The Martian Design Process
Sol 6 is the most daunting day in Mark Watney's journey on planet Mars. Watney shows an excellent use of the Design Process in twelve “quick” steps. The first step being the easiest, defining the problem. Watney has found a problem--he is stranded alone on a planet millions of miles away from home. In addition to this, his recurring issue is Watney needs to figure out a food source. Mark needs to figure out how to create an edible life source on a planet with no life!
The second process Watney will go through is the brainstorming process. He was concerned with calculating the possible dates of a rescue, ways to maintain his water and air supply and to produce enough food/calories to keep himself alive. As Watney …show more content…
Unfortunately, the estimated amount of calories required was too high. Even though Watney didn’t have enough food, his body size allowed him to starve himself to gain more Sols to survive. His calculations using a couple of math problems turned out to be, in his own words, “{potatoes} have a reasonable caloric content (770 calories per kilogram).” (page 17) Watney then goes on to figure out how to get the amount of water he needs available for intake while growing his potatoes. He states, “ I’ll need 368 liters of water to fill it.” (page 16) Watney has now figured out the amount he needs to have for the upcoming events before his return to Earth.
Watney was able to identify criteria and specify constraints by stating, “The potatoes will last me 76 days.” (page17) Although he does eventually extend the possible outcome to 90 days. Watney knows that this will definitely not enable him to survive the amount of time he needs in order to live. This is the point where he realizes he needs to come in contact with his NASA supporters back at home. The overarching limitation is Watney can only use what he has been left with on Mars. During a cumbersome amount of time, Watney’s main goal was to tell his crew members and NASA that he was still …show more content…
Watney has found a way for himself to get home. This process will take time and dedication to get back to Earth. He needs his rover to get to the site where Hermes 4 will go to on their mission. His original approach was to prepare his return to the site by recharging the solar cells on the land rover. Watney then decides to test out the battery of the vehicle the next day. The results turned out to be a failure, Watney found out that he had a thermodynamics problem with keeping the heat inside of his rover. What Watney was planning to do with this vehicle was to drive it to the Ares 4 landing site.
Watney’s design proposal was to calculate the amount of power he needed for the rover to get to the Ares 4 landing site. He calculated that he needed “... 35 days of travel.” (page 67) This amount of travel time would also need to involve charging time and time sleeping. Another factor in this procedure was finding out the amount of space he needed in his rover for food and other items. Finally, at the end of this process Watney was heading towards the Ares 4 with all of the annoying kinks out of the way. What Watney needed was to find a way to charge the power cells for the rover
Sol 6 is the most daunting day in Mark Watney's journey on planet Mars. Watney shows an excellent use of the Design Process in twelve “quick” steps. The first step being the easiest, defining the problem. Watney has found a problem--he is stranded alone on a planet millions of miles away from home. In addition to this, his recurring issue is Watney needs to figure out a food source. Mark needs to figure out how to create an edible life source on a planet with no life!
The second process Watney will go through is the brainstorming process. He was concerned with calculating the possible dates of a rescue, ways to maintain his water and air supply and to produce enough food/calories to keep himself alive. As Watney …show more content…
Unfortunately, the estimated amount of calories required was too high. Even though Watney didn’t have enough food, his body size allowed him to starve himself to gain more Sols to survive. His calculations using a couple of math problems turned out to be, in his own words, “{potatoes} have a reasonable caloric content (770 calories per kilogram).” (page 17) Watney then goes on to figure out how to get the amount of water he needs available for intake while growing his potatoes. He states, “ I’ll need 368 liters of water to fill it.” (page 16) Watney has now figured out the amount he needs to have for the upcoming events before his return to Earth.
Watney was able to identify criteria and specify constraints by stating, “The potatoes will last me 76 days.” (page17) Although he does eventually extend the possible outcome to 90 days. Watney knows that this will definitely not enable him to survive the amount of time he needs in order to live. This is the point where he realizes he needs to come in contact with his NASA supporters back at home. The overarching limitation is Watney can only use what he has been left with on Mars. During a cumbersome amount of time, Watney’s main goal was to tell his crew members and NASA that he was still …show more content…
Watney has found a way for himself to get home. This process will take time and dedication to get back to Earth. He needs his rover to get to the site where Hermes 4 will go to on their mission. His original approach was to prepare his return to the site by recharging the solar cells on the land rover. Watney then decides to test out the battery of the vehicle the next day. The results turned out to be a failure, Watney found out that he had a thermodynamics problem with keeping the heat inside of his rover. What Watney was planning to do with this vehicle was to drive it to the Ares 4 landing site.
Watney’s design proposal was to calculate the amount of power he needed for the rover to get to the Ares 4 landing site. He calculated that he needed “... 35 days of travel.” (page 67) This amount of travel time would also need to involve charging time and time sleeping. Another factor in this procedure was finding out the amount of space he needed in his rover for food and other items. Finally, at the end of this process Watney was heading towards the Ares 4 with all of the annoying kinks out of the way. What Watney needed was to find a way to charge the power cells for the rover