PERFORMANCE TASK ON GRAVITY

Name: Vera Mae D. Santos Grade and Section: 12 STEM 1

Write a summary of the movie

The Martian
I. Emergency launch

A sandstorm with severe winds threatened to damage the MAV (Mars Ascent Vehicle), which
the crew needed to return to their ship, Hermes, after NASA's Ares 3 Mission went awry. So the six-
person crew was compelled to return home early. During the crew's evacuation from the HAB to the
MAV, Mark Watney, an astronaut and botanist, was tossed and perforated his EVA suit, which was
ripped into his side by the antenna of the HAB satellite communications dish, forcing Watney to drop
out. Since the rest of the crew believed he was already dead, they flew to Hermes, leaving Watney on
Mars. After sol 21, Watney regains consciousness and he returns to the HAB. He began devising a
strategy to cultivate food on Mars in order to survive until NASA could coordinate a rescue. To entertain
himself, Watney starts watching Commander Lewis’ collection of television shows and listening to her
disco music.

II. Trapped on Mars

On earth, Mindy Park realizes that Watney is still alive. She informs Venkat, who arranges a
meeting with Teddy and Annie Montrose. They decided to make the news public within 24 hours. Teddy,
on the other hand, decides not to contact Commander Lewis because the news could disrupt the Ares III
crew and jeopardize their safety. Returning to Watney, he has established regular rituals and is
cultivating potatoes well. Thereafter, he successfully discovered a means to make contact with NASA
using the Mars Pathfinder, which has a camera and employs a specific code for faster communication.
With NASA being aware that Mark Watney is still alive, they sought to give him supplies to keep him
alive while they devised a strategy to rescue him. Unfortunately, the attempt was unsuccessful, and the
HAB where Mark is residing was breached, leaving his plants to wither.

III. The plan

Subsequently, NASA informed the five crews of Ares III, who are on their way home, that their
co-astronaut Mark Watney is still alive. After the Iris probe, which contained the supplies, failed to reach
orbit, two options to save Mark were suggested. First, NASA would try again to deploy an Iris probe to
provide Watney with enough supplies to last until the next human mission to Mars, Ares IV. Second, the
Hermes spacecraft on which the Ares III boards will return to Mars by Sol 517, forcing Watney to
undertake a perilous journey to the Ares IV landing site and use the MAV to reach the orbit where
Hermes will pick him up, an idea devised by astrodynamics' Rich Purnell. NASA rejected the second
concept since it was too risky and the astronauts of Ares III might perish on this voyage, but the crew
of Hermes enthusiastically accepted the second plan without hesitation and rerouted the ship to Mars
after receiving the Iris probe II from NASA.

IV. Returning home

To lighten the MAV, Watney eliminates all unnecessary equipment, backup communications
systems, and life support systems, and then removes the ship's nose and covers the hole with HAB
canvas. Moreover, he removes the controls because Martinez will pilot the MAV remotely. Watney
modifies the Ares IV MAV successfully, and NASA coordinates his launch. Finally, the Ares III was
successful in rescuing Mark Watney, and they returned to Earth together. As a result of this, the Ares IV
mission was canceled because Watney had already used the MAV, and it was replaced by Ares V, which
took place five years later when they recovered Mark Watney. Despite the fact that Watney has a
couple of fractured ribs and stinks, he claims that it was the best day of his life.

Application of Newton’s Law of Universal Gravitation in the Martian

m1 m2
Newton’s Law of Universal Gravitation equation is F=G and it states that “Every
r2
object in the universe attracts every other object with a force proportional to the product of the
objects’ masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them. This
force acts along the line joining the two bodies.” This Newton’s Law of Universal Gravitation is
depicted in the film, notably when Rich Purnell discusses how the Hermes will return to Earth to
swing around and head back to Mars to rescue Mark Watney (timestamp 1:53:55). After
receiving the Iris probe II from NASA, the other five crew members gladly accepted the plan and
rerouted the ship to Mars (timestamp: 1:30:18). The force of gravity increases as the Hermes
and the Earth move closer together.

According to NASA's official website, scientists have calculated the Earth's gravitational
acceleration by combining the universal gravitational constant, the mass of the Earth, and the
square of the Earth's radius. On the other hand, the law of universal gravitation states that two
bodies in space are drawn to one another with a force proportional to their masses and the
distance between them. Weight is a force that is always directed towards the center of the
Earth for a rocket. The magnitude of this force is determined by the total mass of the rocket.
Although the weight is distributed throughout the rocket, we commonly imagine it as being
collected and acting through a single point known as the center of gravity. The rocket revolves
about its center of gravity while in flight, yet the direction of the weight force always remains
toward the center of the Earth. This law was shown in the scenario where NASA attempted to
provide him with supplies to keep him alive while they formulated a rescue plan (timestamp:
1:16:36), but the Iris probe's spaceship had instability difficulties and the dynamic forces tore it
apart.

