Once Upon a Time I Lived on Mars

by Kate Greene

  “In Packing for Mars”: Mary Roach, Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void (New York: W. W. Norton, 2010), 298–299.

  “there’s a YouTube video”: Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield makes a burrito in space here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8-UKqGZ_hs

  “After months ensnared”: This is the one of many different accounts of Shackleton and his crew and ship that are referenced throughout this book. Alfred Lansing, Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage (New York: Basic Books, 2014).

  “It is scandalous”: Ibid.

  “the celebrated food writer”: All of M. F. K. Fisher is worth reading, but these quotes appear in the foreword to her book The Gastronomical Me (San Francisco: North Point Press, 1989).

  “they wanted to avoid”: Skylab wardroom table and hierarchy observation can be found here: Deborah Schneiderman and Alexa Griffith Winton, Textile Technology and Design: From Interior Space to Outer Space (New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2016). https://search-ebscohost-com.ezproxy.cul.columbia.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=e025xna&AN=1079010&site=ehost-live&scope=site

  “In addition to running”: The blog posts I wrote during the mission can be found by searching “Mars Hawaii” on the Economist’s website and searching “Mars on Earth” on Discover’s website.

  “dip into the can”: The excellent, high-quality egg powder: https://ovaeasy.com/

  “Julia Child demonstrated”: an omelet: www.youtube.com/watch?v=AySmkqTlrVA

  ON BOREDOM

  “On the other hand”: “Boredom Is Good for You, Study Claims,” Guardian, May 6, 2011.

  “But now, say”: “Bored to Death: Chronically Bored People Exhibit Higher Risk-Taking Behavior,” Scientific American, February 26, 2007.

  “Lars Svendsen”: Lars Svendsen, A Philosophy of Boredom (London: Reaktion Books, 2005), 21.

  “Martin Doehlemann”: Madeleine Schwartz, “Ask an Academic: Boredom,” New Yorker, May 9, 2011.

  “unexpected fifth type”: Thomas Göetz et al. (2013). “Types of Boredom: An Experience Sampling Approach, Motivation and Emotion,” DOI 10.1007/s11031-013-9385-y www.springer.com/about+springer/media/springer+select?SGWID=0-11001-6-1445444-0

  “Day passes day”: Alfred Lansing, 146.

  “obsessed with the idea of escaping”: Ibid.

  “the British explorer Felicity Aston”: Felicity Aston, “Editor’s blog: Interview with Felicity Aston, the first woman to cross the Antarctic alone,” interview by Sarah Gibbons, Travel Bite, February 24, 2012. https://web.archive.org/web/20131217084041/www.travelbite.co.uk/editors-blog/2012/02/24/editor-s-blog-interview-with-felicity-aston-the-first-woman

  “The nineteenth-century philosopher”: Arthur Schopenhauer, “On the Vanity of Existence,” Essays and Aphorisms (London: Penguin, 1970).

  “the twentieth-century German writer”: Siegfried Kracauer and Thomas Y. Levin, “Boredom,” The Mass Ornament: Weimar Essays (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1995).

  “This sentiment”: David Foster Wallace, The Pale King (New York: Little, Brown, 2011), 487.

  “She was writing”: Maggie Koerth-Baker. “Danger! This Mars Mission Could Bore You to Death!,” New York Times, July 16, 2013.

  “teach myself the”: Ukulele tabs for “Back to Black” by Amy Winehouse, https://ukutabs.com/a/amy-winehouse/back-to-black/

  THE STANDARD ASTRONAUT

  “I learned in my research”: M. Bamsey et al., “Four-Month Moon and Mars Crew Water Utilization Study Conducted at the Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station, Devon Island, Nunavut,” Advances in Space Research 43, no. 8 (2009): 1256–1274.

  “we’ll have CO2 sensors”: In actuality, Binsted told me later, the sensors could likely not have picked up the change in carbon dioxide from brewing inside the hab. She was mostly just interested in discouraging this activity as alcohol fell outside the bounds of the food study.

  “system of systems”: www.cnet.com/news/i-spent-a-day-as-a-martian-astronaut-it-wasnt-easy/

  “a cover story”: Ben Kocivar. “The Lady Wants to Orbit,” Look, February 2, 1960.

  “Women have”: Margaret A. Weitekamp, Right Stuff, Wrong Sex: America’s First Women in Space Program (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004), 64, 65.

  “the rocket equation”: Good video describing it, by a former student, Harrison Dreves, “Why is it hard to go to space?” https://youtube.com/watch?/Zk2Vaeg7F_c

  “Konstantin Tsiolkovsky”: M. Gruntman, Blazing the Trail. The Early History of Spacecraft and Rocketry (Reston, VA: AIAA, 2004), 106.

