Packing for Mars
Book description
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?…
Why read it?
2 authors picked Packing for Mars as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
For starters, I recommend everything Mary Roach has ever written. Ever since I read Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers in college, I’ve made sure to grab Roach’s new books the week they’re released. Her self-deprecating sense of humor always cracks me up, and she does such an amazing job of capturing both the science and the culture of the fields she studies.
This book is filled with incredible and fun stories you’ve likely never heard before. Why does the Japanese astronaut selection process include making 1,000 origami cranes? Why were the “walls spattered with blood” in a 1999…
From Kelly's list on being an astronaut.
Because I always learn something from Mary Roach’s books, and because they are relentlessly funny.
This time out, with her usual investigative vigor, Mary delves into the Space Program and gives us a detailed look at what happens before, during, and after a space mission. We learn about training, experimentation, the rigors, and dangers of space travel, and the astronauts themselves, who, it turns out, aren’t always the stern-looking, no-nonsense types we’ve come to imagine. Apparently a sense of humor, even of the bizarre, is an uncited requirement for becoming an astronaut. You will learn things in this book that…
From Michael's list on making you laugh in a troubled world.
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