On the Moon The Apollo Journals

About this book

This book explains how the Apollo crews learned to work on the lunar surface. Its lively and informative text draws heavily on transcripts and photographs to illustrate points. It puts the reader on the lunar surface with the astronauts, sharing their observations, excitement, and frustrations.

Many people who are interested in space exploration are too young to remember much about the events that led to the Apollo Program and the global excitement that accompanied the missions. Interest in the first lunar landing transcended all political, economic, and social borders. It is vitally important to revisit the roots of mankind's boldest exploration, examining the astronauts' observations, tallying the accuracy of our assumptions, and gaining new perspective for this century's missions.

Contents

Adapting to a New World.- A Damned Hard Walk, Followed by a Little Golf.- The Lunar Dune Buggy.- The Descartes Highlands - High Land but no Volcanoes.- Drilling Troubles.- The Volcanoes of Taurus-Littrow - Explosive Volcanism on the Moon.- Boulder Rolling - Surprises During the Last Manned Lunar Mission.

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Biography

Grant Heiken worked for NASA during the Apollo and Skylab Programs, in the Lunar Receiving Laboratory, as a geology instructor in the astronaut training program, and conducting independent research on lunar surface processes, including volcanism. He is a co-editor of "Lunar Sourcebook--A User's Guide to the Moon" (Cambridge University Press). In 1975 he moved to the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory (now the Los Alamos National Laboratory) in New Mexico, where he worked in geothermal exploration and development, volcanic hazard analysis, the uses of volcanic rocks, basic research in explosive volcanism, and integrated urban science. Eric Jones has a lifetime background in space exploration-related science. He visited NASA Johnson in 1988 to examine transcripts of the Apollo missions in an effort to understand what is involved in getting work done on the Moon. Subsequent discussions with Apollo 17 astronaut Harrison Schmitt led to the idea of creating the "Apollo Lunar Surface Journal" to document the activities of the Apollo lunar surface crews in a manner analogous to the exploration journals of Captain James Cook and others. During 1989-92, he conducted minute-by-minute mission reviews with nine of the twelve moonwalking astronauts so that readers of the could understand, in detail, what was done, how it was done, and how the crews trained before hand. Portions of the Journal first appeared on the World Wide Web in 1995 and, although all of the transcripts and astronaut comments had been added by 1998, photographs, background documents, and additional commentary are still being added in mid-2006. The Journal is hosted by NASA at http://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj and is generally considered to be the authoritative source for information about the activities of the lunar surface crews. In Heiken and Jones we have the ideal authors for this project.