He doesn’t regret it, and he knew the facts when he wrote it. He said it was just a choice he made for dramatic effect and to get the book going. It’s hard to think of a scenario where astronauts would leave behind one of their own, so he invented one.

I tried to make the book as accurate as I could. The biggest place that’s inaccurate – don’t tell anybody – but if you’re in a dust storm on Mars, you’re not even going to feel it. Mars’ atmosphere is less than one percent of Earth’s. So a 150-km/hour wind would feel like about a 1-km/hour wind does on Earth. It wouldn’t do any damage to anything. Shhh …Most people don’t know how Martian dust storms work, that it’s not like being in a sandblaster. It’s just more dramatic that way. So I just made that concession. [shrugs and smiles] I know I’m a liar. I just … wanted that.