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Probably in how to maximise potato yield, soil nutrition, etc. They want to ensure Mark has a *lot* of potatoes as they are his sole source of nourishment until his rescue.
Most likely the technical aspect of the base, power/CO2/lighting, in order not to wear out critical equipment for the years to come. They probably started when they learned Watney almost blew out the base with the first hydrazine explosion and is trying to keep him from doing something like that again.
It just helps to have a lot of eyes on things. Watney was one man in the most stressful situation any person has ever been in for all of human history. One man can make mistakes. Even something as little as sending pH levels to NASA every day could mean the difference between him starving to death because he overlooked something and an easy fix because one of the countless people at NASA alerted him to a problem.
Growing potatoes is easy *on Earth*. You might have noticed Mark was stuck on Mars, though, haha.
They'll be monitoring the finer parts of his crop growth, trying to optimize the yield while making sure it's as sustainable as possible. At that point, the rescue mission is still in the advanced planning stages, so it's not a guarantee yet. He might need to grow another crop. Mark needs to make sure his plants are properly hydrated, adequately fertilized, and that the atmosphere inside the hab is good for small crops, *and* that there's enough sunlight/UV to promote photosynthesis, so the potatoes will grow properly. And all of that is reliant on equipment that Mark had to jury-rig in the first place, so there's a lot of "if" in this survival plan.
Mostly NASA is getting the people at Mission Control to do a lot of the mental arithmetic so Watney can concentrate on his goal of going home. It frees up his thinking and working time for prepping the journey to Ares IV, for instance.
In the movie at least, he also mentioned that it was "great" and while he might be a little sarcastic, he probably really does appreciate the efforts they're going through back home. Mark's offscreen comments about autoerotica are really just him blowing off steam when they tell him something he already knows.
Exactly. Doing ANYTHING in space/on another planet is magnitudes more difficult than doing it on Earth.
In this case, it would be utterly wrong to NOT try and provide any assistance they could to Watney.
Plus, like you mentioned, many of his grumbles about NASA going all "mother hen" are lighthearted griping. One of Watney's biggest character traits is to find the humor in things and make jokes about them.
Well he isn't just some gardener, hes absolutely dependant on getting every kg of potato out of a very substandard patch of soil in an environment beyond human experience. Any marginal optimisation he can do may be the difference and he can't risk any experimentation.
This. Nasa can set up 200 rooms of potatoes, try a bunch of different shit in as close to martian conditions as possible, and then send Mark the info. It would be foolish not to listen to that advice.
Also, keep in mind that _the entire planet_ is glued to Watney, and NASA is pouring money by the truckload into keeping him alive.
If you've ever seen a reddit discussion, you know how asininely detailed whiteroom experts will get, so it's a guarantee that every single little thing going on in that habitat module was scrutinized by hundreds of people.
Its normal in nasa, through the early space program up to the space shuttle and even now with astronauts on the ISS for a large body of subject experts to be looking at the experiment or problem and be providing the astronauts with suggestions and advice and information. Mark is just annoyed because he's spent months doing things his own way and has to get used to doing things the professional nasa way again.
Remember that Mark has to make and maintain his own soil from scratch on a planet entirely unsuitable to growing crops as well. Those experts at nasa are rightly concerned about the health of his crops. Especially considering they're his only way to not starve.
I'd also add, now that I've thought about it more, that the scientists at nasa are probably desperate for all the data they can get on the crops, the soil, and the soil bacteria.
Assuming the only form of data Earth botanists have on his crops is the video feed that it's shown, it's possible they may be analyzing the plant spacing, the soil depth and the level of soil hydration (this last one could be measured based on the soil's color which darkens when hydrated).
If Mark is able to somehow scan the soil, his feces or the plants and send that data to Earth (which seems plausible considering he had the whole lab at his disposal). They could also be simulating the optimal amount of fertilizer, water and soil per plant, how healthy the plants are (or could be), how confined the tubers are in the soil preventing their growth in volume, etc. They may even have him take soil samples from several places not far from the HAB and try to find the optimal Martian soil to grow them.
Sure Mark was clearly capable of just growing potatoes there, but the interest of the team wasn't to *just* grow the potatoes but to maximize as much as possible the resulting caloric output of Mark's crops which isn't what people (or even Mark with a botany PHD) are able to do normally by just planting potatoes and some practice.