Application of Newton’s Law of Motions in the Martian

Newton's First Law of Motion states, "Every object will retain its state of motion
(whether at rest or moving with constant velocity in a straight line) unless acted upon by a net
force." This means that an object at rest will remain at rest, and an object in motion will remain
in motion. In the film, this law of motion is demonstrated when Mark Watney leaves Mars
through the use of the Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV) and accelerates into space (timestamp:
1:56:08). Once in space, the MAV will continue to accelerate indefinitely until it is halted by
another force. We are all aware that there is no gravitational force in space. So the MAV that
Mark Watney uses to launch into space will continue to move because there is no external
force to stop it. For this, it will be able to fly, which is in accordance with Newton's first law.

Newton’s Second Law of Motion states that "the acceleration of an object is directly
proportional to the net force acting on it; it is in the same direction as the net force, and it is
inversely proportional to its mass." In the movie, Bruce Ng, the leader of the team that created
the Iris I and Iris II resupply probes, proposes making the MAV lighter, specifically 5,000 kg
lighter (timestamp: 1:44:11), so that Mark can travel quickly and escape Mars gravity. Watney
continues by removing unneeded components of the MAV in order to reduce its mass
(timestamp: 1:48:57). Less mass means more acceleration, and vice versa; if the mass is not
reduced, the MAV will be too heavy to accelerate. Because Watney was on Mars, he could
easily lift and remove parts of the ship, as items weighed considerably less than they would on
Earth. This movie scenario is similar to an inversely proportionate relationship; as one becomes
smaller, the other becomes larger. Since the windows, nose airlock, and hull panel 19 were
removed and replaced by only a hub canvas, the MAV's acceleration increases as its mass
lowers, facilitating Mark in reaching the Hermes even if it would jeopardize his safety.

Newton’s Third Law of Motion states that, "For every force, there is an interacting force
of equal magnitude and opposite direction." This Second Law is demonstrated when
Commander Lewis plans to detonate an explosive device in the VAL of the spacecraft
(timestamp: 2:02:43). Alex Vogel built an explosive device, and Chris Beck detonated the bomb
in the VAL. The five crew members of Ares III successfully remove one section of the Hermes
through a bomb in order to propel it further to the MAV (timestamp: 2:06:17). The bomb was
used to accelerate the shuttle closer to Mars since the bomb pushed on the shuttle with great
force, and the shuttle in turn pushed on the explosion with equal force. Bombing one section of
the Hermes brings them significantly closer to Watney and gives them a relative velocity of 12
m/s.

Scientific inaccuracies of
  the film

According to NASA, the majority of the film is factual, but there are a few scenes that do
not make sense as justified by scientific explanations. The first is the dust storm that occurs at
the opening of the film (timestamp: 3:31), which, according to Tony Rice, a JPL/NASA Solar
System Ambassador, is physically impossible for Mars to have. This is due to Mars' atmosphere
being a hundred times thinner than the Earth's, and with fewer molecules to be blown around,
the force exerted by wind is much lower. A wind gust of 60 mph on Mars would feel closer to 6
mph on Earth. Mars' sandstorms are not powerful enough to cause harm. They are more akin
to soft breezes. It's not as dangerous as it appeared in the movie. The most that should happen
to an astronaut's equipment is that it gets covered in layers of dust, but the footage shows that
the air was able to blow a HAB satellite communications dish, forcing Watney to drop out.

Another portion of the film that doesn't make sense is when Mark Watney travels on
Mars in an Earth-like manner (timestamp: 11:12 till he is able to propel himself away to Mars).
This is due to the fact that the red planet has only roughly 30% of the gravity of the Earth, so
the movement should be different. On Earth, gravity causes us to fall forward with every step
we take, transforming it into forward speed in an up-and-down motion similar to a pendulum,
but the ideal walking pace on Mars will be less than half of the terrestrial average. According to
NASA, the most effective method of moving on Mars will be halfway between a shuffle and a
hop.

Finally, Watney mentions the Ironman thing, and he continues this tactic by cutting a
hole in the palm region of his suit and propelling himself towards Commander Lewis, utilizing
the escaping air. (timestamp: 2:07:39). In reality, if the suit is punctured by a hole, the
pressurized air in the suit will quickly escape, exposing the astronaut's body to extremely little
or no atmospheric pressure. Asphyxiation would kill an astronaut with a punctured space suit.
The blood of an astronaut contains enough oxygen for around 15 seconds of mental activity. He
or she would then pass out, with total brain death occurring within three minutes. However, in
the film, Watney was able to enter the Hermes spaceship by breathing appropriately.