Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void
by Mary Roach. 2010. 334 pages. W.W. Norton. $25.95.
Travel to Mars is feasible, but the astronauts who attempt it will have to contend with tremendous psychological and physical pressures—cramped confinements, sterile surroundings, and isolation more profound than any humans before them have ever experienced—says science writer Mary Roach in Packing for Mars. She visits space-travel research stations to witness the isolation chambers, antigravity rooms, and other experimental units that astronauts today are using to prepare for future voyages into deep space.
As she describes each exercise the flight crews undertake, she shares the unique forms of vertigo, disorientation, visual illusions, and other sensations that the low-gravity environs of space will impose on human space travelers. Roach adds the even more grueling experiments into how weeks or months of immobility would impact astronauts’ bodies—a key concern, since missions to other planets might require keeping the human crew in hibernation states for the duration of the voyage.
Roach’s Packing for Mars is a reality check into the challenges of deep space and how humans can gear up now to meet them. It’s worthwhile reading for aspiring astronauts, space enthusiasts, and all who take great interest in humanity’s potential future in space.
Like us on Facebook
WorldFutureSoc on Twitter