Le resine artificiali nella letteratura narrativa (2) e nel cinema (3)

---

Nel celebre romanzo fantascientifico The Martian (scritto da Andy Weir), il protagonista principale Mark Watney (che rispecchia tra l'altro la teoria del bricolage vista a lezione) utilizza resine artifciali con effetto sigillante (per chiudere valvole e riparare strappi). Citiamo alcuni passi del libro:

 "Carefully reaching to the side of my helmet, I got the breach kit. It’s nothing more than a funnel with a valve at the small end and an unbelievably sticky

resin on the wide end. The idea is you have the valve open and stick the wide end over a hole. The air can escape through the valve, so it doesn’t interfere with the resin making a good seal. Then you close the valve, and you’ve sealed the breach."  (LOG ENTRY: SOL 6)

"For emergencies completely unrelated to this one, NASA provided six square meters of extra Hab canvas and some really impressive resin. The same kind of resin, in fact, that saved my life on Sol 6 (the patch kit I used on the hole in my suit).

In the event of a Hab breach, everyone would run to the airlocks. Procedure was to let the Hab pop rather than die trying to prevent it. Then, we’d suit up and assess the damage. Once we found the breach, we’d seal it with the spare canvas and resin. Then reinflate and we’re good as new.

The six square meters of spare canvas was a convenient one by six meters. I cut 10-centimeter-wide strips, then used them to make a sort of harness.

I used the resin and straps to make two 10-meter circumference loops. Then I put a big patch of canvas on each end. I now had poor man’s saddlebags for my rover.

This is getting more and more Wagon Train every day.

The resin sets almost instantly. But it gets stronger if you wait an hour. So I did. Then I suited up and headed out to the rover."  (LOG ENTRY: SOL 64)

Trailer ufficiale del film diretto da Ridley Scott