Author Topic: The Martian (Read 9591 times)

roo_ster · « **on:** October 03, 2015, 12:34:23 AM »

Terrific movie. My son wants to read the book.

griz · « **Reply #1 on:** October 03, 2015, 07:18:37 AM »

Good book, I haven't seen the movie yet but will soon.

brimic · « **Reply #2 on:** October 03, 2015, 09:32:13 AM »

Quote from: roo_ster on October 03, 2015, 12:34:23 AM

Terrific movie. My son wants to read the book.

i bought the book fir my son. Terrific read, but 2/3 of the first words or so in the book are F-bombs.

Pb · « **Reply #3 on:** October 03, 2015, 10:34:17 AM »

Good book. Glad to hear you approve of the movie.

robear · « **Reply #4 on:** October 03, 2015, 10:46:12 AM »

Really like the book. Glad the movie does it justice. I wasn't sure Matt Damon was a good fit for my image of Mark Watney, but I do like his acting. I might go catch the matinee today.

41magsnub · « **Reply #5 on:** December 11, 2015, 09:35:26 AM »

Saw it last night, fantastic movie. Damon did a great job in it.

mtnbkr · « **Reply #6 on:** December 11, 2015, 09:53:32 AM »

Quote from: brimic on October 03, 2015, 09:32:13 AM

i bought the book fir my son. Terrific read, but 2/3 of the first words or so in the book are F-bombs.

I bought the book for my 12yo daughter and was concerned about that, but she's heard those words before and understands they're not polite or appropriate for children. I was acutely aware of such language at 12 myself, so I felt the overall content of the book outweighed the salty language.

Chris

K Frame · « **Reply #7 on:** December 11, 2015, 10:02:22 AM »

Quote from: mtnbkr on December 11, 2015, 09:53:32 AM

I bought the book for my 12yo daughter and was concerned about that, but she's heard those words before and understands they're not polite or appropriate for children. I was acutely aware of such language at 12 myself, so I felt the overall content of the book outweighed the salty language.

Chris

I probably dropped my first Fbomb in front of Miss Abby when she was about 6 weeks old....

Perd Hapley · « **Reply #8 on:** July 11, 2016, 09:50:37 AM »

That was a really cool movie. The Ironman stuff almost ruins it at the end, but not quite.

At first, hearing a Matt Damon voice-over, with all the life sciences talk, I thought I was watching The Informant. But the Feds never showed up.

Ben · « **Reply #9 on:** July 11, 2016, 09:55:45 AM »

Quote from: fistful on July 11, 2016, 09:50:37 AM

That was a really cool movie. The Ironman stuff almost ruins it at the end, but not quite.

At first, hearing a Matt Damon voice-over, with all the life sciences talk, I thought I was watching The Informant. But the Feds never showed up.

I just watched it for the second time a couple of weeks ago. Really well done. It says a lot if I will watch a Matt Damon movie (and he was really good in this one) given his current big mouth on guns.

RevDisk · « **Reply #10 on:** July 11, 2016, 04:15:43 PM »

Quote from: roo_ster on October 03, 2015, 12:34:23 AM

Terrific movie. My son wants to read the book.

Book is better.

roo_ster · « **Reply #11 on:** July 11, 2016, 04:29:51 PM »

Quote from: RevDisk on July 11, 2016, 04:15:43 PM

Book is better.

That's what he said.

AJ Dual · « **Reply #12 on:** July 11, 2016, 08:57:46 PM »

Well, the one big plot-hole, that was both in the book and the movie was the dust storm that stranded Whatney on Mars in the first place.

The dust storms can be dangerous, due to visibility, and the dust messing things up, but with 1% of Earth's atmosphere, a 200 mph dust storm is like a breeze you can barely feel. Andy Weir acknowledges this though, and said he needed some way to strand Whatney on Mars, and make the rest of the crew leave him by mistake.

Other than that, my only other complaint was the massive amounts of space and huge windows the Hermes had. The spacesuit finger-squirting leak was also a bit overdone, but I guess they had to add drama somehow for the final rescue/capture.

Perd Hapley · « **Reply #13 on:** July 11, 2016, 09:48:02 PM »

Would a guy be able to sleep out under the covered wagon, of a sunny day on Mars? Or would he freeze to death? Or did he have the reactor-thingie keeping him warm?

And where was Captain Wilder?

zxcvbob · « **Reply #14 on:** July 11, 2016, 11:09:21 PM »

Just don't drink the water

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3svtki_the-waters-of-mars-part-1_tv

erictank · « **Reply #15 on:** July 12, 2016, 07:26:44 AM »

Quote from: fistful on July 11, 2016, 09:48:02 PM

Would a guy be able to sleep out under the covered wagon, of a sunny day on Mars? Or would he freeze to death? Or did he have the reactor-thingie keeping him warm?

And where was Captain Wilder?

Covered much more in the book than I remember it being addressed in the movie - it's COLD out there at night, but he had the reactor heating things up. Didn't have to burn power running the rover's heaters, and didn't freeze, win-win!

birdman · « **Reply #16 on:** July 12, 2016, 08:26:07 AM »

Quote from: erictank on July 12, 2016, 07:26:44 AM

Covered much more in the book than I remember it being addressed in the movie - it's COLD out there at night, but he had the reactor heating things up. Didn't have to burn power running the rover's heaters, and didn't freeze, win-win!

