In Andy Weir’s novel The Martian, first self-published as a serial on his blog and released as a book in 2011, astronaut Mark Watney is left behind on Mars. He grows potatoes in the habitat, makes water from rocket fuel, revives the old Pathfinder lander to contact NASA and modifies a rover for a 3,235-kilometer drive.
In Ridley Scott’s 2015 film, Matt Damon’s Watney sums up his position: “In the face of overwhelming odds, I’m left with only one option: I’m gonna have to science the s— out of this.”
In the closing scene he says: “You just begin. You do the math. You solve one problem… and you solve the next one… and then the next. And if you solve enough problems, you get to come home.”