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

NASA is a United States government agency devoted to aerospace research and technology. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the agency’s formation in 1958 in part as a response to the Soviet Union’s launching of the Sputnik satellite in 1957. NASA grew out of the older National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics (NACA), formed in 1915 to compete with European airplane technology. This history explains why military pilots, and not scientists, were the first candidates for space travel.

Throughout Packing for Mars, Roach visits many NASA facilities, including the Johnson Space Center and the Ames Research Center. NASA’s public relations people were reluctant to grant her full access to all her inquiries, most likely due to the fear that controversial information could jeopardize funding and public support. Roach relates that authorities were most hesitant about her covering the cadaver crash tests, although attitudes were less tense regarding animal testing and the 1960s recruitment of unhoused people for impact tests.

James (Jim) Lovell (1952-) is widely known for having flown on Apollo 8 and two Gemini missions, and as the 42-year-old commanding astronaut on the 1970 Apollo 13 mission that nearly ended the lives of the crew members when an oxygen tank exploded. Aborting the moon landing, Lovell, along with Fred Haise and John (Jack) Swigert, survived the malfunction by relocating to the lunar module and conserving oxygen and power before moving back to the command module for their landing. The events inspired Lovell to co-author a book about his experience entitled Lost Moon: The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13 (1994), which was subsequently adapted into the film Apollo 13. With NASA’s cooperation, the film included scenes shot during zero-gravity parabolic flights.

True to her tactic of not focusing on the most celebrated stories of space travel, Roach interviews Lovell about the lesser known 1965 Gemini VII medical mission that tested spending two weeks in space with no shower or toilet. Roach details Lovell’s experience of frustration during the flight and his displaced anger on the nutritionist who devised their food pouches. She also describes how Lovell contended with leaky urine collection bags, body odor, limited personal hygiene, and getting accustomed to using fecal bags: As he put it, “You get to know each other so well you don’t even bother turning away” (314).

During the Gemini VII, Lovell and Frank Borman eventually could not tolerate wearing their spacesuits during the entire two-week mission. After some back and forth with management, they received permission to take them off. Lovell laughs at the fact that his son told friends that his father flew in space in his underwear. For Roach, the behind-the-scenes moments of frustration, absurdity, and jocularity are the most revealing and entertaining sides of science.