Packing for Mars – The Curious Science of Life in the Void by Mary Roach; W.W. Norton & Company, New York, New York; (hard cover) $25.95; August 2010.
This is an appealing and original look at human space exploration. The author pulls back the Velcro to expose the human frailties that are exposed to the harsh vacuum and microgravity of space.
Roach is the best-selling author of Stiff and Bonk, and in this book takes a behind-the-scenes look at outer space – the human affair of diving head long into a world devoid of hot showers, fresh food and privacy.
This is not a book focused on dashing off to the Red Planet. Rather, what the reader finds is a somewhat perverse glimpse at humans being human trying to cope with the environment of space, from dealing with motion sickness and waste management issues to using a Fisher Space Pen.
The author talked with a number of space travelers. One such person is astronaut Peggy Whitson who survived a scary Soyuz trajectory to Earth that gave her a full minute in 8 G’s. In that incident “coming down is as scary as going up,” relates Roach.
You’ll find some interesting history here too – of how space researchers got early insight into what humans – and chimps — must endure and overcome to return home from a space voyage.
The majority of this book is prelude to a last chapter perspective about a humans-to-Mars mission. “The more you read about Mars,” Roach writes, “the more you realize it’s the ultimate reality TV.”
According to Roach, her ground-bound space trek has led her to a key conclusion that “space doesn’t just encompass the sublime and the ridiculous. It erases the line between.” And after her personal encounter with space, she makes a rendezvous with her own emotion about travel to Mars: “Let’s go out and play.”
For more information on this book, go to:
http://books.wwnorton.com/books/detail.aspx?id=15585
By Leonard David