Amazon.com Review
The title of this book really ought to be
Spacefarers, because unlike many space travel authors, Harrison, a professor of psychology, focuses primarily on the people doing the traveling. On the technological side, he explores astronaut selection and training, medical and environmental hazards, and issues of life support and habitation. He pays equal attention to "soft" science aspects of human space travel, such as the stresses that arise from working and surviving in space, group dynamics among astronauts, and even off-duty time (and it is here that Harrison boldly goes where few space authors have gone before--into the realm of sex in space).
Harrison notes that while NASA has gathered heaps of physiological data about astronauts, the agency makes little effort to collect psychological and behavioral information. In fact, such research has been discouraged. This may come from the idea that in the past, NASA astronauts were presented as "flawless individuals" and that any hints of emotional instability could possibly decrease funding. Conversely, the Russian space program, with its emphasis on long-duration flights, has always studied human behavior in space. Which leads us to one of the book's best didjaknows: Did you know that cosmonauts only played chess against groundside opponents, to avoid in-group competition and friction?
In the final chapters, Harrison does address the nuts and bolts of spacefaring, surveying prospects for lunar and Martian colonies, and even interstellar travel. The chapter on space tourism is quite comprehensive and contains a startling insight: tourism could create a push into space stronger than science or exploration. Says Harrison:
"Not only would making space accessible to a broad segment of the population give people exciting and new experiences, it would encourage many different kinds of human activities in space. Thus, the space tourism industry could develop both the technology and the popular support required to accelerate human progress in getting off our planet."
All told, Spacefaring is a broad and readable review of the hazards and issues that will confront future space travelers, and it creates a vivid picture of what daily life may be like for those lucky adventurers. --J. B. Peck
From the author of
Living Aloft: Human Requirements for Extended Spaceflight (1985) and
After Contact: The Human Response to Extraterrestrial Life (1997) comes this look at what human beings need to be able to live in space. With the U.S. poised to begin launching people into space on longer, more complicated voyages than ever before, Harrison argues that more emphasis needs to be placed on what he calls the "human dimension" of space travel (not just survival techniques but dealing, for example, with issues of loneliness and isolation). In addition to psychological issues, Harrison addresses some vital practical matters such as how space voyagers will communicate with those on Earth and how "multigeneration" missions, in which people are born, live, and die on board a space vessel, will require us to rethink many of our notions of what constitutes a society. This is an intelligent, challenging book, perhaps too technical for some general readers but ideal for those with an interest in space travel and a desire to explore the cutting edge.
David PittCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
