Customer Reviews

Exploring the Moon: The Apollo Expeditions (Springer Praxis Books in Space Exploration)

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`Exploring The Moon - The Apollo Expeditions' is an account of the manned Apollo lunar landing missions and their unmanned precursors and successors. It focuses on the three so-called 'J-missions', the extended 3-day stays on the lunar surface which brought the program to a conclusion, and delivered the bulk of its scientific results.

Having previously read the detailed accounts of lunar surface activities contained in the Apollo Lunar Surface Journal -- a web resource that documents the mission transcripts with a commentary -- it was a delight to read Harland's travelogue-style approach. The extremely lucid narrative really succeeds at putting the astronauts activities into context, with lunar geology being the scientific theme. One feels at times as though one is standing just a few feet away from the moonwalkers as they cope with the pressures of trying to perform work in the limited time available, the frustrations of apparatus not working as planned, and the exhilaration of surprise discoveries.

Supplementing the text are numerous maps, photos and some excellent assembled panoramas mosaicked specifically for this book. Appendices list the missions, the crews, and the moonrock samples described in the text. A glossary of geological terms and a description of all of the lunar surface experiments will be helpful to the non-geologist, non-scientist reader alike.

One will not likely find a better book on the subject of planetary field geology. Perhaps this ought to be required reading for the people who will someday return to the Moon.

Astronomer Patrick Moore provides the Foreword, and Apollo 15 Commander David Scott the Afterword to this exceptional work. Even the learned Dr. Moore, who has studied the Moon for many years, admits that he's learned new things from this book.

Having studied the lunar surface activities of the Apollo astronauts for some years now, I must say that this book is a must-have for any serious

Apollo buff. I'm sure that I'll be referring to my dog-eared copy for many years to come.

If you want to know what people did on the Moon, and why they did those things, read this book. I very highly recommend it.

Having written on the space shuttle and the Russian space station Mir, David Harland now ventures further back into the history of space exploration with this book. Exploring the Moon is a welcome addition to the plethora of books regarding the Apollo Program, providing an on-the-surface narrative and and scientific analysis of the missions reminiscient of the Apollo Lunar Surface Journal. After a section on the unmanned probes in the 1960's (Ranger, Lunar Orbiter, and Surveyor), he moves on to the Apollo flights, outlining the moonwalks on Apollo 11, 12, and 14, and then spends the bulk of the book outlining the Apollo "J" missions-Apollo 15, 16, and 17, which featured advanced life support systems in the lunar module and the astronauts' backpacks, an extended three days on the lunar surface, and a four-wheeled battery-powered buggy known as the Lunar Roving Vehicle. While most books focus on the technology that got America to the moon, few jave focused on the subsequent excursions of the spacesuit-clad astronauts on the lunar surface. This book does so magnificently, combining technical commentary with the words the astronauts spoke and the photographs they took. With the bonanza of lunar information provided by the last three Apollo missions, you will wonder why we felt inclined to cancel the Apollo missions 18, 19, and 20. Overall, I think this book covers lunar science and geology superbly, is a great adventure story, and a unique contribution to the studies of lunar science and planetary geology.

"Exploring the Moon" is a detailed review of the moon walks, especially (nearly 3/4 of the book) of the "J" missions of Apollo 15, 16, and 17. The book has detailed descriptions of the roving on the moon, the work done there and a fair amount about the geological discoveries. For those who spent hours glued to the TV watching these treks of discovery, this book takes you back and gives you new insights. The book also has hundreds of photos from the moon walks, although they are reproduced as tiny images. About the only criticism that I have is that the images are way too small and the book is available only in paperback. One hopes that a large format hardcover edition of this will be released, showing the photos in their full glory. For anybody interested in the actual moonwalks, this is the book to buy!

At last,a book about the Apollo missions that does not dwell on Buzz's drinking, one-small-steps or the "unfolding human near-tragedy" that was Apollo 13. These are all great topics but they have been done to death. What Harland has done is chronicle the real reason - well, it later became the real reason - that Nasa went to the Moon. Once the euphoria ofbeating the Russians had worn off, six missions were sent to explore the surface of another planet. One failed, but the 10 men who followed in Aldrin's and Armstrong's footsteps managed to revolutionise our knowledge about the big white disc in the sky. Most of what they did was geology - so there are plenty of rocks here. If you don't know your pyroxenes from your olivines you might struggle a bit, but there is a helpful glossary. You are struck by just how damn hard these men worked in the precious hours and days they had on the lunar surface. there is human drama in this book, but it is in the imagined sweat and tears that must have been exuded to get these results. Finally, you are left reeling by the tragedy of "what might have been". Apollos 18-thru-20 were cancelled, and the Saturn 5s that were to carry further lunar missions now sit rusting in a Nasa carpark. As Harland points out, "they got bored with exploring another planet".

If you are interested in the Moon, or simply in why humanity goes into space, read this book.

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 http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-4214/cover.html. 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 http://history.nasa.gov/alsj/.

I felt a little trepidation in buying this book because my geology background is limited at best. However, when I started reading I couldn't put the book down. I finally, after all these years, got a clear idea of the evolution of those first trips to another planet. The geology is there but it does not detract at all. I really started to understand what it was like to explore the moon on foot and rover - the time rush, the excitement of seeing things for the first time, the dissapointment of having to drop planned stops, and the overwhelming sense of accomplishment. I've read many books about Apollo but this is the first to convey what it was like "to be there". One minor complaint is that I felt the Apollo CSM J-missions were not discussed sufficiently. All the attention has always been on the men on the ground but one lonely astronaut spent several days doing very valuable science. It is discussed but I would have liked to have seen some more depth. However, all in all, I unreservedly recommend this book to all interested in those halcyon days.

Despite a few misgivings I have about the book, it is worth reading if you want to understand current thinking in lunar geology. However, it has some weak points and it's not for the faint of heart.

The author throws around far too many hard-to-understand geology phrases. So much so, you might think he's chatting with the "boys at the lab." I've been reading up on lunar geology for years, but found I needed to keep my geology dictionary nearby just follow along.

Although well illustrated, most of the pictures are tiny and hard to see, and have a pixelated apperance as if he scanned them or copied from the Internet. You will be disappointed in them.

The last fault is the writing style. While it is informative, it is not very lively or easy going. It is slightly dry and you will have to concentrate on getting through it.

If you are an Apollo or Moon fan you will probably be glad you got it. But as I said in the title -- it's good but not great.

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.

A great discussion of the Apollo missions, especially the longer "J" missions where we did more than "scoop and run". I give an edge to Andrew Chaikin's "A Man on the Moon". Also recommended are Harland's books on Mir and the US Space Shuttle.

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....