3. CHAPTER 17
• The end is near. Watney is going to Schiaparelli Crater, but not so fast. He first needs to do a shitload of preparation. However, during this process, what fatal mistake does he make?
He leaned the drill against the workbench, the power traveled from the drill line's through Pathfinder's power line. Pathfinder operates on 50 millianps and the drill power got 9000 milliamps, which fried every delicate electronics of pathfinder. Pathfinder's dead, Watney is on his own.
4. CHAPTER 18
• Even with one setback after another, Watney is still fighting to survive. If he is not a tenacious son of a bitch, I truly do not know what he is. Anyway, all the physical labor has taken its toll on Watney's back. What does he do to relieve the pain? And how does he do it?
He takes bath.
He heat water with the RTG to create a heat reservoir. He took Johanssen's cot and spare Habcanvas to make a pit inside the cot to make a water-tight bathtub.
5. CHAPTER 19
• This chapter is not about Watney, not directly anyway; it happens on the Hermes -- the crew are having "FaceTime" with their family, and in Jiuquan -- Taiyang Shen is ready for launch. According to Johanssen's FaceTime with her father, what kind of "plan" has been made? Any thoughts on this?
The plan is, if anything goes wrong, she is chosen to be the surviver, and given the food supply is not abundant for her return, she would take her crewmates' bodies for food. Not that surprised on this cuz when it comes to survival, you have to do anything. There is a true story that has been put into a movie where an airplane crashed and people waiting for rescue had to eat victims. The scenario is also described in Three Bodies and a short story of Mark Twain.
6. CHAPTER 20
• Why does Watney give himself the title "Space Pirate"?
If you are not in any country's territory, maritme law applies. As Mars is "international waters", after he board Ares 4 and before talking to NASA, he is in control of a craft in international waters without any permission. That makes him a pirate, a space pirate.
• One problem in the Sirius 4 mission has been the uncomfortably tight space in the rover. Since this time, the trip is going to be significantly longer, what does he do to make sure this problem does not repeat itself?
He enlarges an emmergency tent with Hab canvas and makes him a bedroom attached to the airlock of the rover.
7. CHAPTER 21
• This is the last chapter before Watney officially leaves for Schiaparelli Crater. Please summarize the THREE main activities he has accomplished in this final stage of his preparation.
First, he drilled the trailer and made a pop balloon in it to load life support systems.
Second, he made him a bedroom.
Third, he loaded the rover and trailer and drove for test.
1. CHAPTER 22
• The map above shows the land Watney covers in this chapter. Again, navigation is critical. After all, it's not like he has GPS at his disposal. So, what object does he depend on to get ALTITUDE, and what tools does he use to obtain LONGITUDE?
For altitude, he made a sextantand use it to observe Deneb every night. For longitude, he only need the exact time and compare it to the Probos' position in the sky, and plug the recorded time when Phobos set into the formula he worked out, and he know his longtitude.
2. CHAPTER 23
• The dust storm seems to be the last hurdle Watney must overcome before he reaches the Crater in which MAV is lying. How does he determine the direction of the storm so that he can move past it?
He leaves a solar cell where he is now and drives due south and drop off a solar cell every 40 kilometers for twice, so that he has three points of reference. He drives back to collect the cells and read the data of time of the day and wattage on them. By comparing the wattage at the same time of day in three locations, he can learn whatever direction has less storm.
3. CHAPTER 24
• Well, so much for the "last hurdle" in Ch.23, but by this time I bet we're pretty much used to Mars sparing no effort trying to kill him. So, what accident occurs in this chapter? And how does it happen?
The rover rolls. When he descent into Schiaparelli Basin, the rover drives off an invisible ridge and the left front wheel sinks. The sudden tilt brings the right rear wheel completely off the ground, this in turn put more weight on the left wheel, and the rover rolls dragging the trailer along.
4. CHAPTER 25
• Everyone is trying to help Watney in the ways they can, from the nerds at NASA, to the crew on Hermes, and to Watney himself. Briefly summarize what Watney and the Hermes crew have been doing to make sure this mission has a successful outcome.
Watney did what NASA told him to, remove everything unnecessary in the MAV to make it light enough for the intercept velocity, and sacrifice the water and urine to fuel the MAV. As for the Hermes crew, Lewis keeps watching out all status of the preparation for interception and making sure everyone of the crew and every part of the ship is ready for that. Martinez is practicing remote pilote of the MAV, Vogel is taking care of engines, flying status and so on, Joanssen is busing with launching training, and Beck is getting ready for catch Watney, and save his life should anything physical conditions of Watney go wrong.
5. CHAPTER 26
• Even though we knew right from the start that Watney would be saved, we definitely didn't anticipate that it would be such a heart-stopping journey.
• At the beginning at Ch.26, why is there a single paragraph, para.4 to be exact, dedicated to depicting one couple?
That may be Watney's parents. I did not go back to check whether the location of his home is Chicago or not, though.
• Commander Lewis decides to blow up the VAL to create thrust. How does she come up with this extremely dangerous idea? And what is the purpose of it?
She is enlightened by Mark's crazy Iron man idea. The purpose of it is to give Hermes an opposite force to its forward direction to slow it down so that they can reach a relative velocity to MAV within interception range.