The Martian Page #2

Tuesday, Wednesday, Happy Days

Thursday, Friday, Happy Days

The weekend comes, my cycle hums

Ready to race to you

The problem is water.

I have created

126 square meters of soil.

But every cubic meter of soil requires

40 liters of water to be farmable.

So I gotta make a lot more water.

Good thing is, I know the recipe.

You take hydrogen,

you add oxygen, you burn.

Now, I have hundreds of liters

of unused hydrazine at the MDV.

If I run the hydrazine over an iridium catalyst,

it'll separate into N2 and H2.

And then if I just direct the hydrogen

into a small area...

and burn it.

Luckily, in the history of humanity...

nothing bad has ever happened

from lighting hydrogen on fire.

NASA hates fire.

Because of the whole "fire makes

everybody die in space" thing.

So, everything they sent us up here with

is flame-retardant...

with the notable exception of...

Martinez's personal items.

I am sorry, Martinez.

But if you didn't want me to

go through your stuff...

you shouldn't have left me for dead

on a desolate planet.

By the way, I'm figuring you're gonna be

fine with this, given my present situation.

What's everybody doing?

Taking a holiday from being cool?

Counting on you.

So, yeah, I blew myself up.

Best guess...

I forgot to

account for the excess oxygen...

that I've been exhaling

when I did my calculations.

Because I'm stupid.

Yeah, I'm gonna get back to work here...

just as soon as my ears stop ringing.

Interesting side note, this is actually

how the Jet Propulsion Lab was founded.

Five guys at Caltech were trying

to make rocket fuel...

and they nearly burned down their dorm.

And rather than expel them...

they banished them to a nearby farm,

told them to keep working.

And now we have a space program.

Okay.

Hey, there.

The nation was blessed to have Mark

serving in our space program.

While his loss will be deeply felt...

the men and women of NASA

will soldier forth...

onward and upward in the mission

of their agency.

By doing so, they honor the legacy

Mark's leaving behind...

and they ensure his sacrifice

will not be in vain.

I have the honor of speaking not only

for the men and women of NASA...

but for people all over the world...

I thought you gave a lovely speech,

by the way.

I need you to authorize

my satellite time.

It's not gonna happen.

We're funded for five Ares missions.

I think I can get Congress

to authorize a sixth.

-No.

-Ares 3 evac'd after 18 sols.

There's half a mission worth

of supplies up there.

I can sell it at a fraction of the cost

of a normal mission...

and all I have to know is

what's left of our assets.

You're not the only one

who needs satellite time.

We've got the Ares 4 supply missions

coming up.

We should be focusing on

the Schiaparelli Crater.

Okay, we got 12 satellites up there.

Surely we can spare a few hours...

It's not about

the satellite time, Vince.

We're a public domain organization.

-We need to be transparent on this.

-Okay.

The second we point

the satellites at the Hab...

I broadcast pictures of Mark Watney's

dead body to the world.

You're afraid of a PR problem?

Of course I'm afraid of a PR problem.

Another mission?

Congress won't reimburse us

for a paper clip...

if I put a dead astronaut on the

front page of The Washington Post.

He's not going anywhere, Teddy.

I mean, he's not...

He's not gonna decompose, you know.

He's gonna be up there forever.

Meteorology estimates that

he'll be covered in sand...

from normal weather activity

within a year.

We can't wait a year.

We got work to do.

Ares 5 won't even launch for five years.

We have plenty of time.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay, consider this.

Right now, the world's on our side.

Sympathy for the Watney family.

Ares 6 could bring his body home.

Now, we don't say that's

the purpose of the mission...

but we make it clear that

that would be a part of it.

We frame it that way.

More support from Congress.

But not if we wait a year.

We wait a year, nobody gives a sh*t.

Vincent Kapoor?

6-2.

7-6-2.

Acidalia Planitia.

What?

Hi. Security?

This is Mindy Park in SatCon.

I need the emergency contact

for Vincent Kapoor.

Yes, him.

Yes, it's an emergency!

How sure?

100%.

You've got to be shitting me.

Prove it to me.

For a start...

the solar panels have been cleaned.

They could have been cleaned by wind.

Back it up. Look at Rover 2.

According to the logs, Commander Lewis

took it out on Sol 17...

plugged it into the Hab to recharge.

It's been moved.

She could have forgotten

to log the move.

No, not likely.

Why don't we just ask Lewis?

Let's get on CAPCOM

and ask her directly right now.

No. No.

If Watney is really alive,

we don't want the Ares 3 crew to know.

How can you not tell them?

They have another 10 months

on their trip home.

Space travel is dangerous.

They need to be alert and undistracted.

But they already think he's dead.

And they'd be devastated to find out

they left him there alive.

I'm sorry,

but you have not thought this through.

What are we gonna say?

"Dear America...

"remember that astronaut

we killed and had a really nice funeral for?

"Turns out he's alive and we left him

on Mars. Our bad.

"Sincerely, NASA."

Do you realize the shitstorm

that is about to hit us?

How are we going to handle the public?

Legally, we have 24 hours

to release these pictures.

We release a statement with them.

We don't want people

working it out on their own.

Yes, sir.

But if my math is right, he's going to starve

to death long before we can help him.

Can you imagine

what he's going through up there?

He's 50 million miles away from home.

He thinks he's totally alone.

He thinks we gave up on him.

What does that do

to a man, psychologically?

What the hell is he thinking right now?

I'm definitely gonna die up here...

if I have to listen to any more

god-awful disco music.

My God, Commander Lewis, couldn't you

have packed anything from this century?

Turn the beat around

No, I am not gonna "turn the beat around."

I refuse to.

Mr. Sanders? Mr. Sanders?

What attempts have been made

to make contact with Mark Watney?

We're working on it.

Does he have enough supplies to survive?

We'll be looking into that.

What does this say about the agency?

Are you gonna resign?

No.

Director Sanders!

It's time to start thinking long term.

The next NASA mission is Ares 4...

and it's supposed to land

at Schiaparelli Crater...

3,200 kilometers away.

3,200 kilometers.

In four years, when the next Ares crew arrives,

I'll have to be there.

Which means I have to get to the crater.

Okay, so here's the rub.

I've got one working Rover designed

to go a max distance of 35 kilometers...

before the battery

has to be recharged at the Hab.

That's Problem A.

Problem B is this journey's gonna

take me roughly 50 days to complete.

So I gotta live for 50 days...

inside a Rover with marginal

life support the size of a small van.

So, in the face of overwhelming odds,

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes