Apologies if they've been asked and answered before...
1 - do watney's habcam recording get sent to NASA before he leaves, just wondering if they'll be seen, or not til the next mars mission....
2 - does the Hermes have spare oxygen to refill the whole ship after they've blown the VAL to collect Watney? Just wondering if they have use of all rooms for journey home or just the two that the commander mentions...
TIA!
Footage recorded by the Ares crew on Mars was stored on computers in the HAB and in the rover. They would have eventually uploaded that data, probably in stages, to the MAV before launching back up to the Hermes. When the mission was aborted at the start of the film, all that data (and all the footage Watney recorded alone afterwards) stayed on Mars. Transmitting over a thousand hours of video either to the Hermes or all the way to Earth would take an awful lot of bandwidth and a lot of time. There was simply no reason to.
The Hermes would have had some additional oxygen on board (perhaps for auxiliary fuel cells), but it is highly unlikely it would have carried enough nitrogen to create a livable atmosphere throughout the entire ship. After rescuing Watney, the Hermes crew would have spent the entire return trip to Earth (seven months) in the compartments of the Hermes that still had atmosphere.
One thing that bothers me is that if Watney’s legs were indeed broken—like he thought—when he launched to rendezvous with Hermes, the bones would have needed to be set and heal in zero gravity. It is surprising that he was able to walk without a limp at the end of the film.
They would probably have enough stored oxygen and nitrogen to re-pressurize Hermes in case of a large accidental loss of atmosphere.
Watney thought he broke some ribs, not his legs.
(this signature was absent on picture day)
You're correct regarding the video diary.
It would remain on Mars until if and when another mission retrieved them. Possibly Ares VI which Vincent Kapoor mentioned trying to sell the government on as it still had most of the mission infrastructure still in place and thus could be done cheaper.
You're wrong about Hermes however. As well as Watney's injury. He "thought he cracked some ribs" during the 12g launch.
No one mentions anything about breaking legs.
The VAL's outer door was open and the inner door was breached with the charge. This allows them to close the still intact outer door, then repressurize the ship.
The inner bulkhead doors between compartments are not airlocks with inner and outer doors. If as you claim, they dont have enough gas to repressurize the etire ship then they're still all dead because there is no way for them to leave the two comparments they're stuck in nor can Lewis, Watney, and Beck in EVA suits get out of their suits and into those two compartments. The moment they tried, they would depressurize the command center and reactor room as well.
Clearly since we see everyone helping greet Watney once inside... they had to have repressurized the ship.
I joined the Navy to see the world, only to discover the world is 2/3 water!
Transmitting over a thousand hours of video either to the Hermes or all the way to Earth would take an awful lot of bandwidth and a lot of time. There was simply no reason to.
The book mentions that Hermes carries enough spare air to refill the ship for an additional two total depressurizations.
shareI'm sure there are thumb drives in the future that Watney could have saved his data/video on to bring back to Earth.
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