Product Description
Space is a world devoid of the things we need to live and thrive: air, gravity, hot showers, fresh produce, privacy, beer. Space exploration is in some ways an exploration of what it means to be human. How much can a person give up? How much weirdness can they take? What happens to you when you can’t walk for a year? have sex? smell flowers? What happens if you vomit in your helmet during a spacewalk? Is it possible for the human body to survive a bailout from space? To answer these questions, space agencies set up all manner of quizzical and startlingly bizarre space simulations. As Mary Roach discovers, it’s possible to preview space without ever leaving Earth. From the Space Shuttle training toilet to a … More >>
Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void
Comments
I read all that I can about the Space industry, from military acronym-full tomes to kids books (I have a kid). When I saw the preorder for Packing For Mars I looked up the author and said to myself, this is prolly gonna not be so great.
I thought it would turn out to be another “NASA KNOWS ALL AND NASA SAYS ONLY GODS CAN FLY or BOEING/LOCKHEED SAY ‘ONLY PRINT THAT *WE* CAN DO SPACE’”. But, now more than halfway into it I see it as a great book for us regular folk who just want to know what it currently takes (right or wrong on the reasons for what it currently takes taken out of it) and some of how we got to the current mess and mass of rules and regs, all seemingly written by “one of us who just thinks it’s cool”
Great it see a book that normally would only be read by geeks making #5 on the NY Times list its first week out (and #1 at all of the airport Hudson News locations, not just at the industry-centric SeaTac and LAX locations).
Buy it, get an entertainingly presented bunch of great research.
For regular folks who dream of Space and who hate being talked down to by those in the biz.
Rating: 4 / 5
Don’t get me wrong, Roach has delivered a very entertaining, informative, and witty book about th eweirdness of space travel and research.
I do feel somewhat misguided by the title of the book. Although manny of the 1960′s achievements, where Roach’s primary focus lies, and the subsequent space station and shuttle missions have set the tone for any further space exploration, going the Mars does involve some unique issues that I feel are not addressed by Roach.
What about the spacecraft? How would it be structured? Would it go for the ISS layout or go for a more homely setup? What about crew entertainment, exercising, duty schedules, tasks, etc? She addresses many interesting issues regarding food, but what would all that mean for a mission to Mars? What about radiation? What would they have to take to spend several months on Mars? Habitats, rovers, equipment, etc.
So all in all i think Roach only started to scratch the surface of what you would pack on a missions to Mars.
Definitly a book to read, for anyone interested in the huge problems you run into when going into space. For a true insight of what a mission to Mars would mean, I would search for an other book that has such a mission as it’s focus.
Rating: 2 / 5
About: Roach tackles the difficulties involved getting humans to space, keeping them alive there and returning them to Earth. Food, bathing, using the toilet and keeping sane in the vast blackness are all covered.
A few interesting things I learned:
* You can’t hang yourself in space, due to the lack of gravity.
* The best way to survive a runaway plummeting elevator is to lie down on your back on the elevator floor.
* A meteoroid is a piece of planetary debris hurtling through space. If it’s bigger than a boulder, it’s an asteroid. If any part of the meteoroid makes it through Earth’s atmosphere intact, it’s a meteorite. The visible trail of the meteoroid through Earth’s atmosphere is called a meteor.
* In zero gravity, urine doesn’t collect on the bottom of the bladder. Due to surface tension, it adheres to the sides. Therefore, astronauts don’t get the urge to go until the bladder is almost completely full. They are encouraged to pee on a regular schedule.
* Farts aren’t strong enough to propel a weightless astronaut across a room.
* Steatorrhea means fatty feces.
* You can buy skinned cats online
Pros: Roach is one of my my favorite writers. I loved her other books and this book continues the trend. Very funny, especially humorous footnotes. Wonderfully written and fascinating.
Cons: I was sad space ice cream wasn’t mentioned. Bibliography included but no in-text cites.
Rating: 5 / 5
Let’s, just assume, for the sake of argument, that you’re passionately interested in space travel and desperate to know “what it’s really like out there.” Mary Roach’s Packing for Mars will tell you more than you ever dreamed of knowing about the experience. It may also make you think twice about daydreaming of a trip to the stars.
Roach will make you laugh about it, though. Her wicked sense of humor pervades almost every page. In fact, it’s hard to imagine that anyone could have set out to write this book as straight, narrative nonfiction. It might have been published — like some of the deadly scientific studies with jaw-breaking titles that Roach consulted — but nobody would read it.
Humor aside, this remarkably unblushing account of life in space is a serious work of science reporting. In exploring the day-by-day and hour-by-hour challenges of preparing for spaceflight and then surviving it, Mary Roach touches on all those topics that (apparently) preoccupy astronauts but that are generally thought unmentionable in polite society — what we might refer to as “waste elimination” and other bodily functions that involve the discharge of other substances.
Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void is Roach’s fourth book. Her previous efforts, all successful, were Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers (2003); Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife (2005); and Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex (2008). Is there perhaps a pattern here somewhere?
(From Mal Warwick’s Blog on Books)
Rating: 5 / 5
If you are one of those people who loves watching Modern Marvels, or “how it’s done” type programs, this is a book for you.
The book is full of facts from how they choose astronauts to how they train them. It’s a very blunt look at life in space. The fun part is she takes you inside closed doors, a part the public never gets to see. I was never a space nut, but I am interested in what happens, what they go through, how they are chosen. This book covers it.
It’s so much more than just “Packing for Mars”. (Be prepared for 500 days to get there, do what you need to do and get back!) It’s a witty inside look that hasn’t been sanitized for your protection. Be prepared to laugh, and to be entertained while you learn. Because it has straight talk about sex and the lack there of, you might not want to listen to this audio book around anyone you feel is too young to hear the content.
It’s the first time I have heard of this author, but I’ll be looking for her other books.
Rating: 5 / 5