Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void (Unabridged) Customer Reviews

come on apple. do a better job pitching this.

Yes, its true, the preview is useless. The book however is great. Reader is good, not as good as "Stiff"s reader, but this reader gets Roach's sarcasm and wit... and isn't that why you love Mary Roach? This book will not disappoint.

Don't let the comments about the bad preview scare you off - they always take it from the first page or two and in this case it happens to be a list of events - bummer but oh well. The narrator is great and the book is too. If you ever wanted to know the details of what it takes to keep people alive during missions into space then grab this book! It was great.

This book chronicles in great detail Nasa's (and other governments space agencies') work to invent life support systems for humans in space (food, space suites, toilets, vomit control) and in dealing with micro gravity. It isn't about the quest to get to Mars specifically. Really it's about Nasa trying to figure out what astronauts will put up with during increasingly longer times in space. You learn a lot about what early astronaturs suffered through during "quick" trips into orbit and to the moon and back, and how this does not scale to multi-year missions to Mars. I read it as a treatise about how futile manned space flight is compared to robotic missions. But in the end the author states that she thinks it's worth it just because she can't think of better things that the government should do with the money! There is some humor in the book, unfortunately the bored, flat narration kills it all.

From the logistical nightmare of planting the US flag on the lunar surface to what happens to a human body when bailing out of a spacecraft traveling at 17,000 mph, this book is a treasure trove of incredibly interesting information about humanity and space. A must read.

This book is very interesting however listen with caution. Many of the chapters are very disgusting. All the topics covered are important challenges to extended space flight such as sanitation and waste management but at times it’s just too gross. So if you have a good tolerance for that kind of thing you’ll enjoy this. And I would also recommend this for anyone who’s disappointed they will never be an Astronaut. You may not be disappointed after this book

I enjoy this book, it is informative without getting lost in tedious technical material. The only portion that needed to be cut down were the sections on NASA's animal programs. I really do not care about the space monkey program or the antecdotes about them. Those were chapters I simply choose to skip past. If you do want to gain some insight about what what it takes to get into a space program and the life you will live to enjoy the expericence of space, this book provides you an interesting look.

The title would lead you to believe that the book is primarily about plans and preparation for an expedition to Mars, but it's not. The book is more a history of space exploration, and covers the necessary but less glamorous aspects of working in space.