Damn it, Jim, I’m a botanist, not a chemist! - Andy Weir

Well, okay. I know the answer to that. Part of it might be what I represent: progress, science, and the interplanetary future we’ve dreamed of for centuries. But really, they did it because every human being has a basic instinct to help each other out. It might not seem that way sometimes, but it’s true.

Sheesh — you almost ruin a mission one time and all of a sudden you have an alien-enforced bedtime.

Mars is a barren wasteland and I am completely alone here. I already knew that, of course. But there’s a difference between knowing it and really experiencing it.