ABSTRACT
The term “spaceship ecology” was popularized by the ecologist and science writer Garrett Hardin in his 1993 book, Living within limits: Ecology, economics, and population taboos. It was used to retrospectively describe the cultural and intellectual transition in the 1970s from the four centuries long “age of exuberance” to a more sober period based in a growing recognition of ecological and economic “limits” represented by the form and functionality of the “spaceship.” The Martian begins like most of its kind with a mission gone awry. Blasted by a sandstorm on sol six of their 31-sol mission on Mars, the crew of Ares III is forced to emergency evacuate from its research site. Consistent with the genre, The Martian, is a celebration of aerospace science and technology and its related protagonists and pursuits, but this is an ironic, self-aware celebration that draws attention to the complex and fraught relationships between science and colonialism, nationalism, industry, and fiction.
