penguin meat, which prevented further
breakdowns in a broken situation.
Ritual, structure, exercise, sensation, and
sustenance seemed key to Stuster. Fridt-
jof Nansen, who led the first team across
Greenland, could have told you all that in
- “Truly,” he wrote in his book Fa r th e s t
North, “the whole secret lies in arrang-
ing things sensibly, and especially in being
careful about the food.” On a North Pole ex-
pedition, Nansen and a companion spent
nine winter months stuck in a hut above
the Arctic Circle. “Their entire world [was]
illuminated by the pale glow of a
blubber lamp that you can hold
in your hand,” Stuster says.
The two men emerged in-
tact. “Humans,” Stuster says,
“can endure almost anything
to be among the first.”stronauts can put up with a lot if they get to
After he sorted the ISS jour-
nal entries, he realized that
operations in orbit were no
longer novel enough to excuse
hardship. Astronauts can put up
with a lot if they get to wear the
badge of being “the first.” But,a