To A Rocky Moon

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To a Rocky Moon

Don E. Wilhelms
To a Rocky Moon Book PDF

Author : Don E. Wilhelms
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 544 pages
File Size : 47,5 Mb
Release : 1993
Category : Science
ISBN : UOM:39015029476077

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To a Rocky Moon by Don E. Wilhelms Pdf

When 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.

The Rock From Mars

Kathy Sawyer
The Rock From Mars Book PDF

Author : Kathy Sawyer
Publisher : Random House
Page : 416 pages
File Size : 55,8 Mb
Release : 2006-02-14
Category : Science
ISBN : 9781588365279

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The Rock From Mars by Kathy Sawyer Pdf

In this riveting book, acclaimed journalist Kathy Sawyer reveals the deepest mysteries of space and some of the most disturbing truths on Earth. The Rock from Mars is the story of how two planets and the spheres of politics and science all collided at the end of the twentieth century. It began sixteen million years ago. An asteroid crashing into Mars sent fragments flying into space and, eons later, one was pulled by the Earth’s gravity onto an icy wilderness near the southern pole. There, in 1984, a geologist named Roberta Score spotted it, launching it on a roundabout path to fame and controversy. In its new home at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, the rock languished on a shelf for nine years, a victim of mistaken identity. Then, in 1993, the geochemist Donald “Duck” Mittlefehldt, unmasked the rock as a Martian meteorite. Before long, specialist Chris Romanek detected signs of once-living organisms on the meteorite. And the obscure rock became a rock star. But how did nine respected investigators come to make such startling claims about the rock that they triggered one of the most venomous scientific battles in modern memory? The narrative traces the steps that led to this risky move and follows the rippling impact on the scientists’ lives, the future of space exploration, the search for life on Mars, and the struggle to understand the origins of life on Earth. From the second the story broke in Science magazine in 1996, it spawned waves of excitement, envy, competitive zeal, and calculation. In academia, in government agencies, in laboratories around the world, and even in the Oval Office–where an inquisitive President Clinton had received the news in secret– players of all kinds plotted their next moves. Among them: David McKay, the dynamic geologist associated with the first moon landing, who labored to achieve at long last a second success; Bill Schopf of UCLA, a researcher determined to remain at the top of his field and the first to challenge McKay’s claims; Dan Goldin, the boss of NASA; and Dick Morris, the controversial presidential adviser who wanted to use the story for Clinton’s reelection and unfortunately made sure it ended up in the diary of a $200-an-hour call girl. Impeccably researched and thrillingly involving, Kathy Sawyer’s The Rock from Mars is an exemplary work of modern nonfiction, a vivid account of the all-too-human high-stakes drive to learn our true place in the cosmic scheme.

Introduction to Planetary Science

Gunter Faure,Teresa M. Mensing
Introduction to Planetary Science Book PDF

Author : Gunter Faure,Teresa M. Mensing
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Page : 526 pages
File Size : 53,6 Mb
Release : 2007-05-04
Category : Science
ISBN : 9781402055447

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Introduction to Planetary Science by Gunter Faure,Teresa M. Mensing Pdf

This textbook details basic principles of planetary science that help to unify the study of the solar system. It is organized in a hierarchical manner so that every chapter builds upon preceding ones. Starting with historical perspectives on space exploration and the development of the scientific method, the book leads the reader through the solar system. Coverage explains that the origin and subsequent evolution of planets and their satellites can be explained by applications of certain basic principles of physics, chemistry, and celestial mechanics and that surface features of the solid bodies can be interpreted by principles of geology.

Seven Wonders of the Rocky Planets and Their Moons

Ron Miller
Seven Wonders of the Rocky Planets and Their Moons Book PDF

Author : Ron Miller
Publisher : Twenty-First Century Books
Page : 84 pages
File Size : 51,9 Mb
Release : 2011-01-01
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN : 9780761354482

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Seven Wonders of the Rocky Planets and Their Moons by Ron Miller Pdf

Describes the geographic phenomena of the inner planets of the solar system and their moons, including the largest mountain of the planets, the deepest canyon, and the highest recorded temperatures.

