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The Martian part 1 - Unknown Artist
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Martian review part 2 - Unknown Artist
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The Martian part 3 - Unknown Artist
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The Martian; Scientific review podcast

 

Part 1: Written by Rebecka Bergström

 

 

In this podcast we discussed the scientific accuracy of the sci-fi movie The Martian by Riddley Scott. In the movie the Austonomer Mark Watney gets stranded on Mars with too little equipment and food after a fatal storm that forced his crew to leave him behind. Watney has to survive until the crew can come back and pick him up by growing his own food and living on a strict diet. The movie is based on a novel written by Andy Weir in 2011.

In the podcast we discuss whether the movie is scientifically correct or not by investigating whether it obeys the laws of physics and human anatomy, if it portrays the workings of NASA and their space equipment correctly and whether or not the planet Mars is portrayed in a correct way.  We also discuss the possibility of a NASA-lead Mars mission in the near future.

 

Most astronauts and physicists agree that the movie is relatively scientifically correct. Apart from a few scientific flaws, that are probably there mainly to add a drama to the movie, the movie portrays how an actual mission to Mars could look like. The instruments of NASA and its inner workings are mostly correct. Below are two lists of the main flaws and good points of the movie.

 

Things that are scientific correct/ positive with The Martian

 

  • Botany: It would be scientifically possible to grow corps on Mars as Mark Watney does in the movie. However, it would be much simpler and human waste as a fertilizer would probably not be needed.

  • Time Frame: In the movie it takes approximately 8 months to get to Mars, the same as it would with current technology.

  • Orbital dynamics: Portrayed as it would be in real life on several occasions

  • Communication with earth: After Watneys communication system breaks down, he finds the mars rover and regenerates it to be able to contact the earth, and this would be possible in real life.

  • The habitat: The facility Mark Watney and his crew operates in on Mars is very similar to that future astronauts may use.

  • Climate on Mars: Portayed in an accurate way except for a few flaws

 

Things that are scientifically incorrect/ negative with The Martian

 

  • The dust storm on Mars: The dust storm on Mars, which take place in the beginning of the movie, would never occur. It was probably put in the movie because there needed to be something that forced the crew to abandon Watney.

  • Radiation: Watney would have been exposed to enormous amounts of solar energy particlas and galactic cosmic rays. Just a 180 day trip to Mars would expose an astronaut to 15 times the annual dosage of a worker in a nuclear power plant. Since the movie is a futuristic sci-fi movie, NASA could have shielded the equipment used from these cosmic rays, but it is never mentioned in the movie.

  • Gravity on Mars: Would be much lower than that on earth and the astronauts would not have such a problem to move around.

  • Take off from Mars: Today, this is the biggest problem NASA faces and they have no idea currently how they would launch a rocket from Mars.

 

 

Furthermore the podcast discuss NASA’s plan of executing a mission to Mars in the near future. NASA plans to send astronauts to Mars by 2030 but will before that executes deep space testing on a near earth asteroid in 2020. The idea is that sending astronauts to this asteroid will help NASA test human spaceflight beyond low-Earth orbit. NASA has also been studying Mars for nearly 20 years and 1 space rover has already been sent to the planet. It is now out of function but will be joined by another rover in 2020.

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part 2: Written by Azreen Salahuddin

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A continuation of the first part of the podcast in which we talk about the uses of botany in the movie and the development of space farming on board of the International Space station.  The podcast continues by going more in depth on the use of science in the movie and its legitimacy, including the portrayal of mars and the effects of radiation.

Key topics:

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  • In the movie, the character Watney performs a genius act by turning his habitat into a self-sustaining farm by planting potato eyes in fertilizer containing human waste and water extracted out of rocket fuel.

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  • In present day the international space station uses a production system called “Veggie”  to grow plants in small bags, pillows and media containing surfaces with the help of red, blue and green lights. Back in 2014, this system was used by astronauts to grow red romaine lettuce, and the crop was just recently sampled for the first time. According NASA this is a huge step in space farming and they are looking into expanding the type of crops that can be grown in order for future astronauts to grow their own food on Mars.

