Hollywood is hoping for a blockbuster opening weekend of the sci-fi thriller "The Martian." But the film is drumming up public interest in NASA's lofty Mars missions, too.

Public support is seen as crucial to the agency as it works to make due on a promise to send humans to the red planet within 20 years. As excitement regarding the potential to travel to, land, and possibly even live on Mars grows, scientists say it could prop up NASA's missions and help secure ongoing funding.

This week, a number of scientists heralded the film's factual accuracy, NASA announced a breakthrough discovery regarding flowing water on the red planet, and a rare blood moon on Sunday attracted a significant amount of attention on social media sites.

The momentum has set the film up for a solid opening weekend, with Fandango reporting that pre-sales for "The Martian" are exceeding those of the 2013 sci-fi thriller "Gravity." Box office tracking company BoxOffice.com estimates the film will rake in $56 million this weekend.

"It is easy to imagine that the cost of reaching Mars, while high, could be invaluable to us in the future."

Chris Russell, UCLA Space Physics Center

The realism of this film, and other recent sci-fi movies such as "Interstellar" and "Gravity," are fueling the excitement.

"I am in favor of movies that realistically portray the cost and dangers," said Chris Russell, head of the Space Physics Center at UCLA. "It is easy to imagine that the cost of reaching Mars, while high, could be invaluable to us in the future if we were able to create a sustainable colony."

"The Martian" won't be filled with "Star Trek" inventions such as warp drive, phasers and torpedoes, but real technology that is either developed, in the process of being developed or will be developed within the next decade, said Jim Bell, a professor at Arizona State University.