The Martian by Andy Weir a 2011 novel who stars an astronaut who is mistakenly left behind on Mars. The novel discusses his survival on the planet alone and all the struggles he and the people trying to rescue him go through. With science and perseverance Mark the astronaut will get through his struggles and survive on the planet Mars. In 2035 the crew of NASA Area 3 has a mission to Mars. While in space there is a dust storm which because a great threat. During their hurried evacuation and the botanist and engineer Mark Watney is hit by an antenna and torn loose.
He is flung out of sight and they had no choice but to abandon him to Mars. He didn’t die from this strong storm but is alive. He now has to use his perseverance,intelligence and braveness to stay alive alone on the planet. Perseverance,braveness and intelligence are traits that contribute to survival. If you have these traits you have a very good chance to survive in life threatening situations. Mark Watney has all of these traits and uses them to make his survival on mars last. Intelligence is one thing that Mark has much of.
Being an astronaut for NASA he must be able to know ways around all situations. When he gets wiped away by the antenna he comes in contact with one of the rovers. Throughout he adds things to the rover like solar cells and batteries. By doing this he knows that he would have a chance to come in contact with people on earth. After building the rover and making it more technologically advance he is able to make his journey with it. He takes a three week long drive with it and comes in contact with the Pathfinder and rover.
When he does this he is able to come in contact with NASA. Using not only his intelligence but also his perseverance he is able to make contact with him. If he did not have these traits he would soon give up and expect the fact they will never make it back to earth. He does realize that there is very unlikely chance of him surviving here on Mars but he spent his time wisely making things to help him survive like for example adding stuff to the rover. We can see this when he says “I don’t have a plan for surviving four years on one byera of food…
For now, I’M well fed and have a purpose:Fix the damn radio. ” (2. 21). Sometimes you just need to take things one at a time. If Mark did he would spend too much time worrying about his chances of dying or how to get out of his mess he would then lose focus on his short term survival. Setting goals for himself will help his morale and without them he would probably wont feel very lost. His intelligence for science is seen throughout the entire book he uses his intelligence to help him make his plans and think of the science behind his survival.
He knows he does not have much time but with his smartness he will think of the things prioritize the most on. We can see this when he says ” Half The people who have studied botany were hippies.. I didn’t like then. I’ve always been in it for science. “(2. 5) He studies the science of plants but still has much knowledge for science all around. Mark does many things for his survival that he used science for his motivation. He composts his own feces, rectal his own urine and uses solar energy.
By doing these things he has used his intelligence and makes his plans for his survival. Perseverance also comes into play very much in the novel. Perseverance is shown very much in the novel. Mark uses perseverance when he uses one of the Habs a module that is pressurized to carry cargo and comes in different sizes and can be placed in many different locations. What he does is he begins to build plants inside the Hab for his survival with him being a botanist he has much knowledge of plants and is able to plant potatoes and have food from them.
This soon comes to an end when one of the canvases of the Hab airlocks tears off and nearly killing Mark. He repairs the Hab but all of his plants die. This then makes him threatened with starvation once again. This causes much stress on Mark knowing he know has to find another way to not die of starvation. Even though this did happen he is still positive we can see this when he says in the ovel, ” I’m not talking about faith in God, I’m talking about faith in Mark Watney” (22. 72). Marks chances of survival at this point in the book are starting to dwindle down.
The people working at NASA do know he is there and are trying to find a way to get him back but do it without harming Mark. When people are in time of distress they soon begin to give up on the plan and expect the fact that they are failing . Mark uses his perseverance to get him through his struggles of trying to survive. H not only has perseverance but he also is very brave. He shows braveness through the entire novel. He shows this y being the only person on Mars and still not giving up he has gone through making things and them getting destroyed, planting his food and this food also gets destroyed.
After all these things happen he still shows perseverance and does things for his survival. In the novel he loses contact with earth when he accidentally shorts one of the rover. After he does this he begins to panic once again knowing he must have contact to return back to earth. He gains reconnection again when he reaches the MAV. When he does this the plan to get him back made by NASA will now begin the plan is to get hermes back nto Mars to save Watney. They would use the chinese rocket to send a probe to Hermes as it passes earth.
This does have many risk to it but they agree to the plan they will get Watnet back home. This shows how Mark is very brave because he knows the risks of their plan to get him back home but he knows he must push through and get home. He ends up getting rescued even with many problems going on with his rescue through his rescue he continues to be brave with the risk of his life. In his final journal entry he talks about his joy of being rescued and how that his human instincts helped his survival on the planet Mars nd how it could help everyone.
The Martian written by Andy Weir shows the perseverance,intelligence and braveness of the astronaut Mark Watney in his survival of him being left alone Mars. The novel shows us how having those trait Mark was able to survive on helpnet and get bac sfa on earth. Without those traits he could have easily given up but he continued to get through the struggles and get back home safely. Intelligence,perseverance and braveness are traits that can help a life or death situation and Mark Watney will always be an example of a man trying to make it back home.
