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Once Upon a Time I Lived on Mars - Kate Greene ****

The easily-overlooked key words in the title of this book are 'Once Upon a Time'.  Because Kate Greene's memoir is doubly redolent of that fairytale opening that puts us in a world that is somewhat removed from reality. First, her book is concerned not (of course) with actually living on Mars, but spending four months in an environment that partially simulated what it would be like to be on Mars (but was actually on Hawaii). And secondly, although there is quite a lot about what happened on that experiment, this is not so much a book about exploring outer space as inner space: it's far more a narrative of how Greene feels the experience affected her than it is a conventional narrative.

What it reminded me most of was something that seems (literally) worlds away from a space mission: Down in the Valley, the posthumous set of recollections by Laurie Lee of his early life in Slad, a Cotswolds village, in the 1920s. Lee's book (taken from recordings) is about life in an isolated location, and gives us scraps and reminiscences, rather than a structured memoir - and, similarly, Greene does not give us the linear story of life in the HI-SEAS mission, where six pseudo-astronauts lived in close proximity and isolation, but rather snippets that dart around in time, driven more by themes and feelings, and incorporating a considerable amount of material about Greene's family life outside of the experiment.

Along the way we hear more about the importance of food on the 'expedition' (one of the main themes of the experiment), boredom, what makes an astronaut, being a guinea pig, isolation and the effect of being on the mission on her subjective experience of time. Greene shows us how much the four months changed her - not always necessarily for the better. In parts it's quite raw: this is mostly not a book about the science and NASA (though both feature). However, if you are interest in insights into what it is to be human it's a fascinating and sometimes moving account. There are several parallels drawn in the text with Shackleton's disastrous Endurance Antarctic expedition - in one sense, HI-SEAS had none of the peril, but certainly plenty of the impact of close confines, isolation and boredom.

At times, the author's introduction of philosophical material can feel to be verging on the pretentious. We get, for example, Roland Barthes' comment on the Apollo 'Earthrise' image 'The photograph is violent: not because it shows violent things, but because on each occasion it fills the sight by force, and because in it nothing can be refused and transformed.' which makes me more inclined to snigger than be impressed by its depth. I felt Greene was also a bit heavy on SpaceX, taking a negative view on the use of a Tesla Roadster as a dummy payload for their Falcon Heavy test - of course it was a publicity stunt, but it was brilliant and far better than just putting up a lump of bland metal. (The book also incorrectly suggests the Roadster is orbiting the Earth - it's actually orbiting the Sun in an orbit that crosses the orbit of Mars, which is much more interesting.)

There's a lot packed into Once Upon a Time I Lived on Mars. Come to it with an open mind, and a strong awareness of how much the gaze is inward, not looking out to the red planet, and it should be a truly interesting experience.

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