Challenges of Human Space Exploration [Paperback]

Marsha Freeman (Author), Dr. Michael DeBakey (Author)

Book Description

Series: Springer Praxis Books / Space Exploration | Publication Date: July 26, 2000

This non-technical and well illustrated book tells the story of what was accomplished during the Shuttle-Mir programme by three of the astronauts. Based on interviews granted to the author by the astronauts, the book describes the experiments they took and the lessons they learned. In doing so it provides a unique insight into how adversity and challenges can be overcome in the process of exploration, making it ideally suited to those planning space missions of a long-duration. Amongst the topics covered are: growing food in space, curing disease with space crystals, and lessons learned form Mir. It also contains interviews with managers of the space programme at the Johnson Space Centre and scientists involved in the experiments.

Product Details

• Paperback: 260 pages
• Publisher: Springer; 1st Edition. edition (July 26, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1852332018
• ISBN-13: 978-1852332013
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,713,582 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Good Side of the Shuttle-MIR Missions, March 21, 2001

By 

John R. Keller (Houston, TX United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Challenges of Human Space Exploration (Paperback)

The title of this book is very misleading. It does not examine the "Challenges of Human Space Exploration," but presents the research conducted on the MIR by US researchers using NASA astronauts on the Russian built MIR Space Station. In spite of the misleading title, I found this book to a good addition to my collection of books on the space program.

Unlike the book Dragonfly by Bryan Burrough, which presents the ugly, but real side, of the Shuttle/MIR missions, this book examines the research conducted by NASA astronauts on the MIR for various researchers and research organizations. In addition, many of the results and their use for Earth based applications are presented.

The book opens with two preliminary chapters. The first chapter examines the Skylab program and the results of the experiments conducted onboard this space station. The second chapter deals with the MIR space station, what the Russians learned and Shuttle-MIR partnership. The next few chapters dealt with the experiments that were conducted by the NASA astronauts which focused on a variety of life sciences experiments such as, plant growth, protein crystal growth, and the bioreactor (cell tissue growth). The final two chapters summarize the lessons learned from MIR and how these lessons learned are being applied to the International Space Station.

This book gave me a new perspective of the Shuttle-MIR missions that I have not seen elsewhere (and I work for NASA) and pointed out the many positive benefits from this space program. For example, several spin-offs, such a portable heart difibulator, have already made their way to the marketplace. Furthermore, rapid advances have been made in many areas of medical research, such as diabetes and cancer research.

While the sections devoted to the positive aspects of the research were extremely interesting, I did, however, find the lessons learned chapter quite disturbing, but interesting in its own right. It seems that while NASA spent millions of dollars and many man hours on research facilities and operations training, very little if any effort was devoted to the psychological problems that could develop in such a closed, isolated and culturally different environment. It seems that at least some the criticism that this NASA program has received is clearly justified.

While this book may not before everyone, it definitely was a refreshing change from other more critical books written about the Shuttle-MIR program. It should make you realize that the Shuttle-MIR program has and will have some important benefits to mankind and that is was not just another pork barrel government project.

5.0 out of 5 stars Milestone in the history of space exploration, January 11, 2002

By 

Nik (Australia) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Challenges of Human Space Exploration (Paperback)

Healthy mix of history and scientific information.
Very detailed scientific account of Mir's story, that couldn't be found anywhere else.