Chapters 19-26

NASA teams up with the Chinese to launch the Taiyang Shen, to bring with the Hermes spacecraft, which docks successfully. Mark Watney now finishes his modifications to the rover; one part of it, though, is drilling a backbreaking 750 holes in it. He also plans out his route to the Schiaparelli crater, 3200 kilometres from the Hab, where a Mars Ascent Vehicle is located. Finally he leaves, but with a dust storm coming, again. And as he passes the storm and enters the crater, the rover topples. Finally, after reaching the MAV and making modifications to it, he is ready to launch for the return back to Earth...

Mark Watney, the protagonist of The Martian, is a hard-working man who does a lot of tiring work each day to cope with the situation of being stuck on Mars. He is stranded for 549 sols, or about 566 days. He is a round character, and we know a lot about him: he is a botanist, an astronaut and a mechanical engineer. It is partially his botany skills that keep him alive. He is an extreme risk-taker, though, taking unthinkable risks. For instance, when he tries to make water using H₂ and O₂ gases, he blows himself up due to an abrupt increase in pressure.

This, overall, is a must-read book. It reminds us that space travel is dangerous and that we must always consider the risks. Any person who is into mechanical engineering or chemistry, or basically anyone interested in space, will definitely like this book. Just watch out, though, there are a LOT of curse words in there, which is the one thing I detest about this book, as I don't really swear. I'd highly recommend this to basically anyone.

Chapters 10-18

Finally, with Pathfinder, Mark Watney is able to communicate with NASA! In addition, Mitch Henderson, NASA's flight director, finally tells the Ares 3 crew after four months that Mark is still alive. He has brought up this topic ever since they first discovered that. Disaster strikes once again, though: one of the airlocks Mark uses at the Hab (where he stays as his Mars home) decompresses and the Hab blows up, nearly killing him. He repairs the airlock and the Hab, but his farm of potatoes is completely annihilated. NASA has established a plan to send supplies to him by Sol 856 (for the mission, equivalent to about 882 Earth days), and he would have enough had the explosion not happened, but with the crops destroyed he'd be long dead by then. NASA begins to build a probe to send supplies to Mark, but with not enough time to build it. But when it is finished and launched, it turns out to be a failure, with the probe shattered to pieces. Mitch Henderson then proposes sending the Ares 3 (Hermes) crew back towards Mars, but the idea is rejected by NASA's Chief Director and Administrator Teddy Sanders. Mitch secretly lets the crew know, however, and they agree to return to Mars. Mark Watney thus begins modifications on the rover for driving 3200 kilometres by drilling holes in it, but working with high voltage, he loses connection with Earth by frying Pathfinder with 180 times as much current as it can handle!

The main theme of this book is perseverance. The message conveyed is that one should never, ever give up. Mark Watney is never ready to give up just yet. When he first comes to his senses that he is left behind on Mars, he first thinks he is doomed, but then finds a way to cope with that with his botany background. And when his crops die, the NASA team on Earth only changes plans to get the probe to Earth sooner. No one ever gives up when an event unfavorable for Mark occurs.

It is shocking to see events like the Hab blowing up. Mark has blown himself up twice now, once from trying to produce water, and this time, causing the Hab to blow up because of repeated use of the airlock there. Now, wouldn't it be such an amazing experience to be flung away in a certain direction? If I were caught in such an explosion, it would hurt a lot more for me. This can be the sort of thing that happens when one takes huge risks, so I wouldn't even bother trying what Mark did in the first place. As for when Mitch Henderson proposes sending the Hermes crew back to Mars to get Mark, I wonder. The other option appears to have a very, very high risk for failure, however. If I were Teddy Sanders, I'd just leave it up to the Hermes crew. They, however, decide to return, taking a huge risk. Another message may be that you must take risks at the worst of times!

Chapters 1-9

The Martian by Andy Weir is about NASA launching an Ares 3 mission on Mars, which, however, quickly turns into a terrible disaster when a dust storm with strong winds hits, which almost topples the launch vehicle. One of the crew members, Mark Watney, the protagonist and narrator, during the storm, is blown away by the wind, stabbed by an antenna and deemed dead by the rest of the crew, who leave him behind. Turns out that he isn't dead, however, far from it. The environment on Mars, though, leaves him with a lot of problems threatening death, including a shortage of food and water. Mark isn't fully ready to give up and perish, though, and uses his botany skills to try to grow food(potatoes) and a dangerous plan to produce water to survive for the next four years, until the Ares 4 mission is supposed to arrive. He drives a long distance in a rover to find Pathfinder, a broken radio, and the old rover Sojourner to establish communication with Earth. Meanwhile, back on Earth, Mindy Park from SatCon finds through some imagery evidence of human activity, suggesting that Mark Watney is still alive. The news spreads quickly to the rest of the world. NASA begins to make plans for a rescue mission to save him.

The story is told in two points of view. When the scenes are with Mark Watney on Mars, the story is told in the first person because it is divided into log entries made by Mark himself. Back on Earth, the story is told in limited omniscient point of view, only showing what the characters are saying, except for a couple of times when we are able to read Venkat Kapoor's thoughts. (Venkat Kapoor is NASA's director of Mars missions. Mindy Park first tells him about Mark Watney being alive before anyone else knows.) He seems to feel depressed after Mark's death and is always stressed out.
So far, it is a wonderful book. It is definitely perfect for those who are strong at chemistry, just like me. For instance, Mark Watney needs to use chemistry to produce water (H₂O) using H₂ and O₂ gases. For those who also like to look at the periodic table all day, the book also mentions plutonium, one of the radioactive elements. Mark puts himself in a rover with a box of plutonium-238, but I'd hate to be in an area where I could be vulnerable to extreme radiation. The last thing I'd want would be to be bombarded by alpha particles as the plutonium decays into uranium-234. Mark takes a lot of risks that I would never attempt. But after just reading the first few chapters, I now know that Mars is a very, very dangerous place (with just about no oxygen in the air whatsoever) and I should never go there at all costs.