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Exploring the Moon: The Apollo Expeditions Springer Praxis Books / Space Exploration

Price: $39.95 $29.16

 

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

David Harland opens with a review of the robotic probes, namely the Rangers which returned television before crashing into the Moon, the Surveyors which 'soft landed' in order to investigate the nature of the surface, and the Lunar Orbiters which mapped prospective Apollo landing sites. He then outlines the historic landing by Apollo 11 in terms of what was discovered, and how over the next several missions the program was progressively geared up to enable the final three missions each to spend three days on comprehensive geological investigations. He concludes with a review of the robotic spacecraft that made remote-sensing observations of the Moon. Although aimed at the enthusiast, and can be read as an adventure in exploration, the book develops the scientific theme of lunar geology, and therefore will be of use as background reading for undergraduate students of planetary sciences. In addition, with the prospect of a resumption of human missions, it will help journalists understand what Apollo achieved after the 'flags and footprints' of the Apollo 11 landing in July1969 and will commemorate the fortieth anniversary of that momentous event.

Highlighted as a "Commemorative Edition" on the cover, this second edition will have a new Foreword by one of the original astronauts and a short extra section at the end previewing the prospect of a renewal of human exploration of the Moon. It will include new extra high quality graphics which are only now available and 32 pages of colour illustrations.

 

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Customer Reviews

J. V. Scotti Said: A must for any Apollo enthusiast. ( Sep. 16th 2009 )

Exploring the Moon by David Harland is the 2nd edition of his original book of the same title. It explores the details of how Apollo explored the Moon during 6 lunar landings between the first on July 20, 1969 by Apollo 11 and the last by Apollo 17 only 3 and a half years later in December 1972. Most of the public knows little about what exploration was carried out after the first "Giant Leap for Mankind" on Apollo 11. This book does an exceptional job of describing the exploration moment by moment as each crew explored their landing site. This book improves on the first edition with larger and more detailed images and corrects a few other things here and there. It's a must for any space and Apollo enthusiast. Hopefully the author will be able to describe the next round of lunar exploration in another decade or so....

David Shomper Said: Excellent book on lunar geology ( Sep. 25th 2008 )

Having worked on the Apollo launches at Kennedy, I was most interested in reading this book, as most of my interest to date has been with the history of the space program, not lunar geology which I admit I knew nothing about.

Mr. Harland does a very good job in bringing the surface explorations to life, and if I didn't know better, I would have thought he was a third astronaut taking notes while the other 2 went about their tasks. It is that detailed, yet still fascinating to read.

He has also done an excellent job in reproducing the photos. The quality is better than I have ever seen. He even went to great pains to remove all the crosshairs. A previous reviewer complained about the small photos, but the 40th Anniversary Edition is chock full of full page photos, many in color.

Also included are specs of all the manned missions and descriptions of all the other unmanned recon missions that went before.

If you want details of the entire missions, look elsewhere, but if you want to know what happened after touchdown, this is the book.

Rod L. Pyle Said: Fantastic Read ( May. 27th 2008 )

OK, I admit it:I'm an Apollo nut, and author of two space book titles myself.But this book is the best thing written on the lunar missions since Andy Chaikin's "A Man on the Moon." With intense detail and great narrative of the geological science behind the missions, as well as records of the collected samples, it's the best thing I have seen on the moonwalks.

Note: This is a very enjoyable read, but not a casual one. You should be prepared to invest some time into the process. Otherwise you will not reap the full benefit of this very enjoyable book.

Roger D. Launius Said: A Detailed Account of what the Astronauts Did on the Moon ( Feb. 1st 2006 )

In the last decade no one has been more productive than British writer David M. Harland at turning out histories of spaceflight written for a popular audience. All have similar features, a mastery of the secondary literature, especially that available through the NASA History Series, a digestion of a wealth of scientific and technical information, and an engaging writing style that focuses on narrative rather than analysis. "Exploring the Moon: The Apollo Expeditions" is very much in sync with Harland's earlier works and serves as a useful introduction to the subject. Not a scholarly work--there are no footnotes--but it does have an extensive bibliography. His emphasis in this book is on the work of the six crews of astronauts that landed on the Moon, although there is an opening chapter on the robotic precursors and concluding chapters on Apollo in context and exploration of the Moon in the 1990s.

The heart of this book are the six chapters dealing with the lunar surface activities of Apollo 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, and 17. Harland expends the majority of the books space on the last three of this, and appropriately so because they represented the most significant scientific return of the program. NASA took a building block approach to exploration, something that seems obviously rational now but was not so well accepted at the time, with time on the surface and complexity of the mission advancing with every flight. The last three missions, of course, were extraordinary in collecting superb scientific data about the Moon, its origins, and the evolution of the solar system. Collectively, experiments carried out as a result of Apollo yielded more than 10,000 scientific papers and a major reinterpretation of the origins and evolution of the Moon.

"Exploring the Moon: The Apollo Expeditions" is a solid discussion, if uninspired history of lunar surface activity. Readers should read it in conjunction with two other major sources. The first is NASA's official history of the Apollo lunar surface activities entitled "Where No Man Has Gone Before: A History of Apollo Lunar Exploration Missions," by W. David Compton (Washington, DC: National Aeronautics and Space Administration SP-4214, 1989). Is conveniently available on-line for those who do not need a physical copy at [ Click Here ]. Second, anyone who hopes to understand these missions must read the "Apollo Lunar Surface Journal," the brainchild of Eric Jones. Jones has placed on-line more detailed information about the astronauts on the lunar surface than anyone previously. This is available for all to review at [ Click Here ].

givbatam3 Said: A MUST FOR THOSE INTO SOLAR SYSTEM EXPLORATION ( Dec. 29th 2000 )

David Harland's book is one of the finest I have ever seen on the Apollo program or on Solar System exploration in general. Getting beyond the techincal aspects of spaceflight, the spacecraft or the astronauts' personalities which have been done by other authors, this book brings out the excitement of exploration and the discovery of the unknown that the Apollo astronauts participated in. Many people have been exposed to a taste of this in the episode about Apollo 15 in Tom Hanks' excellent television series "From the Earth to the Moon" which showed how, under excellent teachers, the astronauts, coming from a background of engineering and aeronautics, became true scientists and explorers.

It is true that a lot of geological concepts are thrown at the reader from the beginning and those (like myself) who have no previous background in geology might be intimidated but I find that a careful reading of the excellent glossary contained in the book should give enough background to make the science generally accessible. Harland makes clear why the various landing sites were chosen and what the geological issues were that were to be investigated. Traverse maps showing the various geological features to be explored are included for each mission. The many photographs presented illustrate the main discoveries and their significance. Of special note are the panoramas personally assembled by Harland (which are also available on the internet's Apollo Lunar Surface Journal) which give a stunning view of the Lunar environment as the astronauts saw it.

Finally, I strongly urge someone who finds himself becoming more interested in the subject of Lunar geology to also read Don Wilhelm's "To a Rocky Moon" which presents the historical development of our ideas about the Moon up through the famous Kona Conference in 1984 which determined that the Moon was probably created due to a giant body impacting with the fledgling Earth and also Paul Spudis' "The Once and Future Moon" which gives a summary of our state of knowledge up to the mid-1990's and directions for future exploration.