Preston
Ball
Dr.
Ellis
EN
387
February
6, 2018
Andy Weir’s The
Martian, reminds me of a modern day futurist version of Robinson Crusoe, where
people are deserted on a remote island. What is particularly telling about
Mark’s story is he is not merely stuck on a remote place on earth, but rather
Mark is trapped on a planet, so far away from earth that it takes over a year
to travel from one planet to another. On a deserted island, if a person has
communication, they are able to communicate in real time. Perhaps the biggest
difference, in The Martian is that being so far away from Earth there is
actually a substantial time difference between the planets.
It
was not until the end of the novel that I became aware of this. When Mark first
talks to his crew they have an exchange about how far away they are. As Hermes
begins its trip back to Mars, “with Hermes ninety light seconds away back and
forth communication was impractical.” Ninety light seconds is an idea I have
never thought about. Everyone knows other galaxies are light-years away but to
think that other planets are light minutes away really illustrates how spread
out the solar system truly is. As the Hermes nears Mars, they talk to Mark when
they are thirty-seven light seconds away which is considerably closer. Still
the fact that they are that far away is mind blowing.
In
the end, I found the concept of Mars being light minutes away really amazing.
It is hard to even comprehend the effect that has on the time Mark experiences
in his communications to people outside Mars. By the time Nasa looks at a image
of Mars, even in real time, the picture they are seeing has a delay of minutes
because of how far light must travel.
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