Written for an assignment in a popular fiction course. All rights belong to Andy Weir and 20th Century Fox.
So they asked me to write a book.
Who's they? you might be asking yourself. Well I'll tell you who. Everyone. Mostly the folks over at NASA so they could use it in their classes for potential astronauts (which they also asked me to teach, at least the survival bit – I mean, who else is going to teach that class? I have the most experience surviving on desolate planets. I'm literally writing the book on it), but there was also a public demand – people wanted to know what exactly happened to me while I was on extended vacation on Mars – did Ares IV not find my video logs and send them back to NASA? I'm pretty sure that they did that, and those are more exciting. Regardless. There was a demand for a book. Pretty soon there will be a demand for a TV series or a movie.
Anyhow. Back to this introduction or preface or whatever it is you want to call it.
A lot of people stop me in the streets and ask, "What was it like being on Mars by yourself for so long?" It happened a lot when I first got back a year ago. It still happens the odd time. It's always a variation of the same answer: "Lonely."
I was stranded on Mars for almost a year. It does a lot to a person. I'm the poster-boy for what being isolated on Mars does to a person. Besides the obvious, nutrition, bone density and general physical health that gets screwed around with, being on Mars also messes with your head. Thinking that every day is your last, the idea of never seeing or speaking to another person again. People always overlook how important it is to have interaction with other people; heck, I did that too until my stay on Mars.. As you'll see in the chapters to come, I did have some contact, but I did not speak to another human being or hear another human voice until five minutes before the rescue launch started. That puts the whole "people need to be around other people" thing into perspective a bit. The only contact I had was through machines.
Now, I love machines, but it's not the same thing. And you're probably thinking, Come on, Watney, where's the adventure? Well hold on a bit longer. Good things to people who wait and all that. Seriously, I should know. I waited practically a year before I saw anyone or spoke to anyone again, and it was worth the wait.
I have to emphasize, even in the introduction (and I will emphasize this until my dying breath), that it was nobody's fault that I got hit by the antenna and left behind. Commander Lewis and the rest of the crew had all the reason in the world to think that I was dead. I was non-responsive, my suit was breached. It was only logical that that hit killed me. Also it was super important that they evacuate, otherwise, we would have all been stranded. We were in the process of evacuating when it happened, as I'm sure you smart people all know. That wind storm was so strong, even NASA was surprised, and is still surprised that they were able to evacuate. I'll get more into it in Chapter One, but it's important that you guys know that it wasn't anyone's fault. If the situation was different, I wouldn't have been there at all. I'm sure I'll emphasize this again before this book is finished. But I had to get that out.
As I'm sure you all know, I had to live on Mars, either until someone could come and get me, or so I could survive until the Ares IV mission four years following Ares III the mission that I and my friends were on. It's hard to get the calories you need with rations, especially when space food tastes like crap. Sorry, NASA, but it's true. It might be a lot better than what it was in the nineteen-sixties, but it still isn't home-cooking. I know, I know, beggars can't be choosers (and boy did I ever learn that when I found the only music supply that was left in the Hab – never listening to disco ever again. Sorry, Lewis, you have terrible music taste. Also, really? No "I Will Survive" in your playlist? The irony would have been amazing.) So what did I do? I grew potatoes using a special fertilizer. I'll get into more detail later, but it worked. Until the Hab door breached – again my own stupidity – then I had to ration my ever-decreasing amount of food even more. I am very certain that I am never going to eat a potato again in my life, unless it is very deep fried and has a lot of ketchup to go with it (it was a very sad day when I ran out of ketchup on the Hab).
Another thing people ask me a lot is what I missed the most while I was on Mars. And while I feel like that's kind of an obvious answer, another thing I missed besides human contact was home-cooked food, or at least food that wasn't pre-made and packaged up. Coffee. The newspaper. Riding the train. Rain. Walking my dog Comet. Most of these things are small, little things. But it's the little things that make you the happiest. At least, in my experience.
Also in this book, I will describe my attempts to contact NASA, reviving Pathfinder and being blown up a number of times. I think the attempts to contact NASA and reviving Pathfinder, while seemingly insane, helped me keep my sanity – if I can get word out to NASA this way when everything else has gone to shit, there's a higher chance of survival. The key in all of this, is not giving up after a failed attempt. I can't tell you how many times I failed at doing something. But I eventually made it, right? Otherwise you wouldn't be reading this book. I mean, sure it's easy to give up, but is it worth it? Not when it's your only chance at surviving and getting home to your family and loved ones again.
And, as you'll see in the pages to come, some narrative, some lifted directly from the transcripts of my video journals, all my efforts and trials, while seemingly futile at times, were all worth it.
- Mark Watney, September, 2037