Earthrise

Earthrise
Author: Edgar Mitchell
Publisher: Chicago Review Press
Total Pages: 204
Release: 2014-04-01
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 1613749015

This vibrant memoir features the life story of Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell, focusing on Mitchell’s amazing journey to the Moon in 1971 and highlighting the many steps he took to get there. The former astronaut recounts his childhood as a farm boy in New Mexico; flying solo as a teen; living in Roswell during the alleged UFO crash; studying at Carnegie Mellon and MIT; his experiences as a navy combat pilot and finally a NASA astronaut. In suspenseful prose he details his historic flight to the Moon with Alan Shepard and Stu Roosa, describing everything from the practical—eating, sleeping, and going to the bathroom in space—to the metaphysical, such as the life-changing sense of connectedness to the universe that he felt during his return to Earth. Resources include lists of websites about space, museums and organizations, films and videos, and books for further reading. Edgar Mitchell was the Lunar Module Pilot for the Apollo 14 mission and the sixth man to walk on the Moon. He is the author of The Way of the Explorer, Paradigm Shift, and The Space Less Traveled; the recipient of many medals and awards; the founder of the Institute of Noetic Sciences. He lives in Lake Worth, Florida. Ellen Mahoney is an instructor in the Department of Journalism and Technical Communication at Metro State University of Denver. She lives in Boulder, Colorado. Dr. Brian Cox is a professor and Royal Society University Research Fellow at the University of Manchester School of Physics and Astronomy, Manchester, England.

Apollo 14

Apollo 14
Author: Robert Godwin
Publisher: Burlington, Ont. : Apogee Books
Total Pages: 232
Release: 2000
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9781896522562

CD-ROM and Book. After the unfortunate accident which befall Apollo 13 the job of getting NASA back to the moon fell on the shoulders of America's oldest astronaut Alan B. Shepard. Shepard had been grounded since the flight of Freedom 7 in 1961 due to an inner ear disorder. After undergoing treatment the 'Icy Commander' was bumped to the top of the flight roster and appointed to command the flight of Apollo 14 to the Fra Mauro highlands of the moon. Spending nearly ten hours on the moon in February 1971 Shepard and Lunar Module pilot Edgar Mitchell conducted a wide range of scientific experiments including Shepard's unplanned test of the flight of a golf ball in lunar gravity. Once more the world sat and watched in awe as the United States successfully put two more men on the moon's surface while Stuart Roosa orbited above in the Command Module Kitty Hawk. Shepard and Mitchell hiked almost to the top of a 400 foot crater before running out of time and returning to the Lunar Module Antares. Apollo 14 returned to the Earth with a treasure trove of lunar data and over 100 pounds of moon rocks. In this book, some of the rare official documentation of the voyage of Apollo 14 is collected and made commercially available for the first time.

Apollo Moon Missions

Apollo Moon Missions
Author: Billy Watkins
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
Total Pages: 236
Release: 2007-12-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780803260412

In 1961 President John F. Kennedy challenged the United States to land a man on the moon and return him safely to Earth before the end of the decade. It seemed like an impossible mission and one that the Russians?who had launched the first satellite and put the first man into Earth orbit?would surely achieve before the Americans. However, the ingenuity, passion, and sacrifice of thousands of ordinary people from all walks of life enabled the space program to meet this extraordinary goal. This is the story of fourteen of those men and women who worked behind the scenes, without fanfare or recognition, to make the Apollo missions successful.

Apollo 11

Apollo 11
Author: Robert Godwin
Publisher: Burlington, Ont. : Apogee Books
Total Pages: 238
Release: 2002
Genre: Nature
ISBN:

Contains the entire crew of Apollo 11’s personal observations upon returning to earth.

How Apollo Flew to the Moon

How Apollo Flew to the Moon
Author: W. David Woods
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 582
Release: 2011-08-08
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1441971793

Stung by the pioneering space successes of the Soviet Union - in particular, Gagarin being the first man in space, the United States gathered the best of its engineers and set itself the goal of reaching the Moon within a decade. In an expanding 2nd edition of How Apollo Flew to the Moon, David Woods tells the exciting story of how the resulting Apollo flights were conducted by following a virtual flight to the Moon and its exploration of the surface. From launch to splashdown, he hitches a ride in the incredible spaceships that took men to another world, exploring each step of the journey and detailing the enormous range of disciplines, techniques, and procedures the Apollo crews had to master. While describing the tremendous technological accomplishment involved, he adds the human dimension by calling on the testimony of the people who were there at the time. He provides a wealth of fascinating and accessible material: the role of the powerful Saturn V, the reasoning behind trajectories, the day-to-day concerns of human and spacecraft health between two worlds, the exploration of the lunar surface and the sheer daring involved in traveling to the Moon and the mid-twentieth century. Given the tremendous success of the original edition of How Apollo Flew to the Moon, the second edition will have a new chapter on surface activities, inspired by reader's comment on Amazon.com. There will also be additional detail in the existing chapters to incorporate all the feedback from the original edition, and will include larger illustrations.

