In the book when Watney is packing for his trip to Ares 4 he throws all his potatoes on the Martian surface so it can freeze and not stay bad. “Everything that goes in the trailer has to be comfortable in near vacuum and freezing temperatures...Nothing “bad” can happen to the potatoes. They're already dead. I've been storing them outside for months anyway. Also, they're small and not delicate.” (Weir 242) The last connection between the book and the article is the article states that Mars is not as dense like Earth so it has an escape velocity of 5km per second which is only enough to sustain a thin, transparent atmosphere. In the book the MAV must have as little weight to maintain the orbit so Watney has to figure away he can reduce the weight. “The MAV isn't going to have much weight allowance when I launch. To intercept Hermes, it'll have to reach escape velocity, but it was only designed to get to orbit. The only way to get it going fast enough is to lose a lot of weight.” (Weir
In the book when Watney is packing for his trip to Ares 4 he throws all his potatoes on the Martian surface so it can freeze and not stay bad. “Everything that goes in the trailer has to be comfortable in near vacuum and freezing temperatures...Nothing “bad” can happen to the potatoes. They're already dead. I've been storing them outside for months anyway. Also, they're small and not delicate.” (Weir 242) The last connection between the book and the article is the article states that Mars is not as dense like Earth so it has an escape velocity of 5km per second which is only enough to sustain a thin, transparent atmosphere. In the book the MAV must have as little weight to maintain the orbit so Watney has to figure away he can reduce the weight. “The MAV isn't going to have much weight allowance when I launch. To intercept Hermes, it'll have to reach escape velocity, but it was only designed to get to orbit. The only way to get it going fast enough is to lose a lot of weight.” (Weir