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 Home  The Martian

THE MARTIAN
Launch worksheet

Launch solution  
 Sergey Drozdov / 123rf.com.

THE MOVIE
The fantastic “The Martian” film came out in 2015 and itself
was based on the equally good book by Andy Weir published
in 2011. Matt Damon plays an astronaut who is presumed
dead in an accident and left behind on Mars. He has to use a
lot of science and maths to make it through a range of hairy
survival situations.
 The Martian | O cial Trailer [HD] | 20th Cent…
Cent…

SURVIVAL PROBLEM 1: FOOD

Astronaut Mark Watney is marooned and it looks like he’s
going to be stuck on the planet for a long time. How long?
Well, he estimates it’s 1400 sols (Martian days which are 24.5
earth hours long) until he will be rescued.

NASA provided the original team of 6 crew with enough food

for about 50 sols. 

Since there’s only one person left, that can be multiplied by 6:

Sols supply = 6 × 50

Sols supply = 300

Now since times are desperate, Watney can also ration out
the food to last a bit longer – about 1.33 times longer. So that
gets him a bit more time:

Rationed supply time = ration factor × normal supply duration

Rationed supply time = 1.33 × 300

Rationed supply time = 400 sols

That leaves Watney with another 1000 sols without food. His
only solution – to grow potatoes on Mars using his own faeces
(poo) as fertilizer! Yuck!
 Pincarel / 123rf.com.

Mark calculates he needs a minimum of 1500 calories per sol.

For the remaining 1000 sols:

Total extra calories required = sols left × calories required per

day

Total extra calories required = 1000 × 1500

Total extra calories required = 1500000

He needs to grow a whopping 1.5 million calories of potatoes!

Mark estimates a single potato has about 150 calories. That

means he needs to grow a total of:
Number of grown potatoes required = total calories required /
calories per potato

Number of grown potatoes required = 1500000 / 150

Number of grown potatoes required = 10000

A note about calories: when people talk about calories in

food, they’re actually talking about “kilocalories” (1 thousand
calories). For example, “that burger has 250 calories” actually
means that burger has 250 kilocalories, or 250,000 calories.

1 kilocalorie is equivalent to 4.184 kJ, which is another unit of

energy in food that is used in many places around the world.

SURVIVAL PROBLEM 2: DISASTER

STRIKES
At one point, a catastrophic explosion exposes Mark’s entire
potato farm to the Martian atmosphere and kills his remaining
crop. All he has are the rations, and the crops he’s already
grown, which he estimates to be about 400 plants, with an
average of 5 potatoes per plant.
 Sergii Pavlov / 123rf.com.

We can calculate how long he can survive with just this limited
crop and his rations:

Revised survival estimate = ration time + crop time

The rations we already know will last him about 400 sols. The
crops will last him:

Crop time = number of plants saved × number of potatoes per

plant × calories per potato / calories required per day

Crop time = 400 × 5 × 150 / 1500

 Crop time = 200 sols

So:

Revised survival estimate = 400 + 200

Revised survival estimate = 600 sols

Mark now has a major problem, because the emergency

resupply probe isn’t expected to reach him until Sol 856 –
which is more than 250 days after his food is expected to run
out.

SURVIVAL PROBLEM 3: FARMING ON

MARS
 0mela / 123rf.com.

Watney set up the roughly circular habitat to become a farm. If

the circular farm area has a radius of 5.41 metres, we can
calculate the total farming area:

Total farming area = π × r2

Total farming area = 92 m2

To successfully grow potatoes, Mark has to cover the floor to

a depth of 10 centimetres:
 Total soil required = farming area × soil depth

Total soil required = 92 m2 × 0.1 m

Total soil required = 9.2 m3

Planting the potatoes won’t be enough – Mark will need to

water them as well. He calculates that he needs about 40
litres of water per cubic metre of soil. So in total he’ll need:

Total farming water required = number cubic metres soil ×

water required per cubic metre

Total farming water required = 9.2 × 40

Total farming water required = 368 litres

SURVIVAL PROBLEM 4: WATER

CREATION
 Designua / 123rf.com.

Watney needs water to drink, but also to grow his crops

(before the explosion squashes that plan).

From the various equipment and supplies on the base, he can

get his hands on both oxygen and hydrogen. The figure above
shows how two hydrogen molecules combine with one
oxygen molecule to create two water (H20) molecules.

Using the above figure and some information about the

molecular weights of the various molecules involved, we can
calculate that 1 kilogram of oxygen combines with 0.125
kilograms of hydrogen to form 1.125 kilograms of water.

If we assume that 1 litre of water is the same as 1 kilogram of

water, then we can calculate how much oxygen and hydrogen
Watney will need to source to generate the required 368 litres
of water:

Oxygen required = water required × water to oxygen ratio

Oxygen required = 368 × 1 / 1.125

Oxygen required = 327.1 kg

Hydrogen required = water required × water to hydrogen ratio

Oxygen required = 368 × 0.125 / 1.125

Oxygen required = 40.9 kg  

SURVIVAL PROBLEM 5: ROVER

JOURNEY TO SCHIAPARELLI CRATER
 Sergey Drozdov / 123rf.com.

