I don’t mind if you have a warp drive, right? I’ll take that as a given, but if people are walking around on Mars without helmets, then I get really annoyed. I’m a science dork myself, and so it always kind of screws my suspension of disbelief when there’s like, blatant scientific inaccuracies. I’m just saying that it is inevitable that we’ll go to Mars because of a survival instinct that is endemic to our species. I don’t believe it is critical to human survival that we go to Mars. I hear it a lot and I admit even sometimes I say it, but there’s a slight distinction between what I say and the survival argument. I don’t see that as the argument for going to Mars. Space exploration and survival of the human species By spreading out and living all over the place, all over the whole planet, we made it so that we were immune to any localized disaster. That’s how we do things, and that was an evolved advantage of ours. That’s why we’re one of the few species on this planet that lives on all the continents. One of the reasons the human race is top dog on this planet is because we do have that tendency to spread out and go just to see what’s over that next hill, and to colonize and move outward. Not just a necessity really, but also it’s a fundamental drive that we have. I would love to see the human race expand farther out. IN HIS WORDS Building colonies on the moon and Mars I interviewed Weir on the phone at his home in California about his new projects and views about colonizing Mars. That hard-science approach helped him craft a realistic survival story that made it easy to identify with a protagonist who, in Weir’s words, had “no real character flaws.” That said, Weir says to expect more character development in his next works. He’s following “The Martian” with a new science fiction novel due out in November, “Artemis,” and he’s trying to break into television, although CBS passed on the pilot of his space-themed drama “Mission Control.” Weir’s space fascination drives him to research and emphasize the science aspect of science fiction. Weir has no intention of being a one-hit wonder. Weir made a fortune in 2013 when he sold the rights for his tale of a stranded astronaut to a publishing house and filmmakers who turned the story into a best-selling book and an Oscar-nominated movie.
Education: Attended University of California, San DiegoĪndy Weir’s lifelong love of space propelled him to begin writing “The Martian” as a free blog in 2009 and then as a novel.