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Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void by Mary Roach (2010)
, 4 Oct 2014
When I was a child, when asked what I would like to be when I was a grown up, I would reply: An Astronaut! Did
you not? Such a beautiful idea that of floating in the outer space,
seeing the stars closer, having a look at the blueness of the Earth and
even visiting other planets. Right?
However,
we do not think about the real challenges that astronauts face in space
when we have whimsical dreams. After all, the Space has been part of
our collective space/time-travel and 20th-21st centuries ultra frontier.
Space travel has been romantically and stylishly portrayed in
science-fiction movies and novels, but most of them do not show the
nitty gritty reality of what space travel is, has been, or will be. And
here comes Roach's book to our rescue, to enlighten us with a scientifically rigorous yet funny book, hilarious at times.
How
and what do astronauts eat? How they wash themselves? How do they
urinate and defecate? Do they have or can have sex? How do they interact
with each other in such confined environment? Does the inner ship
smells? How do our bodies react to zero gravity and high radiation
levels in space? Which were the challenges and secrets of the first
historical space trips in USA and Russia? This, and much more, is
answered by cheery Mary, who does not leave a question unanswered by
using first-hand archival material and personal interviews with
astronauts and space engineers from NASA, and the Russian and European
Space agencies, and some bits coming from her own experiences at these
agencies.
This
is an amazing entertaining book, very easy to read, unpretentious and
so very informative and rigorous. After reading it, you will not feel
sorry for not being an astronaut, but you will bow to those men and
women who go out there to expand our earthly rounded frontiers.
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