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

Kate Greene was one of six people who spent four months living in a geodesic dome in Mauna Loa, Hawaii, simulating a Martian environment. The 'almost' astronauts were human guinea pigs in the Hi-SEAS project focused on the domestic challenges of privacy, food, and shared resources in space. Greene's book Once Upon a Time I Lived on Mars, is a series of reflective essays - that mix the scientific accounts with the personal - examining the impact the Hi-SEAS project had on her personal life, and philosophical outlook. I personally found this book to be highly timely as we are living in an age of intense social isolation. Greene's writing, which was often insightful and poetic, focused on the aspects of her mission that were trying: boredom, isolation, etc. But she also focuses on the wonders of space as well. This book could be classified as a memoir. However, it’s not an exact chronological memoir. Rather it is a series of musings and thoughts about loneliness, learning to live in limited space with other people, relationships (inside and outside of the dome), personal reflections…filtered through the lens of a poet, essayist, and former laser physicist and a person who clearly has a deep respect for the wonders of space.

I loved Once Upon A Time I Lived On Mars. It sparked some sort of hope for me and reminded me that there’s so much more out there yet to be discovered. It jumps around a bit, and I wish readers were given more details about the crew on the HI-SEAS mission; I’m sure there was a lot more that occurred in that small dome than what was revealed. I would have loved to read more of the quirky happenings, like movie nights, and how they got along while secluded in Hawai’i. Though overall, it was exactly the read I was looking for. Now I’m off to learn *all* the things about space!

Shakespeare & Company Year of Reading - August book Absolutely loved this: not just an account of Greene's experiences during the experiment, but also a glimpse into her background, personality, relationships and interests, peppered with stories about the history of space exploration and musings on various aspects of the human experience. Fascinating stuff and really well written. One to pair with The Martian, perhaps?

I absolutely LOVE this book. As I read Once Upon A Time I Lived on Mars, I was completely in awe of Kate Greene's narrative dexterity, seamlessly interweaving pertinent stories from a variety of sources with her own insights and memories to create a stream-like and cohesive arc. I'd recommend this book to pretty much anyone, but especially people who are also considering their place in the narrative of humanity, Earth, Mars, and beyond...