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1-Page Summary of The Martian
Overview
The Martian is set in the near future. Mark Watney, a botanist and mechanical engineer, is on Mars with Ares 3 crew members. However, he gets struck by an antenna piece during a sandstorm and they think he’s dead. The rest of the Ares 3 team leaves him behind but Commander Lewis does so with sadness because she thinks it’s protocol to do so. Meanwhile back on Earth NASA tries to control any fallout from Watney being left alone on Mars while his crew returns home without him.
A day after the astronauts begin their mission, one of them wakes up on Mars. He realizes he’s alone and must return to the base. When he gets there, he sees that his injury is serious and that his supplies are limited. He plans to ration food until Ares lands in several years’ time. Although it will be difficult, this plan ensures that he’ll survive for as long as possible (he doesn’t have access to water or air).
Mark then realizes that the satellite communication antenna is broken. He goes through his crewmates’ personal items and finds some disco records, which he hates.
After a NASA employee discovers that Mark Watney is still alive, the head of NASA and the chief of Mars operations talk about how to handle this information. They decide not to tell the crew on board the Hermes spaceship, but instead inform them once they’re back on Earth. The media gets wind of this news and starts covering it nonstop. This leads to an increase in support for bringing Mark home safely from Mars.
NASA tries to figure out a way to save Watney. They first think they can send him food supplies, but then realize that he’ll be at the Ares 4 site (called Schiaparelli crater) when NASA launches another mission there several years later. The supplies will help supplement his diet of potatoes, which he cultivates using NASA’s seeds and botanical skills.
In the book The Martian, NASA monitors Mark Watney on Mars using satellite images and messages he leaves with rocks. They can’t talk to him, but they watch as he drives out in a rover and retrieves an old unmanned probe called Pathfinder that becomes his “modem” and his “radio.”
Mark Watney’s survival and rescue will be difficult. He has a limited supply of potatoes, which he needs to grow crops for food. NASA decides to send another mission in the meantime to support Watney until Ares 4 arrives, but they rush the launch because it takes so long for rockets to get from Earth to Mars. The rocket explodes shortly after take-off, making Watney’s prospects even worse than before.
Fortunately, China can provide a replacement rocket. And NASA researcher Purnell has come up with a plan that will allow food to reach Watney much faster (the Purnell Maneuver). This involves the Ares 3 crew turning around and picking him up from space after he launches off of Mars’ surface. Sanders initially blocks the idea because it is too dangerous, but Henderson leaks the plan to the Ares 3 crew who then begin saving Watney on their own—which prompts NASA to publicly support this maneuver.
After an unfortunate accident, Mark Watney’s communications with NASA are severed. He learns that the crew of Ares 3 is coming back to rescue him. He has enough information to travel from Pathfinder to Schiaparelli on his own by studying Martian topography and modifying two rovers for the trip. After traveling long distances, he reaches Schiaparelli and prepares for his journey into space where he will rendezvous with Hermes.
After modifying the MAV, Watney is able to successfully launch it. NASA coordinates his launch and he’s able to get into space without a problem. However, the MAV veers off course, forcing Hermes (the spaceship) to adjust its location in order to meet him. They are successful in doing this and Beck (one of the crew members) is able to lift him out of the MAV and bring him into Hermes. He has broken some ribs but he’s happy because he knows that they’re going home soon after five years on Mars.
