Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
*** And he ''did'' do a full inspection after the first storm left him stranded, but the stressed portion of canvas was behind a seal-strip, so he couldn't see it. Presumably, the inspection instructions NASA sent after the airlock blowout were more thorough.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
*** Later Mark mentions having done some tests on the soil, and finding that some bacteria did survive and are breeding again. His guess is that ice formed bubbles of survivable pressure, and when he got the Hab repaired, reinflated, and warmed up, the bacteria came out of hibernation and started doing their thing again.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
** I still think this is one of the most legitimate head-scratchers in the story. It feels like everyone in space is in this near-future state with lots of equipment up there while Earth sits in what seems to be in "present day (2010's) launch technology" despite having heaved thousands of pounds into orbit to Mars and back many times previously to maintain the Ares program. TropesAreTools though and you need this to maintain drama for story.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
** The crew knew Watney was hit by debris -- this is brought up in the flashback to Sol 6 midway through the book. The thing is, they also heard his decompression alarm (which is presumably separate from the bio-monitor) go off. So they know that Watney has a hole in his suit, and given he was flung out of suit telemetry range, they can assume he's probably injured as well and not in any condition to fix the breach himself. Humans can survive less than a minute in a vacuum, so as far as they know he's as good as dead just from that. Even Watney admits that he only survived due to being absurdly lucky that he landed just right to slow down the air leaking out of his suit. So the crew and NASA knew Watney's suit lost pressure and that would have killed him very fast regardless of what else was happening. At that point, the partial packet showing Watney has flatlined just seems to confirm the obvious.
