The Martian

Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. How do historical explorers compare with modern-day space explorers?

Teaching Suggestion: Invite students to name famous explorers and list them on a whiteboard (or equivalent) along with their accomplishments. What are some of the things they have in common? Are those things also likely to be shared by people engaged in space exploration today?

“‘My Battery Is Low and It’s Getting Dark’: Mars Rover Opportunity’s Last Message to Scientists” – This news article (ABC/AP) is about the 2019 death of the rover Opportunity following a severe dust storm on Mars and NASA scientists’ reaction to its loss. The article includes a link to a playlist used to try to wake the rover in “what amounted to a funeral,” according to the piece.

2. What can be done to prepare crews for the danger and hardships of space travel?

Teaching Suggestion: Invite students to reflect that space explorers can be as well-trained and prepared as possible, but due to the nature of space travel, the ability to get outside help is severely limited or nonexistent. What must it be like to be part of a very small group of people almost entirely dependent on their own resources and judgment?

• “When a Mars Simulation Goes Wrong” – This feature in The Atlantic is about the handling of a medical emergency during a 2018 mission of the Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation (HI-SEAS) program in Hawaii. (Subscription may be required for viewing)

Personal Connection Prompt

This prompt can be used for in-class discussion, exploratory free-writing, or reflection homework before reading the novel.

Write about traveling from where you are on Earth to a distant spot in the sky. What are some of the first questions that occur to you about the journey? Imagine what it would be like to be on Mars. What might you experience through your senses of sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell? How do you think you would feel to be standing on the surface of Mars, looking at Earth in the night sky?

Teaching Suggestion: Students might benefit from discussing what personal qualities a space explorer should have. Invite them to discuss how “ordinary” or “extraordinary” they think those qualities are and whether an “ordinary” student could one day go on a space journey. Do they think they might travel off the planet in their lifetimes? Students might also benefit from using TheSkyLive to find out how to view Mars from their location. TheSkyLive provides accurate real-time data and finder charts for 430 objects in our solar system, including comets, planets, asteroids, and spacecraft.

Differentiation Suggestion: For a more concrete way to imagine a personal space adventure, some students might benefit from watching a YouTube video of Oliver Daemen’s participation as a space tourist on Blue Origin (“The New Shepard Experience: Oliver Daemen”). At 18 years old, Daemen was the youngest person to travel to space. Daemen emphasizes that he thinks spaceflight should be accessible to many more people. Prompt students to write a short essay (125-150 words) as a diary entry on the day they’re scheduled to join a space mission similar to Daemen’s. How do they feel about it? What do they expect it to be like? How do they think they might feel after it’s over?