Life in space sounds utterly unappealing in Mary Roach’s new book, Packing for Mars. The book’s anecdotes primarily revolve around the troubles of vomit, body odor, and poop in a zero gravity environment. The discomforts of a space station it seems, far outweigh the small joys of floating.
Roach’s focus is solidly on the absurd situations people have encountered in space. While some of her stories were fascinating, I often wished she would tie together her points into a more unified story or provide a big picture view.
Presenting a trip, like a space flight, purely as a series of anecdotes tends to distort the entire experience as a whole. I have encountered a similar problem when trying to describe my camping experiences. If I only relate the funny bits about finding a mouse in my sleeping bag, killing 30 mosquitos in one swat, or nearly setting a tent on fire, it inevitably leaves the listener with the impression that my vacation was spent in chaos and discomfort. The larger story about awe and appreciation for the natural world is completely missed.
As a collection of anecdotes, Packing for Mars is a fun read. The stories Roach tells involve people in the American, Japanese, and Russian space programs. Each chapter has its own theme: the stress of close quarters living, animals in space, food preferences, body odor, vomiting from motion sickness, pooping, and lack of sex. Since the stories are so short, I’ll retell a few of the memorable ones.
In the chapter on psychological stress, Roach talks about astronaut tryouts in the Japanese space program. Potential astronauts live together in a small apartment under constant video surveillance and are given repetitive tasks on a tight schedule. While this sounds like reality TV, there are rarely any overt conflicts. Instead, the observers use other tricks to track the emotional states of the candidates. One task, for example, requires each potential astronaut to fold 1000 origami cranes. By analyzing how the folding precision changes from the first to last crane, observers can detect which astronauts can get flustered or impatient by the repetitious tasks they will have to perform in a space station.
Another chapter describes how muscle atrophy, an unavoidable ailment that accompanies life in zero gravity, is studied on earth. NASA pays healthy volunteers to lie in bed for several months without ever sitting or standing up. Presumably, this is only possible with the help of video games and a full wait staff.
While telling stories about animal space flight, Roach describes how the Russian space program launched a dog into orbit, declared the dog a national hero, and then attempted to cover up that they had left it in space. The public outcry in Russia was enough to deter the U.S. from attempting a similar stunt with monkeys.
Because Packing for Mars isn’t confined to a central story, it is free to cover a lot of areas on the fringes of the space program that I knew nothing about. At the same time, it completely ignores many of the important people and landmarks that would be covered by a more conventional book about the space program. I’d recommend this book if you like reading about bizarre situations, but not if you want to get a more comprehensive grasp on the history, leaders, or technical aspects of the space program.
- Peter Winter
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Read more by Peter at his blog