I grew up in an era of Apollo space missions and NASA promises to put a man on Mars by 1983. While we haven’t yet landed any men — or women — this movie makes you believe it may happen in our lifetime — at least while you are in the theater!
Acclaimed as one of the most accurate portrayals of human space exploration, “The Martian” is based on a novel of the same name by Andy Weir. In the movie, Ares 3 astronaut Mark Watney, played by Matt Damon, is accidently abandoned on Mars by crewmates. He explains through mission video logs how he plans to survive alone on that planet, saying, “I’m gonna have to science the [%*@] out of this.” And that he does.
Watney uses science and engineering to work his way through one challenge after another and you will find yourself sitting in the theater rooting for his safe return. I was pleasantly surprised with the movie’s technical accuracy but, for those former NASA engineers and space science geeks in the audience, there were a few head scratchers.
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