The Martian

It appears as though all is lost. Watney begins composing letters to all the members of the Ares 3 mission crew, assuring them that they are not to blame, and they should not feel guilty. In his letter to Rick Martinez, he asks that Rick check on his parents if he doesn’t make it. At the end of the letter, however, he makes clear that he is not giving up, just thinking ahead.

In China, Zhu Tao, the underdirector of the China National Space Administration, meets with the director, Guo Ming. They have a booster on one of their probes that, with a lighter load, could make the trip to Mars. After discussion, they decide to offer their probe to NASA in exchange for a Chinese astronaut on the Ares 5 mission. Teddy Sanders accepts their offer and gives JPL a new challenge: get the new booster and payload ready for a new mission in 28 days, less than half the time they took to build the first probe.

Rich Purnell, who developed his idea, shares it with Venkat, and they meet with NASA and JPL to explain his plan: He believes the Hermes could turn around when it reaches Earth, using a gravity assist, and return to Mars to pick up Watney. The Chinese probe could intercept the Hermes when it passes by Earth and resupply the ship. After discussion, Teddy nixes the plan, deeming it unacceptable to take the chance of killing the entire Hermes crew in addition to Watney. Henderson disagrees with him and secretly sends the plan to the Ares 3 crew, aboard the Hermes. The crew hold a meeting and unanimously decide to execute the plan, dubbed the Rich Purnell maneuver. They send a message to NASA and then go off course.

Watney gets the message that the Hermes is returning to Mars to pick him up. His priority is to get to the Ares 4 MAV, which he will use to leave Mars. The Hermes is not equipped to land on Mars, so Watney will have to launch the MAV and intercept the Hermes as it flies by in orbit. He has 257 sols to prepare, so he gets to work on the first step: getting ready for the rover trip to the Ares 4 MAV. He is working with NASA to design a vehicle that can get him there. Because it is such a long trip, he will not be able to use the same system he used to get to the Pathfinder. This vehicle will involve both rovers and some serious modifications. He has to fit what he calls “The Big Three”—the atmospheric regulator, the oxygenator, and the water reclaimer—into the rover, along with room for himself. He will be traveling for approximately 50 sols. One day, while working on the modifications that he and NASA have developed, his drill makes a metal-to-metal connection with his workbench and sends electricity through Pathfinder, destroying the electronics. As a result, Pathfinder can no longer talk to the rover, and he has lost communication with NASA. He will not be able to fully communicate with them again until he reaches the Ares 4 MAV.

With communications between himself and NASA lost, Watney must continue to make the modifications and preparations without NASA’s help. In addition, he will have to make the trip on his own. He faces several decisions about his vehicle, but he knows for sure that he must lighten the load. Watney is back to problem-solving by himself. He decides to use the RTG to power the regulator. But this means he needs to dig up the RTG again, and when he does so, he seriously hurts his back. Instead of pushing ahead, Watney rigs up a hot bath for himself and spends a week soaking, resting, and healing. While he is doing so, he gets a lot of thinking done, and he realizes that if he brings more solar panels on the trip, and more batteries, he will be able to generate and store more power, ensuring that he will get to the Ares 4 MAV on time. Though he can still communicate with NASA using Morse code, arranging rocks that they can see via satellite with basic messages, he’s still functionally isolated. One day, he realizes that the Chinese probe is launching in two days to intercept with the Hermes. If the launch is unsuccessful, the plan will be called off, and yet, he will not know the status of the mission until he gets to the communications at the Ares 4 MAV.