Andy Weir Joins Challenger Center for an Exclusive Q&A on STEM Storytelling

What better way to spend May the Fourth (aka Star Wars Day) than a Q&A with a bestselling sci-fi author, moderated by the president of a space education organization, with guest appearances from two former NASA astronauts?

Last month, Andy Weir, author of Project Hail Mary and The Martian, joined us on the 5th anniversary of Project Hail Mary’s publishing for an exclusive Q&A with Challenger Center’s incredible community of dedicated donors, educators, and STEM champions. It was an unforgettable conversation about his writing process, the importance of STEM education, and more.

Andy Weir’s Connection to Challenger Center

This event wasn’t the first time Mike Kincaid, Challenger Center’s President and Executive Director, met Andy. Over a decade ago, when Mike worked at NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC), he was approached by his boss, Ellen Ochoa, director of JSC and the first Hispanic woman in space. “You have to read this book,” Ellen told him excitedly, handing him The Martian. 

While reading, Mike realized Andy’s email was listed on the back cover. “It was a Tuesday night around 10 o’clock, and I thought, ‘Why not?’” Mike recalled. “I decided to invite Andy Weir to visit JSC. I assumed my email would go to an office, and maybe someone would call me back if I was lucky.”

What Mike didn’t expect was a response at midnight that same night from Andy, telling Mike he’d love to come. “At the time, I lived in California, which meant I’d have to book a flight to reach Houston,” Andy explained. “Even to this day, I have a fear of flying — I didn’t even go to the shooting of The Martian because it was in Budapest — but I wasn’t about to miss out on a week of hanging out at JSC, so I forced myself to get on a plane. It was a no-brainer.”

Andy joked, “When people ask me what the greatest time of my life was, I’ll tell them it’s when my son was born or when I got married, but really — it was the week I spent at JSC getting VIP tours and hanging out with astronauts. It was awesome.”

Fast forward 12 years, and Mike Kincaid had another lightbulb moment while reading Project Hail Mary. He saw a strong parallel between this story about a middle school teacher selected to go to space and Challenger Center, a nonprofit that specializes in middle school STEM education, and invited Andy to join us for a virtual webinar with our top supporters. 

The Q&A

The news of an exclusive Q&A with Andy Weir sparked widespread excitement across Challenger Center’s community. Among them were two former NASA astronauts who both submitted questions: Ellen Ochoa, who last saw Andy at JSC 12 years prior and is now a dedicated supporter of the Challenger Center, and Dottie Metcalf-Linderburger, an educator astronaut who also serves as Challenger Center’s Chair Elect.

Ellen Ochoa: One of the compelling aspects of your books is the humor between characters. At NASA, even though what we deal with in human spaceflight is deadly serious, we always exhibited a sense of humor in our training and operations. Did you come across that humor in your NASA research, or are we seeing your own sense of humor in your books?

Andy Weir: Well, part of it just comes from my own wonky personality. But of course, I got the idea of how astronauts were from being a space dork my whole life. I would always watch any documentary about human spaceflight I could, so I got a feel for the culture astronauts have among themselves, at least from an outsider’s perspective. I kept noticing this level-headed yet humorous approach to life-threatening situations, especially from my favorite astronaut of all time, John W. Young, which helped inspire the humor in my writing.

Dottie Metcalf-Lindenburger: As an educator astronaut myself, I wanted to know who or what inspired you to have Dr. Rylan Grace, who holds a Ph.D. in molecular biology, go on to become a middle school science teacher?

Andy Weir: Mark Watney, from The Martian, is just based on me. He’s my own personality. Jazz Bashara, from my book Artemis — although she’s a 26-year-old Saudi woman who grew up on the moon — is actually also based on my own personality. But for Ryland, I wanted to create a character that wasn’t based on me. It was my first time creating a character from whole cloth.

Ryland is very non-confrontational. When he got challenged in a scientific paper that he wrote, rather than defend his views, he left academia entirely and went on to become a junior high school teacher. He did that because he thought it was a safe environment for him, but then he realized he was pretty good at teaching, so that’s the direction his life trajectory took. 

I also knew what I wanted the book’s final scene to be before I even wrote the first page. So to get that full-circle moment, I thought it would fit really well to make him a middle school teacher. 

View the Full Conversation

These astronauts weren’t the only ones who got to ask Andy questions. A 6th grader from Kentucky asked how he came up with Rocky’s use of echolocation, which prompted a detailed explanation of his process for building Erid’s biosphere. A donor from California asked about the differences between the first and final drafts of Project Hail Mary. Our Challenger Learning Center in San Antonio, Texas, asked whether Andy starts his stories with a central disaster, which led him to reveal that the entire premise of Project Hail Mary was pieced together from fragments of other ideas he’d been collecting. You can check out Andy’s answers to these questions and more in the full Zoom recording on YouTube:

If you’re interested in attending future events like this, consider joining Challenger Corps, our community of dedicated supporters who invest in expanding access to immersive STEM education nationwide. Giving $40 per month or $400 in a year will automatically enroll you as a member and unlock early access and direct updates from our leadership, as well as exclusive event invitations to special talks with authors, astronauts, and other celebrated names in space exploration.

Curiosity is a powerful thing. Andy Weir built worlds that made millions of people fall in love with science, and he did so by being curious and asking questions. It’s the same instinct that drives astronauts to venture into the unknown, and that brought participants to our Q&A to ask questions of their own. 

That instinct — to wonder, to ask, to dig deeper — is exactly what Challenger Center seeks to spark in the next generation through our STEM programming. And you can help us keep that spark alive: