The Martian

Ares III is a 31 SOL NASA mission on Mars. On SOL 18, the area where the team have set up is hit with a storm, circumstances which drag Astronaut Mark Watney, a botanist by trade, outside of the launch vehicle. Despite no visual confirmation, Commander Melissa Lewis makes the reluctant decision to launch the vehicle to Hermes, the space probe, for the eleven month trip back to Earth without Mark, the team believing there is no way Mark could have survived the storm with his probable injuries. Mark does however survive this ordeal, sustaining a potentially life threatening injury if he does not deal with it right away. However, in the process, he has lost all communication back to Earth, meaning that he cannot let them know of his situation. The Ares IV mission isn't scheduled for another four years, but he figures in a best case scenario anyway, he can only survive 31 SOLs with the resources available in HAB, the temporary structure in which he will reside. With this information on hand, Mark makes the decision that he will not die on Mars, and does whatever he can to survive until the next mission, which means manufacturing basic human needs in usable forms which are in short supply, including food, water and oxygen, above the need to get to the location where Ares IV is scheduled to land 3,200 km away, that is unless other unknowns occur in the meantime. Meanwhile, back in Houston, mission control learns via satellite feeds that Mark is probably still alive. They have to decide how best to use this information, including whether they will try to rescue him in the probability that he will not be alive by the time they are able to get there, as they refuse to tell the Ares III crew to maintain morale, and regardless of how they spin it in the media.