A new book from author Mary Roach is always a welcome sight, even more so when it delves into the human side of spaceflight. In Packing for Mars, Roach explores what should be familiar ground to “spaceniks” and comes up with all kinds of fresh, surprising material, delivered with her trademark wit. Trust me, you’ll want to read all about Enos the space chimp, fights between astronauts, and the icky details of various bodily functions in space.
Roach was a featured speaker at SETI-Con a couple of weeks ago, the first-ever science and science fiction convention for the general public organized by the SETI Institute, to mark its 25th anniversary, and the 50th anniversary of the famous “Drake Equation” to determine the likelihood of life occurring on other planets outside our solar system.
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The impressive lineup included appearances by Robyn Asimov (daughter of the legendary Isaac Asimov), Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart, a host of science fiction stars and leading research scientists – including self-described “Pluto Killer” Mike Brown, and SETI’s own Seth Shostak and Jill Tarter. Santa Clara was the place to be August 13-15 if you’re a fan of extraterrestrial exploration.
Roach’s panel explored the case for Mars, as one might expect, and also featured astrobiologist Jennifer Blank and Margaret Race, whose specialty is “planetary protection” -- focusing on ways to safeguard Earth from alien germs, not to mention ensuring we don’t contaminate new alien worlds with our own nasty microbes. I had never heard of planetary protection before, but it’s a very sensible idea.
As Race said in a SETI interview, “It’s important to convince people that it’s not frivolous to think about these topics. It’s different than thinking about little green men. What we’ve learned about astrobiology, extremophile biology, and habitability has given us a lot of information about how human beings work, how ecological systems work, and how our planet works.”
Blank works on experiments that simulate comet impacts and other “analog studies” relevant to Mars. Plus, she’s a member of the team designing the ChemCam for the new rover NASA plans to ship to Mars in 2011. There are many things we need to understand more fully before we can feasibly send humans to the Red Planet – like how to deal with landing on a planet that has 1/100th the atmosphere of Earth, and hence provides almost no “breaking” for a space vehicle on the way down to the surface. And if we’re looking at terraforming Mars at some point in the future, we’ll need a much firmer grasp of the chemistry of the Martian atmosphere and its existing ecosystem.
We’ve read the headlines about the evidence for underground water on Mars -- an important factor! -- but far less about the lack of a protective magnetosphere, which could seriously impair communications beyond the existing delay (between 4 minutes and 20 minutes, depending on the planet’s position in relation to Earth).
Mars gets some wicked dust storms, too, that could also interfere with communication, although Roach pointed out an additional dust-related hazard: those sharp, corrosive dust particles cling to spacesuits and don’t let go. Apollo astronaut Jim Lovell reportedly made a good chunk of the return trip back to Earth naked because moon dust had gotten into his spacesuit. After a few days, he couldn’t zip it up. So NASA will need a new kind of spacesuit -- not just one designed specifically for being in orbit -- if it’s planning on sending astronauts for a prolonged stay on Mars.
Roach actually applied to participate for a Mars 500 training program. Then NASA reps called her at 3 AM one morning, and she snapped at them irritably about their poor timing. It turned out that the phone call was part of the screening process to pick candidates psychologically suitable for the rigors of the program. Roach had just failed the test.
That’s just some of the many tidbits to be found in Roach’s latest book. I had the chance to chat with Roach in July about Packing for Mars, and that dialog is now up at BloggingHeads.tv. Check it out to get a feel for her book, and a new appreciation for the challenges of sending human beings to Mars:
Tags: Apollo Program, Mars, SETI, Space Travel
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