A lot of people were a little disappointed by Roach's previous book, Spook.  I wasn't one of them, but I could understand their objections.  Something about the softer subject matter blunted Roach's sense of humor, perhaps.  And it was certainly a less educational read, discussing bull**** artists as it did.  (No less interesting, but less educational.)

These people will certainly be glad to get their hands on a copy of Packing For Mars, Roach's latest book about life in outer space.  Actually, to be more accurate, it is primarily about life in the American space program, with some entertaining forays to the space programs of other countries (Russia and Japan).

And there's a lot of talk about pooping.  An entire chapter, in fact.  Hooray!

I don't think there was a single page in the book that didn't at least make me chuckle, if not literally laugh out loud.  Roach has a gift for taking topics that many would consider dry, like orbital physics, and making them not only entertaining but actually gripping, and then finishing with a zinger.

In the case of Packing For Mars, Roach often pins her discussions on the human subjects.  In other words, instead of talking about pure theory, Roach is often talking about astronauts (and how they embody or interact with pure theory).  This gives her many anecdotes and digressions a very human face, as well as revealing an aspect of the space program that many of us have never seen.

How Roach managed to trudge through all the NASA transcripts is beyond me, but she has dragged out some rare gems.  She finds a clip of Frank Borman on board Gemini VII, surly and refusing to talk to the NASA surgeon about dandruff.  An Apollo 9 astronaut crawls back to his bunk to recover from a bout of motion sickness.  And a truly hilarious bit of transcript as the Apollo 10 astronauts spot an escaped turd floating into the control area, and argue about whose it is (and thus whose duty to catch it).

Packing For Mars could almost be called "a secret history of NASA," for all the inside gossip it dishes.  Not to mention the volume of surprisingly fascinating technical detail about the more prosaic challenges of life in outer space. 

I have only one complaint about Packing For Mars, and it is fairly minor.  Although the book is ostensibly geared towards a forward look at a potential manned mission to Mars, this topic is given short shrift.  Perhaps some of Roach's more speculative work was cut (along with NASA's recent budget) or perhaps it was given an inaccurate title by an enthusiastic editor who thought it needed more "zazz."  We don't really learn much about what a mission to Mars would be like, aside from "very smelly."

Regardless, Packing For Mars is a real gem, and a refreshing break from the standard writing about the space writing.  Roach's topics may be a lot less heroic, but they are far more interesting and real.