An astronaut is left behind on Mars and has to solve food, water, heat and communication in sequence, each solution creating the next problem.
The log format does the heavy lifting. It licenses the technical explanation, because he is talking to himself, and it keeps the voice cheerful while the situation is not.
Eight years later Project Hail Mary ran the same engine with better characters. This is still the cleaner demonstration of the idea.
Read December 2015.
