A long-standing space enthusiast, I was recently deflated by the rescheduling of the next-to-last space shuttle launch from a Monday to a Tuesday, and then to Wednesday--all within a six-hour span a mere two days before the scheduled launch. For an outing that was planned years ago, it was a gentle reminder that, even after all this time, an electrical wire and Mother Nature can still hold all of our space travel innovations hostage. Though my desire to view a launch is as old as the space program itself, the urge was heightened by Mary Roach's new book, Packing for Mars, a rather thorough look at the nuances of humans traveling weightless and somewhat compacted for at least 500 days (the expected duration of a trip to, three months on, and a return from Mars). As jaw dropping as the prospect of going to Mars is (for a space junkie), how much we've learned from getting ready to travel in space is even more mind-boggling.
