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Spacefaring: The Human Dimension

by Albert A. Harrison.
University of California Press, Los Angeles, California, 2001.
324 pp. Trade $27.50
ISBN: 0-520-22453-1.
Reviewed by Cliff Pickover, USA.
E-mail: cliffpickover@hotmail.com


In Spacefaring: The Human Dimension, Albert Harrison, a Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Davis, focuses on the human element in space flight. Topics include: astronaut training, medical and environmental hazards, psychological stresses and coping, group dynamics, and even sleeping, sex, and leisure in space. This book will provide marvelous reading for science fiction authors who desire to imbue their novels with realistic information on space travel and its psychological challenges. And, of course, the book will be invaluable to aerospace engineers and future space travelers. The psychological dangers of space travel are both subtle and important. For example, did you know that cosmonauts only played chess against opponents on the ground to avoid competition and tension that might arise during competitive playing in space?

My favorite chapters include the later ones that deal with space tourism, space settlements, and interstellar travel. What are the prospects for lunar and Martian colonies and even travel to the stars? What would life be like on the high frontier? As many science fiction authors have correctly noted, Harrison suggests that space tourism might provide the real impetus to get us into space and to develop the necessary rockets and technical facilities. He says,

"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... Honeymooners and couples celebrating their anniversaries may be attracted by the idea of experimenting with sex in space, so perhaps there will be some honeymoon suites."

In addition to psychological issues, Harrison addresses many practical challenges such as how future space travelers will maintain contact with Earth and how multigenerational missions will cope. These journeys involve entire generations of parents and their children and their grandchildren on board a space vessel. Harrison really stirs the mind when he discusses the possibility we will one day explore the stars by uploading the contents of our minds to powerful computers. A computer representation of a person with memories, perceptions, and emotions may one day take the ultimate voyage.

Most of the excitement and promise of the 1960s space program has died. Harrison wants us to restore our dream of flying to the planets and stars, even as yesterdayÍs settlers drove wagons across the American plains. To embark on the journey we need the technological know-how and wealth. Harrison suggests that both the dream and the journey are possible and important. I agree. Read this wonderful book and you too will learn to fly.

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Updated 7 August 2001.




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