Characters
The Ares 3 crew’s resident doctor, biologist, and EVA specialist; he believes Watney is dead before everyone else on the crew
Beck
A crass, bold, direct character who is the Director of Media Relations at NASA
"F Bomb Annie" Montrose
In order for his potatoes to grow, Mark needs water and this in the soil
bacteria
Mark proclaimed this song by this artist to be his personal theme song
"Stayin' Alive", by the Bee Gees
PROBLEM: Mark can't survive on just the crew's food rations until the Ares 4 crew arrives.
SOLUTION: Mark puts his botany background to work and grows potatoes to supplement his caloric intake
Displays extreme loyalty to the Ares 3 crew, even risking his job to go behind his boss’s back to send instructions regarding the Rich Purnell Maneuver
Mitch Henderson
A "hot chick who went to Mars"; is the crew's sysop and computer specialist
Johanssen
Mark uses this in order to gain hydrogen and create water
hydrazine (leftover hydrazine fuel that was from the Ares 3 MDV)
What causes the Hab to breach?
The dust storm on sol 6 had caused a tiny, micro tear in the seal strip of airlock 1. It went undetected due to its location but continued to stretch every time Mark used the airlock. Due to airlock 1's overuse, it eventually ripped.
PROBLEM: After the Hab breaches, Mark finds himself stuck in Airlock one, 50 meters away from the Hab.
Solution: Slamming himself into the wall, Mark uses his body weight to roll the airlock closer to the Hab.
Issues the directive to skip pertinent safety checks on the Iris probe in an effort to prevent Mark’s starvation
Teddy Sanders
Received an encrypted email disguised as an email from his wife which contained the instructions for the Rich Purnell Maneuver; is the crew's chemist
Vogel
Explain the series of events that led to Pathfinder dying
Mark ran a power cord from the Hab to the outside drill bit so that it could have a constant charge. He accidentally leaned the metal drill against the metal work bench / table on which Pathfinder was sitting. As a result, the conductive materials allowed an electrical current to from the drill, through the cord, up the table, and into Pathfinder's ancient circuit board
“the big three” items that Mark needs to modify the rover to be able to transport
Atmospheric regulator, oxygenator, water reclaimer
PROBLEM: Mark needs a way to heat the rover on his trip to recover Pathfinder
SOLUTION: He uses the RTG (radioisotope thermoelectric generator) which gives off high amounts of heat
Leads the engineering efforts for the Iris probe; also informs Venkat of the modification plans to lighten the MAV
Bruce Ng
the Director of the Chinese National Space Administration; gives official approval to use the Taiyeng Shen booster on the Iris Probe
Guo Ming
Vogel uses this and this to create the bomb that blows off the door of Hermes
sugar and pure oxygen
Mark needs to increase this and replace this in order to get Pathfinder working again
increase the temperature and replace the battery
PROBLEM: The Ares 4 MAV is too heavy to ascend into the Martian atmosphere
SOLUTION: Mark lightens the MAV by stripping it of excess furniture, comm systems, all life support systems, navigation panels, the window and front hull, etc
An employee of the Chinese National Space administration; informs his boss that Taiyang Shen has enough fuel for a Mars injection orbit should they decide to help the Americans to rescue Watney
Zhu Tao
A software engineer at NASA; this person finds a way to implement code that allows Pathfinder and Watney’s rover to “talk” to each other, which significantly improves the efficiency of communications between Watney and NASA
Jack Trevor
Mark's idea of turning into Iron Man and Commander Lewis's plan to open the vehicular airlock both utilize the same idea to create this in order to slow Hermes down
a thruster
Mark broke this many ribs during his ascent on the modified MAV
two
PROBLEM: Mark needs a strategy to determine the size of the dust storm and which direction it is moving
SOLUTION: Mark monitors percent power loss with solar cell panels at different locations