The Martian by Andy Weir

[Mitchz95]

It's mentioned in the book that Hermes was designed for aerobraking. The movie design looks a bit too flimsy for that.

[sp1989]

It's mentioned in the book that Hermes was designed for aerobraking. The movie design looks a bit too flimsy for that.

Not if they use Kerbal Joint Reinforcement

[PakledHostage]

[sp1989]

http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/the_martian.png

I saw that! Andy Weir posted it on his facebook page. Also Tested is going to release and interview between Adam Savage and Andy Weir sometime this week. It gonna be on there web series "The Talking Room" Adam Savage is actually an amazing interviewer and he just so happens to be an enormous fan of the book. So stay tuned once its up I will post it on here.

[BagelRabbit]

Aw, c'mon. There are loads of things that are wrong with this trailer, but I don't consider the spacesuits to be one of them.

Here's my personal take on the stuff that the trailer did wrong so far. Be forewarned: it's as pedantic as all get-out...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfUXZf5OnpM

...but in spite of it all, I'm still eager to see this thing. In my personal opinion, it seems like this film will be a lot of fun.

-Upsilon

Edited June 11, 2015 by UpsilonAerospace

[BagelRabbit]

I'm sorry. I couldn't resist giving the trailer a little good-natured bashing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfUXZf5OnpM

I understand that some of the points - nay, most of the points - I made here are almost absurdly specific and probably shouldn't have been mentioned at all. But hey, someone's gotta do it.

In the scheme of things, though, I think the movie looks quite good. I'll definitely watch it, even if I am slightly concerned about some of the science involved. But y'know what? This movie is supposed to be fun more than it's supposed to be scientifically accurate, and I'm sure it'll be a blast to watch. I'm looking forward to it.

-Upsilon

[tater]

Yeah, the first thing I commented to myself about was "why the hell did they land next to a mesa?"

[sp1989]

I'm sorry. I couldn't resist giving the trailer a little good-natured bashing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfUXZf5OnpM

I understand that some of the points - nay, most of the points - I made here are almost absurdly specific and probably shouldn't have been mentioned at all. But hey, someone's gotta do it.

In the scheme of things, though, I think the movie looks quite good. I'll definitely watch it, even if I am slightly concerned about some of the science involved. But y'know what? This movie is supposed to be fun more than it's supposed to be scientifically accurate, and I'm sure it'll be a blast to watch. I'm looking forward to it.

-Upsilon

Great video however the one thing I think you really got wrong was the pathfinder footage. Besides thats how pictures from pathfinder would look. That video and sound edit from the trailer are clearly cliped. They want to create suspense in the trailer without giving away a major plot point which is that they dont know he is alive until they are almost back to earth. Its probably the first transmission combined with the transmission or just a transmission from later or earlier in the film to the hermes. Yes yes i know you were being pedantic. So I guess you can say I am being pedantic about your pedantic video lol. Great summary though.

- - - Updated - - -

Ok so I had to try and build the Hermes its a first try and it definitely needs some love but this is a replica cobbled to together with a few mods.

[tater]

The smoke is from the SRBs in your Delta launch. Watch Blue Origin taking off from Mars, erm, Texas .

That's not smoke, it's mostly dirt. (same dirt that we have here right over the line in NM)

So the smoke in the movie is wrong, period (as you said). Some dust, then nothing would be better, IMO.

Regarding the video, bandwidth is not a problem from earth at all. They can broadcast with vastly more signal strength than a small space probe. A manned craft with a nuclear reactor should not have much of a problem, either, frankly.

You are 100% correct about the idiotic landing site. The reason is cinematography, I would imagine. They filmed in Jordan, and wanted it "scenic." They could have put it a little farther from the hill, and made a line saying that the MAV ended up closer to terrain than planned due to a problem.

[m4v]

I just watched the trailer..and can I just say, when he was making his first log entry, I laughed out loud for about 30 seconds after his comment about having to use science. XD

gee I wonder what he was using until that point...

[Kibble]

Aw, c'mon. There are loads of things that are wrong with this trailer, but I don't consider the spacesuits to be one of them.

Here's my personal take on the stuff that the trailer did wrong so far. Be forewarned: it's as pedantic as all get-out...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfUXZf5OnpM

...but in spite of it all, I'm still eager to see this thing. In my personal opinion, it seems like this film will be a lot of fun.

