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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 629.454
EAN num: 9780387716756
ISBN number: 0387716750
Label: Praxis
Manufacturer: Praxis
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 400
Printing Date: January 08, 2008
Publishing house: Praxis
Sale Popularity Level: 164217
Studio: Praxis
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Product Description:
Out of the technological battlefield of World War II came a team of gifted German engineers and designers who developed the vengeance weapon, the V-2, which evolved into the peaceful, powerful Saturn V rocket to take men to the Moon. David Woods tells the exciting story, starting from America’s post war astronautical research facilities, that used the V-2 for the development of the robust, resilient and reliable Saturn V launcher. He describes the initial launches through manned orbital spaceflights, comprehensively detailing each step, including computer configuration, the role of ground control, trajectory planning, lunar orbiting, separation of the lander, walking and working on the Moon, retrieval of the lunar astronauts and returning to Earth in this massive technical accomplishment.
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Rated by buyers -
I have over 200 books on the early space program and the race to the moon but this book is by far the best and most detailed I have ever read on just how it was done. I couldn't put it down. If you ever wanted to know, for example, what every abort mode meant during launch or why and how the crew made certain burns during the flight, get this book! It takes the reader from liftoff through splashdown explaining in fantastic detail every step of these wonderful voyages. This book is not a techno-geek's only book. It explains to the common man in the street everything from transfer orbits to gimbal lock. Get this book! I guarentee, even if you thought you knew a lot about it, you'll be amazed at what it took to fly to the moon.
Rated by buyers -
First of all, I second all the wonderful things that folks have said about this book in the other reviews. It beautifully fills in the gaps as to what was actually going on, and explains in relatively simple terms how the systems work. An engineer or space enthusiast won't have any problems with the terminology. A less educated reader might be somewhat less able to understand - but then again, they're probably not the target audience, anyway. As someone who spent his teenage years watching Apollo live, I'm very happy to have the book in my collection.
There are a few quirks that stuck out at me:
(1) The book literally stinks. I don't know what kind of paper and ink combination they used, but the book smells AWFUL. There's something in it that I'm allergic to. It makes me sneeze if it's within 18 inches of my face, so I have to hold it at arms length to read it without my eyes watering and my nose running. I hate to mention that, but it's enough of an issue to be more than just annoying. I have never had that problem with any other book.
(2) Most of the grey and white photos are reproduced very darkly. Some of them are so dark that it's difficult to tell what we are supposed to be seeing in the photo.
(3) The author says up front that he will insist on using metric instead of English units because that's the way the rest of the world measures things. As someone who has memorized all the pertinent dimensions of the Apollo from his youth, it's very disconcerting for me to see them expressed solely in different units. In some cases, the author's writing around the units makes this even more bizarre to my American sensibilities. For example, we would say the F-1 engine produced 1.5 million pounds of thrust. On page 19, the author says the F-1 "produced a force that could balance 680 tonnes of mass." I only recall him using the word "thrust" once in the book - the rest of the time, he speaks of balance tonnes of mass.
(4) The editing was a little sloppy. Perhaps the book was not intended to be read sequentially, but there are examples when entire paragraphs are reproduced almost verbatim in several chapters. One section has a footnote that refers the reader to the previous chapter - the one we just read - for a discusion of a concept. The author also introduces verbatim transcripts of transmissions from actual missions to illustrate points about systems that he is discussing. However, he tends to include more of the conversation than is pertinent to the issue in question. It's as if someone is showing you film clips that go on a little longer than they should, past the punch line.
These are relatively minor quibbles, though. Again, I believe this is an excellent book than any fan of the Apollo era will want to have in his or her library.
Rated by buyers -
A page-turner for those interested in the mechanics of spaceflight. Even though it records the events of nearly forty years ago, it is still hard to believe that men put their faith in such frail craft; the chances of safely returning from the voyage to the moon were put at no more than 50/50.
What struck me most about this book was the depth of research, and the revelatory nature of some of the material. For example, while I consider myself pretty knowledgeable about the mechanics of Apollo, having eagerly consumed anything and everything I could get my hands on since I was a kid watching it on TV, I was surprised to find out the accuracy required to safely enter lunar orbit. This book reveals that an SPS burn even 2 seconds short or longer than planned could result in either a crash into the Moon or slingshot into solar orbit. And that, once in orbit around the Moon, the time between loss-of-signal and re-aquisition was pre-calculated to the second, and their calculation was invariably right on the money. All this in the era of the slide-rule.
If you have even a passing interest in the technical detail of Man's greatest accomplishment, get this book. Guaranteed to please the hard-core space fan.
Rated by buyers -
Very informative book on the mechanics of getting to the moon in the 1960s; also,contains some very good photos.
Rated by buyers -
How was the pyramids built? Humanity tends to easily forget how great achievements are made, at least close to their actually performance. However, over time the question "how" is often subject to more debate and interest than the question "why" and "who". This book really fills the gap and explains in great detail the different technical aspects of Apollo's fligths to the moon. It's also written in such way that you really don't have to be a nobel prize winner to understand it or appreciate it. If you haven't read any books on this subject before, I strongly recommend you to begin with this!
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