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!