The crew of the Ares III manned mission to Mars is exploring the Acidalia
Planitia on Martian solar day (sol) 18 of their 31-sol expedition. An
unexpectedly strong dust storm threatens to topple their Mars Ascent
Vehicle (MAV), forcing them to hastily leave the planet. During the evacuation,
astronaut Mark Watney is struck by debris and lost in the storm; the last
telemetry from his suit indicates no signs of life. With the remaining crew in
peril, mission commander Melissa Lewis gives the order to launch to return to
their orbiting vessel Hermes without him.
Watney awakens after the storm to a low oxygen warning and
makes his way to the "Hab", the crew's base of operations. He removes
a piece of antenna from his torso and suit's biomonitor, which caused the
erroneous life-sign readings, and begins a video diary. He realizes that his
only chance of rescue is the arrival of the Ares IV crew at the Schiaparelli crater, 3,200 kilometers
away, in four years. Calculating that he has enough food to last only 300 sols
(roughly 309 days), Watney, a botanist, improvises a farm with Martian soil
fertilized with human waste, water produced by extracting hydrogen from
leftover rocket fuel then oxidized by burning, and potatoes saved for a
Thanksgiving meal. He begins to modify the only functional rover to
make long journeys across Mars.
Reviewing satellite photos of Mars, mission director
Vincent Kapoor and satellite planner Mindy Park realize Watney has survived.
Despite the objections of Hermes flight director Mitch Henderson, NASA administrator Teddy Sanders decides
not to inform the Ares III crew, believing it would distract them from their
mission.
Watney takes the rover to retrieve the Pathfinder probe, which fell silent in 1997.
Using the lander's camera, he establishes rudimentary communication with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) team. NASA instructs Watney to
modify the rover to link with Pathfinder so they can communicate via text.
Watney becomes angry when he learns that the crew has not been told of his
survival, and Sanders authorizes Henderson to inform them.
Henderson and JPL director Bruce Ng formulate a plan to
send a space probe to Mars and resupply Watney with enough
food to survive until Ares IV's arrival. When the Hab's airlock malfunctions
and explosively decompresses, destroying Watney's crop, Sanders orders the team
to speed up the supply mission by skipping the safety inspections. The supply
probe explodes shortly after liftoff.
The China National Space Administration offers NASA the Taiyang Shen, a classified booster that
can carry a payload to Mars. Meanwhile, JPL astrodynamicist Rich Purnell devises a trajectory to send Hermes back to Mars more quickly, using the
Chinese booster to instead resupply it for an additional eighteen months.
Sanders rejects the plan, refusing to risk the crew, but Henderson
surreptitiously sends the details to Hermes.
Lewis and her crew vote unanimously to execute the plan, and NASA—powerless to
stop them—proceeds with the resupply as Hermes flies by Earth, using its gravity to
slingshot them back to Mars.
After 461 sols, Watney begins the 90-sol journey to
Schiaparelli, where the MAV for the Ares IV mission has been prepositioned. To
rendezvous with Hermes,
Watney makes drastic modifications to reduce the MAV's mass, removing equipment
including the windows,nose cone, and exterior panels. With Watney on board the
gutted MAV, the Hermes crew launches it remotely, but it does
not reach the planned speed and altitude. Lewis has Hermes use its maneuvering thrusters to
change course and explosive decompression of its own internal atmosphere to
adjust its speed. When even that is not enough, Lewis uses a Manned Maneuvering Unit to approach Watney's vessel, but still
cannot reach him. Watney pierces the glove of his pressure suit and uses the
escaping air as a miniature thruster to reach Lewis. The crew is reunited, as
crowds around the world cheer the news.
After returning to Earth, Watney begins a new life as a
survival instructor for new astronaut candidates. Five years later, on the
occasion of the Ares V mission launch, those involved in Watney's rescue have
returned to their lives or begun new lives. Source
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