Could You ACTUALLY Survive on Mars? Planetary Scientist Dave Paige Breaks Down Ridley Scott's blockbuster film The Martian, breaking down what the film got right, what was exaggerated, and what real NASA missions face when exploring the Red Planet.

Amy Mainzer (0:00)

Hi, I'm Amy Meinzer, Astrophysicist and Professor of Planetary Science at UCLA.

Adam Sigel (0:05)

And I'm Adam Sigel, a writer and producer working on film and TV projects in Hollywood and internationally. And this is the Unobtainium Podcast.

Amy Mainzer (0:13)

Where we break down the science of some of our favorite films and TV shows.

Adam Sigel (0:16)

It was a lot of fun making this. Hope you enjoy it.

Amy Mainzer (0:19)

And Mars, I think, has some fundamental differences from the Earth, just from the get-go, right? Its mass is a lot smaller.

Dave Paige (0:25)

Right, lower energy, it tends to lose its atmosphere, but it still has plenty of water. There are many scenarios in which the atmosphere could have been considerably more massive than it was in the past.

Amy Mainzer (0:37)

And there's evidence of flowing water on the surface, right? I mean, you see lots of things that just look like braided stream beds. Oh, right.

Dave Paige (0:44)

Lakes and even oceans somewhat contend.

Adam Sigel (0:46)

So, I mean, it's not total recall where it's frozen underground.

Dave Paige (0:49)

There is. It's just like in total recall. So, Arnold was completely 100% right.

Amy Mainzer (1:01)

Hi, I'm Amy, UCLA Planetary Scientist, with my co-host, Adam, a writer and producer. We love movies and science. And today we're going to talk about the movie The Martian and Life on Mars.

All right, though, that's where we're at. Mark Watney, stranded on Mars. I have no way to contact NASA because our communications antenna broke and stuck into my stomach, which we've covered. And even if I could, it will take, uh, four years before the next manned mission gets here. And I'm on a HAB designed to last 31 days.

If the oxygenator breaks, I'll suffocate. If the water reclaimer breaks, I'll die of thirst. If the HAB breaches, I'll just sort of implode. And if, by some miracle, none of that happens, eventually, I'm going to run out of food.

Adam Sigel (1:50)

Yeah.

Amy Mainzer (1:50)

Yeah.

Adam Sigel (1:51)

Hi, I'm Adam.

Amy Mainzer (1:53)

And I'm Amy.

Adam Sigel (1:54)

And this is Unobtainium.

Amy Mainzer (1:55)

And that was a dramatic reading from the movie The Martian. And with us today to discuss The Martian is...

Adam Sigel (2:03)

A Martian.

Amy Mainzer (2:03)

An actual Martian.

Or... Somebody who's actually, in my opinion, cooler than a Martian. This is my friend, Dave Paige, who is a professor with me at UCLA. And he's a professor of planetary science, where he teaches a class literally called Mars.

Dave Paige (2:18)

Welcome, Dave.

Amy Mainzer (2:19)

Hi, guys.

Dave Paige (2:20)

Great to be here.

Adam Sigel (2:20)

Thanks for coming back. We're going from the moon to Mars.

Dave Paige (2:24)

Excellent.

Amy Mainzer (2:25)

Dave, is Mars, in fact, a place to raise your kids?

Dave Paige (2:27)

Probably won't be for a long, long time. I wouldn't plan on raising your kids on Mars.

Amy Mainzer (2:34)

Or what is it? In fact, it's cold as hell, right? I think that's the lyric. So what is Mars like?

Dave Paige (2:40)

It's a place of contrast.

The atmosphere exists, but it's very thin, like a hundredth that of the Earth's atmosphere. There's very little oxygen, mostly carbon dioxide. And like you say, it gets very, very cold, much, much colder than any place in Antarctica.

Amy Mainzer (2:57)

But as hell? Is it cold as hell, technically?

Dave Paige (2:59)

I wouldn't know exactly how cold as hell.

Adam Sigel (3:01)

Okay, now you're asking if you know what hell is. When you say one hundredth of a atmosphere, so what does that mean?

Dave Paige (3:08)

That means the pressure is less than a hundredth of what the atmosphere here is in this room. It's very thin, but it still exists. And there are weather phenomenon on Mars. There's, as we'll talk about later, dust storms and clouds and things like that. But it gets very cold at night. And then during the day at the hottest places, it can actually get up close to room temperature.

Adam Sigel (3:31)

I mean, obviously they shot the film on earth. They didn't have that kind of budget, but they did it in some, I don't know where, in Jordan, right?

Dave Paige (3:39)

A lot of the shots were in Jordan.

Adam Sigel (3:40)

And so it's exactly a desert climate. It looks, might as well be Mars. The opening of the film is very much dependent on a terrible windstorm that comes in and forces them to abort their mission. So that's real. That's 100% real.

Dave Paige (3:57)