Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void
By Mary Roach
You can view this book's Amazon detail page here.
Packing for Mars attempts to discuss all of the issues involved with sending humans to the Red Planet. These range from equipment needs to life support systems to the psychology of astronauts being together for the 500 straight days that a Mars mission would entail. When I started it, I mistakenly thought that I would already know many of the problems that arise on such a journey. As it turns out (as usual), I know very little about the real problems which have much more to do with the people issues than the equipment. In this day and age when many are screaming for cheaper unmanned flight, this almost seems obvious. When the book explores the difference in how much more data a human with his/her intuition can gather in a short period of time than a robot, though, the question about manned versus unmanned flight becomes less clear and a thorough understanding of what is really involved in sending a human to Mars needs to be understood.
While this book is interesting, it’s kinda tough to stick with. In fact, I gave up about three quarters of the way through. It’s not that it’s bad, it’s just an awful lot in the format used. Roach does a very nice job weaving hundreds of facts and figures into something of a story – more like an integrated set of vignettes, actually. She sets up little stories, interviews, anecdotes and quotes to back up the data she presents, introducing the information in a time-line like format. Again, she does it well, but it’s still just a long list of facts and figures in the end.
She interrupts herself almost once every page with a “note” . . . “end note,” parenthetically discussing some related topic to the one she is covering at the time. While this is often fun and spices up the text, at times the reader wishes to just get on with it.
Her part about sex in space starts with the physiological issues involved, then moves onto the execution problems (nothing to push against in zero G). She eventually ends up in a fairly long discussion of what a zero gravity cum shot would look like and how pornographers have portrayed sex in space. Less might be more here. Her detailed description of the problems of taking a crap while in zero gravity which is initially interesting goes on way too long with her discussion of NASA-created fecal simulants.
I recommend the book if you’re interested in the subject. It’s not highly technical, but not lacking in scientific detail either. It’s not a book that you’ll likely read in one sitting unless you skip. It’s not long, it’s just hard to stay focused on it for a long time.
Some interesting tidbits from the book:
- Wernher Von Braun on the Apollo Program: “If we had had more people, we would have failed.”
- When gravity goes away surface tension is the strongest force – this make it hard for fluids and solids to leave the body – they stick to everything
- Food crumbs in zero-G are huge problem. They can go anywhere and easily gum up equipment
- Started reading:
- 28th August 2010
- Finished reading:
- 8th September 2010