Some Recent Intriguing Books
/
Indian Space Hero Rakesh Sharma, Deepak Sharma, 2021.
This Indian book about an Indian explorer has now been translated from Hindi into English. It tells the story of the country’s first space traveler. These kinds of stories always fascinate me as, unlike those growing up in the USA or Russia, individuals such as Sharma never imagined they had any chance of flying in space. They often bring a different cultural perspective, as does the foreword of this book by Dumitru Prunariu, the first Romanian spacefarer.
As part of a wider program flying citizens from other countries into space, the Soviet Union offered India a seat on a mission to its Salyut 7 space station. Rakesh Sharma was the pilot chosen, flying in 1984. With generous input from backup Indian candidate Ravish Malhotra, who went through identical training and was ready to step in for Rakesh Sharma at any moment, the author focuses most of this book on the selection, training, and flight into space. There’s some insight into how outsiders were brought into the Soviet space program in this era, along with an overview of Indian space exploration up to that point. It’s illustrated with just about every imaginable official photo, from a great variety of sources.
We learn of Rakesh Sharma’s daughter dying, aged only six, while having an operation in Moscow. This reminded me of some of Neil Armstrong’s life told in Jim Hansen’s biography about him, “First Man.” It is hard to imagine how someone finds the strength to keep training after such a tragedy – but Sharma did.
I was particularly interested in reading about the use of yoga as part of Sharma’s pre-flight fitness training, and his scheduled experiment to perform five yoga poses in space daily. It was hoped the study would assist in combating some negative effects of weightlessness. Inevitably, without some kind of tether, yoga postures prove difficult.
Post-flight, Rakesh Sharma suffered the same issue that befell Yuri Gagarin and John Glenn, the first Russian and American orbital spacefarers. Both keen to keep flying, their nations were more interested in them becoming public role models and figureheads. Sharma, like Gagarin, fought his way back into fighter pilot and test pilot roles, rather than being a celebrity, before retiring after a long and admirable career.
It’s quite a life.
A Roll Comes With Dinner: About Being a Corporate Pilot, Jim Worden, 2021.
Jim Worden is a retired corporate jet pilot with many fun, often bawdy, anecdotes to share. He also happens to be the brother of Apollo astronaut Al Worden, with whom I wrote three books. Naturally, my attention was drawn most to Jim's stories of growing up with his brother, and how he watched with fascination and some nervousness as Al flew to the moon. The personality differences between the two are intriguingly showcased.
But that is only one small element of a much more expansive life of flying. Jim's wry humor and impish approach to life soaks through the stories of close approaches and damaged airplanes. We learn what it was like to fly Elvis, rowdy rock bands, and other charismatic celebrities. Flying private jets in and out of Central America meant unavoidable interactions with powerful and frightening drug bosses. Dangerous in-flight incidents are told with a laugh to bar friends later, but the sense of death narrowly avoided is ever-present. Enormous upsets in his personal life and depression brought on by the loss of fellow pilots are shared with powerful candor.
I learned a lot about the world of corporate jets from the less glamorous, but much more thrilling side.
Reality + : Virtual Worlds and the Problems of Philosophy, David Chalmers, 2022.
What is the real world, and what is a simulation? Could we tell the difference, and would we care? In this intensely readable book, Dave Chalmers bounces from pop culture to ancient philosophies while examining the nature of reality. In doing so, he invites us to think about free will, the nature of a life well lived – in short, the ever-malleable truth of what it means to exist.