By Helen Maynard-Casely Picture yourself as an explorer in a distant and dangerous place. Something goes wrong, and you and your...
By Helen Maynard-Casely
Now you
are in the shoes of the protagonist of Ridley Scott’s latest flick, The
Martian. But rather than being abandoned on an ice floe or desert island, the
film’s protagonist, Mark Watney (Matt Damon), is marooned on the desolate
planet Mars, roughly 225 million kilometres from home.
This
rather changes the scale of the issue somewhat. Alongside the “normal” castaway
issues of food, freshwater, warmth and shelter, Watney also has to scavenge for
oxygen. Actually, he has to make his own water too.
Even
communications with home – should they be established – are delayed by the
finite speed of light. Although that is still preferable to the delay inherent
in a message via floating bottle.
Science
is the hero
This
might have set the scene for a run-of-the-mill Hollywood blockbuster, but this
film has been marketed a little differently. On the lead up to the premiere,
there was a close partnership between the NASA, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory
and the film-makers, all touting the scientific accuracy of the film.
Ridley
Scott himself has said that they have got the science “as accurate as they
could get it”. Unlike many directors in Hollywood, he is doggedly chasing the
science geek demographic.
Most of
the science in the film has been preserved from the book on which it is based,
written by a former computer programmer (now best-selling novelist) Andy Weir.
The book itself was notable for featuring science heavily, bringing it into the
foreground as a major plot device.The film is pretty faithful to Weir’s narrative. Many of the signature science-led plot points are there, a little tempered in places, but without the detail – such as the actual arithmetic performed by Watney – that gave the book its geeky charm.
A
topographic view of Valles Marineris, one of the largest rift systems in the
solar system. This image has been made from data collected by the Mars Orbiter
Laser Altimeter (MOLA) instrument which is flying on the Mars Global Surveyor. NASA
The
film is also the first I have seen to present the full splendour and variety of
the Martian landscape. From the first scene, where you see the vast Valles Marineris
cracking across the Martian dawn, there really is no exaggeration about what
Mars would be like on the surface.While many of the other planets in our solar system are relatively flat (the highest mountain on Venus is 6.4km and on Pluto is 3.5km) Mars boasts the tallest mountain in the solar system: Olympus Mons, which is around 22km high. Seen in 3-D, the film gives a sense of the dominating presence such an eminence would have over the planetary landscape.
Olympus Mons is three times higher than Mount
Everest and about the size of France.
NASA
This vertical exaggeration is increased by the range of craters that pucker the surface and the large discontinuity between the northern and southern hemispheres of Mars, perhaps a result of the lost ocean (which, according to new results may not be as lost as we thought!).
Roving
the Red Planet
But
this would be treacherous terrain to navigate and drive for thousands of
kilometres. Yet, to get to safety, Mark Watney must do just that. So here we
have to give the film some artistic license, as in reality we have found it
pretty hard to drive across the Red Planet.
So
far the record for distance on Mars is held by the Mars Exploration Rover,
Opportunity at now over a marathon 42km. But it took 11 years to do this. Not
to mention that the rover’s twin, Spirit, got stuck in sand after travelling
just shy of 8km.To compound this, NASA’s latest Mars rover, Curiosity, is in serious strife. Its wheels are wearing at a frightening rate. To alleviate this, the rover is occasionally driving backwards as well as keeping to softer sandier terrain. So there’s a number of tall engineering leaps that need to be made before we can bound across the Martian terrain.
In the book, Watney makes many more
modifications to his rover than are depicted in the film. 20th Century Fox
That said, having a human drive the vehicle is a distinct advantage, it took Opportunity quite a while to drive as far as the Apollo 17 crew in their Lunar Buggy.
Astronauts
Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt racked up nearly 36km over just a few days
on the lunar surface. Although helped by the lesser gravity, the ability for a
driver on the ground to choose terrain is invaluable when covering large
planetary distances.
Specialists
One
other difficulty I had with the film itself is that Mark Watney is presented as
having a single speciality: botany. Possible crew make up for a Mars mission
has been speculated upon widely. Most experts are in agreement that any member
of a Martian exploration team would have to have at least two specialities.In the book, Watney is firstly a mechanical engineer and then a botanist. It seemed rather strange to streamline him in the film (or maybe that bit is on the cutting room floor).
Being a botanist helps when you have to feed
yourself for months on end. 20th Century Fox
But, more accurately Watney, and his astronaut colleagues, are all portrayed as problem solvers. At one point the mission commander orders her team to “work the problem”, a phrase which could have been lifted straight from Chris Hadfield’s An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth.
This
rather typified the portrayal of Watney and co as realistic astronauts: people
able to keep their emotions in check when everything is going horribly wrong.
But, through the craft of Scott’s directing, you do see the human side to these
people put in seemingly unimaginable situations.
Duct
tape is magical and should be worshiped
Also,
how useful is duct tape?! Every experimental scientist will tell you it is an
essential part of their kit. Does this really apply on Mars?
There’s
quite a precedent here, as it would seem that duct tape was pretty useful to
the Apollo astronauts where, among other things, it was part of the “modification”
needed to keep the Apollo 13 crew alive. But it’s only really effective if you
can keep it clean of dust, that would be a bit of a problem on Mars.
The
Martian is a great film, and strikes a great balance between keeping with the
science as we currently know it and speculation with a little artistic license.
Fundamentally,
what I really love about both the book and the film are how they realistically
showed space exploration to be a team endeavor. It’s not all about the
astronauts on the ground, but also the vast and diverse teams supporting them
there.
Perhaps
someone watching this film will be one of the first to step foot on Mars, or
help get them there.
This review has been first published at The Conversation Australia on September 30, 2015
About The Author:
Helen
Maynard-Casely is an instrument scientist for the WOMBAT (high intensity powder
diffraction) instrument at the Bragg Institute, of Australian Nuclear Science
and Technology Organisation. She assists and collaborates with visiting scientists,
works with the sample environment team in commissioning new equipment for
WOMBAT and is co-responsible for improving and expanding the capabilities of
the instrument.
