He turned to Venkat. “It could have been a lasting legacy of scientific research. Now it’s a delivery run. We’ll get a Chinese astronaut on Mars, but what science will he bring back that some other astronaut couldn’t have? This operation is a net loss for mankind’s knowledge.” “Well,” Venkat said cautiously, “it’s a net gain for Mark Watney.” “Mmm,” Zhu Tao said.
Finally realizing what this book is about, beyond a nice story. It's a commentary on the value of human life: how far is the human race collectively ready to go and how much will we willingly sacrifice in the slim hope of prolonging the life of someone who is going to die one day anyway. It's an exploration of human sentimentality. So far NASA has already spent outrageous amounts of taxpayer money on just talking to Mark, with absolutely no guarantee that he will ever make it home alive. Human lives are being risked, satellites are being repositioned, and rockets are being repurposed. 5 years after this story, what ends up being the true, full cost of Mark's survival? And can some be blamed for disagreeing with the value afforded it?