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  • Portrayal of Mars in the movie is accurate to an extent, Mars does have a very thin atmosphere, with only 1% of the density of the Earth’s, which does not allow for huge tornadoes to take place, but tornadoes in the form of dust devils do occur, almost reaching up to a mile tall, but nowhere near as dramatic as seen in the movie. What is complete fiction in the movie is the dust storm taking place at the beginning, with the planets density being that low, the storm would feel like paper balls hitting us if it were to take place.

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  • The gravity portrayed in the movie seems to have nothing to do with reality. The actual gravity of mars is said to be a third of the gravity of earth. Good for explorers and astronauts since the spacesuit they’d be wearing wouldn’t feel as heavy, however in the movie this apparent gravity didn’t apply to the astronauts on mars as they seem to be straining themselves even when climbing ladders and walking around.

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  • The character Watney is exposed to the radiation on Mars for more than 500 sols, which are Martian days, but does not have any side effects due to it even after returning to earth. He continuously wanders around mars in nothing but his spacesuit, unprotected against solar energy particles (high energy particles from the sun) and galactic cosmic rays (HZE ions, very high energy radiation). There is no part in the movie that explains if the spacesuit is somehow developed to endure this radiation.

 

  • The most scientifically correct part of the movie is said to be the orbital dynamics. The movie is acclaimed for its realistic portrayal of time and space between earth and mars as well as the trips in between.

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Part 3: Written by Monika Hrywniak

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A follow up to the first two parts of the podcast where we talk about the movie “The Martian”.

Earlier in part 1 and 2 we discussed the portrayal of science in the movie, and if some selected facts and situations in the movie were presented veridically. In part 3, we follow up on how the movie can be related to the real world, and how far we have come along with the plans for the missions to Mars.

 

Key points:

 

  • Nasa plans on sending astronauts to Mars by 2030.

 

  • In present day astronauts are working at the international space station to test new technologies and communications that could potentially be used in deep space exploration.

 

  • The Asteroid Robotic Redirect Mission (ARRM) will collect a multi-ton boulder from a near-Earth asteroids and attempt to redirect it into an orbit around the moon, for astronauts to visit, explore, and collect samples from in the 2020’s.

 

  • In ARRM NASA will test new systems, such as Solar Electric Propulsion (SEP). The system consist of large, flexible, radiation-resistant solar arrays that convert sunlight energy into electrical power fed to new fuel-efficient thrusters. This system will use 10 times as little propellant as a conventional chemical system and shows great potential for deep space travel.

 

  • The Mars 2020 rover is based on the design of the current Mars rover Curiosity, only with improved technologiy and equipped with 7 carefully selected instruments. The instruments installed are of international cooperation, and the aim of the 2020 rover will be to asses the potential habitability and resources of the environment and search for signs of past Martian life.

 

 

Sources & Further reading

 

Brown, Dwayne. Nasa confirms evidence that liquid water flows on today’s Mars.
http://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-confirms-evidence-that-liquid-water-flows-on-today-s-mars/ Published: September 28, 2015. Accessed: May 27, 2016

 

Daines, Gary. NASA's Journey to Mars. http://www.nasa.gov/content/nasas-journey-to-mars Published: December 1, 2014. Accessed: May 27, 2016.

 

Dickerson, Kelly. What real scientists and astronauts think of 'The Martian' .
[http://www.techinsider.io/the-martian-reviewed-by-astronauts-scientists-2015-9. Published:October 2, 2015. Accessed: May 27, 2016.

 

Frazier, Sarah. Real Martians: How to protect astronauts from space radiation on mars http://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/real-martians-how-to-protect-astronauts-from-space-radiation-on-mars. Published September 30, 2015. Accessed: May 27, 2016.

 

Herridge, Linda. Veggie Will Expand Fresh Food Production on Space Station.
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/news/veggie. Published April 10, 2014. Last Updated: December 3, 2015. Accessed: May 27, 2016.


NASA, Human exploration, http://mars.nasa.gov/programmissions/science/goal4/, n.d, Accessed: 2016-02-27

 

O’Callaghan, Jonathan. How accurate is The Martian: 9 things the movie got right and wrong. http://www.iflscience.com/space/how-accurate-martian-9-things-movie-got-right-and-wrongPublished: September 28, 2015. Accessed: May 24, 2016.

 

Zubrin, Robert. How scientifically accurate is The Martian?
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/oct/06/how-scientifically-accurate-is-the-martian. Published: October 6, 2015. Accessed: May 24, 2016.

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