Getting Off the Planet: Training Astronauts (Apogee Books Space Series) [Paperback]

Mary Jane Chambers (Author), Randall Chambers Dr. (Author)

Book Description

Series: Apogee Books Space Series | Publication Date: January 1, 2006

A behind-the-scenes look into how NASA prepared its first astronauts for space flight is offered in this detailed and humorous documentary of the early days of the space race. Readers will learn why Dr. Chambers spent the night in a water tank and clocked so many hours in a G-force centrifuge, along with what compelled researchers to offer the flight stick to both humans and chimpanzees. The rigorous yet jargon-free prose is designed for the casual scientist and is interspersed with the often outrageous anecdotes that sprung up during the years of meticulous research and patient, relentless testing that were conducted before America's first manned space flight. Dozens of rare photographs of the space project in the book and on the included CD-ROM are also featured.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"If you enjoy reading about the background to how the US went into space this is for you." -- Rex Hall, Spaceflight, July 2006.

About the Author

Mary Jane Chambers is an award-winning journalist whose stories have appeared in popular publications that include Reader's Digest. She is the author of Don't Launch Him—He's Mine! Dr. Randall Chambers is the former projects director of NASA's acceleration research training program, the institution in charge of astronaut training for the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs. They live in Wichita, Kansas.

Product Details

• Paperback: 120 pages
• Publisher: Collector's Guide Publishing, Inc. (January 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1894959205
• ISBN-13: 978-1894959209
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 6.9 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,961,399 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Earth to Mars in 30 hours at 2 Gees, July 4, 2011

By 

Dr. Ali Fant "Computer Science Ed.D." (Schweinfurt (Germany)) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Getting Off the Planet: Training Astronauts (Apogee Books Space Series) (Paperback)

I presented a segment of Dr. Randall Chambers's "Getting Off the Planet, Training Astronauts" at a recent meeting in Austin TX. On page 52, Dr. Chambers calculates the travel time between the Earth and Mars as 30 hours at 2G force. This is twice the force experienced by humans on many roller coasters -- but only for seconds.

Dr. Carl Clark rode the centrifuge for 24 hours in 1959 under Dr. Chambers's supervison. Forty years later, Dr. Chambers reported at the Mars Society annual program meeting the results of the 1959 experiment.

Five years later, President George W. Bush announced plans to send humans to Mars.

The human body can tolerate a 2G ride to Mars if the equipment is available to produce it. Just like the temperatures in Alaska are often colder than Mars, many people are unaware how humans can adapt to Mars with suitable protective garments.

Humans live in Fairbanks at temperatures of minus 50 degrees Fahrenheit for weeks at time. Summer temperature on Mars are warmer than Alaska. In both situation, human need protective clothing to venture outside if you want to remain alive.

On to Mars!

Dr. Ali Fant

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Too little information, December 20, 2006

By 

B. Matthes (Concord, NC) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Getting Off the Planet: Training Astronauts (Apogee Books Space Series) (Paperback)

I am a huge Apollo fan and try to read and absorb everything I can about the astronauts, the ships, the missions, everything. I was excited to see this book because I thought it would offer a unique insight into the actual details of the training programs. I was sadly dissapointed. Although the book description above lists this as being a "detailed and humorous documentary of the early days of the space race" there is very little detail. In fact, the book seems to contain basically 2 recurring points: space travel is hard; the astronauts trained using a centrifuge. The author repeats these 2 facts almost as a mantra thoughout the book, chapter after chapter. If you are looking for an essay on the usefulness of centrifuge training on astronauts in order to help overcome the difficulty of traveling into space, which is quite difficult, but the centrifuge made it easier for the astronauts that took on the difficulty of space travel and used the centrifuge, then this is the book for you. If you are looking for a book on the variety of programs used to train the astronauts, then perhaps you should look elsewhere.

5.0 out of 5 stars A fine man. A wonderful book., January 27, 2011

By 

Jeffrey N. Howard (Aberdeen, South Dakota, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Getting Off the Planet: Training Astronauts (Apogee Books Space Series) (Paperback)

Dr. Chambers was on my dissertation committee for my PhD in 2007----he died later that year. I have a personally autographed copy of this book and it is one of the books that I dearly treasure. It was a pleasure and a blessing to know this man, and I miss him very much. He was truly a pioneer of space exploration and the application of human factors to space travel in a plethora of ways. This book presents a history of problems that had to be overcome to put men in space. There are many fantastic photos of early NASA technology in this book as well. There's no way any one book can capture the brilliance of this man, what he contributed to science and space exploration, and what a wonderful person and teacher he was. I was lucky----he was my friend.