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"We're kind of on the cusp of being able to do everything
that happens in the movie," Damon told Reuters, speaking of
space exploration.
"With the right funding and the right attention, these are the
kinds of things that we will be exploring in the very near
future and this is going to be a part of our kids' lives."
"The Martian," based on Andy Weir's 2011 novel of the same name,
follows Astronaut Mark Watney (Damon) who is stranded on Mars
after his team, led by actress Jessica Chastain's Captain Lewis,
presume he is dead in the aftermath of a powerful Martian storm.
With no means of communicating and the next manned mission to
Mars four years away, Watney tries to survive on the deserted
lands of Mars, using his skills as a botanist to grow food using
Martian soil.
On Wednesday, Fox released the second trailer for the film,
which highlighted Watney's determination to survive on Mars as
well as his dry wit, while unknown to him, the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration must decide whether to try
to rescue him.
"(Weir) really got this guy with this great sense of humor,
really smart and really capable guy, but somebody who has that
great kind of gallows humor that people who do this kind of work
tend to have," Damon said.
To mark the release of the trailer, Fox hosted an event on
Tuesday with Damon at NASA and its Jet Propulsion Laboratory in
Pasadena, California, which specializes in planetary science and
launched the Mars Curiosity rover in 2011.
Journalists were given tours of the facilities and given
explanations why "The Martian" could reflect how humans could
live on Mars in the near future.
"As soon as Ridley contacted us and we recognized that he wanted
to paint that really accurate picture, it was easy for us to
endorse the movie and then provide whatever kind of consultation
and advice he needed to be able to execute on it," said Jim
Green, director of NASA's planetary science arm.
(This version of the story corrects the year of Mars Curiosity
rover launch to 2011 from 2012 in paragraph eight.)
(Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)
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