Orbital Trajectories of the Hermes

This video depicts the various flight plans the “Hermes“ from “The Martian“ had while the story unfolded. This video is directly from Andy Weir (the author) and shows the programm he used in order to figure out the constantly-accelerating orbital path of the Hermes. He also worked out a real-world launch date of the Ares 3 Mission (so that for plot reasons Thanksgiving would take place while the crew was on Mars). Ares 3 launched on 7th July 2035. They landed on Mars (Sol 1) on 7th November 2035. The story begins on Sol 6, which is November 12, 2035. Further Links: Facebook Post Launch Window: Google Talk with Livedemo of the Programm: Adam Savage Interview: KSPtoMars Hangout: Why Ion-Engines: