50 free The Martian trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
40 free The Martian trivia questions with answers. The Martian began as a serial on Andy Weir's blog, became a 99-cent Kindle bestseller and ended up as a Ridley Scott blockbuster with seven Oscar nominations. This The Martian trivia quiz covers both the book and the 2015 film: how Mark Watney gets stranded, how he grows potatoes and makes water, how NASA works out he is alive, the Pathfinder probe, the Hermes crew's mutiny and the Rich Purnell manoeuvre, and the improvised rescue at the end. It also covers the making of the film: the Budapest sound stages and Wadi Rum exteriors, the cast from Matt Damon and Jessica Chastain to Donald Glover, the disco soundtrack, the box office, the Golden Globe 'comedy' win, and how accurate the science really is. It suits a sci-fi movie night, a book club or a space-themed quiz. Every answer is checked against Wikipedia and cited on the question, so you can see where each fact comes from.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Who wrote the novel The Martian?
Andy Weir
He later wrote Artemis and Project Hail Mary.
Q 02How was The Martian first published?
As a serial on his blog
Crown bought the print rights in 2013 for over $100,000 and published it in February 2014.
Q 03For how much did Weir first sell the Kindle edition of The Martian at fans' request?
99 cents
It sold 35,000 copies in three months and shot to the top of Amazon's science-fiction chart.
Q 04What is Mark Watney's scientific speciality, which lets him grow food on Mars?
Botany
In the novel he is also the crew's mechanical engineer.
Q 05What is the name of the Mars mission Watney is on when he is stranded?
Ares III
The story is set in 2035, on the plain of Acidalia Planitia.
Q 06What is the name of the ship that carries the crew between Earth and Mars?
Hermes
The crew later vote unanimously to turn it around and go back for Watney.
Q 07What forces the crew to abandon Watney, believing him dead?
A dust storm
NASA scientists later noted a real Martian storm at that speed would have almost no force in the thin air.
Q 08In the novel, what impales Watney during the evacuation?
An antenna
It also knocked out his suit radio and life-signs monitor, so the crew saw him flatline.
Q 09How many sols into the mission does the storm hit in the novel?
Six
The mission had been planned as a month-long stay.
Q 10What crop does Watney farm inside the Hab?
Potatoes
Real potatoes were grown on a neighbouring sound stage during filming.
Q 11Watney makes water for his crops from what?
Leftover rocket fuel
In the book he uses an iridium catalyst to pull hydrogen from hydrazine and burns it with oxygen.
Q 12Which old NASA probe does Watney dig up to restore contact with Earth?
Pathfinder
The real Pathfinder landed on 4 July 1997 carrying the rover Sojourner.
Q 13Which NASA satellite planner is the first to notice Watney is alive?
Mindy Park
Weir said he pictured her as Korean but never wrote it into the book.
Which NASA official decides not to tell the Ares III crew that Watney is alive?
Q 21What job does Watney take after returning to Earth?
Astronaut survival instructor
The film's coda jumps five years ahead to the launch of Ares V.
Q 22Who plays Mark Watney?
Matt Damon
He had just played a stranded astronaut in Interstellar the year before.
Q 23Who directed The Martian?
Ridley Scott
It became the highest-grossing film of his career.
Q 24Which screenwriter adapted the novel and later also adapted Project Hail Mary?
Teddy Sanders
Jeff Daniels plays Sanders in the film.
Q 15What destroys Watney's potato garden?
An airlock explosion
In the novel the airlock canvas tears from overuse, and he later loses Pathfinder too by shorting its electronics.
Q 16Which space agency provides the booster that makes the rescue possible?
China's
The rocket had been meant for the Taiyang Shen solar probe.
Q 17Which astrophysicist devises the slingshot plan that sends the crew's ship back to Mars?
Rich Purnell
Donald Glover plays him as a rumpled JPL astrodynamicist.
Q 18How does the crew learn of the Purnell plan after Sanders rejects it?
Henderson secretly sends it to them
Sanders backs them publicly but demands Henderson's resignation afterwards.
Q 19What does Watney partly dismantle to lighten the Ares IV ascent vehicle?
The cockpit
In the book the nose cap comes off and is replaced with Hab canvas.
Q 20How does Watney finally propel himself to his rescuer in the film's climax?
By piercing his suit to vent air
In the novel it is Beck, not Lewis, who goes out on the tether to grab him.
Drew Goddard
He was Oscar-nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay.
Q 25Jessica Chastain plays which member of the Ares III crew?
The mission commander
She prepared by meeting astronauts and scientists at JPL and the Johnson Space Center.
Q 26Which Community and Atlanta star plays the JPL astrodynamicist behind the slingshot plan?
Donald Glover
He appeared in three films in 2015, including Magic Mike XXL.
Q 27Which actor plays the NASA administrator who keeps Watney's survival from the crew?
Jeff Daniels
He had earlier co-starred with Christopher Lloyd in the comedy My Favorite Martian.
Q 28Chiwetel Ejiofor's casting as Vincent Kapoor drew criticism because the novel's character is named what?
Venkat
Weir defended the casting, saying his novel deliberately avoided physical descriptions.
Q 29Where were the film's interior sets built?
Budapest, Hungary
Korda Studios sits in the wine village of Etyek, west of the city.
Q 30Which desert in Jordan stood in for the surface of Mars?
Wadi Rum
It had already played Mars in Mission to Mars, Red Planet and The Last Days on Mars.