martian

But this doesn't make sense because it's the technology and economics, not coordination, that prevents self-sustaining martian colonies.

How much water must be boiled-off in solar powered kilns on the Martian equatorial surface to achieve this ratio?

Look at how much easier it would be to solve this version of the Martian potatoes problem which avoids percentages altogether: Earth has developed an insatiable appetite for Martian potatoes with their tasty pulp.

That is, restate the question with a different end water percentage and the answer is immediately obvious: > You have 100 lbs of Martian potatoes, which are 99 percent water by weight.

That's one part of The Martian the author got entirely correct despite the criticism.

Yes, I would word the paradox like: You have 100 lbs of Martian potatoes, which are 1/100 water by weight.

It's actually a lot more like The Martian than you might think.

Which has the effect that we would launch everything direct to Mars, no rendezvous or docking prior to the Martian surface.

Also this article and wiki have ruined The Martian for me.

Slightly OT, but I just finished reading The Martian [1] by Andy Weir.

Yeah, I read Seveneves, then The Martian and many things felt very familiar.

(There are similar stories about debugging stuff on the various Martian rovers, but Cooper's book is a very good treatment...).

A much more important example of this than "martian potatoes" is uranium enrichment.

Yuki runs a successful manufacturing plant on Mars which synthesizes a product called 'Martian Instaspuds'; instant potatoes being more cost effective to ship.

I have to say, however, I was very annoyed with the style of The Martian.

Good to hear, I've been looking for another hard science fiction book since The Martian.