In The Martian, what does Mitch mean when he is talking to Teddy and says that the space program is not bigger than one person?

Question

When Mitch and Teddy are talking after the crew of the Hermes changes course, Teddy says that the space program is bigger than one person. Mitch says "no, it's not".

I understand what Teddy means - he wants to make sure that five astronauts come home safely rather than risking the lives of six, as he states in previous scenes. However, Mitch doesn't just disagree. He tells him, essentially, that risking the lives of the five to save the one is what the space program is all about. What is he basing that on?

Answer 1

The US military has long had an ethos of "leave no man behind".

While NASA is technically a civilian agency, it has recruited many military and ex-military personnel over the years, and certain attitudes and traditions have come along with them.

Aside from that, the general public would likely be just as appalled at the Agency allowing Watney to simply die when there was a chance to save him, even though it would risk the lives of his rescuers. This would turn public sentiment against further manned missions for at least the near future, and risk ongoing funding.

Of course, if all six were to perish, this would also damage the Agency's reputation - but the circumstances of an heroic attempt may mitigate that (especially as the other five volunteered themselves). If Watney were to be abandoned to his fate, there would be no such mitigation.

Answer 2

There's an earlier scene that explains what Teddy meant: the Ares program as a whole was at stake (emphasis mine)

TEDDY: Can the Hermes function for 533 days beyond the scheduled mission end?

VINCENT: It should. The Hermes was made to do all five Ares missions, so it's only halfway through lifespan.

ANNIE: But if something went wrong...

VINCENT: We would lose the crew. And the Ares Program with them.

This explains the actual lines between Teddy and Mitch

TEDDY: We're fighting the same war. Every time something goes wrong, the world forgets why we fly. I'm trying to keep us airborne. This is bigger than one person.

MITCH: No. It's not.

To put it a different way, the Hermes crew was clearly ready and willing to risk their lives for Watney. They left him there, and there was no shortage of guilt amongst the crew. That's part of why Lewis has to put things starkly before they vote to go back to Mars.

LEWIS: Not this time. This is something NASA expressly rejected. We're talking about mutiny. Which is not a word I use lightly. We do this together, or not at all. Before you answer, consider the consequences. If we mess up the supply rendezvous, we die. If we mess up the Earth gravity assist, we die. If we do everything perfectly, we add 533 days to our mission. 533 more days before we see our families again. 533 days of unplanned space travel where anything could go wrong. Something might break that we can't fix. If it's mission critical, we die.

Do you notice what she's not talking about? The Ares mission as a whole. Imagine the reactions of the rest of the Ares project (which was far larger than just 6 astronauts) if the Hermes had been lost. The flip side is that there's no doubt the Hermes crew would have been upset at not having been given the option at all (and Teddy had already kept back the knowledge of Watney being alive from them for a time). It would have, at least, damaged morale among the personnel to know that NASA was not being open with the people in space.

Teddy is trying to put the risk on Watney to save the Ares program. Mitch is trying to put the risk on Hermes to save Watney.

Answer 3

I believe that Mitch is partially referring to the public relations side of things. While technically, the space program is bigger than one man, NASA has historically expended a great deal of resources to make space as safe as possible, and to rescue people in bad situations when things do go wrong. Since it is a publicly funded agency, and one often targeted for budget cuts (arguments such as "we need to fix things on the planet first"), they can't afford to risk bad press from "leaving a man behind".

I know that much has been made about the differences between the US space program and the Russian Cosmonauts, and how they value individual personnel, but I honestly am not conversant enough with that to say what's propaganda from the Cold War.