The Martian Page #2

It is 06:
53 on Sol 19...

and I'm alive.

Obviously.

But I'm guessing that's gonna come as

a surprise to my crewmates and to NASA.

And to the entire world, really, so...

Surprise.

I did not die on Sol 18.

Best I can figure...

this length of our primary

communications antenna broke off...

and tore through my bio-monitor...

and ripped a hole in me as well.

But the antenna and the blood, really,

managed to seal the breach in my suit...

which kept me alive, even though

the crew must have thought I was dead.

I have no way to contact NASA.

And even if I could,

it's gonna be four years...

until a manned mission can reach me.

And I'm in a Hab designed

to last 31 days.

If the oxygenator breaks,

I'm gonna suffocate.

If the water reclaimer breaks,

I'll die of thirst.

If the Hab breaches,

I'm just gonna, kind of...

implode.

And if by some miracle,

none of that happens...

eventually I'm gonna run out of food.

So...

yeah.

Yeah.

I'm not gonna die here.

32...

33...

34...

35, 36.

Sweet and sour chicken.

What do we got?

Right, let's do the math.

Our surface mission here was

supposed to last 31 sols.

For redundancy, they sent 68 sols

worth of food. That's for 6 people.

So for just me,

that's gonna last 300 sols...

which I figure I can stretch to 400

if I ration.

So I got to figure out a way to grow

three years' worth of food here.

On a planet where nothing grows.

Luckily...

I'm a botanist.

Mars will come to fear my botany powers.

Pressure stable.

Staple came out.

F*** you, Mars.

Johanssen, Jesus.

Sunday, Monday, Happy Days

Tuesday, Wednesday, Happy Days

Thursday, Friday, Happy Days

The weekend comes, my cycle hums

Ready to race to you

The problem is water.

I have created

126 square meters of soil.

But every cubic meter of soil requires

40 liters of water to be farmable.

So I gotta make a lot more water.

Good thing is, I know the recipe.

You take hydrogen,

you add oxygen, you burn.

Now, I have hundreds of liters

of unused hydrazine at the MDV.

If I run the hydrazine over an iridium catalyst,

it'll separate into N2 and H2.

And then if I just direct the hydrogen

into a small area...

and burn it.

Luckily, in the history of humanity...

nothing bad has ever happened

from lighting hydrogen on fire.

NASA hates fire.

Because of the whole "fire makes

everybody die in space" thing.

So, everything they sent us up here with

is flame-retardant...

with the notable exception of...

Martinez's personal items.

I am sorry, Martinez.

But if you didn't want me to

go through your stuff...

you shouldn't have left me for dead

on a desolate planet.

By the way, I'm figuring you're gonna be

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