Andy Weir - The Martian: How Science Drove the Plot

[@forcelegend9721]

I didn't know that Andy put so much effort into this awesome book. He really nailed it , It's the best stand alone book I've read so far.

[@stefanels4049]

CONTENTS 0:00 Intro title sequence 0:17 Welcome 0:42 Jim Green(Director of Planetary Science for NASA) introduces Andy Weir 2:45 Weir reads The Martian, Chapter 1. 15:40 Weir's talk begins: which came first-problems or solutions? 19:37 Orbital mechanics 25:20 Hermes orbital path animation sequence (SPOILER ALERT) 26:13 The real-world mission date 29:25 Inaccuracies 29:43 The Sand Storm 31:01 Radiation hand-waving 32:12 Curiosity almost screwed me in hindsight 33:44 And another thing Curiosity screwed me on: water 34:12 Question time 34:22 Pre-answer: what did I have to do with the movie? 35:02 This frickin' guy worked out the mission date! 35:46 Why wasn't Hermes' design featured more in the book? 36:45 Where's the romance? 38:04 What about a shout-out to Silicon Valley's NASA centre? 38:59 Is Mark Watney you or just made up? 39:48 Will Hollywood screw it up? 40:46 What did NASA flight controllers think of your ideas? 42:02 How did you name your spacecraft? 43:06 Where did you get the "astronaut" psychological profile for the characters? 43:55 Who are your inspiring sci-fi authors? 45:12 Like with NASA, did you also do research with the Chinese space program?

[@stefanels4049]

A couple of fake accounts replied to my "video contents" post trying to promote an Instagram hacker website, which is a FAKE tool designed to steal your money! Folks, ALL such tools are fake, don't throw your money away or, even worse, get malware installed onto your pc or phone! I reported those comments, hopefully they will be removed. Examine the account of any dodgy sounding post (click on the profile pic) and you will see it is a shell account recently created just for the purposes of making that comment. Also, don't trust posts promoting a service, or posts that have absolutely nothing to do with the post they are replying to.

[@mEtil5656]

thanks dude. writing a paper on this :) you'll get 0.1% credit

[@CAnasagal1]

lively thinker, presenter and writer. And the movie interesting for all sorts of minds.

[@howdareyou41]

Having MW talk to the HAB cams was a brilliant bit of movie making

[@MegF142857]

Problems - solutions - repeat. Love how he used thought of possible problems and research for solutions to drive the plot forward. Excellent that he was wrong mostly about that his story wouldn't have mass appeal. :-) My recommendation is to read the book and then go watch the movie.

[@kost86]

My recomendation would be opposite, watch movie then read the book. I dit it your way the second time and the movie feels like i watched 9 hour movie on 3x speed.

[@fredgrimley8883]

MegF.... I agree with Vasya, see the movie first because you won't constantly say to yourself 'that wasn't in the book'. Once you watch the movie, then read the book, and you'll be able to see the battles they took to make the movie from a book and appreciate it more.

[@NoorElahi1776]

I like Andy Weir because he's a total NASA nerd. He seems like a really decent fellow. That being said, I'm a total NASA nerd because they are an army of hard-asses. Those people are true role models. They are Tough and Competent.

[@NoorElahi1776]

Dan Frederiksen As an exercise, send a rover Mars yourself. Not that you will understand but you have the option.I don't know what your problem is and I really don't care. Go drink your Haterade alone and STFU.

[@NoorElahi1776]

Dan Frederiksen Do have any idea what is involved in making an autonomous rover meant to survive for years on an unexplored, alien world? You have the balls to call NASA incompetent after they landed a rover on another freaking celestial body and expect me to take you seriously. Absolutely incredible. I'm not sure which conservative pundit has your shorts all in a twist and I don't care. Space is hard. If you had an even cursory understanding of the monumental obstacles NASA and JPL had to overcome just to land Curiosity then you wouldn't say such foolish things. Seriously you are calling NASA incompetitent becuse they broke a tire?? What do you think they could have sent, Goodyears?? You have no clue what you're taking about and here you are throwing stones at the people literally exploring another planet. Unbelievable.

[@NoorElahi1776]

Dan Frederiksen I actually like that argument! Sorry I got all upset. I'm a big NASA fanboy. Apparently you have a good sense of humor and I can't be upset with someone like that. My bad.

[@NoorElahi1776]

Dan Frederiksen Naw, you're just a puppy playin' around! You're alright in my book. Have a good night, Dan

[@NoorElahi1776]

Dan Frederiksen It needs to explore every inch in passes by or people like me will bitch to no end. Our bad, lol! I should really know Curiosity's top measured speed across level ground but I don't think that's as important. Curiosity has made some pretty profound discoveries such as the fact that Gale Crater was once a shallow, heavily saline sea. How cool is that? Sure, it split a radial but so did my '91 Festiva and it still took my buddies and I to Atlantic City and back. Everything in perspective, friend.

