Matthias
asked
Andy Weir:
Mark produced water (vapor) by burning Hydrazine rocket fuel directly with the help of a catalyst. Besides the excess hydrogen mishap, Hydrazine is very toxic and carcinogenic - wouldn't he have poisoned himself?
Andy Weir
Yes, and I didn't know that at the time I wrote it. It's a problem that Mark could easily have solved by wearing his spacesuit while doing the reduction.
Also, the story tells how much Hydrazine he reduced, how long he took to do it, what the volume of the Hab is, and what the makeup of the air in the Hab is. From that, a fan of mine who is a chemist worked out how much the temperature in the Hab would have increased. About 400C. So that would have killed Mark.
Excess heat is easily solved on a planet with nighttime temperatures in the -100C range. I wish I'd known about this stuff when I wrote it. It would have been more interesting challenges for Mark.
Also, the story tells how much Hydrazine he reduced, how long he took to do it, what the volume of the Hab is, and what the makeup of the air in the Hab is. From that, a fan of mine who is a chemist worked out how much the temperature in the Hab would have increased. About 400C. So that would have killed Mark.
Excess heat is easily solved on a planet with nighttime temperatures in the -100C range. I wish I'd known about this stuff when I wrote it. It would have been more interesting challenges for Mark.
More Answered Questions
Claire
asked
Andy Weir:
As a non math/science minded person, I particularly appreciated the asides/explanations of the more difficult-to-understand science-y stuff in The Martian, and Watney's dry sense of humor was uplifting in a dire situation. I'm curious, was it a conscious choice to keep Watney upbeat and cracking jokes even when things were looking extremely grim, instead of having his attitude turn sour (like most people's might)?
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