Spacefaring: The Human Dimension (review)

The Russian space pioneer Konstantine Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky (1857- 1935) had no doubt why human beings should venture beyond the atmosphere. Our destiny, the very key to our survival, lay out there among the stars. The first step toward achieving that destiny, he suggested in a paper published in 1926, would be to construct an orbiting space station that would tap solar energy to meet the needs of earth and propel spacecraft to other planets. Industry based on resources obtained from asteroids and other "small bodies" in the solar system would flourish. Eventually, Tsiolkovsky predicted, "the population of the solar system will become one hundred thousand times greater than the present population of the earth. A limit will be reached, after which it will be necessary to emigrate to the Milky Way." Finally, "the Sun will start to die. The remaining population of the solar system will move to other stars to join their brothers who departed earlier."

Albert A. Harrison, a professor of psychology at the University of California, Davis, offers an update and a reality check on Tsiolkovsky's vision of a bright future for human beings in space. The author of earlier books on long-duration space missions, the sense of isolation and confinement shared by visitors to Antarctica and outer space, and our possible response to the discovery of life elsewhere in the universe, Harrison is more than qualified to undertake this thoroughgoing assessment of the human side of space flight.

The book is straightforward and workmanlike. Harrison breaks his subject into manageable topics, arranges them in a logical fashion, and addresses them one at a time. The major issues include: the hazards of space flight and how we may deal with them; the selection and training of space travelers; human factors in the design of spacecraft, spacesuits, tools, and equipment; issues of psychology and group dynamics; living and working beyond the atmosphere; and the quality of life on long-term space missions.

Ever wonder what it is like to eat and drink in space, or how they go to the bathroom in orbit? What does a spacecraft smell like after a crew has spent a few weeks aboard? What will happen when (or if) the age of space tourism arrives, and individuals who are far less carefully screened and well-prepared than the astronauts want to spend a long holiday weekend orbiting the earth? What if you need heart surgery on the way to Mars? Will nonconformists be banned from space missions? And how about the prospect of sex in space? Harrison provides an informed perspective on these and a host of other very human concerns.

In addition to the consideration of practical issues, Harrison offers his own thoughts about why we ought to go into space in the first place. While he struggles to keep his own enthusiasm in check, there can be no mistaking the fact that he is itching to see us venture forth into the solar system. Considering the currently stalled condition of the space program, he wrestles with the question of "what went wrong on the way to the future," and suggests ways of "restoring the dream." He concludes with an assessment of the more distant future: the prospect for space settlements, the potential for such radical projects as the "terraforming" of other worlds, and the ultimate possibility of interstellar migration.

Harrison demonstrates an extraordinary command of his subject, and of the literature. A solid and very readable introduction to the human dimensions of astronautics, Spacefaring also provides extensive notes and a large bibliography that invites the reader to explore any topic in greater depth. This is a book that offers some pleasant hours to both the serious scholar and the armchair astronaut. It is guaranteed to spark many a good discussion that will separate the optimists from the pessimists among us. Tsiolkovsky would approve.