It begin as a serial of blog post in 2009 . Now , The Martian has become an international sensation , in the shape of not only abest - trade Quran , but a widely acclaimedmoviedirected by Ridley Scott and starring Matt Damon . For its Californian Almighty , Andy Weir , 43 , it has been an astronomical six - yr rise from a small computer programmer to a world - renowned author .
Both the playscript and the movie have been wide praised for their scientific truth ( including by us ) , so we caught up with Andy to discuss the importance of scientific discipline in storytelling , the possibilities of life on Mars , and much more .
How did you come up with the idea for The Martian ?
" I ’m a dork , I ’ve always been a huge fan of space and the space program , and I was thinking how we could do a manned Mars military mission with the currently useable engineering , or slender improvements to it . I came up with all the details , how a mission profile would work and plans for failures , and thought it was making a pretty honorable write up . So I thought , hey , I ’ll make an unfortunate booster , and subject him to all of this . "
The Scripture deal with a large range of mountains of topics , from vegetation to space geographic expedition . How did you research it all ?
" Mostly it was just Google . I did n’t know anybody in the industry when I made the book . I do now ! "
How big a deal was it to you to get the science correct ?
" It was very important to me . When I see inaccurate science in a movie or Christian Bible , it really bugs me and takes me out of the story . Do n’t get me wrong , something physically impossible does n’t trouble me , but something demonstrably amiss does . So , for example , if your fib says ‘ well we ’ll have a warp drive , it can trip faster than swooning , ’ that ’s o.k. . Star Trek , does n’t get at me at all .
" But if they say ‘ oh , now we ’re gon na walk around on the open of the Moon , everybody hold your breath , ’ it‘s like no , you ’ll die ! This is demonstrably wrong . Big violation of physics do n’t bother me , little single do . The Martian deals with go on Mars with limited equipment . I had to be exact , or the whole thing would be kind of a waste . "
Is Mark Watney based on you ?
" Oh yeah , absolutely . He ’s free-base on my chic - ass personality , but he ’s better at all this , better than me at all the thing I do , and he does n’t have my flaws . He ’s what I care I was , an idealised rendering of me . I think you ’ll see a hatful of that in fabrication . The principal character is unremarkably someone that author need to be , or someone they ’re in love with . For the platter , I want tobeWatney . "
His home ground and all his equipment , that ’s all based on real applied science then ?
" Yes , with a few minor concessions . I grant them a very magical form of engineering where they have tenuous , flexile radiation shielding . And so all of this radiation syndrome job is consider care of with that , everything is run along with the shielding . But no such technology actually exists . Other than that , everything in the Word of God is veridical , either actual forward-looking daytime technology or slight melioration . For instance , the ion engines on Hermes are much more powerful than what we ’ve made , but we have made and powered space vehicle by ion engine [ such as theDawn probe ] . "
Your design for the Hermes ballistic capsule channelise astronauts to and from Mars includes a large spread out section , to simulate artificial gravity . Will this be a necessary for future Mars foreign mission ?
" Yes , I absolutely believe it ’s necessary . The long - full term effects of zero GB on humans are really crushing . When you see astronaut get out of a Soyuz on Earth after six months on the International Space Station ( ISS ) , they always have to physically lift the astronauts out . The astronauts can not even bear up under their own free weight after a long menstruum in zero G , so how would you carry them to spend that long in transit to Mars and then be efficacious on the aerofoil ? They would n’t even be able-bodied to stand up . "
The Hermes spacecraft , shown , is used by astronauts in The Martian to travel back and away to Mars . 20th Century Fox .
How confident are you we will go to Mars in the nigh - future ?
" It depends on the definition of ' nigh - hereafter . ' We will sure go to Mars within 100 age . NASA says we ’ll go in the 2030s , I do n’t doubt they could , but I do n’t have religious belief in Congress to give them the funding they ask . So I ’m guessing more conservatively at around 2050 . "
Will our mission to Mars be more of an international endeavor than The Martian , which was mostly American ?
" I did that specifically to hearken back to the Apollo era , and pull on those nostalgia heartstrings a scrap . But in veridical life , I think it would be organizationally similar to the ISS . NASA , Russia , ESA , JAXA , maybe even the Indian space office . And I ’d like the Chinese to be involved too , I do n’t empathize why we do n’t cooperate with them more . "
One noticeable absence from the Good Book is the discussion of potential life on Mars . Do you think there is liveliness there ?
" I really do n’t . Let ’s say you trump up a sampling of anything on Earth , just one cubic decimeter of air or seawater or soil or anything , you would get it teeming with life . Even Charles Percy Snow from the Antarctic , you still find gross ton of grounds of life , like single - celled being frozen solid , they ’re there . So life is passing persistent and diffuse out to sate everything , and so I believe that if there was life anywhere on Mars , it would be everywhere on Mars . And every probe we ’ve send , every attempt we ’ve done to find any lifespan on that planet has come in back negative . So I find it very unlikely that it exist at all . "
Do you consider we ’ll permanently colonise Mars one day ?
" In the distant future tense , sure . In the near future tense , no . Not in our lifetimes . I think humanity has a tendency to just enlarge and blow up . Once it becomes economically viable to travel to Mars and emigrate there , then I think the great unwashed absolutely will . "
Weir does n’t think there is sprightliness on Mars , but does recall we ’ll go there one day . 20th Century Fox .
Okay , enough about Mars . Where else do you want to see us travel to in quad ?
" I ’d like to see us do more with the Moon . It is incredibly stuffy , and it is this very , very handy jumping off point . A lunar settlement could be Earth qualified . If you were on a football line of business , and you were at one goal , and Mars was at the other goal , the Moon would be about four centimeters [ 1.6 inches ] from your foot . It ’s middling nearly . "
We get wind you ’re figure out on a novel book , called Zhek . What ’s it about ?
" It ’s more traditional sci - fi , with quicker than light travel and aliens and material like that . We get visited by aliens in the New solar day . It ’s more Star Trek than The Martian , but considerably less Star Trek than Star Trek . "
Did you aim to keep it scientifically exact ?
" Yes , absolutely . I amount up with a physics model that allows faster than light travel , which is not in engagement with any real physics , but aside from that one yielding , everything else is real cathartic . "
Thanks for your time Andy .
" You ’re welcome . "
figure of speech in text : The Martian book cover , courtesy of Penguin Random House .
