Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void

by Mary Roach

Crews aboard space shuttles and orbiting science labs are two or three times the size of Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo crews, and the missions span weeks or months, not days. This makes the Mercury-era “right stuff” the wrong stuff. Astronauts have to be people who play well with others.

NASA’s recommended astronaut attribute list includes an Ability to Relate to Others with Sensitivity, Regard, and Empathy. Adaptability, Flexibility, Fairness. Sense of Humor. An Ability to Form Stable and Quality Interpersonal Relationships.

“To tell you the truth,” Tachibana says, “astronaut is a kind of college student.” He is given assignments. Decisions are made for him. Going into space is like attending a very small, very elite military boarding school. Instead of sergeants and deans, there is space agency management. It’s hard work, and you better stick to the rules. Don’t talk about other astronauts. Don’t use cuss words.* Never complain. As in the military, wave-makers are leaned on hard or sent away.

Give everyone a crash course in cross-cultural etiquette. Someone should have warned Lapierre, for example, that “it’s nothing” (Gushin’s words) for a Russian man to kiss a woman at a party. And that if you want him to stop, you slap him. That “no” means “maybe.” And that when Russian men bloody each other’s noses, it’s “a friendly fight.”

Psychologists use the term “irrational antagonism” to describe what happens between people isolated together for more than about six weeks.

The human organism is built for tension and relaxation, work and sleep. The principle of life is rhythm.

To the first space travelers and the men responsible for their survival, mental health was low on the fret list. There was too much else to worry about.

A quick refresher: Gravity is the pull, measurable* and predictable, that one mass exerts on another. The more mass involved, and the shorter the distance between the masses, the stronger the pull.

There is no such thing as a real weight, only real mass. Weight is determined by gravity. It’s

U.S. Naval Aerospace Medical Institute in Pensacola, Florida: the birthplace of the human disorientation device.

Earth’s magnetic field protects us by deflecting cosmic rays, but in space, these invisible bullets smash unimpeded through cells, causing mutations. It’s serious enough that astronauts are classified as radiation workers.) Just

The goal? Pure and simple: Land something before they do. Science on the first lunar surface missions was something of an afterthought: Pick up some rocks while you’re there, okay?

The less you chew your food, the more of it passes through undigested.

everything objectionable had been filtered out, and that astronauts don’t mind drinking treated urine.

One of the things I love about manned space exploration is that it forces people to unlace certain notions of what is and isn’t acceptable. And possible. It’s amazing what sometimes gets accomplished via an initially jarring but ultimately harmless shift in thinking.

The tougher question is not “Is Mars possible?” but “Is Mars worth it?”

What good will come of sending humans to Mars, especially when robotic landers can do a lot of the science just as well, if not as fast?

No one goes out to play anymore. Simulation is becoming reality.

the best way to survive in a falling elevator is to lie down on your back.