  “In addressing his”: Longer Baldwin quote: “You were born where you were born and faced the future that you faced because you were black and for no other reason. The limits of your ambition were, thus, expected to be set forever. You were born into a society which spelled out with brutal clarity, and in as many ways as possible, that you were a worthless human being. You were not expected to aspire to excellence: you were expected to make peace with mediocrity. Wherever you have turned, James, in your short time on this earth, you have been told where you could go and what you could do (and how you could do it) and where you could live and whom you could marry. I know your countrymen do not agree with me about this, and I hear them saying ‘You exaggerate.’ They do not know Harlem, and I do. So do you. Take no one’s word for anything, including mine—but trust your experience. Know whence you came.” James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time (New York: Dial Press, 1963), 4.

  “In 2011, NASA”: Robonaut2: Tracy Thumm, et al., “The Era of International Space Station Utilization Begins: Research Strategy, International Collaboration, and Realized Potential” (2010). www.semanticscholar.org/paper/The-Era-of-International-Space-Station-Utilization-Thumm-Robinson/e6863ff01a7e016171c36ed07e61b2e1a6e2f404

  “The legs are very”: Ron Diftler quote: www.nasa.gov/content/a-step-up-for-nasa-s-robonaut-ready-for-climbing-legs/

  “The decision was”: O’Shaughnessy’s quote comes from “This Pride, Be Inspired by Sally Ride’s Legacy,” Space.com, June 18, 2018: www.space.com/40916-sally-ride-pride-inspiration-legacy.html

  “As of July 2019”: Number of women who have been to space counted from the list available on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_space_travelers_by_name

  “They had one goal”: Weitekamp’s quote comes from “We Fact-Checked Mercury 13, Netflix’s Doc About NASA’s First Women Astronaut Trainees,” The Verge, May 29, 2018. www.theverge.com/2018/5/29/17393698/netflix-documentary-mercury-13-women-space-astronauts-margaret-weitekamp-interview

  “There’s a picture”: Paul O. Wieland. “Designing for Human Presence in Space: An Introduction to Environmental Control and Life Support Systems,” NASA, 1994. (A PDF can be found by going to www.sti.nasa.gov and typing Wieland and RP-1324.)

  “When I researched”: Kate Greene, “An All-Female Mission to Mars,” Slate, October 19, 2014.

  “He consulted”: NASA Space Flight Human Systems Standards can be found at www.nasa.gov/hhp/standards

  “When I’m sometimes asked”: Ginsburg quote comes from the 10th Circuit Bench & Bar Conference in Boulder, Colorado, in 2012, according to www.cnbc.com/2019/06/25/how-ruth-bader-ginsburg-earned-a-supreme-court-nomination.html

  GUINEA-PIGGING

  “Sam Allen signed up”: Tuskegee Patient Medical Files: www.archives.gov/atlanta/finding-aids/tuskegee.html

  “At one point”: Herman Shaw quote and the text of the letter regarding the spinal tap “special treatment” comes from the PBS documentary “The Deadly Deception,” Nova,WGBH Boston Public Television, January 26, 1993. www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNa8CnC4sSU

  “Then, in 1972”: Jeff Stryker,“Tuskegee’s Long Arm Still Touches a Nerve,” New York Times, April 13, 1997.

  “Her lede”: Jean Heller,“Syphilis Victims in U.S. Study Went Untreated for 40 Years,” New York Times, July 26, 1972.

  “The U.S. Government”: Agreement to pay $10 million to victims and family at www.cdc.gov/tuskegee/timeline.htm

  “Fred G
ray”: Cynthia Williford, “Tuskegee History Center Marks 20 Years of Memorializing Victims of Tuskegee Syphilis Study,” Opelika-Auburn News, May 17, 2017.

  “From a human point of view”: Dorothy Yamamoto, Guinea Pig (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2015), 153.

  “In 2019 archaeologists”: Hannah Osborne, “100 Ritually Sacrificed Inca Guinea Pigs Dressed Up in Necklaces and Earrings Discovered,” Newsweek, April 14, 2019.

  “The phrase”: OED Online, September 2019, www-oed-com.ezproxy.sfpl.org/view/Entry/82388?rskey=5X8mEe&result=2&isAdvanced=false

  “Scott Kelly, the astronaut”: Scott Kelly, Endurance: A Year in Space, a Lifetime of Discovery (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2017), 140.

