Jump to content

Banner.jpg.b83b14cd4142fe10848741bb2a14c66b.jpg

Best Moon Missions Book(s)?

Moonshane

By Moonshane
in The Astro Lounge

Recommended Posts

Moonshane

Moonshane

Posted
Posted

Hi all

I have been watching lots of moon mission programmes recently and wondered if anyone has any recommendations for the most readable and thorough accounts of space missions (Gemini and Apollo) in book form; either autobiographies or other types? I have Magnificent Desolation by Buzz Aldrin but that's it. I'd welcome recommendations and why. I am more interested in the people's perspective rather than the technical side but both would be great. Thanks!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
x6gas

x6gas

Posted
Posted

How Apollo Flew to the Moon is excellent and certainly thorough. It's a bit pricey and the production quality of Springer books is a bit ropey, but it's the words that count and it is a very detailed technical account of the moon missions. Readable? Well it is certainly very interesting, but it is also pretty dense. I really enjoyed it but you have to accept that it is virtually impossible to write something crammed full of technical detail which is also a page turner. For me 9 out of 10 to the author, 5 out of 10 for the publisher because of the poor production quality and relatively high price...

Link to comment
Share on other sites
andrew63

andrew63

Posted
Posted

The two i most enjoyed was ' a man on the moon' by chaikin excellent overview of each mission with contributions from those directly involved and the famous 'carrying the fire' one man's perspective collins and gives a good insight to how he got into spaceflight to apollo and beyond. I think i sold mine on here last year.

Carrying the Fire: An Astronaut's Journeys: Amazon.co.uk:

A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts: Amazon.co.uk: Andrew Chaikin: Books

andrew

Link to comment
Share on other sites
KevUU

KevUU

Posted
Posted

Gene Kranz' Failue Is Not An Option is really good, from a ground perspective.

Mike Collins' Carrying The Fire is incredibly well sritten and interesting, from an astronaut perspective.

Lovell's Apollo 13 / Lost Moon is great too, not as broad as the others but very enlightening.

I'm building a list of others from this thread :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
jerryTheC

jerryTheC

Posted
Posted

I'm blanking completely on the titles, but I remember enjoying two books on how the Apollo spacecraft were built - one was about building the LEM - I hadn't realised that some bits of the skin were basically not much more than tinfoil to save weight - and one was about the main launcher/command module stuff.

Incidentally, if you google around, you should be able to find some of the original NASA manuals used by the crew... Fascinating stuff :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue. By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.