Within the novel The Martian by Andy Weir, the author explores a multitude of themes. However, the main theme lies within Mark Watney, a botanist and mechanical engineer who was left behind on Mars during an intense storm. Weir uses Watney’s character within the novel to show that success will come after hard work. In this scenario, success equates to survival for Watney, therefore his goal is to escape the barren planet of Mars. There were many steps in which Watney took to succeed, each were executed properly whilst exhibiting qualities of determination and perseverance towards success. For Watney, step one was to figure out a way to extend his food supply until rescue. Next, Watney had to find a way to create enough water to survive on Mars
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To begin with Watney had three hundred days worth of food, however he figured that with rationing, this three hundred will turn into four hundred days. Since humans would not be on the planet again for another four years, Watney began to develop a plan to create enough food to last him until the next manned mission to Mars, Ares 4. With his botanist background, Watney decided that he would attempt to grow potatoes that NASA sent on the trip. Step one for Watney was to plan out a way in which he could survive off of potatoes in the first place, “Within a week, the Martian soil will be ready for plants to germinate in. But I won’t plant yet. I’ll bring in more lifeless soil from outside and spread some of the live soil over it.” (Weir 14). With this plan, Watney would be using his own human waste to act as a fertilizer for the soil so that the potatoes would grow. This plan shows the hard work in which Watney dedicated to make sure he would have enough food to survive on while trapped on the red planet. Although his plan was completed, it was time for him to put it in motion. Step two was to move enough Martian soil from the outside into the Hab. This proved to be difficult however, since there was only a set amount of dirt that could be transported at once due to the airlock connecting the Hab to the outside of the planet, “I spent twelve hours today on EVAs to bring …show more content…
As Watney did when he created his food supply, he started by creating a plan, “I have an idiotically dangerous plan for getting the water I need. And boy do I mean dangerous.” (Weir 24). Basically, Watney outlines his plan based upon the fact that to create water, it takes oxygen and hydrogen burning together. However, these raw elements are not laying around for Watney to use, therefore he comes up with a way to acquire the two gasses. First, Watney reasoned that that the MAV fuel plant was still left behind despite the launch of the spacecraft when his team left. This meant that there was an adequate amount of carbon dioxide remaining to transfer through the oxygenator to make enough oxygen for his goal of 250 liters of water. Next, Watney figured that he could obtain enough hydrogen by liberating the MDV vehicles fuel supply. This was done through separating the fuel into hydrogen and nitrogen. After his plan was developed on obtaining enough of each gas, he planned to burn them together, dangerously, inside of the Hab. When Watney began creating water inside of the Hab everything was working smoothly, although he ran the risk of exploding due to the nature of the flammability of the hydrogen, “One minute I was happily burning hydrogen; the next I was on the other side of the Hab, and a lot of stuff knocked over.” (Weir 43). Despite
To begin with Watney had three hundred days worth of food, however he figured that with rationing, this three hundred will turn into four hundred days. Since humans would not be on the planet again for another four years, Watney began to develop a plan to create enough food to last him until the next manned mission to Mars, Ares 4. With his botanist background, Watney decided that he would attempt to grow potatoes that NASA sent on the trip. Step one for Watney was to plan out a way in which he could survive off of potatoes in the first place, “Within a week, the Martian soil will be ready for plants to germinate in. But I won’t plant yet. I’ll bring in more lifeless soil from outside and spread some of the live soil over it.” (Weir 14). With this plan, Watney would be using his own human waste to act as a fertilizer for the soil so that the potatoes would grow. This plan shows the hard work in which Watney dedicated to make sure he would have enough food to survive on while trapped on the red planet. Although his plan was completed, it was time for him to put it in motion. Step two was to move enough Martian soil from the outside into the Hab. This proved to be difficult however, since there was only a set amount of dirt that could be transported at once due to the airlock connecting the Hab to the outside of the planet, “I spent twelve hours today on EVAs to bring …show more content…
As Watney did when he created his food supply, he started by creating a plan, “I have an idiotically dangerous plan for getting the water I need. And boy do I mean dangerous.” (Weir 24). Basically, Watney outlines his plan based upon the fact that to create water, it takes oxygen and hydrogen burning together. However, these raw elements are not laying around for Watney to use, therefore he comes up with a way to acquire the two gasses. First, Watney reasoned that that the MAV fuel plant was still left behind despite the launch of the spacecraft when his team left. This meant that there was an adequate amount of carbon dioxide remaining to transfer through the oxygenator to make enough oxygen for his goal of 250 liters of water. Next, Watney figured that he could obtain enough hydrogen by liberating the MDV vehicles fuel supply. This was done through separating the fuel into hydrogen and nitrogen. After his plan was developed on obtaining enough of each gas, he planned to burn them together, dangerously, inside of the Hab. When Watney began creating water inside of the Hab everything was working smoothly, although he ran the risk of exploding due to the nature of the flammability of the hydrogen, “One minute I was happily burning hydrogen; the next I was on the other side of the Hab, and a lot of stuff knocked over.” (Weir 43). Despite