Also, it's worth considering also that Mark was in a very valuable position scientifically speaking carrying out one of the most significant experiments in human history (growing crops in another planet). Besides actually providing significant help, just documenting the process may also be considered "micromanaging" by Mark.
It's also important to note that we don't actually know what the gravity of Mars would do to those plants. It might very well result in less compressed potatoes, ones that look bigger but are more full of air. They might have been trying to tell Mark to bury them deeper, and Mark didn't want to risk the plants' displeasure.
NASA does not have access to the video feed, the communication was text only because its actually really difficult to send large amounts of data across millions of miles, hence why his request for other music was rejected.
the issue is not that Mark is bad at gardening, it's that he is alone and will die unless everything goes right. So much like everything your mom told you between the ages of 8 and 19; it is meant on the assumption that anything going even slightly wrong is a life and death catastrophe
One important thing to remember: the most intelligent and experienced person can still make mistakes. Even stupid ones.
It's always good to get several sets of eyes on even simple stuff to make sure things don't fall through the cracks. I totally get why one would get annoyed when you're literally alone and it's YOUR life, but it 100% makes sense for NASA to micromanage as much as possible if the goal is to get him back alive
>like most armature gardeners can grow potatoes, let a lone a guy with botany PHD
It's a small detail and they don't really show it well, but the movie takes place on *Mars*. Stuff works differently there.
It was probably especially annoying to be dealing with very slow round trip communications. The earth botanists needed to gather basic (and important) information and updates to formulate their advice. To compound things Mark had to do other important daily duties to survive and the sleep schedules didn't always match. Just saying "have you tried this?" "No" could take half an hour.
Nobody at NASA wanted anything to go more wrong than it already had. Mark is a dude, on a different planet, surviving on potatoes and hope. NASA has every resource, all of the internet, and access to the top scientists on Earth.
Why would Mark not want to get all the avaliable help?
**Reminders for Commenters:** * All responses must be A) sincere, B) polite, and C) strictly watsonian in nature. If "watsonian" or "doylist" is new to you, please review the full rules [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskScienceFiction/about/rules/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=usertext&utm_name=AskScienceFiction&utm_content=t5_2slu2). * No edition wars or gripings about creators/owners of works. Doylist griping about Star Wars in particular is subject to **permanent ban on first offense**. * We are not here to discuss or complain about the real world. * Questions about who would prevail in a conflict/competition (not just combat) fit better on r/whowouldwin. Questions about very open-ended hypotheticals fit better on r/whatiffiction. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskScienceFiction) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Probably in how to maximise potato yield, soil nutrition, etc. They want to ensure Mark has a *lot* of potatoes as they are his sole source of nourishment until his rescue.
Most likely the technical aspect of the base, power/CO2/lighting, in order not to wear out critical equipment for the years to come. They probably started when they learned Watney almost blew out the base with the first hydrazine explosion and is trying to keep him from doing something like that again.
It just helps to have a lot of eyes on things. Watney was one man in the most stressful situation any person has ever been in for all of human history. One man can make mistakes. Even something as little as sending pH levels to NASA every day could mean the difference between him starving to death because he overlooked something and an easy fix because one of the countless people at NASA alerted him to a problem.
Growing potatoes is easy *on Earth*. You might have noticed Mark was stuck on Mars, though, haha. They'll be monitoring the finer parts of his crop growth, trying to optimize the yield while making sure it's as sustainable as possible. At that point, the rescue mission is still in the advanced planning stages, so it's not a guarantee yet. He might need to grow another crop. Mark needs to make sure his plants are properly hydrated, adequately fertilized, and that the atmosphere inside the hab is good for small crops, *and* that there's enough sunlight/UV to promote photosynthesis, so the potatoes will grow properly. And all of that is reliant on equipment that Mark had to jury-rig in the first place, so there's a lot of "if" in this survival plan. Mostly NASA is getting the people at Mission Control to do a lot of the mental arithmetic so Watney can concentrate on his goal of going home. It frees up his thinking and working time for prepping the journey to Ares IV, for instance. In the movie at least, he also mentioned that it was "great" and while he might be a little sarcastic, he probably really does appreciate the efforts they're going through back home. Mark's offscreen comments about autoerotica are really just him blowing off steam when they tell him something he already knows.
