Why do I bug over fiddly things like this? · 1:12am Apr 27th, 2018
Okay. I've assumed that, since in The Martian Mark Watney had twelve hours of sunlight after driving to recharge his rover during the Pathfinder trip, that he arrived during Martian summer. That makes sense, since if you were given a choice by orbital mechanics you'd choose early summer, when solar cells would be at maximum efficiency but before the onset of dust storm season.
Well, I'm writing a chapter now which makes references to the seasons- which I've made references to before- and I decided, "I need to know exactly when Martian winter sets in in the northern hemisphere of Mars."
So I spent an hour researching and doing calculations...
... yeah. Using Andy Weir's timeframe of 2035-2037 for the events of the book, Ares III landed on Mars...
... in the depths of Martian winter.
Like, the Mars equivalent of February 1 or so.
And now, because I want to do this right, I'm going to have to go back through the story and revise all references to the Martian seasons.
Because there's a Twilight Sparkle in my head, apparently.
Arrrrgh.
Could you fudge the numbers on the years a bit too make the seasons make more sense instead? The need to track good transfer windows might make that a bigger pain, but it'd at least make the landing season make more sense.
And with the Space Race 2: Mars Boogaloo that's brewing getting there earlier than mid/late 2030's is entirely plausible
If it's any consolation, that attention to detail is part of what I enjoy about your stories.
4848265 Mark's mission was the third one, and they fly fifty months apart. That means in the universe of the Martian, the first Mars landing was in 2027.
And I thought about fudging it, but the orbital mechanics wouldn't line up with seasons. The optimal Earth to Mars transfer window happens every twenty-five months, so each time both planets are in different positions in their orbits. And considering the long wait times between windows, NASA can't skip a window because the weather will be insufficiently sunny on Mars.
Dude it's fiction. Let the mechanics of that world play out as you dictate. Save your realism for CSP. Lol
Perfection is a tricky and demanding bitch though.
Mars has such a small equatorial inclination that any variation in seasons would be small, and daylight hours would be very similar year round. Mars does have seasons but I don't think they'd make a huge difference to Mark's experience.
Although since they are at 50°N, perhaps it is difference enough. (Seriously, why not pick somewhere closer to the equator? The orbital mechanics are much easier to work with, and the heat is slightly better.)
I support and appreciate this endeavour. Was surprised when you mentioned shortening days a bit early in the year.
4848274 Er, no. Mars's inclination is actually a hair steeper than Earth's. The temperature difference averages about 20 to 30 degrees Celsius between summer and winter. Also, the Hab is at 30 degrees N latitude as per the book.
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Odd, I must have misunderstood what I read on Wikipedia.
So.... Mars in summer is (censored) cold and dry
Mars in winter is (censored) cold and dry
And we complain about seasons here.
Personal Twilights are such a nuisance.
If only they were cuddly.
4848394 Not quite. Mars in summer is (censored) cold. Mars in winter is mother(censored) cold. An important distinction.
Remember, in a Martian winter, the polar regions get cold enough for carbon dioxide to freeze out of the air.
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Rechecked Wikipedia now that I'm home from work, and I see where I went wrong. I was reading the inclination numbers, when I should have been reading the axial tilt number.
And for the location of the crew, I simply looked at where Acidalia Planitia is, and trusting the first number I saw. But the 50°N figure just represents the midpoint of the plain. 30°N would be at the extreme southern tip of the plain.
I still think it would have made more sense to go for something like Amazonis Planitia, Isidis Planitia, or Elysium Planitia (maybe even Daedalia Planum) to be closer to the equator. Obviously that decision was Weir's, not yours.
Don’t forget he had the RTG in there with him.