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Library Journal Review
The Obergs' first collaborative effort attempts to capture the human side of living and working in space while also taking a look at the technology that will make future permanent space settlements possible. Drawing heavily on in-flight diaries kept by Soviet cosmonauts during various long-duration space station missions as well as on interviews with U.S. shuttle astronauts, the authors do succeed in conveying the experience of space flight to the general reader. However, they are less successful at describing the technical aspect of space station technology and operations. The result is an uneven work; in fact, the chapter on remote sensing almost seems to belong to another book entirely. Still, the discussions of the human side of space flight are interesting. For larger collections. Thomas J. Frieling, Bainbridge Junior Coll. Lib., Ga. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publishers Weekly Review
James Oberg (Red Star in Orbit, Mission to Mars, etc.) is a spaceflight engineer at Houston Mission Control; Alcestis Oberg is the author of Spacefarers of the 80s and 90s. Here they offer an engrossing and vivid account of what life is like in an earth-orbiting spacecraft. Because relatively few American space-travelers have published tales of their experiences, the Obergs lean heavily on the diaries and memoirspublished in Russia and little known hereof pioneering Soviet astronauts, notably veterans of long-term Salyut missions like Ryumin and Berezovoy. Here is the human side of life in orbit. Few readers can fail to be grippedand occasionally amusedby revelations of the immediate problems (how astronauts contend with toilets, hygiene, sleeping), their technical perils (e.g., air contamination) and the psychological hazards they face, from crewmate incompatibility to depression and homesickness for Earth. Photos. January 27 (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
CHOICE Review
The Obergs have written several books on space, including Red Star in Orbit (CH, Oct '81) and Spacefarers of the '80s and '90s (CH, Oct '85). In this one, they summarize manned (and womanned) flights from the 1960s through most of 1985, emphasizing the human prospects. In the introduction they say, ``Space is being pioneered by our souls as well as by our machines. That is the theme of this book.'' They cover everything from communications, work schedules, Earth-watching, raising food, bone deterioration, and sex in space to Space-Station design, use of robots, and the psychology of crew relations in a confining ship. James, a renowned expert on USSR space activity, utilizes his files of cosmonaut statements (sometimes to excess), and clearly describes parts of space technology where the USSR is ahead of the US (primarily closed ecosystems and psychological studies). Both authors have thought through the possibilities of space exploration from Space Station to bases on Moon and Mars, to colonies among the asteroids or on moons of outer planets. They somewhat overdo the psychology of spacefarers, but there are few errors, and the book is better than the best science fiction. Readers without a college background in physics and chemistry will miss some important points, but they will learn a good deal. There are 50 black-and-white illustrations, a list of Space-Station missions by USSR and NASA, 1971 to 1985, a list of spacefarers and experts, a long list of references, and an index. Recommended for all libraries.-T. Page, NASA Johnson Space Center
