Okay but this is what is hilarious to me, because it doesn't. Weir can tell us his work is apolitical until he's blue in the face, but he's incorrect. I will give a concrete example!
SPOILERS FOR THE MARTIAN BOOK AND MOVIE: After NASA figures out that Mark Watney is alive and are creating a plan to save him, they first need to get supplies to him so he can even survive long enough to be saved.
Due to the compressed timetable, the Director of NASA (Teddy Sanders, played by Jeff Daniels in the movie) approves skipping days/weeks worth of safety checks on the rocket meant to send rations to Mars. This goes catastrophically, as the rocket explodes before leaving atmosphere, taking all the rations with it. Thus, Watney is certainly doomed to starve to death.
Then, out of the blue, the Chinese NASA (CNSA) reach out and offer to give NASA their Taiyang Shen booster rocket, giving up their own resources to get China into space, all to save one American. And its very explicit in the book: if they just said nothing, no one would have even known they could have saved Watney, as the Taiyang Shen's readiness was not public knowledge. There was no guarantee they'd get recompense for the offer (though in the book and movie, this is action sets up CNSA-NASA cooperation on a future mission).
So Andy Weir's The Martian believes that China, one of America's greatest rivals on the world stage, is capable of phenomenal selflessness and its people value human life enough to give up decades of scientific work in a purely altruistic act. And American should use this to find common ground and strengthen diplomatic relations.
oh but it's not political. lol. lmao even.
yousharknotpass
snowghoul
titsay
baratheonpilled
jbbartram-illu