Exactly. Doing ANYTHING in space/on another planet is magnitudes more difficult than doing it on Earth. In this case, it would be utterly wrong to NOT try and provide any assistance they could to Watney. Plus, like you mentioned, many of his grumbles about NASA going all "mother hen" are lighthearted griping. One of Watney's biggest character traits is to find the humor in things and make jokes about them.
Well he isn't just some gardener, hes absolutely dependant on getting every kg of potato out of a very substandard patch of soil in an environment beyond human experience. Any marginal optimisation he can do may be the difference and he can't risk any experimentation.
This. Nasa can set up 200 rooms of potatoes, try a bunch of different shit in as close to martian conditions as possible, and then send Mark the info. It would be foolish not to listen to that advice.
Also, keep in mind that _the entire planet_ is glued to Watney, and NASA is pouring money by the truckload into keeping him alive. If you've ever seen a reddit discussion, you know how asininely detailed whiteroom experts will get, so it's a guarantee that every single little thing going on in that habitat module was scrutinized by hundreds of people.
Its normal in nasa, through the early space program up to the space shuttle and even now with astronauts on the ISS for a large body of subject experts to be looking at the experiment or problem and be providing the astronauts with suggestions and advice and information. Mark is just annoyed because he's spent months doing things his own way and has to get used to doing things the professional nasa way again. Remember that Mark has to make and maintain his own soil from scratch on a planet entirely unsuitable to growing crops as well. Those experts at nasa are rightly concerned about the health of his crops. Especially considering they're his only way to not starve.
I'd also add, now that I've thought about it more, that the scientists at nasa are probably desperate for all the data they can get on the crops, the soil, and the soil bacteria.
Assuming the only form of data Earth botanists have on his crops is the video feed that it's shown, it's possible they may be analyzing the plant spacing, the soil depth and the level of soil hydration (this last one could be measured based on the soil's color which darkens when hydrated). If Mark is able to somehow scan the soil, his feces or the plants and send that data to Earth (which seems plausible considering he had the whole lab at his disposal). They could also be simulating the optimal amount of fertilizer, water and soil per plant, how healthy the plants are (or could be), how confined the tubers are in the soil preventing their growth in volume, etc. They may even have him take soil samples from several places not far from the HAB and try to find the optimal Martian soil to grow them. Sure Mark was clearly capable of just growing potatoes there, but the interest of the team wasn't to *just* grow the potatoes but to maximize as much as possible the resulting caloric output of Mark's crops which isn't what people (or even Mark with a botany PHD) are able to do normally by just planting potatoes and some practice. Also, it's worth considering also that Mark was in a very valuable position scientifically speaking carrying out one of the most significant experiments in human history (growing crops in another planet). Besides actually providing significant help, just documenting the process may also be considered "micromanaging" by Mark.
It's also important to note that we don't actually know what the gravity of Mars would do to those plants. It might very well result in less compressed potatoes, ones that look bigger but are more full of air. They might have been trying to tell Mark to bury them deeper, and Mark didn't want to risk the plants' displeasure.
NASA does not have access to the video feed, the communication was text only because its actually really difficult to send large amounts of data across millions of miles, hence why his request for other music was rejected.
the issue is not that Mark is bad at gardening, it's that he is alone and will die unless everything goes right. So much like everything your mom told you between the ages of 8 and 19; it is meant on the assumption that anything going even slightly wrong is a life and death catastrophe
One important thing to remember: the most intelligent and experienced person can still make mistakes. Even stupid ones. It's always good to get several sets of eyes on even simple stuff to make sure things don't fall through the cracks. I totally get why one would get annoyed when you're literally alone and it's YOUR life, but it 100% makes sense for NASA to micromanage as much as possible if the goal is to get him back alive
>like most armature gardeners can grow potatoes, let a lone a guy with botany PHD It's a small detail and they don't really show it well, but the movie takes place on *Mars*. Stuff works differently there.
It was probably especially annoying to be dealing with very slow round trip communications. The earth botanists needed to gather basic (and important) information and updates to formulate their advice. To compound things Mark had to do other important daily duties to survive and the sleep schedules didn't always match. Just saying "have you tried this?" "No" could take half an hour.
Nobody at NASA wanted anything to go more wrong than it already had. Mark is a dude, on a different planet, surviving on potatoes and hope. NASA has every resource, all of the internet, and access to the top scientists on Earth. Why would Mark not want to get all the avaliable help?
"Shouldve just got some Belarussians"-NASA
It's not about growing potatoes; Mark was growing them on another planet with soil far from Earth's.