Overview

The best-selling author of Stiff and Bonk explores the irresistibly strange universe of space travel and life without gravity. From the Space Shuttle training toilet to a crash test of NASA’s new space capsule, Mary Roach takes us on the surreally entertaining trip into the science of life in space and space on Earth.

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Reviews

A delightful, illuminating grab bag of space-flight curiosities. -- Kirkus Reviews [Roach's] style is at its most substantial-and most hilarious-in the zero-gravity realm that Packing for Mars explores... As startling as it is funny. -- Janet Maslin - The New York Times A truly funny look at the less majestic aspects of the space program... Roach's writing is supremely accessible, but there's never a moment when you aren't aware of how much research she's done into unexplored reaches of space travel. -- Entertainment Weekly This is the kind of smart, smirky stuff that Roach does so well. -- Geoff Nicholson - San Francisco Chronicle Cool answers to questions about the void you didn't even know you had. -- People An utterly fascinating account, made all the more entertaining by the author's ever-amused tone. -- BookPage An impish and adventurous writer with a gleefully inquisitive mind and stand-up comic's timing. -- Booklist The author's writing comes across as reportorial, but with a clear sense of humor; even the footnotes are used to both informational and comedic effect. -- Time Out New York With an unflinching eye, [Roach] launches readers into the thick of spaceflight's grossest engineering challenges. -- M. G. Lord - The New York Times Book Review Roach's strange enthusiasm for all things oddball ... makes Mars a more than worthy destination. -- Time Roach provides a highly readable, often hilarious, guide. -- Christian Science Monitor Roach deftly guides her readers... They never completely lose sight of the accomplishments of space travel, even as they take delight in the absurdities that, in the end, make those successes all the more sublime. -- Dallas Morning News A more realistic view of life in space than we have ever gotten from a NASA broadcast. -- The Daily Beast It's all about those things NASA doesn't delve into at press conferences. -- BoingBoing

Roach provides a highly readable, often hilarious, guide.

Over the course of several frank chapters, Roach explores the nitty-gritty details of life in space that filmmakers and historians tend to gloss over...Roach's wide-eyed wonder...sets Packing for Mars apart from the galaxy of space travel histories -- Boston Globe It's all about those things NASA doesn't delve into at press conferences. -- BoingBoing A more realistic view of life in space than we have ever gotten from a NASA broadcast. -- The Daily Beast Cool answers to questions about the void you didn't even know you had. -- People Roach provides a highly readable, often hilarious, guide. -- Christian Science Monitor An utterly fascinating account, made all the more entertaining by the author's ever-amused tone. -- BookPage [Roach] has once again discovered a winner of a subject...Roach's strange enthusiasm for all things oddball...makes Mars a more than worthy destination. -- Time Roach deftly guides her readers...They never completely lose sight of the accomplishments of space travel, even as they take delight in the absurdities that, in the end, make those successes all the more sublime. -- Dallas Morning News This is the kind of smart, smirky stuff that Roach does so well. -- Geoff Nicholson - San Francisco Chronicle Truly funny...Roach's writing is supremely accessible, but there's never a moment when you aren't aware of how much research she's done into unexplored reaches of space travel. -- Entertainment Weekly The book is an often hilarious, sometimes queasy-making catalog of the strange stuff devised to permit people to survive in an environment for which their bodies are stupendously unsuited. With an unflinching eye, [Roach] launches readers into the thick of spaceflight's grossest engineering challenges. -- M. G. Lord - New York Times Book Review [Roach's] style is at its most substantial-and most hilarious-in the zero-gravity realm that Packing for Mars explores. -- Janet Maslin - New York Times

Author Information

Mary Roach is the author of five best-selling works of nonfiction, including Grunt, Stiff, and, most recently, Fuzz. Her writing has appeared in National Geographic and the New York Times Magazine, among other publications. She lives in Oakland, California.

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