The Designer Behind the Greatest Fake-Mars Mission Ever

Life on Mars: Fictional astronaut Mark Watney contemplates an exceptionally realistic landscape in The Martian. (All images credit: 20th Century Fox) With its strong showing at the box office, The Martian joins Gravity and Interstellar in the club of science-fiction movies that succeed by emphasizing the science and downplaying the anything-goes fantasy elements. But even in this rarefied company, The Martian stands apart. Unlike Interstellar, it is rooted in present-day technology and challenges. And unlike Gravity, it fully respects the physical rules of space travel; in fact, it makes them central to the plot. The Martian comes at a pivotal time for NASA. With space imagery getting better and better--taking on an almost cinematic quality--the need for human exploration in some ways seems less obvious than ever. At the same time, the difficulty of getting any concrete answers about life on Mars (or even definitive answers about water and methane) ...