MovieChat Forums > Mars (2016) Discussion > Questions

Questions

posted 8 years ago by TheCharlieMonster
5 replies | jump to latest

Hello,

I have some questions about this show. I am by no means any astrophysicist - the extent of my knowledge is pretty much confined to reading the Martian - but there are just some things I don't get on this show. Can someone explain to me what I missed? Are these not feasible for some reason?

1. Why didn't they have medical equipment at the ship? If I recalll correctly, they had to go to the base camp 75km for the supplies after the commander got hurt. Wouldn't there at least be some on the ship in the event there is an emergency during the voyage?

2. Wouldn't they have already picked a spot for the habitat ahead of the trip rather than waiting until they landed and THEN looking for it? In the show, the sister found the lava hole via satellite. Isn't this something they should have done already?

3. Can drones fly on Mars? Dumb question I know but is there enough air to let them fly?

4. Speaking of drones, why didn't they send those down the hole rather than a person?

5. The astronauts seemed to fall apart quickly when things went wrong. Don't they test for this i training? Like the ones who freak out are eliminated?

6. Also, why did the astronaut in the hole take off her tether? She could have fallen off the cliff but least would have had a safety harness!

Sorry if these are dumb questions but they're kind of nagging me so if someone could explain that would be great!!

[–] melehi 8 years ago

1. I'm sure there was medical equipment on board the ship but the commander refused to allow the medical doctor to run tests on him. She wanted to run tests but he brushed her off, saying he was all right. He was covering up the extent of his injuries in order to go forward with the journey to the base camp. It wasn't until they were in the rover traveling to the base camp that the others learned that he was covering up some internal injuries. At that point, the only thing they could do was get to base camp as quickly as possible to treat him with the equipment there.
2. Earth command had already been scanning for possible lava tubes that would provide the right conditions for the domed habitat. But as the NASA scientists said in the documentary portion of the show, mapping lava tubes is not easy because they are underground. And they also said we've only mapped about 3% of the data surface so far, and the resolution of 100-meter per pixel images is not satisfactory. The lava tube with a horizontal entrance that Joon (the sister) recommended be explored had been looked at before but had been excluded as a possibility because the entrance was clogged with debris and was too far away from a candidate skylight opening to be part of the same tube system. Then Joon examined it further and discovered that the tube connected to a tectonic cave that passed right beside the tube that connected to the skylight opening. While they couldn't go through the horizontal entrance, they could lower the dome vertically through the skylight, then the next ship that arrived could provide the equipment to clear the horizontal opening and allow both cave systems to be combined.
3. Yes. Google it and read more about it.
4. The drones could no longer fly after the fire destroyed the remote system.
5. I didn't see them falling apart. As Hana Seung reported back to Earth, the morale was getting very low, but that's to be expected when everything seemed to be going wrong.
6. She took off her tether to explore for ice. The tether would have restricted her movement.

[–] joebhanejoe 8 years ago

Question 6 is the reason I got on here today. Just finished watching and it made absolutely no sense to take off the tether. She's in a place no one has ever been before, she has NO idea whether the surface is going to support her or what she's going to encounter, and there's absolutely no reason to take it off. If she had reached the end of the cable it would have made a little more sense, but aside from that I don't think she ever would have removed it. I guess it was for the dramatic effect of almost falling off of the unseen cliff. Again, poor lighting, unknown environment, the cable stays on.

[–] cell99 8 years ago

I was mostly surprised she didn't have a huge spotlight with her on the way down instead of relying on them tiny helmet lights. Its 2033 so they must have better battery technology that would allow a large, bright spotlight to operate for so many hours. Their lighting system is no better than what you find in todays Walmart tool department.

[–] buttsronc 8 years ago

I agree with you about the lack of bright flashlights for the cave mission. Once the female astronaut reached the bottom of the cave she could have attached a second rope to the end of the cable and used it as a safety line.

How come they did not use a tv camera attached to the cable first to see where the bottom was first rather than send a human down? In 2033 they do not have some kind of wireless camera that could fit on an astronaut's suit and send real time video footage back to the surface rather than just relying on radio communication?

[–] carlos727 8 years ago

Absolutely agree. Tether MUST STAY locked to her suit ALL THE TIME.
Poor lighting ridiculous actually. The scene is illogical and it even made me laugh.
Walking backwards in a dark cave with no tether and almost falling into the abyss, I mean COME ON PEOPLE!!! Really?? It works for dramatic purposes perhaps, but I think there are
other ideas that they can think of for sure, and not something so ridiculous.
I am still watching because I am an enthusiast of the subject, but I am finding it more difficult with each episode. Starting to seem too much like "soap opera on Mars".