Customer Reviews

The Lunar Exploration Scrapbook : A Pictorial History of Lunar Vehicles

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Space Buffs will love the illustrations in this history of lunar vehicles that might-have-been and almost-where. An absolute must have if you're into the history of manned space exploration.

This book presents the space historian, or buff a level of subject coverage seldom found in most space history books. The majority of books on lunar exploration deal only with the actual hardware used in this endeavor. Mr. Godwin's work succeeds in revealing many of the conceptual hardware designs, created by scientists and engineers in the past seventy years. Superbly illustrated, with many historical photos and painstakingly created computer 3D imagery.
Paul Carsola

NASA has set a target date of 2020 for the next human landing on the moon. The lander is called the "Altair", and the agency has released drawings of a spindly legged space craft that would carry four astronauts to the moon's surface.

Would, that is, if the lander is ever built. If history is any guide, Altair will go through a number of iterations before its remote descendant actually kicks up some moon dust.

Robert Godwin reminds us of past iterations of would-be landers that never got off the drawing board in this beautifully illustrated book.

He describes more than 80 lunar lander concepts of the 1950s and early 1960s, more than 80 lunar rovers and mobile labs and more than 50 lunar flying vehicles. Many are portrayed in contemporary artwork, blue prints or photos. Others he portrays using modern computer graphics. The result is a comprehensive encyclopedia of devices that never flew.

Exhibit 1961 -- "In August of 1961, engineer John Houbolt gave one of many presentations to the Space Task Group [at NASA's Langley Research Center in Virginia, where he worked]. In attendance was Jim Chamberlin, the brilliant designer of the Canadian Avro Arrow fighter. Chamberlin was heading up what would become Project Gemini, and he had already begun to think about using the new larger "Advanced Mercury," as Gemini was called at the time, to do more than just fly in low Earth orbit. Chamberlin wanted to use Gemini to go to the moon, and he would make that exact suggestion later that year. His team's design for an accompanying lunar lander was similar to one proposed earlier in the year by the Langley staff. It was basically nothing more than a platform placed on top of a rocket engine, on which an intrepid astronaut would stand, surrounded by fuel tanks."

Exhibit 1963 -- the Chrysler Corporation's Manned Lunar Auxillary Vehicle, a nuclear tricycle. "The MLAV had a cargo tray 23 inches by 41 inches in size, and could be operated with a hand controller either by a riding astronaut or by remote control. A full size prototype was built and tested by Chrysler. The power source for this machine was to have been a SNAP 91 radioisotope thermoelectric generator, although it is not clear where this device would have been located. Other refinements would have included a television camera. The three wheels were tested with brushless DC motors which provided enough torque for its projected mission. Its primary use was as a "pack animal," but it could be used to carry one astronaut if required. The entire vehicle could be folded up flat."

This book is a fascinating history of our starts and false starts at making machines that could carry astronauts safely down to the surface, and then move around at speed. Great fun for anyone with an adventurous spirit.

Godwin has edited or contributed to a number of excellent books on space and space exploration: Mars (Pocket Space Guides), Russian Spacecraft Pocket Space Guide (Pocket Space Guides), Project Apollo: The Test Program, Volume 1 (Pocket Space Guides) and Dyna-Soar: Hypersonic Strategic Weapons System: Apogee Books Space Series 35 (Apogee Books Space Series), among others. There are at least 12 "Pocket Space Guides", several edited by Godwin, and all of them very useful and handy collections of information and illustrations on their subjects.

Robert C. Ross