Editors Reads Verdict
Roach at her most expansive and most genuinely informative — the space programme has accumulated decades of bizarre and fascinating research on human physiology in extreme conditions, and she is the ideal reporter to make it accessible.
What We Loved
- The range of research covered is extraordinary — from astronaut selection psychology to zero-gravity food engineering
- The access Roach obtained (NASA facilities, JAXA, space medicine researchers) is impressive and the reporting benefits from it
- The comedy is perfectly calibrated to the subject — space has always attracted a certain deadpan institutional humour
Minor Drawbacks
- Some of the logistics detail (food packaging, toilet design) goes further than necessary
- Published in 2010, some sections have been overtaken by subsequent commercial spaceflight developments
Key Takeaways
- → The human body is poorly designed for space — nearly every system (circulatory, skeletal, vestibular) behaves badly without gravity
- → The psychological challenges of long-duration spaceflight may be harder to solve than the engineering ones
- → Space agencies have invested enormous resources in the unglamorous problems — waste management, food, hygiene — that popular accounts of spaceflight ignore
| Author | Mary Roach |
|---|---|
| Publisher | W. W. Norton |
| Pages | 334 |
| Published | August 2, 2010 |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Popular Science, Non-Fiction, Humor |
| Difficulty | Beginner |
| Best For | Space enthusiasts who want the unglamorous reality behind the propaganda, and Roach readers who want her applied to a less morbid subject than Stiff. |
What the Brochure Leaves Out
The space programme has a publicity problem: it shows astronauts floating heroically through airlocks and says nothing about what happens when you need to use the toilet in zero gravity, how you wash your hair when water forms floating globules, what months of confinement with the same three colleagues does to interpersonal relationships, or why the food is not better after fifty years of trying.
Roach spent a year with space medicine researchers, NASA training facilities, and astronaut psychologists, asking the questions the official communications do not.
The Science
The human body evolved for gravity. Cardiovascular fluid redistributes upward without it, producing the characteristic puffy faces of astronauts. Bones lose density without the mechanical stress of weight-bearing. The vestibular system, which has no gravitational reference, produces the space-equivalent of seasickness in most new arrivals. The immune system behaves unpredictably.
Roach covers all of this with her characteristic combination of genuine scientific curiosity and a willingness to ask the embarrassing question directly. The history of space food research alone — decades of trying to make food that is nutritious, enjoyable, easy to eat in zero gravity, and hygienically manageable — is a minor comedy of engineering failure.
Our rating: 4.3/5 — Roach at her most expansive: the science of sending humans to space, including everything the space agency doesn’t publicise.
Reading Guides
Frequently Asked Questions
What is "Packing for Mars" about?
The actual science and logistics of sending human beings into space — what zero gravity does to the body, how astronauts eat and use the toilet, the psychology of confinement, the history of space medicine research, and why Mars is significantly harder than the moon.
Who should read "Packing for Mars"?
Space enthusiasts who want the unglamorous reality behind the propaganda, and Roach readers who want her applied to a less morbid subject than Stiff.
What are the key takeaways from "Packing for Mars"?
The human body is poorly designed for space — nearly every system (circulatory, skeletal, vestibular) behaves badly without gravity The psychological challenges of long-duration spaceflight may be harder to solve than the engineering ones Space agencies have invested enormous resources in the unglamorous problems — waste management, food, hygiene — that popular accounts of spaceflight ignore
Is "Packing for Mars" worth reading?
Roach at her most expansive and most genuinely informative — the space programme has accumulated decades of bizarre and fascinating research on human physiology in extreme conditions, and she is the ideal reporter to make it accessible.
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