By S. Mark Rhodes

The Martian (Crown) by Andy Weir is the story of a regular guy who happens to be an amazingly resourceful astronaut who is stranded on Mars with limited resources and mainly limited time as his resources are finite, and he finds himself facing certain death if he doesn’t figure out a way to survive and get help from NASA back on earth. The novel, a New York Times Bestseller, told mainly through log entries is one of the most riveting science fiction tales in many years and has created some motion picture buzz. Mr. Weir, a former software engineer, has a talent for technological detail and innovative storytelling, and has built a very appealing character in his stranded astronaut Mark Watney. Mr. Weir was nice enough to correspond via email about his work, the technology of the book, and how he created his tale.

IF USA: What was the origin of the plot behind The Martian?

AW: “I was daydreaming about how a manned mission to Mars would work. I wanted to be as realistic as possible in the mission design. I knew the mission would have to account for problems that could happen, so I started thinking up things that could go wrong. I realized that those problem scenarios would make a cool story, so I made a hapless main character and subjected him to all of them.”