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Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void |  | Author: Mary Roach
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Category: Book
List Price: $25.95
Buy New: $10.50
as of 9/9/2010 11:28 UTC details
You Save: $15.45 (60%)
New (35) Used (10) Collectible (3) from $10.50
Seller: 432slope
Rating:  42 reviews
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Pages: 334
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.9 x 1.1
ISBN: 0393068471
Dewey Decimal Number: 571.0919
EAN: 9780393068474
Publication Date: August 2, 2010
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| • | ISBN13: 9780393068474 | | • | Condition: New | | • | Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed |
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Amazon.com Review
Amazon Best Books of the Month, August 2010: With her wry humor and inextinguishable curiosity, Mary Roach has crafted her own quirky niche in the somewhat staid world of science writing, showing no fear (or shame) in the face of cadavers, ectoplasm, or sex. In Packing for Mars, Roach tackles the strange science of space travel, and the psychology, technology, and politics that go into sending a crew into orbit. Roach is unfailingly inquisitive (Why is it impolite for astronauts to float upside down during conversations? Just how smelly does a spacecraft get after a two week mission?), and she eagerly seeks out the stories that don't make it onto NASA's website--from SPCA-certified space suits for chimps, to the trial-and-error approach to crafting menus during the space program's early years (when the chefs are former livestock veterinarians, taste isn't high on the priority list). Packing for Mars is a book for grownups who still secretly dream of being astronauts, and Roach lives it up on their behalf--weightless in a C-9 aircraft, she just can't resist the opportunity to go "Supermanning" around the cabin. Her zeal for discovery, combined with her love of the absurd, amazing, and stranger-than-fiction, make Packing for Mars an uproarious trip into the world of space travel. --Lynette Mong
Product Description
The best-selling author of Stiff and Bonk explores the irresistibly strange universe of space travel and life without gravity. Space is a world devoid of the things we need to live and thrive: air, gravity, hot showers, fresh produce, privacy, beer. Space exploration is in some ways an exploration of what it means to be human. How much can a person give up? How much weirdness can they take? What happens to you when you can’t walk for a year? have sex? smell flowers? What happens if you vomit in your helmet during a space walk? Is it possible for the human body to survive a bailout at 17,000 miles per hour? To answer these questions, space agencies set up all manner of quizzical and startlingly bizarre space simulations. As Mary Roach discovers, it’s possible to preview space without ever leaving Earth. From the space shuttle training toilet to a crash test of NASA’s new space capsule (cadaver filling in for astronaut), Roach takes us on a surreally entertaining trip into the science of life in space and space on Earth.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 42
 A mediocre effort at a huge topic September 9, 2010
Charles S. Holzheimer (Centennial, CO)
I was very surprised at the amount of effort put into certain topics in this books while other, serious issues, don't rate more than a foot note.
If you want to get information on space food and how it was developed for the Gemini/Apollo missions, here it is. She brings this topic into the present with on-going research.
If you want more information than you ever cared to know about handling human waste in space, here it is. There is enough information on that topic alone to stand as a Masters Thesis.
If you want information on crew compatibility as it relates to past missions, here it is. However, Roach kind of drops the ball on this one when a serious amount of effort here is not shown. Even after reading this portion of the book I have no true structure as to how a crew should be assembled for a trip to Mars.
There are huge topics such as what kind of ship should be taken and what about crew safety during the long trip to Mars and back that are pretty much ignored. These topics are what separate the true science writer from the casual science writer.
Most of her personal reflections on the topics she does discuss are tied back to he trips on what is commonly referred to as the vomit comet. However, numerous ups and downs in an airplane do not a book make. I was hoping that she would put some true effort into this topic but was sadly disappointed.
 Mary Roach will teach you all you need to know about NASA - and make you want to be her best friend in the process. September 8, 2010
Zooey
With each offering from Mary Roach, I fall a little in love with a topic I'd truly never been that interested in. What's even better is that I also fall a little more in love with the author. Roach has a down-to-earth, everywoman style that can't help but inspire daydreams of an afternoon chat over pie and coffee. It says alot for her easygoing, call 'em as she seems 'em demeanor that she can make an extended discussion of defecation in space bearable for the reader.
In fact, there are many of these kind of gross, engaging, and oddball anectodes throughout this book (and her others). Which is exactly what makes them so interesting. Roach has found a way to entertain us with the quirks and oddities of her topics with one hand, while the other hand slyly feeds us background and hard facts.
If only she could write college textbooks...
A Perfect Book About the Reality of Humans in Space September 8, 2010
Jay Brewer (Arlington, MA United States)
From the insights to how difficult it is to get a bag of meat such as a human into space, to just how amazing it is we can even get into space - this book has it all. It also features the history of the space travel not just from NASA but Japan and Russia as well. It's a page turner and maybe the most honest book on space I've read.
Funny, honest and interesting September 8, 2010
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
My first kindle book and what a book to get me started - I loved every minute and haven't laughed so hard and so often for ages. I woke my wife several time reading this book late at night.
more of a textbooi September 7, 2010
Lois Bentley
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I heard Mary Roach speak at a book club review on TV - I don't remember where now. I thought she was an incredibly funny speaker. The audience was laughing. So, I bought the MP3-CD thinking it would be light and humorous. It is well read but dry and just a list of facts and happenings. l was very disappointed in my purchase. Nice as a testbook if you want the facts recorded. But not a funny read. I wanted to see the funny side of it all.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 42
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