The Geologic History of the Moon

U S Department of the Interior,Don E. Wilhelms
The Geologic History of the Moon Book PDF

Author : U S Department of the Interior,Don E. Wilhelms
Publisher : CreateSpace
Page : 336 pages
File Size : 48,8 Mb
Release : 2014-02-12
Category : Science
ISBN : 1495919854

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The Geologic History of the Moon by U S Department of the Interior,Don E. Wilhelms Pdf

The Moon held little interest for most scientists after its basic astronomic properties had been determined and before direct exploration appeared likely. Speculations about its internal structure, composition, and origin were only broadly constrained by cosmochemical data from meteorites and solar spectra, and by astronomic data about its size, shape, motions, and surficial properties. Most investigators who were active before the space age began in 1957 believed that significant new advances in lunar knowledge required acquisition of additional data. One analytical technique, however, was insufficiently exploited before the 1960's. Few scientists since the geologist Gilbert had studied the lunar surface systematically from the historical point of view. Those who did immediately obtained important new insights about the Moon's postaccretion evolution. Then, the pioneering work of E.M. Shoemaker and R.J. Hackman focused the powerful methods of stratigraphy on lunar problems. Stratigraphy is the study of the spatial distribution, chronologic relations, and formative processes of layered rocks. Its application to the Moon came relatively late and met resistance, but the fundamental stratigraphic approach was, in fact, readily transferable to the partly familiar, partly exotic deposits visible on the lunar surface. Stratigraphic methods were applied systematically during the 1960's in a program of geologic mapping that aimed at reconstructing the evolution of the Moon's nearside. Order was discovered among the seemingly diverse and random landforms of the lunar surface by determining the sequence in which they were emplaced. The stratigraphic sequence and the emplacement processes deduced therefrom provided a framework for exploration by the Apollo program and for the task of analyzing the returned samples. During the 19703, the sophisticated labor of hundreds of analysts was brought to bear on the wealth of material returned by the American Apollo and the Soviet Luna spacecraft. Our present perception of the Moon has emerged from the interplay between sampling studies and stratigraphically based photogeology. These two approaches are complementary: Photogeology contributes a historical context by viewing the whole Moon from a distant vantage point, whereas the samples contain information on rock types and absolute ages unobtainable by remote methods. Neither approach by itself, even the most elaborate program of direct surface exploration, could have yielded the current advanced state of knowledge within the relatively short time of two decades. This volume presents a model for the geologic evolution of the Moon that has emerged mainly from this integration of photogeologic stratigraphy and sample analysis. Other aspects of the vast field of lunar science are discussed here only insofar as they pertain to the evolution of visible surface features. Chemical data obtained by remote sensing supplement the photogeologic interpretations of some geologic units, and geophysical data obtained both from lunar orbit and on the surface constrain hypotheses of the origin of many internally generated structures and deposits. Studies of the same data that treat the Moon as a whole, including speculations about the intriguing but unsolved problem of its origin, have been adequately covered in other reviews. This volume is written primarily for geoscientists and other planetologists who have examined some aspect of lunar or planetary science and who want a review of lunar science from the viewpoint of historical geology. It should also provide a useful summary for the advanced student who is conversant with common geologic terms. It may, furthermore, interest the geologist who has not studied the Moon but who wishes to see how his methodology has been applied to another planet.

Mysteries of Terra Firma

James Powell
Mysteries of Terra Firma Book PDF

Author : James Powell
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Page : 280 pages
File Size : 40,5 Mb
Release : 2007-09-11
Category : Science
ISBN : 9781416576785

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Mysteries of Terra Firma by James Powell Pdf

