Promo for Mars
Future accounts of a manned space mission to Mars may refer to The Martian as the beginning step toward funding and launching such a mission. Sure, George W. Bush may have championed space exploration (though the sticker shock in Recession America caused us all to blanch), and Sputnik may have scared Americans into supporting Kennedy’s space program. But it took Matt Damon to launch us to Mars.
Much of what is fascinating about The Martian is not what happens in the film but the conversations that happen outside it. NASA was, to say the least, enthusiastic in its support. The Johnson Space Center depicted in the film is not the one you can visit in Houston; it’s a futuristic one with all the computer gadgetry that the space agency hopes to have. In perfect coordination with Hollywood, NASA announced the day before the film’s release that it has conclusive evidence of liquid water on the surface of Mars. The Martian is a really, really good commercial for a future budgetary request.
By promoting the value of space exploration, the film also promotes the value of science. The book by Andy Weir on which the film is based is often described as little more than a series of scientific talking points. How will astronaut Mark Watney grow food? How will he light a fire in a setting scientifically engineered to be fireproof? How will he get enough water to grow crops? How will he make a rover designed to go no more than 35 kilometers travel more than 3,000 miles? In the film each problem becomes interesting, and each is solved with a combination of knowledge, ingenuity, and organic processes. Watney (Damon) swears at one point, “I’m going to science the hell out of this thing,” and you want to cheer.
