Though we've focused a lot on Mark in this section, it's worth mentioning how the people of Earth feel about this ordeal. They feel isolated from Mark too, but their dissatisfaction is rooted in their feelings of powerlessness to help.

Actually, that doesn't sound silly at all. Throughout The Martian, Mark is forced to use some seriously lo-fi solutions for some big time problems—problems usually caused by complex modern technology. That newfangled stuff can be nice, but sometimes you just have to go back to basics.

For the first time, Mark actually believes that he'll make it home. That's huge. It was a struggle to survive, but he never took his eyes off the prize—planet Earth. This guy's been seeing red for way too long.