In Mysteries of Terra Firma, James Lawrence Powell tells an engrossing three-part tale of how we came to understand the ground on which we walk, and how that ground holds the key to the greatest secrets of deep space and time. Naming his profound stories Time, Drift, and Chance, he tells of the three twentieth-century revolutions in thought that created the amazing science of Earth -- and of all planets to the edge of the universe. The riddle that drove the first revolution is obvious and yet in 1904 remained impenetrable: how old is Earth? An encounter between the imperious Lord Kelvin and a New Zealand farm-boy-turned-physicist, Ernest Rutherford, set the stage for the solution and launched a golden century of geology. As a result, scientists learned that if the 4.5 billion years of geologic time were compressed into a single twenty-four-hour period, Homo sapiens would have arrived only in the last second. The geological Revolution of Time reveals how long the ground on which we walk has existed, and how briefly we have trod that ground. In the early twentieth century, German meteorologist and polar explorer Alfred Wegener proposed a counterintuitive, heretical theory: that terra firma is not so firm; instead of being fixed in place, continents drift. In 1926, petroleum geologists convened in New York City to discuss Wegener's radical idea, where it was met with outrage and skepticism: "If we are to believe Wegener's hypothesis we must forget everything which has been learned in the last seventy years and start all over again," one attendee said. Forty years later, a new generation did exactly that. The Revolution of Drift, the second part of Powell's narrative, showed us how the ground on which we walk moves. Throughout geologic time, meteorites have incessantly bombarded everything in the solar system. Far from serene and predictable, the planets are ruled by random violence on an unimaginable scale. Once a mountain-sized meteorite flew through space, struck the Earth, killed the dinosaurs and two-thirds of all species, and spared the small hamster-sized creature that happened to be our ancestor. The chance of that happening again is essentially zero. So, the final revolution in Powell's history of a golden century of geology is the Revolution of Chance. Simply put, this revolution in thought has transformed our understanding of how lucky we really are. If we can learn so much from considering no more than the rocks beneath our feet, what will we learn when we begin walking on other planets? Mysteries of Terra Firma is both charming in its storytelling and staggering in its implications. Discovering the ground on which we stand is a fascinating journey into our past -- and our future.

The Big Splat, or How Our Moon Came to Be

Dana Mackenzie
The Big Splat or How Our Moon Came to Be Book PDF

Author : Dana Mackenzie
Publisher : Turner Publishing Company
Page : 212 pages
File Size : 47,5 Mb
Release : 2008-05-02
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780470348833

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The Big Splat, or How Our Moon Came to Be by Dana Mackenzie Pdf

The first popular book to explain the dramatic theory behind the Moon's genesis This lively science history relates one of the great recent breakthroughs in planetary astronomy-a successful theory of the birth of the Moon. Science journalist Dana Mackenzie traces the evolution of this theory, one little known outside the scientific community: a Mars-sized object collided with Earth some four billion years ago, and the remains of this colossal explosion-the Big Splat-came together to form the Moon. Beginning with notions of the Moon in ancient cosmologies, Mackenzie relates the fascinating history of lunar speculation, moving from Galileo and Kepler to George Darwin (son of Charles) and the Apollo astronauts, whose trips to the lunar surface helped solve one of the most enigmatic mysteries of the night sky: who hung the Moon? Dana Mackenzie (Santa Cruz, CA) is a freelance science journalist. His articles have appeared in such magazines as Science, Discover, American Scientist, The Sciences, and New Scientist.

Looking At The Moon

Kit Pearson
Looking At The Moon Book PDF

Author : Kit Pearson
Publisher : Penguin
Page : 224 pages
File Size : 55,6 Mb
Release : 2007-09-04
Category : Juvenile Fiction
ISBN : 9780143186298

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Looking At The Moon by Kit Pearson Pdf

Norah, an English "war guest" living with the wealthy Ogilvie family in Toronto, can hardly wait for August. She'll spend it at the Ogilvie's lavish cottage in Muskoka—a whole month of freedom, swimming, adventures with her "cousins"... But this isn't an ordinary summer. It's 1943, and the war is still going on. Sometimes Norah can't even remember what her parents look like—she hasn't seen them in three years. And she has turned thirteen, which means life seems to be getting more complicated. Then a distant Ogilvie cousin, Andrew, arrives. He is nineteen, handsome, intelligent, and Norah thinks she may be falling in love for the first time. But Andrew has his own problems: he doesn't want to fight in the war, and yet he knows it's what his family and friends expect of him. What the two of them learn from each other makes for a gentle, moving story, the second book in a trilogy that began with the award-winning The Sky Is Falling.