Mark has to take the rover and make a 3200 km journey

to Schiaparelli Crater to blast off and hopefully intercept the
rescue mission as it passes overhead.

Watney works out a way to carry enough solar panels with

him to recharge the rover on a daily basis.

The basic rover is equipped to go 35 km on a full charge:

Basic journey time = 3200 / 35

Basic journey time = 91.4 days

To make the journey faster, he cannibalizes the second rover

and doubles the daily travel distance to 70 km. 
Now part of the power usage of the rover is based on heating.
If Watney turns off all the heating, he can use all of the rover’s
18000 watt hours of power to drive. He calculates it takes
about 200 watt hours to drive 1 km:

New driving endurance = total battery capacity / power usage

per km driving

New driving endurance = 18000 / 200

New driving endurance = 90 km

SURVIVAL PROBLEM 6: SOLAR POWER

FOR THE ROVER
Every day, Mark has to stop the rover and recharge the
batteries using solar panels. He needs to calculate how many
solar panels to bring along.

He has 2 square metre solar panels that are 10.2% efficient,

which means that they absorb 10.2% of the approximately
500 watts of sunlight hitting each square metre.
 Sirikul Thirasuntrakul / 123rf.com.

He also calculates that he has about 13 hours of good

sunlight charging time each day.

Area of solar panel required = battery charge required /

(sunlight energy per square metre per hour × solar panel
efficiency × charging hours)

Area of solar panel required = 18000 / (500 × 0.102 × 13)

Area of solar panel required = 27.1 m2

That means he’ll need to bring along 14 solar panels (since

each panel is 2 square metres) with him on the journey.

REAL LIFE EXAMPLE – SURVIVALISTS

 

Paul Wishart / 123rf.com.

Survivalists are people who deliberately prepare themselves

for possible disasters. One of their key tasks is stockpiling
enough long life food to keep their family supplied for long
periods of time where other food isn’t available.

Well prepared survivalist might stockpile enough food to feed

their family for 2 years.

The following calculations use American units of pounds

(0.45 kg), feet (30.48 cm), inches (2.54 cm).
Let’s say the family has 2 adults:

40 year old male weighing 180 pounds, 6 feet tall,

40 year old female weighing 135 pounds, 5 feet 6 inches
tall,
boy aged 8 weighing 70 pounds, 5 feet 6 inches tall,
girl aged 6 weighing 50 pounds, 5 feet tall).

Let’s say they’re not doing much, so living a sedentary

lifestyle.

We can use the Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) to estimate

caloric needs.

Women: BMR = 655 + ( 4.35 x weight in pounds ) + ( 4.7

x height in inches ) – ( 4.7 x age in years )
Men: BMR = 66 + ( 6.23 x weight in pounds ) + ( 12.7 x
height in inches ) – ( 6.8 x age in year )

These calculations are then modified based on type of

lifestyle:

If you are sedentary (little or no exercise) : Calorie-

Calculation = BMR x 1.2
If you are lightly active (light exercise/sports 1-3
days/week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.375
If you are moderately active (moderate exercise/sports
3-5 days/week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.55
 If you are very active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days a
week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.725
If you are extra active (very hard exercise/sports &
physical job or 2x training) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x
1.9

FOR THE ADULT MALE:

BMR = 66 + (6.23 x 180 ) + ( 12.7 x 6 x 12 ) – ( 6.8 x 40 )

BMR = 1830 calories

Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.2

Calorie-Calculation = 2196 calories 

FOR THE ADULT FEMALE:

BMR = 655 + (4.35 x 135 ) + ( 4.7 x (5 × 12 + 6) ) – ( 4.7 x
40 )

BMR = 1364 calories

Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.2

Calorie-Calculation = 1637 calories

FOR THE BOY:

BMR = 66 + (6.23 x 70 ) + ( 12.7 x (5 × 12 + 6) ) – ( 6.8 x 8 )
 BMR = 1286 calories

Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.2

Calorie-Calculation = 1543 calories

FOR THE GIRL:

BMR = 655 + (4.35 x 50 ) + ( 4.7 x (5 × 12) ) – ( 4.7 x 6 )

BMR = 1126 calories

Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.2

Calorie-Calculation = 1351 calories 

Now we can calculate the total family calories required for the
2 year period:

Calories required for whole family = time period × calories

required per day

Calories required for whole family = 2 × 365 × (2196 + 1637  +

1543 + 1351)

Calories required for whole family = 2 × 365 × 6727

Calories required for whole family = 4910710

That’s about 5 million calories!

 A common survival food combination is rice and beans. A
large 30 pound bucket of white rice or beans is about 50000
calories. Let’s say the family met most of their calorie intake
using a 50-50 mix of white rice and beans. How much would
they need to stockpile?

Amount of white rice = 0.5 × total calories required × bucket

weight / calories per bucket

Amount of white rice = 0.5 ×  4910710 × 30 / 50000

Amount of white rice = 1473 pounds

And they’d need that same amount of beans again, for a total
of almost 3000 pounds of food, or about one and a half
tonnes.

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