The Martian by Andy Weir is a science fiction novel about an astronaut named Mark Watney. He is a mechanical engineer and botanist on a mission called American Ares 3 traveling to Mars, after the two successful missions Ares 1 and Ares 2. Once they arrive on Mars, in a couple of days, a giant sandstorm interrupts the mission of the team. and are forced to leave Mars. In the sandstorm, Mark Watney is hit by a metal fragment (a piece of Hermes' (The Ship) antenna). Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Watney's team left him on Mars, thinking he was dead after what happened. Mission Commander Lewis leaves Mark and believes it is the right protocol for the situation. The Ares 3 team tries not to grieve and return to Earth on the long (a few months) journey back to Earth, while NASA tries to control the fallout, on Earth, of Watney's death on Mars. After Hermes takes off, Mark wakes up. When he realizes that the ship has left and that he has been abandoned on Mars. Harsh conditions on Mars can easily take a toll on anyone, the silver lining remote imagery shows NASA Mark has moved things along. When they see that the location of the rover vehicle changes from day to day, NASA realizes that Mark survived and is stranded on Mars. NASA initiates a plan to find a way to help him stay alive until the Ares 4 mission begins or send a rescue mission to return Mark to Earth. The problem with either choice is that the Ares 4 mission won't be ready for liftoff for another four years. Mark encounters various threats on Mars, aside from the harsh climate. He has no supplies that will provide him with enough food for a long time. The air in Hab was only supposed to last a month. If an air leak occurs, in most cases it won't even last a month. Then Mark tries to see what kind of communication he has and realizes that the communications satellite's antenna is destroyed. Meanwhile, on earth, a NASA employee named Mindy Park discovers that Mark is still alive by examining satellite images from the mission. site. This leaves Sanders (head of NASA) and Kapoor (head of the Mars program) in the public release situation. They end up seeing a public relations director, deciding to inform the public but leave the Ares 3 team in the dark thinking he will only be in the way. The public goes wild with non-stop news coverage of Mark as NASA asks the Fed for more funding. Also during this period Mark recovers an old unmanned probe called Pathfinder, which he brings back to the Hab and is finally able to communicate with NASA. Mark also brought a small amount of earthly soil with him because he is a botanist. He begins saving his feces and leftovers from his parties to use as compost which he has mixed with Martian soil and Earth soil, turning it all into farmland. NASA sent some whole potatoes that the crew intended to use for Thanksgiving dinner, except Mark used them as a crop. Mark needs water for his crops, so he uses the Hab's oxygenator (the thing that filters Mars' oxygen) to turn it into carbon dioxide. Once this was done, he changed the hydrazine fuel to hydrogen and nitrogen. Then Mark slowly burns the hydrogen which made Mark the first person on Mars to produce water. On Sol 119, Mark leaves the Hab through airlock 1, the Hab's web breaks, and Mark is thrown out of the Hab. In a few days Mark manages to repair the Hab, but the soil and the young plants of.