The Moon & the Western Imagination

Scott L. Montgomery
The Moon the Western Imagination Book PDF

Author : Scott L. Montgomery
Publisher : University of Arizona Press
Page : 284 pages
File Size : 52,7 Mb
Release : 1999
Category : Science
ISBN : 0816519897

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The Moon & the Western Imagination by Scott L. Montgomery Pdf

The Moon is at once a face with a thousand expressions and the archetypal planet. Throughout history it has been gazed upon by people of every culture in every walk of life. From early perceptions of the Moon as an abode of divine forces, humanity has in turn accepted the mathematized Moon of the Greeks, the naturalistic lunar portrait of Jan van Eyck, and the telescopic view of Galileo. Scott Montgomery has produced a richly detailed analysis of how the Moon has been visualized in Western culture through the ages, revealing the faces it has presented to philosophers, writers, artists, and scientists for nearly three millennia. To do this, he has drawn on a wide array of sources that illustrate mankind's changing concept of the nature and significance of heavenly bodies from classical antiquity to the dawn of modern science. Montgomery especially focuses on the seventeenth century, when the Moon was first mapped and its features named. From literary explorations such as Francis Godwin's Man in the Moone and Cyrano de Bergerac's L'autre monde to Michael Van Langren's textual lunar map and Giambattista Riccioli's Almagestum novum, he shows how Renaissance man was moved by the lunar orb, how he battled to claim its surface, and how he in turn elevated the Moon to a new level in human awareness. The effect on human imagination has been cumulative: our idea of the Moon, and therefore the planets, is multilayered and complex, having been enriched by associations played out in increasingly complicated harmonies over time. We have shifted the way we think about the lunar face from a "perfect" body to an earthlike one, with corresponding changes in verbal and visual expression. Ultimately, Montgomery suggests, our concept of the Moon has never wandered too far from the world we know best—the Earth itself. And when we finally establish lunar bases and take up some form of residence on the Moon's surface, we will not be conquering a New World, fresh and mostly unknown, but a much older one, ripe with history.

The Value of the Moon

Paul D. Spudis
The Value of the Moon Book PDF

Author : Paul D. Spudis
Publisher : Smithsonian Institution
Page : 272 pages
File Size : 51,7 Mb
Release : 2016-04-26
Category : Science
ISBN : 9781588345042

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The Value of the Moon by Paul D. Spudis Pdf

While the Moon was once thought to hold the key to space exploration, in recent decades, the U.S. has largely turned its sights toward Mars and other celestial bodies instead. In The Value of the Moon, lunar scientist Paul Spudis argues that the U.S. can and should return to the moon in order to remain a world leader in space utilization and development and a participant in and beneficiary of a new lunar economy. Spudis explores three reasons for returning to the Moon: it is close, it is interesting, and it is useful. The proximity of the Moon not only allows for frequent launches, but also control of any machinery we place there. It is interesting because recorded deep on its surface and in its craters is the preserved history of the moon, the sun, and indeed the entire galaxy. And finally, the moon is useful because it is rich with materials and energy. The moon, Spudis argues, is a logical base for further space exploration and even a possible future home for us all. Throughout his work, Spudis incorporates details about man's fascination with the moon and its place in our shared history. He also explores its religious, cultural, and scientific resonance and assesses its role in the future of spaceflight and our national security and prosperity.

Photographic Atlas of the Moon

S. M. Chong,Albert Lim,P. S. Ang
Photographic Atlas of the Moon Book PDF

Author : S. M. Chong,Albert Lim,P. S. Ang
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 164 pages
File Size : 53,6 Mb
Release : 2002-07-25
Category : Nature
ISBN : 0521813921

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Photographic Atlas of the Moon by S. M. Chong,Albert Lim,P. S. Ang Pdf

Day-by-day photographic guide to observing the features of the Moon through a small telescope.

