Duct Tape Heavy Duty
Cloth-backed tape that holds under tension and tears by hand. The repair material for things not designed to be repaired.
Scenario
Everyone left. The maths did not.
You were declared dead and the ride home departed accordingly. Nothing here wants to kill you personally — it simply is not air, and will not become air, and the next opportunity to leave is four hundred days away.
What kills you
Arithmetic. Specifically, the calorie kind.
Rules
The book behind it
Andy Weir, 2011
The film keeps the jokes and cuts the arithmetic. The book shows the working — every calorie, every litre of water, every failure mode — which is the reason the premise is gripping rather than absurd.
Half of every improvised repair in recorded history. Buy more than feels sensible.
Cloth-backed tape that holds under tension and tears by hand. The repair material for things not designed to be repaired.
Guessing at electrics is how a survivable problem becomes a fire.
Reads voltage, current and continuity, which is how you tell a dead battery from a broken wire.
Food you grow is worth more than the calories, because it is also something to do tomorrow.
Trays, medium and a cover to hold humidity while seed germinates. The dome is the part people forget.
Every repair needs both hands. All of them.
Light where you are looking, hands free. Rechargeable is convenient; it also means it can be flat when you need it.
The record is how you catch the mistake you are about to repeat.
A bound book on synthetic paper, for records that must survive weather.
Get the next one
If The Martian was worth reading, the next one will be too. New scenarios by email, no more than one a week.
We store your address to send you these emails and nothing else. No sharing, no selling, unsubscribe in one click from any email. See the privacy notice.