It may not have the Wagner Base, but does this look like a thing of beauty?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ue4PCI0NamI
I've read the book once and listened to it about 3 times. I commute quite a bit.
Can I say somethin' about destiny? Screw destiny!.... 'Cause destiny is just another word for inevitable, and nothing's inevitable as long as you stand up, look it in the eye, and say, "You're evitable!" Fred Burkle
It's a great thing, in my opinion, that Matt Damon stars and Sean Bean has a supporting role. If was reversed, you would know that Mark Watney would be toast.
Can I say somethin' about destiny? Screw destiny!.... 'Cause destiny is just another word for inevitable, and nothing's inevitable as long as you stand up, look it in the eye, and say, "You're evitable!" Fred Burkle
I'll chime in as a spacecraft engineer with a lot of spacecraft engineer friends and colleagues:
We LOVE The Martian. Almost everything about it is spot-on (save that a windstorm on Mars is like...nothing). It reads like a systems engineering study for a real mission, only without the political gerrymandering and timidity. It depicts the space program we WISH we worked for. WE ARE SO LOOKING FORWARD TO THE MOVIE.
Trajector - nice! I'm also an engineer but in a much more mundane field. I told my colleague that the story is good enough that you buy the science, and the science feels right, but I have never checked it for fear of it being bad.
Can I say somethin' about destiny? Screw destiny!.... 'Cause destiny is just another word for inevitable, and nothing's inevitable as long as you stand up, look it in the eye, and say, "You're evitable!" Fred Burkle
Well, I can't say I did the calculations...but everything is at least conceptually plausible, and I know Weir based the mission architecture on some real design studies.
Honestly, our favorite bits are the ones where Watney gives up listening to NASA and just takes things apart to fix them. :)