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

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2010

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Prologue and Chapters 1-3

Chapters 4-6

Chapters 7-9

Chapters 10-13

Chapters 13-16

Key Figures

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

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Discussion Questions

Symbols & Motifs

The Pilot Astronaut Archetype

Roach’s research delineates several different categories of astronauts. During the early days of the space program, astronauts were male military pilots who embodied bravado and machismo. In Roach’s imagination, these men were “faceless icons behind gold visors, bounding like antelopes in the moon’s weak gravity” (28). In the 1960s, astronauts were the stalwart heroes of a new frontier, archetypes built on old cowboy imagery and meant to represent American strength, adventurism, and trailblazing.

As the space shuttle program replaced the Apollo missions, the job and image of the astronaut expanded. The persona of “swinging-dick military test pilots” (153) was no longer desirable for longer missions with international crews. When the “right stuff is no longer bravado, aggressiveness, and virility” (32), empathy and cooperation become valuable assets. Part of Roach’s project in this book is to further demythologize the image of the astronaut: “Astronauts these days are likely to be nerds as heroes […] they’re just people” (28). By humanizing astronauts, Roach makes them relatable and destigmatizes the psychological and physical issues previously deemed too unmanly or weak to address.

Roach tempers her critique of the stereotypical pilot astronaut by acknowledging the value and bravery of the men who risked their lives in the early Gemini, Mercury, and Apollo missions. For the challenge of Mars, she theorizes that a combination of guts and sensitivity may be necessary: “Assertiveness has to be ‘Appropriate’ and Risk-Taking Behavior has to be ‘Healthy’” (32). Since humans have never landed on Mars before, the undertaking requires significant daring. Considering the distance and length of a Mars mission, JAXA medical officer Shoichi Tachibana recommends, “You need someone aggressive, creative. Because they’ll have to do everything by themselves…You need again a brave man” (37). Roach’s analysis of how different waves of astronauts have evolved reflects the changing needs of space missions and the cultural climate.

Taboos

The motif of taboos emphasizes that space exploration tests social and cultural beliefs. Roach discusses a range of topics that reveal what social norms consider repulsive or sacred.

Euphemisms abound as indicators of what NASA deems sensitive topics, particularly in relation to death, excrement, and sex. A cadaver used in crash tests is a “postmortem human subject,” or the more distanced acronym “PMHS” (143). A crash is a “landing pulse” (140), while “egesta” (334), “contributions” (268), and “bolus” (271) are terms for feces. NASA is altogether reticent about sex, and the only reference Roach finds related to the topic is a code-of-conduct tenet against the “appearance of impropriety” (236). Spacecrafts may break through the Earth’s atmosphere, but some taboos remain unbreached.

Roach surmises that NASA’s uneasiness with the use of cadavers is related to the genuine threat of death in space. Considering the tragedies of Apollo 1, Challenger, and Columbia, the use of cadavers might seem distasteful and disrespectful to outside observers. Roach encountered difficulty in gaining access to NASA’s crash simulations; the public affairs office had to consider whether public outcry could jeopardize a project’s funding.

She surmises that the taboo against sex is also scientific, since the consequences of human fertilization and fetal development in space are unknown and raise bioethical questions: “One legitimate reason for space agencies to be uncomfortable with astronaut sex is that no one knows what biological perils await an embryo conceived in space” (243). As for taboos regarding human waste, Roach acknowledges, “So powerful is the taboo against contact with human excrement that NASA researchers have, in days past, run simulations with monkey or dog feces” (282). However, NASA appears to be more open about waste management due in part to the necessity of the technology. Roach posits that space travel has the potential to break taboos, as in the example of drinking reclaimed and filtered urine.

Simulations

Roach utilizes the motif of simulations, which allow scientists to perform necessary rehearsals and tests, to highlight the surrealism of space research. Replicating space conditions on Earth creates a kind of postmodern manufactured alternate universe, with its own subculture of specialists and volunteers. Some of the larger facilities Roach visits are the immense pool at the Neutral Buoyancy Lab with facsimiles of the ISS, parabolic flights with intermittent seconds of weightlessness, and an indoor wind tunnel that simulates sky diving. NASA also uses analogs of Antarctic and submarine environments to study isolation and confinement. On a smaller and more bizarre scale, prolonged bed-rest studies simulate bone loss in space, suction tubing tests use artificial vomit made of soup, and recipes generate convincing fake feces. Roach considers the uncanny recreation of space on Earth as more evidence of space exploration’s ingenuity.

Simulations also play a role in Roach’s defense for continuing space exploration to Mars. She laments that simulations have become so convincing that people no longer seem interested in the real: “We live in a culture in which, more and more, people live through simulations […] No one goes out to play anymore. Simulation is becoming reality” (316). Though Roach does not use the term postmodern, her description coincides with postmodern theories that posit the predominance of simulations over the real world. For Roach, there is no substitute for the real thing. She describes the tactile experience of holding a Mars meteorite in her hands—“its realness” (317) is uniquely profound and inimitable. Though Roach is fascinated by the wonderland of NASA simulations, she invokes them as counterpoints to the tangible goal of reaching Mars.