NASA Scientists Fact-Check “The Martian'

How accurate is the new space film “The Martian”? We had NASA scientists break down the science behind the movie to find out if Matt Damon’s portrayal of a stranded astronaut on Mars is realistic or out of this world.


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NASA Scientists Fact-Check “The Martian"

[kingseanthefirst]

My question is why they keep leaving matt damon in places across the universe. Once he got back from Mars, they marooned him on an ice planet (interstellar) lol. They want him as far from earth as possible.

[maoqiutong]

I was sometimes suspicious about how martian wind can blow people away with only 1% thickness of atmosphere.
This scientist in this video supports me :)

[thesnowleopard]

The confidence he has when he says that the first person to touch mars will be in his lifetime is incredible. I hope he is right

[spooks]

That would be incredible if humans make it to mars in my lifetime

[mtknight]

Andy Weir clearly did his research. And, if you didn't know this movie was based on his book of the same name, you should go check it out. The movie did a great job adapting it, so you just get more story. The audiobook read by Wil Wheaton is really well done.

[richardw]

The Martian is a great movie. It has a gripping story and incorporates a lot of science which makes it even more interesting to watch. I liked it so much i bought the DVD. Well done Ridley Scott, Matt Damon and everyone else involved.

[PresidentialWinner]

"i'm pretty sure its going to be the most exciting human adventure of all time" HELL YES

[bookcadenb]

Imagine... Imagine if we stopped spending money on killing each other for just a single year and put all of that (more than 1 Trillion Dollars worldwide) towards Science and Space endeavors. Imagine the leap in technology in such a short time.

[Deziede]

Did Watney not suffer an radiation effects from the Plutonium he had strapped in the backseat? As the film went on, his skin started to show some sort of abrasions and bruising, but I don't know if this was from that, or from severe malnutrition (and/or getting knocked around by a whole string of bad luck).

Excellent movie :)

[Vlasko]

After the big lie, everything was really accurate.

[poisiion]

Interstellar and Martian are my 2 most favorite space movies. It sucks there are not many of these kinda films

[parzh]

Scientists: we’re gonna visit Mars in 2020
2020: no you’re not

[Brionatic]

If I got to mars all I got to eat are a bunch of taters? Well color me green and hand me a Guinness, to mars me boyos.

[sceaux]

"I am the greatest botanist on this planet."

[jean]

in case you didnt know NASA worked with the film crew and production. they saw the potential of the film thats why they helped

[DarkTheFailure]

It still amazes me how similar mars and earth look. I always thought it was a alien and completely different world but its just a desert

[_R-R]

The author of the book commented on the dust storm.
He wanted a man vs nature event to kickstart the story. He knew that the storm would be impossible in real life, yet he had that storm take place.

[frustratid]

I had a problem with the fact that they're just entering their landers and bases with their spacesuits still on, especially since Mars dust is electrostatically charged and quite toxic as well

[jeffedwards]

The Martian is not only a fantastic book, but a very good adaptation into a movie that follows the majority of the story line almost perfectly (something that seems to rarely happen in films adapted form existing novels). Matt did great as Mark Watney, too. I've heard 99% of the novel/film's science is either accurate, or WILL be within a few years. The storms on Mars was where most scientists took issue, but other than that, it's quite realistic. I've seen it at least a dozen times. One of my favorite movies of the last 20 years easy.

[rkpetry]

[01:28] Although a Mars weather storm would be 1% of Earth strength it picks up dark dust and changes its solar thermal intake structure more compactly than on Earth, and the dust becomes a heavy atmosphere-like component, and seeding reflective ice on top the whole oscillates (pumps)... If the storm were jetstream-driven it could precipitate an iceblast; If it were triggered by outgassing from underground, it would be directed and warm like a cool-volcano-pyroclastic flow—and locally stronger and against Mars ⅜ths gravity....