We simply weren’t made to live without gravity. That fact has always been the biggest challenge about space travel. Think rocket science is hard? Try building a toilet that works in zero gravity.
In “Packing for Mars,” Mary Roach, right, explores all the crazy, gross, odd and fascinating challenges that have confronted space engineers and scientists for the past 50 years of human space flight, and which make a trip to Mars a seeming impossibility. Roach — whose previous books include “Stiff,” about cadavers, and “Bonk,” about the science of sex — carefully researches the awkward details of life in space then describes what’s she found with enthusiasm and great humor.
Roach discusses and signs “Packing for Mars,” now available in paperback, tonight at 7 at BookPeople. I spoke with Roach shortly after she arrived in Austin Wednesday afternoon. Excerpts from our conversation:
You were a kid in the 1960s, during NASA’s heyday. Have you always been interested in space travel?
No, surprisingly enough. I was born in 1959 so I was pretty young then, but I don’t remember the moon landing. I was not at all a space-obsessed child. I’m a late bloomer to space flight.
What got you interested in the subject?
Years ago I had an assignment from Discover magazine about the neutral buoyancy tank, which is that huge tank where NASA trains astronauts for spacewalking. I got to the Johnson Space Center and it was just like the magical kingdom. There was just so much bizarre, amazing, interesting stuff going on. The day I was there they were rehearsing what would be a six-hour spacewalk. The rehearsals were amounting to 250 hours of time in the tank. I had no idea the amount of training and work that goes into living in space. That was when I started to understand a little bit about what goes on behind the scenes.
One question you always hear astronauts asked is, how do you use the bathroom in space. That question ties in with your fascination with the human body in all its messy glory.
Well, yeah. I have a chapter in the book about going to the bathroom in space — it’s only one chapter, but it picks up a disproportionate amount of the coverage of the book, which reflects, I think, a universal fascination. To me it was fascinating not just because of the tee-hee value but because it’s a wonderful example of the unbelievable challenges of life without gravity. The things we take for granted — you don’t really think of the toilet as something that requires gravity, but in zero gravity, the “material,” to use a NASA euphemism, doesn’t fall into the toilet. So you’ve got to completely rethink the toilet. That’s a fascinating thing.
The book underscores two things: You really aren’t aware how much you need gravity until you try to live without it. And so much for the glamorous life of an astronaut.
I know. It isn’t glamorous but I think most astronauts happily accept the inconveniences — the smells, the awkwardness, the lack of creature comforts — for the ability to be where they are, in this place with this amazing view that so few people have ever had. It’s like backpacking times a hundred. You know, backpacking is difficult. It’s a pain to sleep on the ground, you eat bad food, but it enables you to get to these amazing places that you don’t ordinarily get to.