A Man on the Moon

Andrew Chaikin
A Man on the Moon Book PDF

Author : Andrew Chaikin
Publisher : Penguin
Page : 721 pages
File Size : 54,8 Mb
Release : 2007-08-28
Category : History
ISBN : 9780593511121

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A Man on the Moon by Andrew Chaikin Pdf

"The authoritative masterpiece" (L. A. Times) on the Apollo space program and NASA's journey to the moon This acclaimed portrait of heroism and ingenuity captures a watershed moment in human history. The astronauts themselves have called it the definitive account of their missions. On the night of July 20, 1969, our world changed forever when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon. Based on in-depth interviews with twenty-three of the twenty-four moon voyagers, as well as those who struggled to get the program moving, A Man on the Moon conveys every aspect of the Apollo missions with breathtaking immediacy and stunning detail. A Man on the Moon is also the basis for the acclaimed miniseries produced by Tom Hanks, From the Earth to the Moon, now airing and streaming again on HBO in celebration of the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11.

Exploring the Moon

David M. Harland
Exploring the Moon Book PDF

Author : David M. Harland
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Page : 404 pages
File Size : 52,7 Mb
Release : 2008-04-16
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780387746418

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Exploring the Moon by David M. Harland Pdf

In this comprehensive overview of Man’s relationship with his planet’s nearest neighbor, David Harland opens with a review of the robotic probes, namely the Rangers which returned television before crashing into the Moon, the Surveyors which 'soft landed' in order to investigate the nature of the surface, and the Lunar Orbiters which mapped prospective Apollo landing sites. He then outlines the historic landing by Apollo 11 and the final three missions of comprehensive geological investigations. He concludes with a review of the robotic spacecraft that made remote-sensing observations of the Moon. This Commemorative Edition includes a foreword by one of the original astronauts as well as an extra section reviewing the prospect of renewed exploration there. New graphics and images are also included.

The Moon

Oliver Morton,The Economist
The Moon Book PDF

Author : Oliver Morton,The Economist
Publisher : The Economist
Page : 352 pages
File Size : 53,9 Mb
Release : 2019-06-04
Category : Science
ISBN : 9781541768062

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The Moon by Oliver Morton,The Economist Pdf

An intimate portrait of the Earth's closest neighbor--the Moon--that explores the history and future of humankind's relationship with it Every generation has looked towards the heavens and wondered at the beauty of the Moon. Fifty years ago, a few Americans became the first to do the reverse--and shared with Earth-bound audiences the view of their own planet hanging in the sky instead. Recently, the connection has been discovered to be even closer: a fragment of the Earth's surface was found embedded in a rock brought back from the Moon. And astronauts are preparing to return to the surface of the Moon after a half-century hiatus--this time to the dark side. Oliver Morton explores how the ways we have looked at the Moon have shaped our perceptions of the Earth: from the controversies of early astronomers such as van Eyck and Galileo, to the Cold War space race, to the potential use of the Moon as a stepping stone for further space exploration. Advanced technologies, new ambitions, and old dreams mean that men, women, and robots now seem certain to return to the Moon. For some, it is a future on which humankind has turned its back for too long. For others, an adventure yet to begin.

Unlocking the Moon's Secrets

James Powell
Unlocking the Moon s Secrets Book PDF

Author : James Powell
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 161 pages
File Size : 54,7 Mb
Release : 2023-09-05
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780197694862

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Unlocking the Moon's Secrets by James Powell Pdf

The Moon is the most viewed object in the sky, the Sun being too bright to look at directly and the planets too far away. The Greeks deduced everything that could be learned about the Moon using only the naked eye, including that it has no light of its own but reflects that of the Sun. They understood the cause of eclipses and used the Earth's shadow on the Moon to conclude that our planet is a sphere and to calculate the size of both the Moon and the Earth. The invention of the telescope some two millennia later offered the opportunity for much greater understanding, but the early observers became sidetracked onto a dead end: First, they fooled themselves into believing that they saw evidence of life on the Moon, even the works of a civilization. Second, they became convinced that the craters of the Moon were volcanoes like those we have on the Earth. These wrong-headed beliefs took centuries to dispel. The origin of the Moon itself has proven an even more difficult question, but scientists have now closed in on the answer. They find that our placid and seemingly unchanging Moon was born in colossal violence as a planet the size of Mars crashed into the primordial Earth and flung off a blob that solidified to become our heavenly companion. Unlocking the Moon's Secrets follows these developments to show how science evolves, complete with misunderstandings, contentious arguments, difficult to relinquish assumptions, and shifting views as new facts come to light. Thanks to the work of generations of determined scientists, we understand our Moon, at last.