Voyaging to Mars is not so very different from making pioneering Antarctic explorations: outside a capsule a person dies quickly, and being trapped for three years in a tiny space with the same old faces is enough to drive even the strongest-willed crazy. Astronauts Shannon Lucid and Michael Foale did time on the Mir space station and received inspiration from successful explorers such as Sir Ernest Shackleton and Fridtjof Nansen. But what makes for a good leader and what was wrong with the noble failure Scott? And why is Bleak House the best read for both sledging and orbiting?
