amanda88
Well-known member
is presumed dead after a fierce storm and left behind by his crew. But Watney has survived and finds himself stranded
and alone on the hostile planet. With only meager supplies, he must draw upon his ingenuity, wit and spirit to subsist
and find a way to signal to Earth that he is alive.
[YOUTUBEIF]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ue4PCI0NamI[/YOUTUBEIF]
its business as normal.. for the director Ridley Scott, who has taken the time to get as much info from NASA
before starting this epic flick, so fans will know that at least it will be technically correct,
(unlike Gravity and others?)
I'm reading The Martian by Andy Weir, our hero the Martian,
just so happens to be a mechanical engineer and plant botanist, and once our modern day Crusoe is left abandoned
he uses those skills to stay alive ..let me quote
13. I got my undergrad degree at the University of Chicago. Half the people who studied botany were
hippies who thought they could return to some natural world system. Somehow feeding seven billion
people through pure gathering. They spent most of their time working out better ways to grow pot. I
didn’t like them. I’ve always been in it for the science, not for any New World Order bullshit.
When they made compost heaps and tried to conserve every little ounce of living matter, I laughed at
them. “Look at the silly hippies! Look at their pathetic attempts to simulate a complex global
ecosystem in their backyard.”
Of course, now I’m doing exactly that. I’m saving every scrap of biomatter I can find. Every time I
finish a meal, the leftovers go to the compost bucket. As for other biological material…
The Hab has sophisticated toilets. Shit is usually vaccum-dried, then accumulated in sealed bags to be
discarded on the surface.
Not anymore!
In fact, I even did an EVA to recover the previous bags of shit from before the crew left. Being
completely desiccated, this particular shit didn’t have bacteria in it anymore, but it still had complex
proteins and would serve as useful manure. Adding it to water and active bacteria would quickly get
it inundated, replacing any population killed by the Toilet of Doom.
I found a big container and put a bit of water in it, then added the dried shit. Since then, I’ve added my
own shit to it as well. The worse it smells, the better things are going. That’s the bacteria at work!
Once I get some Martian soil in here, I can mix in the shit and spread it out. Then I can sprinkle the
Earth soil on top. You might not think that would be an important step, but it is. There are dozens of
species of bacteria living in Earth soil, and they’re critical to plant growth. They’ll spread out and
breed like… well, like a bacterial infection.
People have been using human waste as fertilizer for centuries. It’s even got a pleasant name: “night
soil.” Normally, it’s not an ideal way to grow crops, because it spreads disease: Human waste has
pathogens in it that, you guessed it, infect humans. But it’s not a problem for me. The only pathogens
in this waste are the ones I already have. .:unquote
a good down to earth read, tho I'd be including a harder hitting actor than Matt Damon
SCORE: 9/10 (book) 6/10 (movie?)
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