By any standards, "The International Atlas of Lunar Exploration" by Philip J. Stooke is an utterly remarkable and fascinating tome. Its price is hefty enough to make one gasp, but those who purchase it will invariably conclude that they got their money's worth.
This is a difficult book to classify; it is an atlas, but it is also a combination source book and reference book. Arranged chronologically, it describes any mission that flew by, orbited, impacted on, or soft-landed on, the moon. For each mission the book includes diagrams of the photo coverage and detailed maps, at varying scales, of impact and landing sites. Crisp, newly enhanced lunar surface panoramas illustrate those sites visited by unmanned and manned missions that returned photographs to Earth. To give an idea of how comprehensive this book is, 37 illustrations and maps are devoted to the Apollo 14 landing site, the Apollo 14 SIVB impact site and the Apollo 14 LM ascent stage impact site. In addition to this, Stooke includes maps of alternate Fra Mauro landing sites and astronaut traverses. Proposed landing sites that were never explored are illustrated and some feature detailed traverse maps for astronauts or unmanned rovers. A map of an advanced Apollo, five-day, eight-EVA mission to the Marius Hills is a showcase of audacity. Tables of lunar landing site candidates, some assembled at the dawn of space exploration and during the early days of lunar mission planning, are a historical treasure trove. The thoroughness of Stooke's research for this book is awe inspiring.
What a reader won't find here, however, is a tidy story of how humanity decided where to send what. The text is dry and could have been written by Dragnet's Joe Friday, "Just the facts, ma'am." If a reader wants anecdotes, background color, names, personalities, geological explanations, and conflict, check out Don Wilhelms' indispensable "To a Rocky Moon, a Geologist's History of Lunar Explorations." Stooke's book nicely compliments Wilhelms'.
This book has one shortcoming that is not a deficiency but definitely an annoyance. The layout needs to be changed so the text is physically closer to the maps and illustrations being discussed. For example, the discussion of the Apollo 15 mission begins on a page with illustrations relating to Apollo 14 and 10 pages away from the first Apollo 15 illustration! One must always look at the captions to verify what is being shown. The need to constantly flip back and forth could have been avoided by simply resizing some maps and illustrations.
Despite this shortcoming, I recommend this book without hesitation. Philip J. Stooke has done lunar exploration, history and a future generation of planetary explorers a great service by compiling the material for this book. It was obviously a labor of love. I am certain that, in the not-too distant future, some scientist will remember this book from his or her youth and use it as a guideline to write one about the international exploration of Mars. One can only hope.
ISBN-13:
978-0521819305
ISBN-10:
052181930X
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martin stanworth
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Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 21, 2016Verified Purchase
