How did Mark Watney survive on Mars

Q: How many days did Mark Watney survive on Mars?

In The Martian, astronaut Mark Watney gets stranded on Mars. Hes stuck there for a total of 549 Martian days, which, since days on Mars are about 40 minutes longer than days on Earth, scientists refer to them as sols. 549 sols is a pretty long time.

Q: How did Watney get enough oxygen?

On Mars, Watney cant just step outside for a breath of fresh air To survive, he has to carry his own supply of oxygen everywhere he goes. But first he has to make it. In his Hab he uses the oxygenator,” a system that generates oxygen using the carbon dioxide from the MAV (Mars Ascent Vehicle) fuel generator.

In the novel, �The Martian� by Andy Weir the main character Mark Watney ends up being stuck on Mars alone. Him and his team were originally there together but in efforts to escape a storm they needed to leave Mars. Mark tripped and fell and didn�t get up for a while on the way back to the rocket. The team thought he was dead, so they left him. Mark ended up not being dead and now he is stuck on Mars alone. Watney now needs to find a way to survive until he gets ahold of NASA to come up with a plan to rescue him. Throughout the novel Watney is challenged with many different problems that he needs to overcome in order to survive. In this research project we will explore the feasibility of Watney�s problem-solving and diet and investigate to find out if it could have been done in the real world today.

Table of Contents Show

Problem Solving
Image References
How many days did Mark Watney survive on Mars?
How did NASA realize that Watney was still alive?
How did Watney get enough oxygen?
How did Mark Watney survive on potatoes?

Problem Solving

In the novel, Mark Watney is faced with many problems he must overcome in order to survive. He comes up with many different solutions to each problem and he ends up being successful in solving the problem. We will be identifying two of Watney�s problems that he overcame, these are not the only problems he encountered.

One of the most difficult problems that Mark is faced with is letting it be known that he is not dead to NASA. In the novel, NASA did not want to look at the site that Watney was located because they did not want the satellite to pick up an image of Watney�s corpse. If that image was captured, it would be available to the public and that would not make a great look for NASA. Since Watney was still alive, he was using the resources left over at the site such as the HAB which was the living quarters for the astronauts and the rovers. NASA was able to discover that the solar cells on top of the HAB were cleaned off after the storm and the rovers have been moved from their original spots. NASA was able to find out Mark was alive by comparing satellite pictures. In present day NASA has a special team that sole purpose is researching and collecting data from Mars. This team is called the �Mars Exploration Program� and their mission statement is as follows �The goal of the Mars Exploration Program is to explore Mars and to provide a continuous flow of scientific information and discovery through a carefully selected series of robotic orbiters, landers and mobile laboratories interconnected by a high-bandwidth Mars/Earth communications network.� This shows how this team is constantly looking over and monitoring mars, which makes the discovery of the different satellite pictures feasible because they are teams constantly surveying Mars.

Another problem that Mark is faced with is traveling to the site he will be rescued from with no navigational equipment. This journey required Mark to travel over 3000 km on the rover. In the novel, he plans his path along an ancient river and then wings the rest of it, although he miscalculates his route and endures a dust storm along the way he is still able to reach the site. In the real world there are many things that make research and exploration of Mars difficult for NASA. According to NASA �Engineers cannot physically see the spacecraft with the naked eye or a telescope, and they rely on radio "tracking" to know where the spacecraft are at any given time.� This shows how NASA relies solely on radio navigation and satellites to determine position of things they send out to Mars. With all the technology that is available here on Earth navigation in and around Mars is a complicated process. This makes Watney�s journey not feasible because he had no navigational equipment available and encountered a dust storm along the way which would make it near impossible to complete the journey without the help of NASA or a GPS tracker.

