Space exploration is one of the grandest testaments to human ingenuity and cooperation. It offers a rich vision of human potential, and a special way to learn about the beauty of creation. It provides a rich seam of imagination for storytellers to mine. One of the masters of the genre is Ridley Scott, whose Alien (1979) is a terrifying exploration of the dark side of space. Now he does something different in the witty and uplifting blockbuster, The Martian. The Ares III manned Mars missi…