The Martian (2015)
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Terial
Trakanon Raider
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what you non book readers do not know (now that this storm hole has been discovered) is that the MAV that he goes to to leave, well, there is a bigger storm that he has to navigate around to get to it. So, no clue why that MAV did not fall either, never thought of it... thanks Cad
Cad
scientia potentia est
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Yea but the point is, how do you design your pre-positioned launch vehicle that is intended to stay there for years if there are random storms that will knock it over? Why not either design it to survive any possible storm or have it stay in orbit and deploy as needed? Either of these would work and close the plot hole, but then you'd need some other reason for characters to do what they do.
Having intelligent reasons that your characters do what they do (and thereby letting your characters be smart, and not having to blunder into adversity to make a plot arc) is a hallmark of good writing.
Nester
Vyemm Raider
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So did ares 4 get scrapped becouse he used their Mav? Would the Mav not have supplies he needed that he tossed out at the end? Based on the time line I though A4 was already in route to Mars, so those dudes would have to turn back or stay in orbit. a4 was supposed to be there on sol 9**. Thus must have been on route already right?
khorum
Murder Apologist
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In that LLNL talk, the author admitted the strength of the storms was waaaay exaggerated. He could've done an accident or an explosion that forced the astronauts to leave but since it was a Man-vs-Mars story he wanted Mars to "strike first".
Prolly the biggest thing he said he missed (more than the water thing since he didnt know there was water there till like last week) was the perchlorate salts in Martian soil. Basically,levels of perchloratesin martian soil is thousands of times more toxic than is survivable by humans, so they'd need to leave their space suits on the outside and do a thorough wash in the airlocks. He'd also have to massively treat the soil before bringing it indoors to raise potatoes.
Prolly the biggest thing he said he missed (more than the water thing since he didnt know there was water there till like last week) was the perchlorate salts in Martian soil. Basically,levels of perchloratesin martian soil is thousands of times more toxic than is survivable by humans, so they'd need to leave their space suits on the outside and do a thorough wash in the airlocks. He'd also have to massively treat the soil before bringing it indoors to raise potatoes.
Intrinsic
Person of Whiteness
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I don't understand the complaint. It wasn't / isn't designed so that a random storm can knock it over. They obviously design it for certain tolerances that are also stated in the movie. They know the storm is way out of those tolerances, they know the maximum angle the MTV can tilt, etc...Where is the plothole? Other than what he said about the storm not being feasible at all. But not designing the MAV to withstand anything ever checks out. Survive any possible storm, really?
Cad
scientia potentia est
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All it would need is some extensible leg supports and wind couldn't possibly blow it over. We're not talking about serious redesign here.
And the original complaint was if the storms are so common that one occurs during their original 30 day mission, how do they just plan on leaving the other one out there for years? Surely another storm will come along before Ares IV shows up.
opiate82
Bronze Squire
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It cost what, $10,000 per pound of payload just to get something in orbit? When they were building the MTV they didn't have an unlimited budget, so basically they had to say "Our budget allows for us to build an MTV that can withstand a storm with winds up to 150kph, what are the chances that in the 4 years the MTV is there charging up it gets hit by a storm larger than that?" and so long as that chance was within the mission risk tolerances that is was okay. We can also infer that those risk tolerances were obscenely low when, with Mark's life in the balance, they almost didn't attempt to resupply him because the emergency launch had a 2.5% chance of failure.
Selix
Lord Nagafen Raider
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The dust storm is a known plot hole. An extreme dust storm on Mars supposedly has the force of a light breeze on your face. What he could have done is use lightning instead. There are many examples of lightning strikes happening and a dust storm with raging lightning is probably more realistic. Still for a book so scientifically accurate based on the knowledge of one person I can give him a pass on the dust storm. I didn't know about the soil issues.
Adebisi
Clump of Cells
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Palum
what Suineg set it to
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Well, it used the atmosphere to generate hydrazine or something, so it would have had to have been on the ground the entire time.
I get your point but I think generally the point or rather intellectual exercise of the book was "what happens when bad things happen on a mars mission?" I mean, it very well could have been martian soil movement or something and just have them blinded by a storm and Watney is dumb and falls, killing the bio monitor but the time constraint causes them to leave without his body after he fell down a slope. Engineering Disasters 5 style, ton of bad shit happens at once to conspire against you versus unnatural martian storm.
Araxen
Golden Baronet of the Realm
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What movie doesn't have a plot hole?Its not like it ruins anything, it's just a bit of a plot hole. [Reason to leave watney on Mars] whatever that reason is, its fine. Just should have come up with something better
Mist
REEEEeyore
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It's not the force, it's the fact that the dust would trash everything. It's super fine so it clogs everything, is made of metals, radioactive charged particles, all sorts of shit. At least, that's what they used to think, I'm not sure what the current science is.
Palum
what Suineg set it to
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Uhh, yea that's exactly what it is in the movie though, the wind literally knocking the spaceship over.
Nester
Vyemm Raider
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Thanks for commenting on the plot details of a movie you clearly have not seen. The wind was the issue, as if it pushed the rocket over 13 degrees it would not be able to take off.