'The Martian' Author Andy Weir & Steve Jurveston Mind-Meld on Mars Colonies

Donald Goldsmith is a freelance science writer and co-author (with Neil Tyson) of "Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution." Goldsmith contributed this article toSpace.com's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

"I'm deeply afraid of flying," admits Andy Weir, self-titled space nerd and author of the best-selling novel "The Martian," now being filmed by director Ridley Scott with actors Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain and Kristin Wiig. Buoyed by the just-released paperback version of his book but unwilling to take any flights to promote it Weir met last week with investor Steve Jurvetson, fortunately close to Weir's home on the San Francisco peninsula.

This videotaped encounterbetween the two space-colonization enthusiasts the visionary and the venture capitalist was the brainchild of Keri Kukral, the leader of the new internet channel RawScience.tv.

Jurvetson, a partner in Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ), sits on the board ofElon Musk's SpaceX ; his company has also invested in Planet Labs, which aims to provide daily satellite images of Earth. His deep and abiding interest in space travel finds embodiment in the dozens of artifacts displayed in DFJ's lobby and his personal office. Meeting for the first time, Weir and Jurvetson seemingly out-rhapsodized each other in their desire to resolve the issues that confront anyhumans seeking to establish long-term residence on Mars .

Mars and "The Martian"

Weir, who spent 25 years as a computer programmer, began posting chapters of his book as a blog to explore key issues: How do we get to Mars? What could go wrong there? How could we solve those problems? What if more than one arose simultaneously? He made his "hapless" main character suffer as many misfortunes as he could foresee and somehow overcome them.

His blog grew into a single electronic file, and then into a Kindle version, which attracted attention from a hard-copy publisher.

"I've been really surprised by the reaction," he noted happily, "not just science geeksit turned out to have mainstream appeal!" [Andy Weir:If We're Serious About Going to Mars, We Need Artificial Gravity]

In his novel, Weir succeeded in vividly imagining life-threatening problems that may arise for a planetary colonist "The Martian" protagonist, a botanist on a one-month mission to establish a base on Mars, finds himself left for dead by his fellow astronauts after an accident that causes them to return to Earth. The "martian" is left jury-rigging equipment to survive the four-year interval before anyone can return to help him.

The Mars reality

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'The Martian' Author Andy Weir & Steve Jurveston Mind-Meld on Mars Colonies