This was also a plot point used much before The Martian; in the 2000 Val Kilmer film Red Planet- stranded astronauts make their way to the spot where Pathfinder's 'Sojourner' rover rests, in order to pull it's radio and use it to communicate an SOS with the orbiting station.

It's been a long time since I've seen that (widely panned as not-very-good) movie, but I feel I remember a line about the little rover using an 'off the shelf computer modem' - this is actually true, the little rover communicated back to the Pathfinder base station with a straight up off-the-shelf RS232 9600bps wireless transparent modem link. [0] [1] I remember that detail as it showed that, even though the movie itself was... uhhh... interesting, science-wise, it clearly had someone in an advisory role that knew something about real JPL hardware on Mars at the time.

[0] https://urgentcomm.com/public-safety/data-communications-fro...

[1] http://www.iki.rssi.ru/mpfmirror/rovercom/itworks.html#rover...