[@lethaleefox6017]

So few comments in 8 years, but useful ones... I am thinking of collecting this and the KZbin audio book, reaction video and other lectures on history of the book to a playlist...

[@Yookiwooki]

I will be 45 in 2035. That's exactly Matt Damon's age this year... Hmmmm

[@alpha.wintermute]

Just checking in are you an astronaut yet?

[@theDudeOfDudes]

I consider myself to be fairly nerdy, but god... what a rough crowd. This guy was awesome and the crowd nearly killed it numerous times. Sometimes I enjoy fellow nerds, but the overly literal pedantic lack of personality in many can really kill a good time. Half a room full of "you must be fun at parties" at the Ames Research Center.

[@Nyerguds]

+TheDudeofDudes I dunno. From what I've seen, he loves getting more in-depth questions.

[@HiAndHello-w9l]

I don't get it, what was wrong with the crowd? and I thought they asked some interesting questions

[@beinghappy101]

This was a nice talk!! Liked it!

[@carsonhaught9934]

An engaging chap.... was wondering about that ion drive... OK to get there but decal for Mars orbit...? He put a lot of work into that. Hard SF of the best kind.

[@tobi888100]

Also, that guy is awesome.

[@zapfanzapfan]

The book (and film) is awesome but there are some slight mistakes: The high oxygen he mentions in the beginning in his suit would not cause problems, most spacewalks are done in space suits with 100% oxygen at 0.3 Bar. It's not the percentage that is the problem, it's the partial pressure, and if you go above 1,5 Bar or so (diving to deep using compressed air) you get into trouble. The RTG that powered the MAV must be a lot bigger than portrayed in the book or the movie. Most plans that include fuel production on Mars plan to use a small nuclear reactor. 10% efficient solar panels are crap, the stuff we put on roofs is about 15% and the space grade stuff is close to 30%. The battery in the rover is smaller than that in any electric car. Ok, I'll go back to my mothers basement now and read D&D :-)

[@santishorts]

The book and movie take place in the near future. The Mars mission depicted in it, is supposed to be the third manned mission to Mars. So with the exception of the oxygen, the rest can be explained by way of "future technology", like other things are explained in the book.

[@ssgcmwatsonusa]

kinda weird watching this during the covid 19 pandemic and seeing all these people indoors, shoulder to shoulder, and unmasked.

[@tobi888100]

Man, I need to buy this book.

[@santishorts]

Did you?

[@daverei1211]

A brilliant book - a great movie - Hale Mary Project even better.

[@Nyerguds]

I wonder if his program is actually still accurate with the forced deceleration they did when reaching Mars the second time, in the book. It doesn't seem like he had any system to incorporate that.

[@justkidding57]

+Nyerguds Spoiler alert if you are referring to the part where they blow the air lock for reverse thrust, i would think that the change in velocity from that is very tiny with respect to the sun. the ion engines are constantly accelerating so by the time they reach mars they would be going tens if not hundreds of kph(with respect to the sun). in a MAV- Hermes system the deceleration would be significant but in a sun-Hermes system, not so much.

[@trevorthompson6155]

Would they not get pretty hot there on Hermes when so close to the sun. I didnt measure it but in that simulation they get pretty close.

[@justkidding57]

+Trevor Thompson he does mention that they have a heat shield

[@zapfanzapfan]

Zubrin likes to call that maneuver a Venus fry-by :-)

[@howdareyou41]

36:30 lying on the ground

[@michaelpeters3587]

Whenever they show the audience, I can't help but look at the young guy wearing red in the front. His lack of expression literally pisses me off.

[@desmondfromlost]

Ikr i would have been freaking out

[@rock3tcatU233]

And the purple guy next to him too, I don't understand why these people even bother to show up if they can't enjoy themselves.

[@hydrogened4376]

@@desmondfromlost hey sven irl

[@DanFrederiksen]

It didn't

[@theultimatereductionist7592]

It's precisely because NASA does the physically & mathematically incredibly hard stuff (and I have certain specific strong criticisms of NASA) that it disgusts me that mere entertainers like Andy Weir draw such a large crowd over his fiction.

[@5Andysalive]

I would guess the vast majority of the audience is familiar with swearing. Grow up, hosts.

[@valerybrideson9068]

! Flying to the moon to have imitated Hollywood. Now, will portray flights to Mars. Without engines again, what then?

[@nameguy101]

what are you even saying