The Martian by Andy Weir
Astronaut Mark Watney was one of the first persons to set foot on Mars six days ago.
He’s now certain he’ll be the first person to pass away there.
Mark finds himself stranded and entirely alone after a dust storm nearly kills him and causes his crew to flee while believing he is dead. He has no way to even signal Earth that he is alive, and even if he did, his supplies would be depleted long before a rescue could reach.
He probably won’t have enough time, though, to starve to death. It’s much more likely that the broken equipment, the harsh environment, or a simple “human mistake” will kill him first.
However, Mark isn’t quite prepared to give up. He persistently overcomes one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after another by using his inventiveness, engineering expertise, and relentless, determined refusal to give up. Will his ingenuity be sufficient to defeat the insurmountable obstacles against him?
The Martian by Andy Weir
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They anticipate returning home after roughly 30 days when the six astronauts from the Ares 3 mission touch down on Acidalia Planitia, a flat region on Mars. The operation is then abandoned after one week due to disarray brought on by a severe storm that comes in. The team is attempting to reach the Mars Ascent Vehicle when astronaut Mark Watney, a mechanical engineer and botanist, is hurt during the storm. All indications point to his death as he lies there in the red dust. He soon regains consciousness only to discover that he is the only person in the entire world and that he is alone. The thought of this should have been terrifying, but Mark Watney is an incredibly resourceful survivor who, in spite of everything, manages to keep a somewhat off-kilter sense of humour throughout his ordeal. While Mindy Park from SatCon on Earth sees that a satellite is picking up some fairly weird events happening on Mars, the other Ares 3 crew members are on their way to Earth and grieving his passing.
The sixth member of the six-person crew on the third manned expedition to Mars, which is a thirty-day journey, is a botanist-turned-astronaut named Mark Watney. A rare event has left him stuck on Mars, despite the expedition having to be abandoned on day 6 due to a fierce Martian sandstorm. It will require all of Watney’s expertise and creativity to survive on Mars after he was supposed to leave because he is alone and far from safety.
Even though there is a lot of science, Weir manages to keep it intriguing without detracting from the plot. He investigates Watney’s temperaments, his exploration of the neighbourhood and beyond, his “leisure time,” and his frantic efforts to survive. Watney’s morbid humour and resistance to confronting the truth.