Diet

In the novel, Mark did not have much food available for him, so he needed to come up with a way to harvest or grow food. He ended up making potatoes and living off that. We will now be exploring if growing potatoes is something that is possible to do on Mars, and if Watney could have really survived from it. Watney was successful in making potatoes grow on Mars. He created water by extracting the hydrogen in the chemical hydrazine which is in rocket fuel. Gary Jordon who a representative of NASA created a short response to the question if plants can actually grow on Mars. He stated �In reality, the soil on Mars actually does have the nutrients plants would need to survive on Mars! There may not be the right amount of nutrients depending on where astronauts land on the Red Planet, so fertilizers may need to be added to the soil.� This shows that there is a reality for plants being able to grow and thrive on Mars. We will now take a look on the nutrient facts of potatoes and see if Watney could survive on them. On average, the male requires around 2,500 calories in order to maintain health, and weight. Christopher Wanjek created an article illustrating Chris Voigt who ate nothing but potatoes for a full month. The article included Voigt stating, "I want to show the world that the potato is so healthy that you could live off them alone for an extended period of time without any negative impact to your health.� This shows that living off of a potato is a feasible thing and has actually been completed in the real world.

Conclusion

In the novel, Watney is stuck on Mars and needs to overcome many challenges in order for him to survive and make it back to Earth. Although, not all of the things that Watney was able to accomplish were feasible most of them were. The only problem that he faced that was not feasible was the navigation over 3000 km to the rescue site. The other challenges that were discussed like finding out he was alive, growing and living off of potatoes are feasible and could happen in real life. The novel came up with many realistic problems and ideas behind them.

References

[1] Gunnars, K. (2018, July 6). How Many Calories Should You Eat Per Day to Lose Weight? Retrieved from https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/how-many-calories-per-day\

[2] Jordan, G. (2015, October 05). Can Plants Grow with Mars Soil? Retrieved from https://www.nasa.gov/feature/can-plants-grow-with-mars-soil

[3] NASA's Mars Exploration Program. (2014, June 03). Retrieved from https://mars.nasa.gov/#red_planet/2

[4] Navigation - Mars Science Laboratory. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://mars.nasa.gov/msl/mission/communicationwithearth/navigation/

[5] Wanjek, C. (2010, October 20). Man Eating Nothing But Potatoes for 2 Months. Retrieved from https://www.livescience.com/10163-man-eating-potatoes-2-months.html

[6] Weir, A. (2015). The Martian: A novel (Book Club in a Bag). New York: Broadway Books.

Image References

[1] Retrieved from https://www.google.com/search?q=the+martian&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS732US732&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjJgrmXhonfAhUKKa0KHSGKDEAQ_AUIECgD&biw=1366&bih=626#imgrc=2yf2LCbVGxURyM:

[2] Retrieved from https://www.google.com/search?q=the+martian&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS732US732&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjJgrmXhonfAhUKKa0KHSGKDEAQ_AUIECgD&biw=1366&bih=626#imgrc=ab-xb4gswHSRiM:

How many days did Mark Watney survive on Mars?

In "The Martian," astronaut Mark Watney gets stranded on Mars. He's stuck there for a total of 549 Martian days, which, since days on Mars are about 40 minutes longer than days on Earth, scientists refer to them as "sols." 549 sols is a pretty long time.

How did NASA realize that Watney was still alive?

First Plot Point: Alone on Mars and thought by dead by his crew and NASA, Watney decides he won't die on the desolate planet. On Earth, Vincent Kapoor, mission director for NASA, directs satellites at the incident site and determines Watney is still alive—but there's no way to communicate with him.

How did Watney get enough oxygen?

On Mars, Watney can't just step outside for a breath of fresh air To survive, he has to carry his own supply of oxygen everywhere he goes. But first he has to make it. In his Hab he uses the “oxygenator,” a system that generates oxygen using the carbon dioxide from the MAV (Mars Ascent Vehicle) fuel generator.

How did Mark Watney survive on potatoes?

Because the crew had packed some potatoes for a Thanksgiving celebration, Watney creates a lab "garden" and is able to survive off the potatoes -- after calculating how many calories he would need to survive until a rescue mission could arrive.