failing. But the hab failed. Which is not what happened in the book. I'm trying to figure out if there's something I'm missing here or is that another aspect AW fudged for the story? In order to keep the Hab repairable and livable. Because if it was described as a hab failure then Watney has to live in a untrustworthy structure that failed for an unknown reason and could fail again at anytime.

So if your just as confused as I am look at my crappy picture and ask yourself. If point A failed then how did point B fail in order to catapult the airlock?

Edited October 7, 2015 by Motokid600

[sp1989]

Drama? A depressurization of any kind is dramatic. Again I'm not arguing the validity of the hab breach. But the specific manner Andy Weir described the failure. He even went into detail of the canvas creation process.

Yes. The escaping air from the hab blew away the airlock. But the hab didn't fail. In the book the airlock canvas fails. So in order for the hab to fail as catastrophicly as it did it would take some other, much greater issue. One that has nothing to do with canvas fatigue from expansion and contraction. I'm just trying to wrap my head around how that could happen in which it was described. And I can't because I think it's wrong.

So again for the hab to launch the airlock it would've had nothing to do with the airlock itself failing. But the hab failed. Which is not what happened in the book.

Ok so the airlock would need to be attached to the hab. Its probably isn't on piece. It would have to be the seam where the airlock attaches to the habs. A seam like that would be under constant stress. Or at least far more stress than the rest of the hab.

[Motokid600]

If an airlock failure caused a habitation failure then it wouldn't be a very good airlock. And even if the airlock in the Martian had been hard fixed to the outside of the hab that seam would have been what failed as you said, but only the airlock would've decompressed and Mark would've still had his potatoes. And iirc the severed airlock still remained relatively pressurized.

If the entire end of the airlock blew off Mark would've been killed as his suit was too damaged for him to make it back to the hab from where he was blown away. ( contrary to what happened in the movie ) Once he patched the holes in both the airlock and his suit he used the suit to repressurize the airlock and then smashed his body against the side to roll the entire airlock closer to the hab.

So it failed on the habitation side. Which goes against what your lead to believe in the book.

Now that I think about it it may just be as you said earlier sp. Maybe its just another scenario AW glanced over to introduce drama and story events. I suppose he may have found it challenging to break up the monotony of such a survival story. Anyway it was good I wont deny that. I liked it better in the book then the movie of course...

But my ocd bugs me with that kinda stuff and I cannot for the life of me picture how the hab breach event worked out as described in the book. Damn I need to read it again.

Edited October 7, 2015 by Motokid600

[sp1989]

If an airlock failure caused a habitation failure then it wouldn't be a very good airlock. And even if the airlock in the Martian had been hard fixed to the outside of the hab that seam would have been what failed as you said, but only the airlock would've decompressed and Mark would've still had his potatoes. And iirc the severed airlock still remained relatively pressurized.

Now that I think about it it may just be as you said earlier sp. Maybe its just another scenario AW glanced over to introduce drama and story events. I suppose he may have found it challenging to break up the monotony of such a survival story. Anyway it was good I wont deny that. I liked it better in the book then the movie of course...

But my ocd bugs me with that kinda stuff and I cannot for the life of me picture how the hab breach event worked out as described in the book. Damn I need to read it again.

If the entire end of the airlock blew off Mark would've been killed as his suit was too damaged for him to make it back to the hab from where he was blown away. ( contrary to what happened in the movie ) Once he patched the holes in both the airlock and his suit he used the suit to repressurize the airlock and then smashed his body against the side to roll the entire airlock closer to the hab.

So it failed on the habitation side. Which goes against what your lead to believe in the book.

I think any failue cant be contributed to stress, overuse, improper use, etc. I mean he was opening and closing the airlock a lot more than it might have been rated to be opened and closed. I honestly dont know. There are a bevy of things that could have caused his potatoes to not grow or to fail. I think have the hab decompress in a way that might seem believable and "sciencey" to the general public could have been Andy Weirs and Drew Goddards intention. You cant be OCD about a science fiction movie. I get it believe me. Once you I get on something I need to figure it out, but at some point you just need to let it go and enjoy it for what it is, a really good science fiction movie.

[RainDreamer]

Video interview with other supporting cast of the Martian:

Well, not exactly an interview since it is mostly one person answering a single question...

Edited October 7, 2015 by RainDreamer

[Bill Phil]

As the airlock expands and contacts the seal which connects it to the HAB weakens. There was an imperfection in the canvas along the seal which connects the inner airlock to the HAB which then failed. The airlock stayed intact until it hit the ground.

It's not an imperfection. It was a miracle it lasted as long as it did, since the HAB was designed for one month of use.

[Elthy]

How much bad luck can there be?

Ive been to cinemas propably a hundret times, never any issues. Then there is one movie im so excited about that i go to the premiere, even one day before its in the official program...

AND THEN THE ....ING MOVIE DATA IS CORRUPTED AND IT ONLY SHOWS ABOUT 1/3 OF THE WHOLE FILM!!!

[Motokid600]

Well the film was only 1/3 of the book so you didn't miss much

Lol, but seriously that does suck. Hope you at least got your money back.

