What Kind of Person Would Fly to Mars?

Science journalist Jeffrey Kluger has written hundreds of thousands of words on everything from space travel to narcissism to medical discovery. Some people say to him, "You're That Space Writer." Truthfully, That Affable Space Writer would be more accurate. His amiable nature likely gives him an edge when tracking down his involved narratives. He could have continued practicing law, but he put aside that profession to tell us stories. We are grateful. Of note: He expertly chronicled Jonas Salk's quest for the polio vaccine, a topic of significance today. And he masterfully recounted the voyage of Apollo 13—his book was made into the blockbuster Tom Hank's film. The Time Magazine editor at large has also written three novels, including the recent Holdout, a story about an astronaut who refuses to leave her post aboard the International Space Station, holding out to fight against greed and hypocrisy on Earth.

Holdout's heroine Walli is willing to throw away her amazing career. What kind of person would do that?
It takes a person of high principle to take the step Walli took—someone who was driven by a sense of honor (which Walli internalized at the Naval Academy), and also someone who was capable of doing what I describe in the book as mortal arithmetic. There are 1 million Indigenous People in the Amazon, and hundreds of thousands of them were in danger of displacement and death. There was one person aboard the space station—Walli alone—and she was in danger mostly of losing her career. The scales are not even remotely in balance. Walli did the math and felt that the moral answer, the honorable answer (to her way of thinking, the only answer) was to lay down her career to save untold thousands of lives. If it meant court-martial and a permanent grounding, that would be a price she would have to pay.

What kind of person would thrive in a team of astronauts, space travelers? Is Walli, from your book Holdout, based on a specific astronaut?

Source: Courtesy Penguin Books

Walli is loosely based on Wally Schirra, one of the original seven astronauts—and the one who was behind the closest thing to a mutiny by an overworked crew NASA has ever seen. But on the whole, astronauts, while members of what can be a very egoistic profession, have to be able to subsume their individuality into the larger mission and the goals of the group. There’s a certain push-pull: On the one hand, astronauts are courageous people in a glamorous profession; on the other, their jobs require them to act with humility and collegiality, free of individual heroics.

How difficult would it be for astronauts to juggle not just the stress of being in space but also with issues at home?

There have been astronauts who have had to deal with illnesses at home and, in at least one case, even the death of a parent. In all of those cases, they are required to be able to be masters of compartmentalization. Work is carried out in one part of the brain; domestic matters are managed by another. For most of us, there would simply be too much slosh over between the two, which is most good workplaces give employees personal days to deal with family crises. But there is no such thing as a personal day in space. That fact alone is one of the reasons so few of us would make the cut for the astronaut corps. The ones who do get chosen are simply uniquely qualified to manage emotions and business.

What kind of personality would be willing to die in space?

I’ve asked more than one astronaut this question, and you’d be surprised at the lack of morbidity on the one hand and insouciance on the other. They have simply found a place to put the risk: They know they are in a profession that has mortal risks; they accept that fact early and conclude it’s just part of the bargain they make to get to fly in space. As Jim Lovell once said to me when I asked him if he worried about never seeing his home again every time he left it for one of his four space flights, “No. If you thought that way, you wouldn’t go.”

How does an astronaut stay mentally healthy in space for extended periods, say a year? Does their physical health play a part in that?

Physical health plays a huge part. Astronauts on the International Space Station are required to exercise up to 2 hours per day to prevent loss of bone and muscle mass in zero-g, and as we all know from experience, a good workout is a huge mood booster. They also benefit from a little trick of counting forwards, not backward: Astronauts assigned to 6- or 12-month space station missions never count down how many days they have left. They count instead the time they’ve been there so far. It’s progressive, rather than retrogressive.

Do you think there is life beyond Earth?

I do. I believe that there is a life-is-easy and life-is-hard school of thought and I’ve enrolled in the life-is-easy one. My thinking is that the formula is simple: chemistry + energy + time = life.

If given the opportunity, would you go on an extended space exploration mission?

I’d love to say yes, and since absolutely no one is ever going to allow me—much less invite me—to go, sure, I’ll answer yep, I’d go. But the truth? You know that whole answer above about how people who travel to space don’t sweat the mortal risks? Well, I confess that ain’t me.