Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void

by Mary Roach

Overview

“America’s funniest science writer” (Washington Post) explores the irresistibly strange universe of life without gravity in this New York Times bestseller.

The best-selling author of Stiff and Bonk explores the irresistibly strange universe of space travel and life without gravity. From the Space Shuttle training toilet to a crash test of NASA’s new space capsule, Mary Roach takes us on the surreally entertaining trip into the science of life in space and space on Earth.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393339918
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	04/04/2011
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.00(d)
Lexile:	1070L (what's this?)

About the Author

Mary Roach is the author of seven best-selling works of nonfiction, including Grunt, Stiff, and, most recently, Fuzz. Her writing has appeared in National Geographic and the New York Times Magazine, among other publications. She lives in California.

Hometown:

San Francisco, California

Place of Birth:

New Hampshire

Education:

B.A., Wesleyan University, 1981

Website:

http://www.maryroach.net/

Table of Contents

Countdown 15

1 He's Smart But His Birds are Sloppy: Japan Picks an Astronaut 21

2 Life in a Box: The Perilous Psychology of Isolation and Confinement 41

3 Star Crazy: Can Space Blow Your Mind? 63

4 You Go First: The Alarming Prospect of Life Without Gravity 79

5 Unstowed: Escaping Gravity on Board NASA's C-9 95

6 Throwing Up and Down: The Astronaut's Secret Misery 107

7 The Cadaver in the Space Capsule: NASA Visits the Crash Test Lab 129

8 One Furry Step for Mankind: The Strange Careers of Ham and Enos 149

9 Next Gas: 200,000 Miles: Planning a Moon Expedition Is Tough, but Not as Tough as Planning a Simulated One 173

10 Houston, We Have a Fungus: Space Hygiene and the Men Who Stopped Bathing for Science 191

11 The Horizontal Stuff: What If You Never Got Out of Bed? 209

12 The Three-Dolphin Club: Mating Without Gravity 229

13 Withering Heights: Bailing Out from Space 247

14 Separation Anxiety: The Continuing Saga of Zero-Gravity Elimiantion 265

15 Discomfort Food: When Veterinarians Make Dinner, and Other Tales of Woe from Aerospace Test Kitchens 285

16 Eating Your Pants: Is Mars Worth It? 307

Acknowledgments 319

Time Line 323

Bibliography 325

Editorial Reviews

"Roach deftly guides her readers…They never completely lose sight of the accomplishments of space travel, even as they take delight in the absurdities that, in the end, make those successes all the more sublime."

Dallas Morning News

"Over the course of several frank chapters, Roach explores the nitty-gritty details of life in space that filmmakers and historians tend to gloss over…Roach’s wide-eyed wonder…sets Packing for Mars apart from the galaxy of space travel histories"

Boston Globe

"Truly funny…Roach’s writing is supremely accessible, but there’s never a moment when you aren’t aware of how much research she’s done into unexplored reaches of space travel."

Entertainment Weekly

"Roach provides a highly readable, often hilarious, guide."

Christian Science Monitor

"A more realistic view of life in space than we have ever gotten from a NASA broadcast."

The Daily Beast

"It’s all about those things NASA doesn’t delve into at press conferences."

BoingBoing

"This is the kind of smart, smirky stuff that Roach does so well."

San Francisco Chronicle - Geoff Nicholson

"[Roach] has once again discovered a winner of a subject…Roach’s strange enthusiasm for all things oddball…makes Mars a more than worthy destination."

Time

"The book is an often hilarious, sometimes queasy-making catalog of the strange stuff devised to permit people to survive in an environment for which their bodies are stupendously unsuited. With an unflinching eye, [Roach] launches readers into the thick of spaceflight’s grossest engineering challenges."

New York Times Book Review - M. G. Lord

"Cool answers to questions about the void you didn’t even know you had."

People

"[Roach] has once again discovered a winner of a subject…Roach’s strange enthusiasm for all things oddball…makes Mars a more than worthy destination."

Time

Roach is America's funniest science writer…in Packing for Mars, she has written a comic survey of space science, with emphasis on the absurd, the bizarre and the gross…Obviously, Roach is not afraid of the icky. In fact, her book is packed with the kind of delightfully disgusting details that brings joy to the hearts of 12-year-old boys—and to the 12-year-old boy that lurks inside the average adult male.
—The Washington Post

Peter Carlson

Anyone who thinks astronauts ply a glamorous trade would do well to read Mary Roach's Packing for Mars. The book is an often hilarious, sometimes queasy-making catalog of the strange stuff devised to permit people to survive in an environment for which their bodies are stupendously unsuited…With an unflinching eye for repellent details, she launches readers into the thick of spaceflight's grossest engineering challenges: disposing of human waste, controlling body odor without washing, and containing nausea…
—The New York Times Book Review

M. G. Lord

Ms. Roach has already written zealously nosy books about corpses (Stiff), copulation (Bonk) and charlatans (Spook). Each time, what has interested her most is the fringe material: exotic footnotes, smart one-liners, bizarre quasi-scientific phenomena. Yet her fluffily lightweight style is at its most substantial—and most hilarious—in the zero-gravity realm that Packing for Mars explores. Here's why: The topic of astronauts' bodily functions provides as good an excuse to ask rude questions as you'll find on this planet or any other…So Packing for Mars is as startling as it is funny, even if its strategic aim is to tell you more than you need to know.
—The New York Times

Janet Maslin

"Hilarious."

The New York Times Book Review

"[Her] style is at its most substantial—and most hilarious—in the zero-gravity realm that Packing for Mars explores.… As startling as it is funny."

The New York Times - Janet Maslin

"The author’s writing comes across as reportorial, but with a clear sense of humor; even the footnotes are used to both informational and comedic effect."

Time Out New York

"An impish and adventurous writer with a gleefully inquisitive mind and stand-up comic’s timing."

Booklist

"An utterly fascinating account, made all the more entertaining by the author’s ever-amused tone."

BookPage