Martian Minded

MARS MOBILE PROTOTYPE: Like the human and cargo carrying rover featured in "The Martian" (scene immediately above), NASA is currently working to on a vehicle that will be able to navigate tough terrain with the Multi-Mission Space Exploration Vehicle (MMSEV) (top photo). Credits: Giles Keyte/NASA

MARTIAN MOVIE: Yesterday we finally made it out to see "The Martian," the number one movie in the world right now, based on Andrew Weir's novel.

Seeing NASA's logo and locations so prominently featured on the big screen was a big thrill! 

While the movie certainly took artistic license in many instances, there were a number of things throughout that had definite ties to NASA science. In fact, a couple of months back, NASA published an article listing nine real NASA technologies used in "The Martian" movie. They include an artificial landing habitat (hab), an off-Earth plant farm, water recovery, oxygen generation, a Mars-ready spacesuit, ion propulsion, solar panels, Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators, extended spaceflight, and a Mars rover.

And today, we checked out a NASA article about the Acidalia Planitia part of Mars, where much of main character Mark Watney's time is spend on the Red Planet during "The Martian."

We can see what that area actually looks like thanks to this Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) photograph taken with the orbiter's  High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) instrument.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona 

Per NASA, much of the area is covered by dense fields of boulders up to several meters high that would be difficult to drive around (unlike Mark Watney's experience in the movie). And it turns out there are fissures associated with giant polygons, with steep rocky slopes that would be impassable. That would have been a big bummer in the movie, that's for sure!

Following is what CJ chose to share about "The Martian" ...

On October 12th, 2015, we went to the Historic Admiral Theater to see "The Martian," a science fiction movie that just came out about Mark Watney, an astronaut who gets left for dead on Mars after being presumed killed. On the Ares 3 mission, the crew (Mark Watney, Melissa Lewis, Rick Martinez, Beth Johanssen, Chris Beck, and Alex Vogel) are on the surface of Mars, outside of their "hab," or their artificial habitat. Unexpectedly, a dust storm appears, and the crew has to get into their MAV, or Mars Ascent Vehicle.

However, Mark Watney is hit with a piece of debris, and gets lost in the storm. Commander Lewis looks for Watney, but is unable to find him, and is forced to evacuate with the rest of the crew, believing him to be dead. However, Mark Watney is still alive, and he has to find a way to stay alive for four years before the Ares 4 crew arrives in Schiparelli, a long distance from where he is in Acidalia Plantitia. Watney uses his botany skills, with the potatoes he has with him (intended for Thanksgiving), so that he can generate a food supply (unfortunately, one with almost nothing other than potatoes).

Overall, I enjoyed "The Martian," both the book and the movie, but 010101100010000001100110011001110111011001111001011110010010000001100011011001010111001001110011011100100110010100100000011001110111010101110010001000000110111101100010011000100111100000101110.

By the way, if you want to know what all that binary at the end of his write up means, you first have to translate the binary to text, and then you have to plug that into a ROT13 translator.

Here is Annabelle's take on the movie. ... 

“The Martian” is a movie about a team of 6 astronauts on the Ares III crew that have arrived on Mars. However, a dust storm appears, which forces them to evacuate and leave early. One of the astronauts is struck down during the storm, and is believed to be dead. After the team has left, however, he is still alive and stranded alone. The first thing he does is head to the “HAB”, where he has to plan how to survive until the next mission, Ares IV, arrives on mars. This means he has to not only survive years on mars, he has to find the Ares IV mission site and get there. The movie does use some real science and it’s very entertaining, and I feel like I may have felt more suspense had I not read the book already. I thought the special effects were well done as well as the acting. Overall it was a very good movie, and I would definitely recommend it, whether you’ve read the book or not.                          

Here are a few more links to Martian-movie related Web sites for entertainment and, in some cases, education.
Meet the Ares 3 Crew: http://fox.co/Ares3
See what it takes to #JourneyToMars: http://fox.co/TheRightStuff
Neil deGrasse Tyson discusses Our Greatest Adventure: http://fox.co/OurGreatestAdventure 
Watch Astronaut Mark Watney prepare for his #JourneyToMars: http://fox.co/LeaveYourMark
The world unites to save one man: http://fox.co/BringHimHome
Watch Astronaut Mark Watney continue his research for the Ares 3 mission. #JourneyToMars: http://fox.co/AresChemCam

DEBATABLE:  For our social studies education today, we watched the Democratic National Party's debate among presidential candidates. Topics touched upon covered current global conflicts, climate change, the domestic economy, the world economy, history, the future, and more. Overall, it was certainly a more comprehensive social studies lesson than reading a chapter in the average text book.