He also should have used the electrical output of the RTG (which it makes as long as it's warm)...but oh well.

As for sleeping outside in the daytime, yes. It's reasonably balmy (well, 60-70 degF), provided you aren't at the poles (which he wasn't)
http://www.space.com/16907-what-is-the-temperature-of-mars.html

AJ Dual · « **Reply #17 on:** July 12, 2016, 11:30:21 AM »

IIRC, he just hauled the RTG into the pressurized cabin of the rover to keep him warm directly. Isn't that more efficient than any energy losses through conversion from heat, to electricity back to heat again?

Fly320s · « **Reply #18 on:** July 12, 2016, 11:45:17 AM »

Yes, but he could power the rover and drive farther before recharge.

Perd Hapley · « **Reply #19 on:** July 12, 2016, 11:48:40 AM »

Fine, you Monday morning quarterbacks. When you get stranded on Mars, you can show us how you do it better! How dare you criticize Mark Watley? He is an American hero!

Fly320s · « **Reply #20 on:** July 12, 2016, 01:02:54 PM »

If he had C4 that he could have strapped to the rover, that would have solved his problems.

Perd Hapley · « **Reply #21 on:** July 12, 2016, 01:07:05 PM »

I didn't get why he put the big bubble on top of the rover's cab. Did he need extra storage space, and only the cab was pressurized?

birdman · « **Reply #22 on:** July 12, 2016, 04:50:06 PM »

Quote from: AJ Dual on July 12, 2016, 11:30:21 AM

IIRC, he just hauled the RTG into the pressurized cabin of the rover to keep him warm directly. Isn't that more efficient than any energy losses through conversion from heat, to electricity back to heat again?

Doesn't work that way. Those RTG's are a stack of heat source bricks (think 6x6x3" graphite block containing two iridium encased Pu-238 slugs), which are -very- hot. Then a layer of thermocouples, then the heat rejection fins. If he didn't want to be incinerated, the best choice would be to leave it intact (which is what he did), use the waste heat to warm the rover, but it would still generate power (to say...drive the rover). -Any- a out of power he used would make no real difference in heat output (given that less than 5-10% of the overall heat output turns into electricity).

erictank · « **Reply #23 on:** July 15, 2016, 07:45:21 AM »

Quote from: birdman on July 12, 2016, 04:50:06 PM

Doesn't work that way. Those RTG's are a stack of heat source bricks (think 6x6x3" graphite block containing two iridium encased Pu-238 slugs), which are -very- hot. Then a layer of thermocouples, then the heat rejection fins. If he didn't want to be incinerated, the best choice would be to leave it intact (which is what he did), use the waste heat to warm the rover, but it would still generate power (to say...drive the rover). -Any- a out of power he used would make no real difference in heat output (given that less than 5-10% of the overall heat output turns into electricity).

I'll just agree with the expert here...

Opening the RTG seems like a really good way to earn a pretty unpleasant and unnecessary death. Honestly, the bit about using it to increase the rover's range never really occurred to me - would it really have provided enough power for that? I always thought RTGs were pretty low-power devices. Although, granted, across a travel distance of thousands of kilometers, every little bit helps.

RevDisk · « **Reply #24 on:** July 19, 2016, 09:07:48 AM »

Quote from: erictank on July 15, 2016, 07:45:21 AM

I'll just agree with the expert here...

Opening the RTG seems like a really good way to earn a pretty unpleasant and unnecessary death. Honestly, the bit about using it to increase the rover's range never really occurred to me - would it really have provided enough power for that? I always thought RTGs were pretty low-power devices. Although, granted, across a travel distance of thousands of kilometers, every little bit helps.

Yeah, cracking open an RTG is a particularly interesting way of committing suicide. Plus they tend to be sturdy type things. As birdman said, not sure why he didn't use it for both heat and power. Using one doesn't impact the other. RTGs are indeed low power, long duration type power sources. The only thing was if the rover had any amount of insulation, the thing would probably get the rover uncomfortably or even lethally hot over time. In the book, he made a hot tub using it, which made me laugh for a while. Realistically, the electrical outlets might have been permanently sealed during disposal. Why, I have no idea but it seems like something NASA would do. If the power outlets were permanently sealed, I wouldn't try to crack the seals just for a handful of watts when you have a large number of solar panels.

The wind storm, yeah, handwavium for plot device. You needed some excuse to leave the guy stranded on Mars. Any book deserves at least one free pass for the sake of story.

The other two plot holes that bothered me more is why some of the first potatoes grown weren't put in vacuum proof containers. If I knew I was alive solely because I had a vacuum bag of potatoes, I'd squirrel some more away in the most secure containers I could find. In both the hab and the rover. More importantly, why was the hab not divided into multiple pressure zones? No redundancy against air lock breach? Or wall breach? Or even a slow leak somewhere? Or hell, the ability to pump out the atmo so you could vacuum clean a section when it starts to smell like lots of humans in a small space without lots of spare water for long showers. Then again, that sounds like something NASA would actually do. Again, probably just handwavium plot device.

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Author Topic: The Martian (Read 9591 times)