Deliberate mistake: The atmosphere on Mars is only 1% as dense of that as Earth, so 175kph windstorms would feel like a light breeze. They would have very little effect on the astronauts or MAV. The writers of the book and the film were aware of this, it was a small cheat to let the rest of the story unfold.
The Martian (2015)
1 deliberate mistake - chronological order
Directed by: Ridley Scott
Starring: Matt Damon, Jeff Daniels, Jessica Chastain, Kristen Wiig, Kate Mara
Factual error: After Watney patches the blow out of one of the HAB's airlocks with plastic sheeting, tie down straps, and duct tape, he pressurizes the HAB and the plastic sheeting pushes out like an inflated balloon. Assuming the plastic and duct tape would hold this is correct, however the plastic would be much more taut given the pressure difference inside and outside.
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Suggested correction: The plastic would certainly be flexing in and out because of the pressure of the wind gusts during the storm. We saw earlier that the gusts of the storms were strong enough to blow a suited explorer off their feet and push them across the surface. Let's say that the HAB is pressurized as much as it can be without blowing out of the plastic, tape, and bungees sealing the airlock. A storm gust would still be able to push the flexible plastic in momentarily, and it would pop back out after the gust passed.
The movie took liberties with the physics of Mars. The gusts on Mars wouldn't be able to blow over a person or a spaceship, let alone push them across the surface, but they needed it for the plot. But using the same physics they then have wedded themselves to, it could then be strong enough to cause the plastic to flap, even though in real life it wouldn't. This is more of a deliberate mistake than a factual error since the writers certainly knew what they did didn't match reality.
Except they didn't 'wed' themselves to their fictional physics. Towards the end of the film NASA tells Watney that a flimsy plastic covering on his ascent vehicle will not be dislodged on acceleration to Martian escape velocity because the atmosphere is too thin to cause any problems. That's cheating in anyone's books.
Mark Watney: I admit it's fatally dangerous, but I'd get to fly around like Iron Man.
Trivia: When discussing "Operation Elrond", the Director says he wants his codename to be "Glorfindel." This shows he has read the book, as Glorfindel was cut out of the movie and replaced with Arwen.
Question: Why would NASA decide to send a botanist on a mission to Mars? A planet where no plants can grow.
Answer: Part of his job, aside from also being a mechanical engineer, was to use soil taken from Earth to Mars, mix it with Martian soil then grow seeds in it to see how Martian soil is for growing crops. This would be preparing for a longer term mission where growing full crops to feed the crew would be part of the mission.
Answer: Botanists going to mars can study the ground and the dirt so they could make life on mars. Botanists are also helpful due to oxygen in space, he grows plants on the spacecraft for the oxygen that they give off.
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