The Martian

Question: Would it really be possible to make water using the method Mark Watney uses in the movie?

Answer: According to Internet sources, yes, it's possible to do this. Here's one link with more information: https://www.vox.com/2015/10/7/9465463/the-martian-science-explained.

raywest

Question: The gravity acceleration on Mars is 3.71/ms2 a little more than double our Moon and approximately 1/3 of Earth gravity. For this reason every falling object or walking/running people or bouncing object should be attracted to Mars in a "slow motion" fashion. Watching the movie I didn't notice such slow-motion effect. Was that a deliberate error in order to avoid huge additional costs and probably making the movie less tedious?

Answer: Most likely, yes. Though it is worth noting that is probably also part of the reason why the number of falling objects on screen is kept to a minimum, and there is one more thing: there is much less air resistance on Mars than there is on earth because of the thin atmosphere. For a real world comparison, look at the footage of Apollo 15 where David Scott drops a hammer and a feather, and the hammer doesn't fall much slower than it would on earth.

Friso94

Other mistake: During the storm scene in the beginning of the movie, the astronauts' faces inside the helmets are brightly lit, meaning there's a light source pointed directly in their face. That's something that would render them mostly blind and unable to see and appears to be nothing but a dramatic effect for the camera. (00:05:00 - 00:08:00)

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Trivia: The secret project created to use the Hermes to return to Mars to rescue Watney was called Project Elrond, a reference from the Lord of the Rings (also used in the original book of The Martian). Mitch Henderson, played by Sean Bean, was an attendee at the Project Elrond meeting. Sean Bean also played Boromir, who was an attendee at the Council of Elrond in the LOTR movie.

Blathrop

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