Digital Apollo

Digital Apollo
Author: David A. Mindell
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 377
Release: 2011-09-30
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 0262266687

The incredible story of how human pilots and automated systems worked together to achieve the ultimate achievement in flight—the lunar landings of NASA’s Apollo program As Apollo 11’s Lunar Module descended toward the moon under automatic control, a program alarm in the guidance computer’s software nearly caused a mission abort. Neil Armstrong responded by switching off the automatic mode and taking direct control. He stopped monitoring the computer and began flying the spacecraft, relying on skill to land it and earning praise for a triumph of human over machine. In Digital Apollo, engineer-historian David Mindell takes this famous moment as a starting point for an exploration of the relationship between humans and computers in the Apollo program. In each of the six Apollo landings, the astronaut in command seized control from the computer and landed with his hand on the stick. Mindell recounts the story of astronauts’ desire to control their spacecraft in parallel with the history of the Apollo Guidance Computer. From the early days of aviation through the birth of spaceflight, test pilots and astronauts sought to be more than “spam in a can” despite the automatic controls, digital computers, and software developed by engineers. Digital Apollo examines the design and execution of each of the six Apollo moon landings, drawing on transcripts and data telemetry from the flights, astronaut interviews, and NASA’s extensive archives. Mindell’s exploration of how human pilots and automated systems worked together to achieve the ultimate in flight—a lunar landing—traces and reframes the debate over the future of humans and automation in space. The results have implications for any venture in which human roles seem threatened by automated systems, whether it is the work at our desktops or the future of exploration.

Moon Shot

Moon Shot
Author: Alan Shepard
Publisher: Open Road Media
Total Pages: 502
Release: 2011-05-03
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 1453221085

New York Times bestseller for fans of First Man: A “breathtaking” insider history of NASA’s space program—from astronauts Alan Shepard and Deke Slayton (Entertainment Weekly). On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik I, and the space race was born. Desperate to beat the Russians into space, NASA put together a crew of the nation’s most daring test pilots: the seven men who were to lead America to the moon. The first into space was Alan Shepard; the last was Deke Slayton, whose irregular heartbeat kept him grounded until 1975. They spent the 1960s at the forefront of NASA’s effort to conquer space, and Moon Shot is their inside account of what many call the twentieth century’s greatest feat—landing humans on another world. Collaborating with NBC’s veteran space reporter Jay Barbree, Shepard and Slayton narrate in gripping detail the story of America’s space exploration from the time of Shepard’s first flight until he and eleven others had walked on the moon.

Apollo 8

Apollo 8
Author: Jeffrey Kluger
Publisher: Henry Holt and Company
Total Pages: 385
Release: 2017-05-16
Genre: History
ISBN: 1627798315

The untold story of the historic voyage to the moon that closed out one of our darkest years with a nearly unimaginable triumph In August 1968, NASA made a bold decision: in just sixteen weeks, the United States would launch humankind’s first flight to the moon. Only the year before, three astronauts had burned to death in their spacecraft, and since then the Apollo program had suffered one setback after another. Meanwhile, the Russians were winning the space race, the Cold War was getting hotter by the month, and President Kennedy’s promise to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade seemed sure to be broken. But when Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and Bill Anders were summoned to a secret meeting and told of the dangerous mission, they instantly signed on. Written with all the color and verve of the best narrative non-fiction, Apollo 8 takes us from Mission Control to the astronaut’s homes, from the test labs to the launch pad. The race to prepare an untested rocket for an unprecedented journey paves the way for the hair-raising trip to the moon. Then, on Christmas Eve, a nation that has suffered a horrendous year of assassinations and war is heartened by an inspiring message from the trio of astronauts in lunar orbit. And when the mission is over—after the first view of the far side of the moon, the first earth-rise, and the first re-entry through the earth’s atmosphere following a flight to deep space—the impossible dream of walking on the moon suddenly seems within reach. The full story of Apollo 8 has never been told, and only Jeffrey Kluger—Jim Lovell’s co-author on their bestselling book about Apollo 13—can do it justice. Here is the tale of a mission that was both a calculated risk and a wild crapshoot, a stirring account of how three American heroes forever changed our view of the home planet.