Scribd
Upload
43 views

The Martian - Journal Entry Question

Uploaded by

Mardin K
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
43 views

The Martian - Journal Entry Question

Uploaded by

Mardin K
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 2

The Martian

The text is taken from a longer narrative. At this point in the story, Mark tells us he is an astronaut on
an exploration mission to Mars. He has been left stranded.
I wonder if this log will be recovered before the rest of the crew die of old age. I presume they got
back to Earth all right. Guys, if you're reading this: It wasn't your fault. You did what you had to do. In
your position I would have done the same thing. I don't blame you, and I'm glad you survived.
It was a ridiculous sequence of events that led to me almost dying, and an even more
ridiculous sequence that led to me surviving.
The MAY is a spaceship. It has a lot of delicate parts. It can put up with storms to a certain extent, but
it can't just get sandblasted forever. After an hour and a half of sustained wind, NASA gave the order
to abort. Nobody wanted to stop a monthlong mission after only six days, but if the MAY took any
more punishment, we'd all have gotten stranded down there.
We had to go out in the storm to get from the Hab1 to the MAY. That was going to be risky, but what
choice did we have?
Everyone made it but me.
I vaguely remember having the wind knocked out of me and my ears popping painfully as the
pressure of my suit escaped. The last thing I remember was seeing Johanssen hopelessly reaching
out toward me.
I awoke to the oxygen alarm in my suit. A steady, obnoxious beeping that eventually roused me from
a deep and profound desire to just die.
The storm had abated; I was facedown, almost totally buried in sand. As I groggily came to, I
wondered why I wasn't more dead.
There was only one hole in the suit (and a hole in me, of course). I had been knocked back quite a
ways and rolled down a steep hill.
Right that moment I knew I was doomed. But I didn't want to just die out on the surface. I limped back
to the Hab and fumbled my way into an airlock. As soon as it equalized, I threw off my helmet.
Once inside the Hab, I doffed the suit and got my first good look at the injury. It would need stitches.
Fortunately, all of us had been trained in basic medical procedures, and the Hab had excellent
medical supplies. A quick shot of local anaesthetic, irrigate the wound, nine stitches, and I was done.
I'd be taking antibiotics for a couple of weeks, but other than that I'd be fine.
I knew it was hopeless, but I tried firing up the communications array. No signal, of course.

All the crew's suits are networked so we can see each other's status. The rest of the crew would have
seen the pressure in my suit drop to nearly zero, followed immediately by my bio-signs going flat. Add
to that watching me tumble down a hill with a spear through me in the middle of a sandstorm ... yeah.
They thought I was dead. How could they not?
They may have even had a brief discussion about recovering my body, but regulations are clear. In
the event a crewman dies on Mars, he stays on Mars. Leaving his body behind reduces weight for the
trip back. That means more disposable fuel and a larger margin of error for the return thrust. No point
in giving that up for sentimentality.
So that's the situation. I'm stranded on Mars. I have no way to communicate with Hermes or Earth.
Everyone thinks I'm dead. I'm in a Hab designed to last thirty-one days. If the oxygenator breaks
down, I'll suffocate. If the water reclaimer breaks down, I'll die of thirst. If the Hab breaches, I'll just
kind of explode. If none of those things happen, I'll eventually run out of food and starve to death.
So yeah. I’m doomed.

Re-read Text C, The Martian, in the insert and then answer Question 3 on this question paper.
Question 3
You are Johanssen, a member of the crew. On the way home, you write a journal entry
about the day your crewmate Mark was left on Mars. You decide to write about:

• What you saw and felt during the evacuation from Mars
• What you remember about Mark’s last moments and your immediate reaction to seeing him fall
• What your reasons were for leaving Mark behind and what you think he thought in his final moments
Write the words of your journal entry.
Base your journal entry on what you have read in Text C, but be careful to use your own words. Address
each of the three bullet points. Begin your journal entry with the first point.
Write about 250 to 350 words.
Up to 15 marks are available for the content of your answer and up to 10 marks for the quality
of your writing.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

You might also like