Long Trail

Maybe we could set a retirement goal?

Better yet, even before we retire — maybe we can set an intention for having turned 60? And, while plenty of hikers are well into their 70’s or older, a very real issue lurks (maybe just for us!) which is: “should we do this, before we are too old?”.

…we are starting a tradition, or two which sets the pattern for our accomplishments, even if small things we managed to achieve: a first blog post, a first day hike, or first overnight at a LT lodge or tent site.

A beer, to celebrate.

A beer, from the Long Trail brewery, of course.

Book review: The Martian – great read, will the movie be good too??!?

Great book — now, I need to go find the movie (Amazon, or maybe Red Box locally).

<SPOILER ALERT> maybe for just a few details in my writing below — but, mostly you already know that Mark Watley is an astronaut who’s been left alone on Mars; unless you hadn’t seen any of the movie previews where Matt Daemon plays Watley.

The first, and most blatant aspect of the book, is how much math is used, for everything!  The maths done to prepare for an outing (space man lingo: “EVA”), or to determine how many potatoes can be grown in a “Hab” (that’s probably an acronym for something, I’m sure). That was how Mark plans to survive, and he spreads dirt all around the floor of his Martian home.  It was great. Maybe for people who don’t like math it was a put-off to hear all the estimation games; but, it’s a science fiction book (and, movie)… so, what is the chance the audience wouldn’t like a little math. zilcho.

A few comments in retrospect, seemed like the ability of surviving a year without much human interaction — maybe unlikely, but certain to be studied. The book, only talks about this element a few times, and quite peripherally to the real story. Ehhh, OK.

And, how quickly the book’s story line passes off the near fatal stabbing with a flying antennae — and suddenly the character is traveling dozens of kilometers on foot and in a rover. Well, that is just normal poetic license, that our favorite movie start is often unscathed and beautiful in a scene immediately after being pummeled by a monster or big old bad guy. So, I’m OK with that too.

 

Also, the review on GoodReads online included a comment stream regarding astronaut Chuck Hadfield (who is famous for nice photos taken from the International Space Station): <LINK>

Some more comments, regarding the accuracy of the technical details in the book.

In the Guardian, online (see <LINK> to his review) makes comment that the “Storm” which caused the Martian tragic sand blowing all over the place, as being a bit of a flaw.

This is the only thing I noticed that was completely impossible, as opposed to improbable or sub-optimal. The Martian atmosphere is only 1% as thick as Earth’s, so a Mars wind of 100mph, which is possible although quite rare on the surface, would only have the same dynamic force as a 10mph wind on Earth. You could fly a kite in it, but it wouldn’t knock you down.

The fact that they so completely depended upon this to make the premise of the book work — that caused Mark to get “left behind on the surface of Mars”, probably means we should be willing to dismiss the flaw as necessary. The Guardian article also speaks to the relative gravity of Mars (this is probably more a comment about the movie, rather than the book) that characters seem to be struggling more, with weight; but, in the book there’s a number of times they clarify that something heavy, is still hard to move, considering there is still some gravity affecting movement.

The overall impression, I like this book. And, I respect the effort made to get an accurate depiction of the struggle to survive on Mars. The fact that the main character is a botanist and mechanical engineer, is really well thought thru and adds to the story.

I can’t wait to see the movie.