Purchase

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Books-A-Million

Indie BookShop

Add to Wish List

Also by Mary Roach:

Fuzz, September 2021
Hardcover / e-Book
Gulp, April 2013
Hardcover / e-Book
The Ultimate Guide To Fellatio, September 2010
Trade Size
Packing For Mars, August 2010
Hardcover
Bonk, April 2009
Hardcover
Bonk, April 2008
Hardcover
Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife, October 2005
Hardcover
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, May 2004
Trade Size (reprint)

PACKING FOR MARS
By: Mary Roach

W.W. Norton
August 2010
On Sale: August 3, 2010
288 pages
ISBN: 0393068471
EAN: 9780393068474
Hardcover
Add to Wish List

Non-Fiction

The best-selling author of Stiff and Bonk explores the irresistibly strange universe of space travel and life without gravity.

Space is a world devoid of the things we need to live and thrive: air, gravity, hot showers, fresh produce, privacy, beer. Space exploration is in some ways an exploration of what it means to be human. How much can a person give up? How much weirdness can they take? What happens to you when you can’t walk for a year? have sex? smell flowers? What happens if you vomit in your helmet during a space walk? Is it possible for the human body to survive a bailout at 17,000 miles per hour? To answer these questions, space agencies set up all manner of quizzical and startlingly bizarre space simulations. As Mary Roach discovers, it’s possible to preview space without ever leaving Earth. From the space shuttle training toilet to a crash test of NASA’s new space capsule (cadaver filling in for astronaut), Roach takes us on a surreally entertaining trip into the science of life in space and space on Earth. . .

Media Buzz

Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me! - April 21, 2012
On Point - August 26, 2010
Daily Show with Jon Stewart - August 2, 2010
Talk of the Nation - August 2, 2010