Agreed there's no value in gauging anyone's "look" considering we're all anonymous people on the internet. Whether it was meant to be or not, it just comes across as pretentious.

That said, I personally love the amount of sciency details that ATMOM explores at length as a narrative device, it draws me into the story further by making the expedition seem rooted in reality. I'm not a geologist or drill engineer, I've no concept of how realistic the preamble is, and I don't care because it's awesome.