Packing for Mars
This was under the category: A Nonfiction Book About Science
This book is by a favorite author of mine (who wrote Stiff - you must read it). Roach delves this time into the world of space travel. She asks the tough questions like "What happens if you throw up with your space helmet on?" "How do you survive a year without walking? Regular food? Sex?" "What is it like to hit the ground at 15Gs?" She interviews several people from NASA and Wright Patterson to learn what it is really like to travel in space.
I liked this book. Roach does get a little more technical than I would have liked, which made me skim a few parts, but for the most part, it was good. She gets a chance to experience weightlessness, what it is like to have a BM in space, how they decided to package food for space travel, and much more. Things you would never think of. Like - they don't take carbonated beverages into space because astronauts cannot burp. They have people who volunteered to lay 3 months FLAT in bed to test what would happen to astronauts muscles in space. The astronauts are put through isolation chamber test for 3 months at a time. Then their are psychoanalyzed - everything from how they set the table to how much food they left on their plates. Every thing has to be considered because space travel is so dangerous. It cost billions of dollars to send people into space and sometimes it takes 6 years of prep to get them there. They even analyze what happens to astronauts who can't take a bath for long periods of time since they really can't have water bathing on a ship in space.
I can say I learned a lot and have a lot more respect for the space program and what some of the greatest minds in the world come up with to keep space travel safe. I recommend giving this book a try. The humor and information you will know far outweigh the few sections that were a little more in depth than I felt they needed to be.
Stars: 4 1/2
This one needs to be on my list, too. I loved "Stiff" when I read it and wrote down the name of this one when it was first published, but never got around to requesting it. Thanks for the reminder!
ReplyDelete