By Mary Roach
After her last book, Bonk, which I didn't find very interesting, Packing for Mars is a really engrossing read. If you could find a complaint it would be that the book isn't really about going to Mars but about the research behind sending a person into outer space. The book mostly looks back to the times before 1981 and the Space Shuttle.
Like the other Mary Roach books it's kinda hard to describe this tome. It's really a collection of related essays. Following some of the more interesting aspects of space flight. What did the Apollo capsule smell like after a 2 week journey in space? Different than the sea breeze outside the capsule to put it politely.
As the chapters progress I could start to see her train of thought. How to deal with weightlessness. Cramped quarters. Eating. Waste management. Smells. Death. There was a lot on waste management. The great news for us readers is that NASA and the military researched all of these aspects ad nauseum. All the communication between the astronauts and mission control were recorded.
A few more fun facts I'll share with you: Almost no matter what fabric your clothes are made of you can wear them for about two weeks before they will stop absorbing the oils from your body (become saturated.) This means that only around 14% or so of the oils will stay on your skin, so you will remain fairly clean. Good to know.
Also after extensive research Mary Roach concludes that no one has had sex in space. Nor during a parabolic flight (aka a ride on the vomit comet) though operator Zero G was offered many times there normal fee to allow testing but so far they have refused.
I can't really say enough good things about Mary Roach's books. Read them all. Then find her old articles on Salon.com.
As a last nugget of information I'll leave you with a link to a paper that answers the question, when is clean, too clean? http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/eid/
