The Martian Engineering Article for Students | Scholastic Science World Magazine

ALONE ON MARS: Fictional NASA astronaut Mark Watney, played by Matt Damon, is stranded in Acidalia Planitia—a plain on Mars.

The Martian

A sci-fi movie about an astronaut stranded on Mars hit theaters this month. Find out what it would be like to live on the Red Planet.

October 26, 2015

By Andrew Klein

How would you survive on a deserted island? You’d need a source of food and water. Knowing first aid would come in handy if you got sick or injured. In case of bad weather and to protect yourself from the sun’s rays, you’d need shelter.

Now imagine you’re not on an island . . . but on Mars.

That’s the premise of The Martian, a movie that opened this month. Fictional NASA astronaut Mark Watney (played by actor Matt Damon) is part of a mission to Mars. He and a crew of five make it to the Red Planet, but a powerful sandstorm strikes while they’re there and Watney is presumed dead. The rest of the crew members escape back to Earth, leaving him behind. To survive the planet’s harsh environment, Watney uses his scientific knowledge and the supplies left behind to live on the Martian landscape. A scenario like this one might not be so farfetched. NASA hopes to send a crew of astronauts to the Red Planet sometime during the 2030s.

Mars could help us learn a lot about Earth, because both planets formed at about the same time—4.6 billion years ago. But more importantly, colonizing Mars could be crucial if Earth were to become uninhabitable due to a global disaster. “We must go to Mars,” says James Green, the director of the Planetary Science Division at NASA. “It’s important for our species to survive in the long run.”

PLANETARY PIONEERS

The students of today—maybe even you—will be among the first people to set foot on the surface of Mars. Whoever makes the journey will need a lot of patience. “On average, Mars is about 140 million miles away,” says Jason Crusan, director of the Advanced Exploration Systems Division at NASA, “but we would plan to launch and return when Mars and Earth are the closest, at about 34 million miles.” That’s when their orbits bring the planets closest together. The trip there would likely take six to nine months. In all, a mission to send a crew there and back would likely last two to three years.

NASA hopes to send astronauts to Mars aboard the Space Launch System—the world’s most powerful rocket. But getting people to and from Mars may be easier than figuring out how to equip them with everything they’ll need on such a long mission. “Imagine what you would need to pack if you went on a two- to-three-year camping trip in the desert and couldn’t go to the corner store for supplies,” says Crusan.

One option would be to send multiple cargo crafts to drop off supplies—like food, water, air tanks, shelter, and vehicles—months ahead of the crew. A more sustainable strategy would be to train the crew to farm and manufacture supplies on Mars.

“When early explorers crossed vast oceans to reach new territories, they traveled with only what they needed to get there,” says Crusan. They planned to live off the land once they arrived. That’s exactly what NASA hopes its astronauts can do.

For years, NASA has been testing technologies that would help a crew survive on Mars. For instance, astronauts aboard the International Space Station, which orbits 402 kilometers (250 miles) above Earth, currently purify their urine to make water. They also make air by passing an electric current through water. The process, called electrolysis, separates the water molecules into hydrogen and breathable oxygen gas.

FARAWAY FARMING

In The Martian, Watney encounters a real problem that any future Mars crew will face: growing food. Watney uses Martian soil mixed with his own poop (as fertilizer) to grow potatoes inside his habitat. “But he works a lot harder than he needs to,” says Green. He explains that Watney probably could have relied more on Martian soil, because the rover Curiosity recently detected much more water and nitrogen in the soil on Mars than previously expected. “Nitrogen is a great fertilizer,” he says.

To get enough water for the food that he’s growing, Watney extracts water from rocket fuel. But Green explains that rovers have recently discovered a layer of ice not far from the surface of Mars in a region named Acidalia Planitia—which is right where Watney is stationed. “He could have just detonated an explosive and then picked up the ice chips,” says Green.

LIFE ON MARS

Here’s what the astronauts’ colony might look like.

BRYAN VERSTEG/SPACEHABS.COM

MARTIAN HOME

Besides food, water, and oxygen, living long-term on Mars will also require shelter that can protect colonizers from the harsh Martian environment (see Life on Mars). Earth’s atmosphere keeps our planet’s temperatures from fluctuating too drastically and protects us from the sun’s radiation. But the blanket of gases surrounding Mars is thin. Temperatures there dip to an average of -70°C (-94°F).

It’s hard to know how humans will survive in these conditions until we actually get there. But thanks to NASA’s efforts, someone like Watney just might stand a chance alone on the Red Planet.

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