-Upsilon

Oh right, since that rocket is lifting off from Mars ambient pressure, the plume should be way wider than shown! It should also be nearly transparent, because the fuel is almost nessecarily hypergolic. You are right about the lame landing site.

But about the spacesuits, I was really discussing aesthetics. It simply doesn't say spacesuit when you look at it. At least Hermes shamelessly stole enough cues from Space Station to look like a real spacecraft. Even if it's completely unrealistic.

[NovaSilisko]

You know, if I'm honest, this sort of attitude is why a lot of people find hard science fiction and its community rather alienating.

[Kibble]

You know, if I'm honest, this sort of attitude is why a lot of people find hard science fiction and its community rather alienating.

All communities based around a special interest is bound to alienate people who do not share that interest. IMO there is too little materiel for this particular interest (hard science fiction) so when finally the media produces a new relevant artefact, it is hard not to judge harshly.

[NovaSilisko]

Well, if you ask me, it's far more "bound to alienate" if the attitude toward outsiders or lack of understanding (or indeed anything that doesn't fit with the paradigm) is one of condescending dismissal and snark... The remark about Hermes, for instance, is exactly what I'm talking about.

[Kibble]

Hermes did exactly replicate Space Station's SAWs. But maybe my phrasing was a little unfair...

[KSK]

Meh - it's close enough for me. Check out this picture of the Dragon 2 pad abort test. That's powered by nitrogen tetroxide/monomethylhydrazine and burns with an orange flame. In the book, I think the MAV propellant was hydrazine - or at least Watney referred to it as hydrazine and I'll forgive a non-chemist for that slip of the tongue. So the billowing orange exhaust in the film looks OK - its less constrained than the SuperDraco exhaust because of reduced atmospheric pressure.

The Martian atmosphere is inaccurate - it was in the book as well - as acknowledged by the author, the storm that aborted Watney's mission was impossibly strong (assuming actual Martian atmospheric pressure) and was used for artistic license. So I reckon the film is just being nicely consistent in depicting the MAV taking off through an atmosphere that's thick enough to produce that storm but not as thick as Earth's atmosphere (natch)

As for the 'sticks' - I went to a lecture from one of the Curiosity surface mission planners. Really interesting talk, lots of cool pictures, including ones of a rock formation that looked like nothing so much as the edge of a Styrofoam sheet poking out from under the sand. I was tempted to ask whether that was just the stage crew being sloppy with the packaging when they filmed that part, but thought better of it.

So I can live with odd things on the Martian surface too.

Edited June 11, 2015 by KSK

[NovaSilisko]

So I can live with odd things on the Martian surface too.

Remember also there are still several months to go before release. They might not have finished the tedious post-process work of removing any scraps on the sets that might have gone unnoticed during filming.

[Coga19000]

I only have read the e-book demo thus far, but I love it. In fact, I lunged into it from page 1. Simply brilliant.

[tater]

Regarding the community, I do exactly the same thing for historical films. I even notice the livery on aircraft in Ww2 movies, for example (not just the types). Or weapons used (I was pleasently surprised in The Pacific to see Marines with Reising SMGs instead of just Tommy guns,motor example. I was one of those people who was really annoyed by the completely screwed up countdown in Apollo 13, I seriously thought about walking out right then, since it boded ill for accuracy.

[Coga19000]

You know, if I'm honest, this sort of attitude is why a lot of people find hard science fiction and its community rather alienating.

If I may be that harsh on the subject, what makes the hard science fiction community alienating for the other communities is that the hard science fiction community, because of a combination of knowing exactly what they want, being comprised of a small percentage of the world population, and having little material directed towards them, they do not feel as satisfied with someone throwing something not-too-dissimilar to their interests and waiting for their fans to throw money at them for nothing as do other communities.

[KerbMav]

.

Craft file and mod list when you are done pretty please with sugar on top!

[sp1989]

Adam Savage interviewing Andy Weir on The Talking Room http://youtu.be/5SemyzKgaUU

[Guest]

Quote from book:

“We’re going to have to literally blow up one of the doors,†Lewis explained. “I’d rather we kill the inner one. I want the outer door unharmed, so we keep our smooth aerobraking shape.â€Â

How this thing is supposed to aerobrake?

[KerbMav]

How this thing is supposed to aerobrake?

Carefully?

[Guest]

Carefully?

With solar arrays and radiators?