Rick Mastracchio is a veteran of four spaceflights, logging 228 days in space and nine spacewalks totalling 53 hours. He's worked at NASA for over a quarter of a century and he tweets about space science with an undimmed, childlike enthusiasm that's infectious. He also really likes The Martian. One of the perks of being a real world astronaut is, apparently, getting to watch movies about fictional ones early, and Mastracchio's screening of Matt Damon's forthcoming film has left the NASA man feeling ebullient.

This authoritative endorsement should add to the hype already generated by an engaging and promising trailer for The Martian. Stranded on the Red Planet by himself, Matt Damon's character is confronted by the unenviable task of figuring out how to survive on a spot in the universe that's not exactly designed for human habitation. So he decides that he'll "have to science the shit out of this," a deadpan observation that's now given an extra boost of credibility by Mastracchio's approval.

Directed by Ridley Scott and based on the 2011 book of the same title by Andy Weir, The Martian arrives in cinemas on October 2nd.