  “scratch-and-sniff booklet”: https://sensonics.com/smell-products/smell-identification-test-international-versions-available.html

  “An acoustic rhinometer”: https://gm-instruments.com/products/nasal-measurements/a1-acoustic-rhinometer

  “It occurs to me”: The account of my brother’s surgery is mostly via my mother’s recollection. The medical details of the procedure are archived in the Marc Asher Papers, University of Kansas Medical Center Archives, Kansas City, Kansas.

  “It was the same day”: Investigation of the Kansas City Hyatt Regency Walkways Collapse (NBS BSS 143): www.nist.gov/publications/investigation-kansas-city-hyatt-regency-walkways-collapse-nbs-bss-143?pub_id=908286

  “the company claimed contradictory messages”: Chris Prentice, “Zuckerberg again rejects claims of Facebook impact on U.S. election,” Reuters, November 13, 2016, www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-facebook-idUSKBN1380TH

  “2012 voting study”: Robert M. Bond et. al., “A 61-Million-Person Experiment in Social Influence and Political Mobilization,” Nature 489 (September 13, 2012), 295–298.

  “social contagion study”: Emotional contagion through social networks, Adam D. I. Kramer, Jamie E. Guillory, Jeffrey T. Hancock, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Jun 2014, 111 (24) 8788–8790; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1320040111

  “When entities feel”: Arthur Caplan and Charles Seife, “Facebook Experiment Used Silicon-Valley Trickery,” June 30, 2014. MSNBC.com, www.nbcnews.com/better/wellness/opinion-facebook-experiment-used-silicon-valley-trickery-n144386

  ON VESSELS

  “Scott Kelly, during his year”: Scott Kelly, Endurance: A Year in Space, a Lifetime of Discovery, 90.

  “The observatory made international headlines”: “Carbon dioxide level breaks 3-million-year record,” NBCnews.com, May 10, 2013, www.nbcnews.com/news/all/carbon-dioxide-level-breaks-3-million-year-record-flna1C9876779

  “jellyfish rise-ups”: “Hope you like to eat jellyfish because they’re taking over the oceans,” Fastcompany.com, June 18, 2019, www.fastcompany.com/90362601/jellyfish-are-booming-because-of-climate-change-and-human-activity

  “In November 2018”: Alexis Madrigal,“Kim Kardashian’s Private Firefighters Expose America’s Fault Lines,” Atlantic, November 14, 2018.

  “With hypothetical tickets”: April Glazer, “Elon Musk will need one million Mars colonists to get the ticket price down to $200,000”: www.vox.com/2016/9/27/13081488/elon-musk-spacex-mars-colony-space-travel-funding-rocket-nasa.

  “people who make their living”: Credit to my sister, Albo Südekum, for great conversations around colonizing Mars, in particular the reminder that someone will have to clean the ships and tend to paying guests on the journey, and how this could very easily lead to a structural class/status gap that’s essentially imported to Mars on delivery.

  “I’ve often heard people say”: R. Buckminster Fuller, Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1969).

  “a design patented”: Geodesic Dome: https://patents.google.com/patent/US2682235?oq=geodesic+dome+1954

  “On the ISS”: “Testing Solid State Lighting Countermeasures to Improve Circadian Adaptation, Sleep, and Performance During High Fidelity Analog and Flight Studies for the International Space Station”: www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=2013

  “absolutely round”: Alexei A. Leonov quote at www.nmspacemuseum.org/halloffame/detail.php?id=17

  “In 2013 Luca”: “Spacesuit Leak That Nearly Drowned Astronaut Could Have Been Prevented,” www.space.com/24835-spacesuit-water-leak-nasa-investigation.html

  “And in 2011”: Scott Kelly, Endurance: A Year in Space, a Lifetime of Discovery, 276.

  “a thank-you letter”: Andrew Chaikin, “Neil Armstrong’s Spacesuit Was Made by a Bra Manufacturer,” Smithsonian, November 2013.

  “genius for adaptation”: Francis Ponge,“Notes for a Seashell,” in Partisan of Things, trans. Joshua Corey and Jean-Luc Garneau (Chicago: Kenning Editions, 2016), 40.

  “The Playtex team”: Allison P. Davis, “The Epic Battle Behind the Apollo Spacesuit,” Wired.com, February 28, 2011, www.wired.com/2011/02/pl-spacesuits-showdown/

  “Cruzan, who founded”: Jessica Cruzan’s cork fabric bags can be found at www.sewdakine.com/

  “The French philosopher”: Gaston Bachelard, The Poetics of Space (Boston: Beacon Press, 1969), 46.

  “the kind made by birds”: Ibid., 101.

