Julian Santoyo

Professor Kaur

PHYS 1010

April 22, 2018

Signature Assignment

Between NASA and Hollywood, there lies a fine line between real-life astronomy and science

fiction astronomy. We will be discovering the similarities between these two genres. For this

assignment, I have decided to analyze the movie ‘The Martian’. I chose this movie because it relates to

Mars exploration, dust storms, and terrestrial planet habitability. I believe that this movie has a lot of

interesting and realistic details.

In this movie, the team of astronauts succumb to the forces of Mars’ weather and are faced with

a devastating dust storm, which leaves one of them stranded. One similarity of Earth and Mars is that

they both have these dust storms, but there are a few differences. For example, dust storms on Earth

typically affect small regions, whereas dust storms on Mars are able to cover more surface area and are

sometimes even able to go so far as to engulf the entire planet – this storm is caused due to the fact

that Mars has a lower atmospheric density as compared to Earth. Dust storms on both the Earth and

Mars are caused by hot weather; they become more of a community within the southern hemisphere

and during the time of the summer season. Most of the scenes from the movie show that dust on Mars

and Earth are fairly similar, but the detail that strikes me as most interesting is the fact that Mars dust is

even finer than Earth dust and it tends to be a lot more “clingy” than Earth dust. This is because Mars

dust is slightly electrostatic, meaning tiny electrical charges exist within the dust particles that allow the

dust to cling to other materials like a magnet, or like Styrofoam packing peanuts. This kind of property

makes it a hazard for any solar-powered technology because dust will cling to the solar panels and make
it difficult for sunlight to be absorbed. This kind of event is what mission scientists at NASA believed

would only allow the Opportunity and Spirit rovers to operate for a short amount of three months. Fun

fact: the Opportunity rover is still active today, as a result of seasonal “cleaning events” where Mars’

strong winds and dust devils have been able to counter the strong effects of the dust storms and

completely clear the rover of any solar panel-blocking dust. I would definitely say that this part of the

movie was true and down to the facts.

Another part of the movie that I thought was interesting was the incorporation of botany on

extraterrestrial planets. After being left for dead on Mars, the astronaut analyzed that he would only

have a certain amount of time before food sources ran low. In a last ditch effort to extend his food

supply, he resorts to starting up a farm by using Mars soil to grow potatoes. In order to do so, he set up

a greenhouse environment and prepared a fertilized soil using Mars soil and organic waste material. To

no surprise, the garden thrived and the astronaut’s food supply was greatly extended. This may seem

pretty farfetched, but it’s actually quite the reality. However, Mars’ soil has three main problems; for

starters, the grains of Mars soil are fine meaning it would have trouble holding water, second is that

Mars has no organic material meaning it has no nutrients to offer, and then lastly is that it may be a

potential biohazard due to certain chemicals in the soil. In order to make Mars soil a plant-sustaining

substance, it would have to require much more work than what was shown in the movie. Currently,

mission scientists have begun lab experiments trying to find the most sustainable food to grow on Mars.

Tests are being run in atmospheric conditions similar to Mars in order to find the most suitable crop for

astronauts to grow while on extended missions to Mars; so far, tomatoes, wheat, cress and mustard

have been promising crops. Suggestions for more hardy crops such as strawberries and radishes have

also been suggested.

Another part of the movie that I would like to highlight is the end of the movie when plans for a

rescue mission leak to the crew and the astronauts must decide between two dire decisions: to resume
their mission and return to Earth or commit mutiny and go against NASA’s orders in order to save their

Mars-stranded comrade. After discussing with one another, the crew decide that it is in their best

interest to go off-course and go against NASA’s orders. This particular scenario reminds me of an article

that I read about NASA astronauts who did actually go against NASA’s orders in what is now known as

the “Skylab 4 Mutiny”. In this particular time in astronomical events, the crew of Skylab 4 grew

frustrated with NASA’s extensive workloads and tiresome schedules– they were expected to work 16-

hour days for 85 days straight. The crew argued with ground control, but to no avail; this led the crew to

drop all communication with Ground control for one single day to rest. Upon resuming communications

with ground control, the two parties compromised to ensure the astronauts were given proper

workloads for the remaining six weeks. The part about this that I believe pertains to science is the

psychological factors of being in space.

In conclusion, I feel like the script in ‘The Martian’ did a great job of following real-life facts and

real-life scenarios. With the research done in this assignment, we now know that dust storms on Mars

do in fact cripple solar-powered technology, have the capabilities of covering the entire planet, and that

the dust is electromagnetic. It is now known that botany on Mars is possible so long as some factors are

accounted for. Lastly, we now understand what the effects of space travel can have on the psychology

of astronauts. This concludes my signature assignment for this topic. Thank you.
 Works Cited

Ghose, Tia. “’The Martian’: What Would It Take To Grow Food on Mars?”. LiveScience, 09 Oct. 2015.

https://www.livescience.com/52444-growing-food-on-mars.html. Accessed 17 Apr. 2018.

O’Neill, Ian. “Opportunity: The Amazing Self-Cleaning Mars Rover”. Space, 21 Apr 21, 2014.

https://www.space.com/25577-mars-rover-opportunity-solar-panels-clean.html. Accessed 18

Apr. 2018.

Kay, Joseph. “The Skylab 4 mutiny 1973” libcom.org, 04 Apr 2007. https://libcom.org/history/1973-

skylab-4-mutiny. Accessed 18 Apr. 2018.

Hille, Karl. “The Fact and Fiction of Martian Dust Storms” NASA, 27 Apr. 2018.

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/the-fact-and-fiction-of-martian-dust-storms. Accessed

19 Apr. 2018.