[Elthy]

Lol, but seriously that does suck. Hope you at least got your money back.

Yeah. Im reserving seats for tomorow now...

[sp1989]

It's not an imperfection. It was a miracle it lasted as long as it did, since the HAB was designed for one month of use.

In the book it was a design flaw. Weir does a flashback to the construction of the Hab from when it was first built.

[Motokid600]

Wasn't a flaw as in something went wrong in the manufacturing of the canvas. The canvas failed because it went way over and beyond what it was designed for. If your making a hab to last four years then you completely rethink the design.

[sp1989]

Wasn't a flaw as in something went wrong in the manufacturing of the canvas. The canvas failed because it went way over and beyond what it was designed for. If your making a hab to last four years then you completely rethink the design.

The way it was written in the book it was setup as a design flaw

[FishInferno]

The way it was written in the book it was setup as a design flaw

No, I remember it said something along the lines of "For the short stay that was planned, the airlock would be fine. But it was bound to fail eventually..." SO NASA only designed it to hold up for 31 days

[Motokid600]

I dont recall. I'd have to read it again, but when I think back to the scene where he describes the creation of the canvas there was no mistake made or flaw. Just that the canvas was never meant to take the abuse that it did.

[-ctn-]

The mistake was Watney's (as is most of the mistakes in the story), because he never alternated between airlocks...

[RainDreamer]

io9 had an article about the science of the Martian: http://space.io9.com/science-of-the-martian-the-good-the-bad-and-the-fasc-1734726471

[G'th]

Something I've been curious about is just the logistics of the missions themselves. How much of the Ares equipment was sent with the Hermes or on its own? Obviously the MAV's were sent on their own, but the Hermes doesn't seem like it could have held all of the habitats and rovers as well as the equipment to land them and the crew as well.

[Stargate525]

Something I've been curious about is just the logistics of the missions themselves. How much of the Ares equipment was sent with the Hermes or on its own? Obviously the MAV's were sent on their own' date=' but the Hermes doesn't seem like it could have held all of the habitats and rovers as well as the equipment to land them and the crew as well.[/quote']

It's implied in the book that supplies and (presumably) the hab is dropped beforehand; the MAV arrives first so it can start generating N2H4. And I believe there's a spot about Watney being able to get additional fuel because the pilot was so good with his landing, so the descent vehicle is there... somewhere. Though hell if I remember where.

[Dodgey]

It's not an imperfection. It was a miracle it lasted as long as it did, since the HAB was designed for one month of use.

It was an imperfection, one of the seams around the airlock had a small manufacturing imperfection that was invisible to quality checks, the small imperfection compounded with the extended use of the airlock well over its life span lead to the failure.

[megatiger78]

It's implied in the book that supplies and (presumably) the hab is dropped beforehand; the MAV arrives first so it can start generating N2H4. And I believe there's a spot about Watney being able to get additional fuel because the pilot was so good with his landing, so the descent vehicle is there... somewhere. Though hell if I remember where.

the HAB inflates, helping with space

[Justicier]

Really, really liked it. But, I really want a Director's cut version with more scenes. I know they filmed a lot more than what was in the theatrical release, so hopefully they realize that there's a market for it :-)

[RainDreamer]

So....it already got a game on android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.littlelabs.themartian&hl=en

Play like Lifeline, if you ever had that game. You are a communication officer who is in charge of relaying information to Watney during his time on Mars. He will sometimes ask you stuff and you have to research and answer him with the right choice. At least that is how it looks through the images. I am not very fond of game tie-in with movies.

[Robotengineer]

Saw it this morning. I'd say it was good, though it was a rather condensed version of the book. While the book was more MacGyver -esque (I hate that term, but its the only thing I can think of right now) the movie was more of a survival story, with a much more positive vibe than the book. The movie also left out a lot of the 'science' stuff. As far as books to movies go, I'd say it's comparable to Enders Game. If I had not read the book I probably would have enjoyed the movie more.

[KerbMav]

Great movie!

Maybe I was distracted shortly - the scenes are really quite short at times - but maybe they just really shortened the revelation process of Mark still being alive.

When she looks at the satellite images and discovers the rover has been moved, I was wondering "did she just get a message to look at exactly this or was she only ordered to take look at those coordinates and immedeately realized something was different?"

Also, Rich Purnell came across a little to goofy?

The deal with the Chinese could have been outlined a bit more, it is just hinted at by the Chinese astronaut and the administrators being present at the launch in the end of the film.

(Reminded me of how I like hearing female chinese speakers, too.)

One of the best things for me: They left the whole "Space Pirate!" part in! Had to stop the audiobook the first time and kind of waited for this scene.

Also Sean Bean being present in a room of nerds discussing "The Council of Elrond"!

Supplemental: Vogel did not have any weird German scenes like in some of the promo material!

Still wondering why they went with a Norwegian actor - but even more wondering every time a million dollar production messes up other languages - but maybe this is just the same in every other country?

Edited October 10, 2015 by KerbMav

[sp1989]

Really great behind the scenes video.