Sage-Tips

What mistake does Watney make in his calculations?

While the calculation works just as planned, Watney makes an explosive mistake. In the movie, he fails to take into account the oxygen in the gas he’s breathing out. Everything appears to be going well, but the laws of nature soon assert themselves — in the form of a fireball.

What chemical does Watney used as a source of hydrogen for his production of water?

Hydrazine is sometimes used as a monopropellant in rocket thrusters. Watney decomposed Hydrazine to produce H2. He then combined H2 with O2 to form H2O.

How did Mark Watney create water?

In “The Martian,” Damon’s character, astronaut Mark Watney, produces water by burning leftover rocket fuel and extracts the hydrogen from the resulting chemical reaction. They must water their potatoes and keep track of how much water they administer and how often.

What problems did Watney face?

Watney wakes up to find that his crew has left him, the communication system on base is down, and he is now faced with a limited supply of food, air, and options for getting home. Despite all of these obstacles, Watney is able to remain relatively calm and begins to work on the situation at hand.

Can you use hydrazine to make water?

Water is a basic molecule made up of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom – H2o. He reduced hydrazine to its component gases using small sparks to produce water.

What was the source of waste that mark used in the Martian that he needed to compost?

So to get biological material into Martian soil, Watney uses the only spare biological material he has: astronaut poop. He mixes it in with the Martian soil, plants some potatoes that NASA had sent up with his crew, and, voila, you have plant life on Mars. Yes, it is possible to grow plants on Mars – kind of.

Why is Watney using fire to heat up the gases released from the hydrazine?

When he first tries to light up hydrazine in the greenhouse in order to obtain water, The Martian Mark Watney blows up the contraption. Later, he reasons this was due to the extra oxygen he exhaled.

Why did Watney water making experiment explode?

As it turns out, some small amount of oxygen from his exhalation entered the Hab while Watney was conducting the hydrogen burn-off procedure. This excess oxygen altered the chemical makeup of the Hab enough to render it an explosive environment, and Watney considers himself lucky to have escaped.

What caused the explosion in the Martian?

It was stressed by a windstorm, friction from the motion of the flexible Hab wall against the rigid airlock causing the polymer to heat up, soften, and allow the carbon fibres to spread apart slightly.

How does Watney make his own water?

Watney takes the risk of creating his own water by using his oxygenator (a device that creates oxygen from carbon dioxide), extracting hydrogen from the crew’s unused hydrazine fuel (from the MDV, or Mars Descent Vehicle), and burning them to create the extra water he needs to nourish his potatoes.

How did Mark Watney capture the water in the Martian?

In the movie The Martian, Mark Watney used that same reaction to produce the hydrogen gas and then, in combination with the oxygen in the hab, he burned the hydrogen and made water. He didn’t actually capture or store the water – he just let it accumulate and be absorbed directly into his farm soil for the potatoes.

How does Watney turn water into rocket fuel?

Watney does not turn water into rocket fuel, he turns rocket fuel into water. Hydrazine is sometimes used as a monopropellant in rocket thrusters. Watney decomposed Hydrazine to produce H2.

How did Mark Watney make H2O from hydrazine?

To put it simply, Mark Watney decomposed Hydrazine to produce H2. He then combined H2 with o2 to form H2O. Hydrazine is a more powerful but toxic monopropellant. It decomposes at a temperature of around 800 deg C in contact with platinum/iridium metal into ammonia, nitrogen and hydrogen by a number of different possible paths: