To a Rocky Moon: A Geologist's History of Lunar ExplorationWhen human exploration of the lunar surface began in 1969, it marked not only an unprecedented technological achievement but also the culmination of scientific efforts to understand lunar geology. Memoirs of the Apollo astronauts have preserved the exploratory aspects of these missions; now a geologist who was an active participant in the lunar program offers a detailed historical view of those events--including the pre-Apollo era--from a heretofore untold scientific perspective. It was the responsibility of the scientific team of which Don Wilhelms was a member to assemble an overall picture of the Moon's structure and history in order to recommend where on the lunar surface fieldwork should be conducted and samples collected. His book relates the site-selection process in detail, and draws in concomitant events concerning mission operations to show how they affected the course of the scientific program. While discussing all six landings in detail, it tells the behind-the-scenes story of telescopic and spacecraft investigations before, during, and after the manned landings. Intended for anyone interested the space program, the history of science, or the application of geology to planetology, To a Rocky Moon will leave all readers with a better idea of what the Moon is really like. In so expertly summarizing this earlier phase of exploration, it stands as an authoritative touchstone for those involved in the next. |
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To a Rocky Moon: A Geologist's History of Lunar Exploration Don E. Wilhelms No preview available - 1993 |
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aeons Aldrin ALSEP Apollo 15 Apollo landing ASAPR Astrogeology astronauts astronomer Baldwin basalt boulders breccias called Caltech camera capcom Center Cernan chapter Copernicus crew crust dark Descartes early Earth Eggleton ejecta engineers Ewen Whitaker Farouk El-Baz Flagstaff flight Fra Mauro Formation Gene Shoemaker Geologic map geologists geology team Hackman Hal Masursky Houston Imbrium basin impact craters Irwin Jack McCauley July Kuiper Laboratory landing sites later launch lava looked Luna Lunar and Planetary lunar craters lunar exploration lunar geology Lunar Orbiter lunar surface mantle mare Mare Imbrium Mare Serenitatis maria material Menlo Park meteorite mission Moon Moon's Muehlberger NASA Newell O'Keefe observations origin photographs Ranger rays regolith Rille rock rover samples scientific scientists Scott Serenitatis Soviet Space Science spacecraft Station stratigraphic Surveyor target Taurus-Littrow telescopic terra terrain Urey USGS USGS Map volcanic Whitaker Wilhelms young