Just how scientifically accurate is The Martian, anyway? Let’s find out
Ridley Scott’s The Martian has been dominating the domestic box office for the last two weeks, but does the science in the film hold up to any scrutiny whatsoever? Astrophysicist and college professor Andy Howell decided to investigate this topic as part of his newly launched YouTube series, Science Vs. Cinema. Due to its proximity to Earth, Mars has received more attention from sci-fi filmmakers than any other planet in the solar system, leading to such efforts as 1964’s Santa Claus Conquers The Martians, which may have taken one or two liberties with science in its quest to tell an entertaining Yuletide story. Over a half century later, the scientific community has much more information about Mars, since the Red Planet is practically crawling with rovers, snooping around in every last crater. Scott, whose résumé includes such sci-fi classics as Alien and Blade Runner, was attracted to the screen adaptation of Andy Weir’s The Martian because of the story’s inherent realism and wanted to put all that new-found information to use. Science Vs. Cinema runs a few experiments and talks with some real-life scientists and NASA employees, as well as members of The Martian’s own cast and crew, to see how successful Scott was.