During a NASA expedition to Mars six astronauts are caught by a suddenstorm. They manage to return to the spaceship, except one: botanist Mark Watney, who is hit by the storm and becomes unconscious. The crew tries to find him, but Commander Lewis has to give the order to take off, as they all risk being killed.

However, Watney has miraculously survived and finds himself alone on the planet. He has the habitat and food for one year, not enough to survive until the next expedition arrives four years later. His other problem is that he has no contact with the Hermes spaceship or NASA back on Earth. But eventually NASA observers see signs of activity. At the same time, Watney remembers that there is an old Pathfinder probe: he finds it and makes his first primitive contact with Earth.

Meanwhile he has used his botanical skills to grow potatoes, which will prolong his survival time. Following NASA instructions, he establishes proper communication. Everyone is now committed to a rescue operation. When they try to launch a probe with supplies to keep him alive until a mission can reach him, it explodes on take-off. At the same time, Watney’s crop has been destroyed by an explosion. Two elements come to the rescue. An astrodynamicist makes calculations that will enable his spaceship to return and rescue him. The supply problem is solved by the Chinese, who offer the use of their rockets. His teammates are finally informed of the situation and have no doubts in deciding to go back for him. The final difficulty is that the ship cannot land and so he will have to find a way of meeting them in orbit. Will Mark find the skills and resources to take off to space with the limited equipment there is on the Red Planet? Will all the survival efforts pay off in the end?
GLOSSARY:
Spaceship: nave especial/nau espacial
Probe: sonda/sonda
To land: aterrizar/aterrar
To pay off: tener éxito/tenir èxit