It’s Sol 18, 2035. Mark Watney, botanist on the Ares III mission, finds himself abandoned on Mars. His crew-mates, believing him dead, have aborted the mission due to extreme weather and returned to the Hermes, using the only escape vehicle available. Watney’s response?
“In the face of overwhelming odds, I’m left with only one option. I’m gonna have to science the sh*t out of this.”
Roll forward to Sol 54. It’s 1.30 am at Mission Control and Mindy Park, downing a coffee to stay awake, dials up satellite imagery of the mission site. She notices Rover II has moved from where it was on Sol 18, and that the HAB solar panels have been cleaned.
“Security. This is Mindy Park in Sat Con. I need the Emergency number for Vincent Kapoor…
Yes him…
Yes it’s an emergency!”
It’s easy to imagine the other side of the call. A mere underling waking the Mars Mission Director in the middle of the night. Cut to an hour later. Vincent Kapoor, Teddy Sanders, Director of NASA, and Annie Montrose, Director of Media Relations, are gathered around Park’s screen. There’s no denying the conclusion Park has drawn – Watney is alive. “How sure?”. “100% sure.”
Park continues to monitor Watney’s movements. At a briefing with Sanders she responds with a tentative “Are you asking me” in response to his query about what Watney is doing – seemingly preparing for a journey across the red planet to the landing site for Ares IV – the next planned mission. But Park can’t be 100% sure due to a satellite coverage gap of 17 minutes.
Learning this, Sanders’ doesn’t hesitate to give Park “…total authority over satellite trajectory and orbital adjustments.”
As the remainder of the story unfolds Park is a steadfast, if distant, companion to Watney, carefully monitoring and reporting on his progress. We see her sought out by Kapoor to understand not only Watney’s activity but also his psychological wellbeing.
“How’s he doing?”
“Uhh.. he asked us to call him Captain Blond Beard”.
After 569 Sol days, an emaciated Watney is finally rescued. In the closing scenes of the movie we witness the launch of Ares IV, with Park, now as Guidance control, responsible for determining the position of the spacecraft in space.
3 questions from The Martian leaders need to consider:
- Do you trust your own insights and those of your team? Park backed herself went straight to the top with her conclusion.
- Does your organisation get information where it is needed, fast and unfiltered? NASA reduced organisational friction encouraging the likes of Park and another junior character, Rich Purnell, to get needed information to the right place as soon as it was available.
- Are your people given the authority and resources to act? When Park identified a critical information limitation she was delegated authority and access to resources to resolve it.
Attribution: Ahmad alnatour, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
©Ann Braithwaite 2023
