Packing for Mars?

This is definitely not a book review, just my wild speculations into travel into Mars.

When you travel for cross Atlantic travel, how cozy was it? Seating at one confined place while waiting for long destination has so many side effects. Physical, psychological so and so.

Well, we are talking about months of isolations and painful travel. This should shakedown your enthusiasm for space travel. :P  

How about adding some humor to the pain? 
It is said that

"Pain + time = humor".

"Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void" by Mary Roach should be a good read. I would definitely love to have a chance to read it. Actually, I have added it to my wish list@Amazon. ;) Reviews are saying that there are a lot of LOL moments in the book.

I know the saying, "No pain, no gain". However, I am curious why send humans to the deep space? The recent advancement in robotics allows us to do the same thing at less cost and less insurance value than pushing humans to such harsh environments and posing fatal risks involved.

Side note:

Download the pdf to have some idea on how tricky it is to travel to sister planet Mars:

http://spaceplace.nasa.gov/en/educators/mars_packing.pdf