BOOK REVIEW: Packing For Mars

This year’s Centre County Reads is PACKING FOR MARS by Mary Roach. I was not sure if it would have the universal appeal to be chosen as the book for an entire county. The reaction among my reading acquaintances has been very mixed, ranging from “loved it” to “could not get beyond the Fourth Chapter”.

PACKING FOR MARS is an excellently researched book written by an author who is first of all a scientist, but with an eye for the humor in serious situations. Roach has the ability to make any scientific subject accessible to everyone.  There is a reason that she makes best-seller list with each new publication.

PACKING FOR MARS takes us up close and personal with the astronauts: Russian, Japanese, American, dogs, chimps, in fact anyone or thing that has entered space. We learn that the Japanese test a man’s talent with origami for eligibility into their space program. The United States puts great emphasis on the ability to spend extended periods of time either alone or with others in a cramped space.

It never occurred to me that motion sickness would be a big challenge in a space capsule or helmet. I thought that proper training would take care of that problem. Throwing up in zero-gravity is more than just messy; it is dangerous. There is the danger of choking, suffocation, and if inhaled, the acid will eat the lining of the lungs. Those little nuggets of grossness just float around. The information in this chapter was very informative, if a bit disgusting.

It was also interesting to know that male astronauts do not wear a diaper, but rather a device built along the idea of a condom. For vanity reasons, the sizes come only in L, XL, and XXL. An interesting footnote to this is that four “urine collection assemblies” have been left on the moon, two large and two “small”. Which one belongs to Neil Armstrong and which to Buzz Aldrin remains a mystery.

For all of you who dreamed of being an astronaut as a child, Mary Roach does much to de-romanticize the idea of going into the Void. Still, to me, the people who have gone into space are indeed heroes; they went into the complete unknown. Ideas could be tested on Earth, but that would not prepare them for the actual event.

There were times when I felt that Mary Roach took particular interest in the scatological material in her research, but that may be what we are all secretly interested in. No subject was too repellent to deserve minute detail.( I had never thought that cadavers played such a large part in our space program)

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PACKING FOR MARS is very full of detailed information. Even though written in an entertaining style, it reached the point of overkill for me by the fourth chapter. I would suggest that it be considered the book that you read one chapter at a time while reading a less stressful book. Reading it that way also gives the information time to be digested.

After reading and discussing the book with my book group, I understand why PACKING FOR MARS was the Centre County Reads for 2014. The book pays homage to the things that Americans hold dear, traits like bravery, the search for knowledge, and exploration of the unknown.