The Martian Blog #2 (pg 95-215)

The book has continued to be extremely interesting. Although Mark has food supplies for 400 sols and is growing enough food to last him 900 sols, this was still not enough until the Ares 4 mission arrives. Also, Mark still needed a way to contact NASA because of the storm breaking the satellite dish. NASA had just figured out that Mark is still alive. A satellite technician, Mindy Park, sees that Mark is still alive when she noticed how there was nobody present and also that the hatches on the rover were open. There was nowhere in the logs, that the Ares crew opened any hatches. Mindy notifies Venkat Kapoor, director of Mars operations, that Mark is still alive. Teddy Sanders, NASA administrator is also notified of the news. The news breaks out and Mark is now the most popular man on the planet. NASA is able to see Mark through satellite pictures, but not able to talk to him. Mark decides to make a 20 sol journey opposite the direction of the Ares 4 site, which confuses NASA at first. He is trying to find an old rover called Pathfinder of lost contact with NASA in 1997. Mark finds the rover and brings it back using the modified rover´s roof. The pathfinder was a lander attached to the rover sojourner. Sojourner used the lander which had a communication dish that allowed it to send pictures to Earth. Mark fixed and turned the rover on which was then able to communicate with NASA. NASA then started talks with Watney using the camera on the rover and moving it. A software engineer Jack Trevor discovered a way Watney could talk to NASA directly with Watney but required Mark to program the rover with the directions of NASA. Mark is excited for the rover to work and can not wait to talk to other humans. He is then able to directly communicate with NASA. Mark enjoys emails with friends and family. Everything starts to get normal, and Watney even Harvests the potatoes. On sol 119, A sandstorm hits the HAB, and there is a breach in the airlock 1 which is torn from the rest of the HAB damaging Watneyś faceplate on his suit. Watney recognizes that there is a small breach in the HAB airlock and fixes both his faceplate and the Canvas. There is one problem; his potatoes have died. Now he only has enough potatoes to survive till 600 sols. After fixing the communications with NASA, NASA decides to send supplies to Mark in a mission called Iris which fails. NASA having failed the Iris mission, China decides to help with its Taiyang Shen probe which has enough fuel space to go to mars. NASA finally decides to go for a dangerous mission using the Taiyang Shen probe turn around the Ares 3 crew in Hermes and go to Mars so they can rescue Mark in a mission called the Purnell Maneuver, an unauthorized mission.

In the second part of the book, Mark still has a positive mindset and has a plan. He turns on communications with NASA and things are going good until the storm. Although the storm causes major damage and kills a third of Watneyś food supply, he still continues and keeps moving through his problems. There is only a small-time that Mark thinks to himself that he will just die because literally all the systems were broken. Watney continues to persevere and work through his problems. Also, during this time a constant growing tension at NASA is observed. NASA, by every increasing hour, have a greater responsibility. There are multiple and controversial questions from the media. They try a quick plan to deploy the Ares 4 probe to get supplies to Mark but the mission fails. This causes an intense increase in tension. The tension is partly relieved when China gives NASA their rocket, but then goes up again when there is a secret plan, the Purnell Maneuver.