Once Upon a Time I Lived on Mars: Space, Exploration, and Life on Earth

“Enlightening . . . [this] eloquent memoir” about a woman’s experiences on a NASA research mission “is equal parts escape and comfort” (Publishers Weekly).

In 2013, Kate Greene moved to Mars. That is, along with five fellow crew members, she embarked on NASA’s first HI-SEAS mission, a simulated Martian environment located on the slopes of Mauna Loa in Hawai’i. For four months she lived, worked, and slept in an isolated geodesic dome, conducting a sleep study on her crew mates and gaining incredible insight into human behavior in tight quarters, as well as the nature of boredom, dreams, and isolation that arise amidst the promise of scientific progress and glory.

In Once Upon a Time I Lived on Mars, Greene draws on her experience to contemplate humanity’s broader impulse to explore. The result is a twined story of space and life, of the standard, able-bodied astronaut and Greene’s brother’s disability, of the lag time of interplanetary correspondences and the challenges of a long-distance marriage, of freeze-dried egg powder and fresh pineapple, of departure and return. By asking what kind of wisdom humanity might take to Mars and elsewhere in the Universe, Greene has written a remarkable, wide-ranging examination of our time in space right now, as a pre-Mars species, poised on the edge, readying for launch.

“[Greene] addresses [the issues] with wit, insight, compassion, and, ultimately, hope.” —Booklist

“This engaging account will interest sf lovers, scientists, and dreamers who see the red planet in the night sky and wonder, what if.” —Library Journal

© 2024 St. Martin's Press (Ebook): 9781250159489

Release date

Ebook: 4 September 2024