10 Things Movies Get Wrong About Space

In the early stages of Ridley Scott's adaptation of Andy Weir's novel The Martian (2015), we see Mark Watney (Matt Damon) and his crew getting caught up in a particularly nasty dust storm on Mars.

Sure, it's a pretty dramatic way to part Watney from the group and leave him all alone on the planet, but is it factually correct?

Not exactly.

Mars does have its own winds and dust storms, that much is true. However, the planet's atmosphere is actually incredibly thin (about 1% of the density of Earth's). So, even if the air was whirling around at seriously high speeds you'd likely not feel much at all walking around outside.

This means there's pretty much no way the wind would be able to break off a satellite dish and knock over a Hollywood A-lister like it does in the movie.

Weir has admitted he knew of this going into the book, but he confessed that he needed to bend the truth in order to compellingly drag Watney away from the rest of the group. 'It’s just more dramatic that way. So I just made that concession. I know I’m a liar. I just … wanted that.'

It definitely made for an interesting scene, but any real life Martians probably won't have to worry about being swept off their feet in the middle of a sudden dust storm.