《火星救援》（节选）

安迪·威尔

CHAPTER 1

LOG ENTRY： SOL 6Im pretty much fucked.Thats my considered opinion.

Fucked.

Six days into what should be the greatest two months of my life， and its turned into a nightmare.

I dont even know wholl read this. I guess someone will find it eventually. Maybe a hundred years from now.

For the record... I didnt die on Sol 6. Certainly the rest of the crew thought I did， and I cant blame them. Maybe therell be a day of national mourning for me， and my Wikipedia page will say， “Mark Watney is the only human being to have died on Mars.”

And itll be right， probably. Cause Ill surely die here. Just not on Sol 6 when everyone thinks I did.

Lets see... where do I begin？

The Ares Program. Mankind reaching out to Mars to send people to another planet for the very first time and expand the horizons of humanity blah， blah， blah. The Ares 1 crew did their thing and came back heroes. They got the parades and fame and love of the world.

Ares 2 did the same thing， in a different location on Mars. They got a firm handshake and a hot cup of coffee when they got home.

Ares 3. Well， that was my mission. Okay， not mine per se. Commander Lewis was in charge. I was just one of her crew. Actually， I was the very lowest ranked member of the crew. I would only be “in command” of the mission if I were the only remaining person.

What do you know？ Im in command.

I wonder if this log will be recovered before the rest of the crew die of old age. I presume they got back to Earth all right. Guys， if youre reading this： It wasnt your fault. You did what you had to do. In your position I would have done the same thing. I dont blame you， and Im glad you survived.

I guess I should explain how Mars missions work， for any layman who may be reading this. We got to Earth orbit the normal way， through an ordinary ship to Hermes. All the Ares missions use Hermes to get to and from Mars. Its really big and cost a lot so NASA built only one.

Once we got to Hermes， four additional unmanned missions brought us fuel and supplies while we prepared for our trip. Once everything was a go， we set out for Mars. But not very fast. Gone are the days of heavy chemical fuel burns and trans-Mars injection orbits.

Hermes is powered by ion engines. They throw argon out the back of the ship really fast to get a tiny amount of acceleration. The thing is， it doesnt take much reactant mass， so a little argon （and a nuclear reactor to power things） let us accelerate constantly the whole way there. Youd be amazed at how fast you can get going with a tiny acceleration over a long time.

I could regale you with tales of how we had great fun on the trip， but I wont. I dont feel like reliving it right now. Suffice it to say we got to Mars 124 days later without strangling each other.

From there， we took the MDV （Mars descent vehicle） to the surface. The MDV is basically a big can with some light thrusters and parachutes attached. Its sole purpose is to get six humans from Mars orbit to the surface without killing any of them.

And now we come to the real trick of Mars exploration： having all of our shit there in advance.

A total of fourteen unmanned missions deposited everything we would need for surface operations. They tried their best to land all the supply vessels in the same general area， and did a reasonably good job. Supplies arent nearly so fragile as humans and can hit the ground really hard. But they tend to bounce around a lot.

Naturally， they didnt send us to Mars until theyd confirmed that all the supplies had made it to the surface and their containers werent breached. Start to finish， including supply missions， a Mars mission takes about three years. In fact， there were Ares 3 supplies en route to Mars while the Ares 2 crew were on their way home.

The most important piece of the advance supplies， of course， was the MAV. The Mars ascent vehicle. That was how we would get back to Hermes after surface operations were complete. The MAV was soft-landed （as opposed to the balloon bounce-fest the other supplies had）. Of course， it was in constant communication with Houston， and if there had been any problems with it， we would have passed by Mars and gone home without ever landing.

The MAV is pretty cool. Turns out， through a neat set of chemical reactions with the Martian atmosphere， for every kilogram of hydrogen you bring to Mars， you can make thirteen kilograms of fuel. Its a slow process， though. It takes twenty-four months to fill the tank. Thats why they sent it long before we got here.

You can imagine how disappointed I was when I discovered the MAV was gone.

