As you read this, the Curiosity rover is travelling towards Mars, and is expected to arrive next August. If there were humans aboard, things would be even more complex. Our bodies are not designed for weightlessness, or extra gravitational forces. We need to bring our air along with us. We may not get along with one another if we’re confined in close quarters for too long. Using extensive interviews with astronauts, cosmonauts, scientists and NASA officials, science writer Mary Roach has a written a gossipy history of space flight, while describing the anticipated problems of future space flight. San Francisco's 'One City One Book'

Mary Roach's brilliant sense of humor and wit make this an engaging, delightful, and memorable read. Also by her are Spook, Bonk, and Stiff whcih I recommend as well; though Packing For Mars deals with lighter subject matter than her other three books.

A delightfully entertaining, well written book on some of the less glamorous aspects of space flight.

A very entertaining read about the space program.

I enjoyed learning about the human element and stories of space travel. This was an enjoyable read about a subject I know very little about and had very little interest in learning. The author managed to teach and amuse me which is something I'm always looking for.

Mary Roach is a great science writer because she writes very personally. She includes interviews with the relevant astronauts and scientists and describes how she went about learning the information that she has put together for lucky readers to soak up. She manages to humanize the "right stuff" without making them seem any less admirable. If anything, I now have greater respect for those who are brave/crazy enough to suffer days or weeks of motion sickness, mushy food, and minimal bathing in cramped quarters for science (Although the bragging rights would be pretty sweet, I don't think I know anyone who would be willing to go through what Roach describes). I recommend this even if you don't usually read science books. You will learn a lot, but it doesn't feel like a textbook in the slightest.

Educational and absolutely hilarious at the same time. Every aspect of space travel is covered scientifically and yet in such a humurous way that this book will never make it to the list of must reads for the suffering insomniac.

This is an easy-to-read, humorous examination of the trials and tribulations of living in space. Based on extensive interviews with the people who designed and used space-living equipment, author Mary Roach looks at such topics as astronaut selection, psychological reactions to spaceflight, eating, sleeping, eliminating, and loving while you're weightless in a tin can hurtling through the void. She treats the topic seriously, but she also has fun with the often ridiculous use of euphemisms and politically correct phrasing to describe everyday biological functions. The book is also full of footnotes that are more often than note totally unrelated to the content except for some word that sets her off on a tangent about the vagaries of English. This is an excellent book and I will be looking for more of Ms. Roach's science writing.

A fascinating look into the obvious and not-so-obvious aspects of hurling humans into space. Gives one a great appreciation for the pioneers of space flight and to the feats of engineering and science that allowed a man to go to the moon and perhaps far beyond.

"Roach is an entertaining, intrepid guide as she reveals everything you want to know about the day-to-day realities of space travel and life without gravity--and some things you don't." Top 10 Books of 2010: Shannon McKenna Schmidt