  “Here I’ve painted pictures”: The calendar on my wall in New York City and the calendar used on Mars were from Susanna Kwan, a writer and designer in San Francisco: https://susannakwan.com/about

  “The architecture of the avant-garde”: Arakawa and Madeline Gins’s Bioscleave House (Lifespan Extending Villa) in East Hampton: www.reversibledestiny.org/architecture/bioscleave-house-lifespan-extending-villa; Marie Doezema, “Could Architecture Help You Live Forever?” New York Times Magazine, August 20, 2019.

  “Anne Carson speaks”: Her lecture on corners includes mention of the “domesticated abyss” and can be viewed at www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYiMmCLRIQ0

  “entirety of human history”: Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1994), 6.

  “In one of the cupola’s windows”: “Tiny Debris Chipped a Window on the Space Station,” Popular Science, May 12, 2016.

  “There are more than”: “Sensor to Monitor Orbital Debris Outside Space Station,” www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/news/sensor_to_monitor_orbital_debris_outside_ISS/

  “To protect against it”: Colin Schultz, “How Do You Shield Astronauts and Satellites from Deadly Micrometeorites?” Smithsonian, June 28, 2013.

  “During Kelly’s yearlong”: Kelly, Endurance: a Year in Space, a Lifetime of Discovery, 178–179.

  “Of course, the satellite”: A note on Russian names: “Misha” is short for “Mikhail”; when used to refer to Gennady, “Ivanovich” is a more formal address.

  “NASA’s new spacecraft”: Mark Garcia, Orion’s storm shelter: www.nasa.gov/feature/scientists-and-engineers-evaluate-orion-radiation-protection-plan

  “The house shelters”: Bachelard, The Poetics of Space, 6.

  ON ISOLATION

  “These challenges included”: Jack Stuster, “Behavioral Issues Associated with Long-Duration Space Expeditions: Review and Analysis of Astronaut Journals Experiment 01-E104 (Journals): Final Report,” https://lsda.jsc.nasa.gov/lsda_data/dataset_inv_data/ILSRA_2001_104__1740256372_.pdf_Expedition_8_ILSRA-2001-104_2011_31_010100.pdf

  “the “crew-ground disconnect”: The principal investigator is Dr. Nick Kanas, Professor of Psychiatry, UCSF Administration Medical Center, San Francisco. Crewmember and Crew-Ground Interaction During International Space Station Missions (Interactions) -11.22.16: www.nasa.gov/centers/marshall/news/background/facts/interactions.html

  “Tom Williams, element scientist”: Episode 58: Hazard 2: Isolation www.nasa.gov/johnson/HWHAP/hazard-2-isolation

  “The word ‘isolation’”: OED Online, September 2019, www-oed-com.ezproxy.sfpl.org/view/Entry/100084?redirectedFrom=isolation. Isolation to island to insula: www.etymonline.com/word/isolated Insula as Roman apartments: www.britannica.com/technology/insula

  “than the compar
able ‘solitude’”: OED Online. September 2019, www-oed-com.ezproxy.sfpl.org/view/Entry/184314?redirectedFrom=solitude

  “In astronaut Michael Collins’s book”: Michael Collins, Carrying the Fire: An Astronaut’s Journeys (New York: Bantam Books, 1989), 408.

  “small liberal arts”: My undergraduate institution was the University of Saint Mary, at the time Saint Mary College.

  “Your solitude will”: Rilke wrote about solitude in a letter to Franz Xaver Kappus, with whom he shared writing advice from 1902 to 1908, collected in Letters to a Young Poet (New York: Random House, 2011), 44.

  “In Scott Kelly’s book”: Kelly, Endurance: A Year in Space, a Lifetime of Discovery, 337–338.

  “I think of Emily”: Dickinson’s freedom quote as well as Adrienne Rich’s quote come from Rich’s essay “Vesuvius at Home,” Parnassus, vol. 5, no. 1 (1976).

  “Mark wrote a letter”: The March trilogy is an excellent series of graphic novels about the civil rights movement, written by John Lewis and Andrew Aydin.

  “You’re an interesting species”: This scene from the film Contact can be seen at www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OTEygS02JY

  “What’s remarkable to me”: More about Polynesian explorers at the Polynesian Voyaging Society: http://www.hokulea.com/

  “We also visited”: Imiloa Astronomy Center: https://imiloahawaii.org/

  ON CORRESPONDENCE

  “Shannon Lucid likes”: Based on Shannon Lucid’s conversations with me in 2016 and her crew reports and her letters home: http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4225/documentation/lucid-letters/letters.htm and https://history.nasa.gov/SP-4225/nasa2/nasa2.htm

  “This meant that the soonest”: The Who’s the Boss? joke can be attributed to Tiff Keenan, who was the first to make the connection between the communication delay and Who’s the Boss? Tiff Keenan is very funny.