第一章

日志：SOL 6

我他媽彻底完蛋了。

这是我考虑再三后的结论。

完蛋。

这六天，本该是我一生中最辉煌的两个月的开端，结果却成了一场噩梦的前奏。

我压根不知道谁会看这些东西。我猜总归有一天，有人会发现它。没准得等到一百年后。

说正经的，记录……Sol 6，我没死。其他队友想必都认为我死了，这当然不能怪他们。搞不好过阵子会举行个国葬，而我的维基百科页面上也会这么写：“马克·沃特尼是迄今为止唯一一个死于火星的人。”

说得没错。基本没错。我很明白我会死在这儿。不过不是像大家以为的那样死在Sol 6。

让我想想……从何说起呢？

阿瑞斯计划。人类去往火星，将人首次送上另一颗行星，永远扩展人类地平线，等等，等等。阿瑞斯1 的船员顺利完成任务，回到地球，个个成了大英雄。各地为他们举行庆祝游行，他们举世闻名，受世人爱戴。

阿瑞斯2 也差不多，唯一的区别就是他们降落在不同的火星地点。他们回老家后，大伙儿争相和他们热情握手，外加奉上热腾腾的咖啡。

阿瑞斯3，唔，就是我的任务。好啦，不是我本人的任务。刘易斯指挥官是头儿，我只是她的船员。事实上，我是所有船员中级别最低的。只有在一种情况下，我才能“指挥”这次任务，那就是任务全体成员只剩我一人了。

说点好玩的，我现在真成头儿了。

我估摸着，这台记录仪找回来时，其他队友早都老死了。当然，前提是他们能平安返回地球。伙计们，要是你们能活着看见这台记录仪的话，听好了：不是你们的错。你们那样做是迫不得已。换作我，也会作出同样的决定。我不会怪你们，我很高兴你们能活下来。

看记录的家伙中没准会有门外汉，我还是先解释一下火星任务是怎么运作的吧。我们以常规方式进入地球轨道，乘普通飞船登上赫耳墨斯号。所有阿瑞斯计划的飞行任务都由赫耳墨斯送宇航员往返地球与火星。这艘飞船极其庞大并且耗费惊人，因此，NASA 只造了一艘。

登上赫耳墨斯之后，在准备期间，另有四次无人飞行任务为我们运送燃料和给养。一旦所有准备工作完成，我们就启程飞向火星。实际上没那么快。如今不像过去那样，消耗大量化学燃料，才能将飞船送入火星转移轨道。

赫耳墨斯由离子发动机驱动，以超高速将氩原子向后抛射，从而获得飞船整体的微小加速度。也就是说，只需消耗很少的反应物质，所以一点点氩气（以核反应堆来提供动力），就能在一路上给我们提供持续不断的加速度。那么微小的加速度，在长时间的累积后，也能给飞船带来相当快的速度，这种事，想想都叫人吃惊。

我可以给你唠唠航行过程中大伙之间的各种乐子，但我不太想说。我现在没这兴致。简单总结下来，在飞向火星的124 天里，我们谁也没掐死谁。

进入火星轨道之后，我们乘坐MDV（火星降落载具）抵达火星地表。MDV，基本上就是个安装了若干轻型推进器和降落伞的大罐子。它的设计目的只有一个：将六个人活着从火星轨道送到地表。

下面得说说火星探索最棘手的部分，那就是得把我们所需的狗屁东西全都提前送到火星。

統统算下来，用了14 次无人飞行任务，才送完我们进行地表作业所需的全部物资。他们想尽一切办法，尽量将装满物资的飞行器运送到火星地表上的大致同一区域，结果也说得过去。物资毕竟没有大活人那么脆弱，所以那些飞船可以高速着陆。不过带来的问题就是：它们会弹得老远。

自然，在确定所有物资都抵达火星表面并且包装完好之前，他们是不会将我们送往火星的。从开始到结束，包括物资运送，整个火星任务得花三年时间。实际上，当阿瑞斯2 的船员还在回家路上时，阿瑞斯3 的物资飞船就已经飞往火星。

所有提前抵达的物资之中，最重要的莫过于MAV，火星升空载具。完成地表作业之后，要回到赫耳墨斯，全得靠它。MAV 与其他那些欢快地砸向地面、跳得满地皆是的物资不同，它得软着陆。当然了，它和休斯敦之间一直保有联络，万一发生什么意外，我们就会掠过火星，直接回老家，取消登陆任务。

MAV 超级酷。简单说来，通过一系列与火星大气的化学巧妙反应，它每携带1 千克氢去火星，就能产生13 千克燃料。不过反应过程很缓慢，得花上24 个月才能填满燃料槽。这也是为什么他们会提前那么久把MAV 送上火星。

所以，你能想象到，当我发现MAV 不见了该有多么失望。     □