Roach covers peeing, pooping, farting, barfing, sweating, and sex (acts that significantly rely on gravity, which isn’t readily available in space). She shares much (almost too much) history about the space race between the US and Russia, but since it’s mostly stuff I’d never heard before or have forgotten (“thank you Teflon brain”), it was interesting. She interviewed a wad of ex-astronauts (aren’t they all?) and that was sort of interesting, too.
But the part I liked best was the extraordinary NASA and science focus on trying to help humans function in space. Apparently we’re not meant to go where no man has gone before. The lack of gravity really messes us up, and the length of time it takes to get anywhere is longer than anybody wants to spend with anyone else in a capsule the size of an SUV. Packing for Mars brings to light just how daunting a task this is. As such, I don’t think we’ll need to worry about packing any time soon.
On a final note, I would add that I listened to this book on my iPod and wished I hadn’t. In spite of fascinating factoids, and Mary Roach’s spanking good writing and fab sense of humor, Sandra Burr’s monotone reading of the audible version dang near put me into a coma. Do not listen to Packing for Mars but read it. It’s fun.
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