The Martian's Garden

source

Google said, "With only a meager amount of supplies, the stranded visitor must utilize his wits and spirit to find a way to survive on the hostile planet.

This guy needed air, water, and food to survive:

If the oxygenator breaks down, I'll suffocate. If the water reclaimer breaks down, I'll die of thirst. If the hab breaches, I'll just kind of implode. If none of those things happen, I'll eventually run out of food and starve to death.

He made a garden from stuff found in the garbage and the food supplies that had been abandoned:


source

I've got to make a lot more water. The good thing is, I know the recipe: You take hydrogen, you add oxygen, and you burn. Now, I have hundreds of liters of unused hydrazine at the MDV. If I run the hydrazine over an iridium catalyst, it'll separate into N2 and H2. And then if I just direct the hydrogen into a small area and burn it. Luckily, in the history of humanity, nothing bad has ever happened from lighting hydrogen on fire.
[after trying to make water by burning hydrogen] So... I blew myself up.

They say once you grow crops somewhere, you have officially colonized it. So, technically, I colonized Mars. In your face, Neil Armstrong!

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Martian_(film)


source


source

This post was inspired by

Gardening for health in outer space

I read the book on-line shortly after it was written by Andy Weir in 2011. Hard to believe it's over 10 years old now! We know more - I know a bunch about the things that weren't considered and just how difficult it would really be to create a "life" on Mars or in any spaceship, compared to simply "existing".

To approximately quote a fellow permie - I'd rather see the effort going into fixing the beautiful planet we're on. I am a firm believer that Mother Nature will do that - I'm just not completely sure that humans will stay part of that equation unless more of us up our game and start being part of the solution instead of part of the problem!

Jay Angler wrote:I know a bunch about the things that weren't considered and just how difficult it would really be to create a "life" on Mars or in any spaceship, compared to simply "existing".

And I think that this has a lot to do with why this path of research is valuable.  Certainly, effectively growing crops on an improved Earth is a far easier path; but a wise man once said, "Gaia isn't sick, she's pregnant!".  And while I'm not a Gaia-ist myself, the thought experiment of imagining the whole of the Earth, humanity included, as a single meta-organism does have merit.  In this context, humanity is the mind of Gaia; as the only portion that can think critically, learn, develop technology and act according to a purpose.  So if Gaia is pregnant, humanity is a necessary component to get the newborn off-planet.  To that end, we have to understand ourselves and our environment well enough to replicate it in a tiny fraction of volume and mass, and keep it in balance long enough to establish itself elsewhere.

Space Travel has never been something I have been interested.

I followed on 3 June 1965, when Ed White made America's first spacewalk, from Gemini4.

And again on 21 July 1969, Neil Armstrong, the Commander of Apollo 11, and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to walk on the Moon.

I followed the tenth flight in January 1986, when Challenger disintegrated 73 seconds after liftoff, killing the seven-member crew of STS-51-L that included Christa McAuliffe, who would have been the first teacher in space.

After the crash on February 1, 2003, Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated as it reentered the atmosphere over Texas and Louisiana, killing all seven astronauts on board, I no longer paid any attention the the flights.

What I thought was so interesting about the movie, The Martian was that he rummage through the garbage left behind for things he could grow to support his life there until he could be rescued.  

Anne Miller wrote:What I thought was so interesting about the movie, The Martian was that he rummage through the garbage left behind for things he could grow to support his life there until he could be rescued.  

It seemed to me that he was rummaging through the garbage to look for shit (feces, poop) to inoculate the Martian dirt! He specifically looked for the shit bags that had his name on them in the hopes that he could tolerate his own microbes better than anyone else's. I don't know what they do on the ISS with people's shit - launching it into space is the last thing I'd want people doing, as there's so much space trash up there already that it's becoming a serious pollution issue, as the trash damages equipment we don't want damaged. However, the only alternative I can think of is that they bring it back to earth?

Loved the movie, haven’t read the book. I  fantasized about myself going to Mars to grow food. But I’m too old for that.
I hope they’re somehow composting the
humanure on the space station.

Jay Angler wrote:

Anne Miller wrote:What I thought was so interesting about the movie, The Martian was that he rummage through the garbage left behind for things he could grow to support his life there until he could be rescued.  

It seemed to me that he was rummaging through the garbage to look for shit (feces, poop) to inoculate the Martian dirt! He specifically looked for the shit bags that had his name on them in the hopes that he could tolerate his own microbes better than anyone else's.  

It is funny how different people pick up on different things.

I am sure you are right about what you remember about the book.

When I asked Mr. Google, I basically got your answer.

I finally found where he used potatoes reserved for Thanksgiving on Wikipedia.

I have to watch it again if it ever comes back on for the scene that is in my memory of him rummaging through food wrappers, etc.

Either way, the book/movie is still a great lesson in survival.

In 1973, Donovan speculated about the waste issue in the "Intergalactic Laxative" song on his Cosmic Wheels album.

excerpt:

They don't partake like you and I, of beefy burger mush.
Their food is specially prepared, to dissolve into slush.
Absorbed by multi-fibers in the super diaper suit,
Otherwise the slush would trickle down inside the boot.
(...)
Now what, you may well ask, becomes of liquids they consume.
A pipe is led from penis head to a unit in the room.
The water is recirculated, filtered for re-use,
In case some anti-gravity pee gets on the loose.

Bethany Brown wrote:
I hope they’re somehow composting the
humanure on the space station.

They're not.  After vacuuming out the water, human waste is bagged and allowed to burn up in Earth's upper atmosphere upon reentry.