Before all else, when discussing an item’s value as revealed by the measures taken to preserve such an item, a description of the methods of preservation seems necessary. The first part of this discussion belongs to Mark Watney, the apparently dead man left with only his mind and the supplies of an abandoned space expedition to endure the unfavorable living conditions on Mars. Both Watney and his peers went to great lengths to bring the isolated astronaut back to Earth. For watney, the majority of his duties concerned his livelihood on Mars. To survive, Watney initially increased his food supply “by farming in [his] own (expletive)” (The Martian). Later, following a pressurization malfunction which decimated his crops, Watney spread out his
