Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/610353
24 People often say that making movies is not rocket science. For The Martian it was. More science than fiction, what sets this story apart from many others about the exploration of outer space is that the entire plot is predicated on real science. To keep himself alive until he can be rescued, astronaut Mark Watney (played by Matt Damon), stranded with only his wits and a few potatoes, has to rely completely on his knowledge of Previous pages: A digital illustration by Concept Artist Stephen Burg of the Ares 3 evacuation from the surface of Mars, leaving behind astronaut Mark Watney (Matt Damon). Top: A 6-wheeled Mars rover drawing with details called out, by Art Director Oliver Hodge and draftsperson Sarah Ginn. Above: A 3D study of the vehicle, also modeled by Mr. Hodge and Ms. Ginn. Right: A photograph of the finished 4-wheel rover, custom-built in Hungary on the chassis of a high- clearance agricultural vehicle. botany, organic chemistry and rocket technology again and again. Drawing on his ingenuity, his engineering skills and a relentless, dogged refusal to give up, he steadfastly confronts one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next. In order to survive four years on Mars in a habitat pod designed to last only a month, until the Ares 3 crew comes back to rescue him, he'll have to grow his own crops (with a little help from the greens department), and having lost his communications system because of a powerful storm, he must devise an improvised means of making contact with NASA ground control back on Earth by cannibalizing equipment left on the planet by a previous Mars mission: the 1996 Pathfinder and Sojourner probes. Both action props were faithfully reproduced by the film's propmakers. He also has to gerry rig his life-support systems to extend the range of his Mars rover vehicle in order to make