Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: Apollo 15: The NASA Mission Reports, Volume 1 (Apogee Books Space Series) by David Scott, James C., Dr. Fletcher, Robert Godwin ISBN: 1-896522-57-2 Publisher: Apogee Books Pub. Date: 01 August, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.75 (4 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: The NASA Mission Reports
Comment: From the press kit to the technical crew debriefing and everything in between, this book thoroughly describes the Apollo 15 mission. This mission was the first to use the Lunar Rover, the first to venture into a lunar mountain range, and the first to do major geologic work. This book uses the archives of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to document all aspects of the mission. The accompanying CD-ROM contains hundreds of images of the moon, hours of video of the moon walkers, and other interesting information about the mission. The press kit contains all the information given to reporters, including a step-by-step breakdown of the mission; this offers readers a complete, highly detailed study of the Apollo mission. Almost a third of the book is a transcript of the technical debriefing, interesting both because of the personal details of the mission rarely seen by the public and the interactions between the men who were on the mission. This book, along with the others in the series, forms an excellent technical history of the manned space program. General readers; lower-division undergraduates.
Rating: 5
Summary: Another Great Book From Robert Godwin And Apogee Books
Comment: This book appears to have been released to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the Apollo 15 mission and contains a great deal of information about this extremely important lunar exploration mission. This mission was the first extended duration lunar exploration mission (3 days on the Moon's surface) and featured the lunar rover, which greatly extended the area that the two astronauts could explore. This Apollo mission is considered to be one of humanity's greatest voyages of exploration. David Scott commanded the Apollo 15 mission and contributes a few introductory pages.
The book opens with the usual NASA mission press kit. Unlike the earlier Apollo 14 press kit, this press kit is significantly larger, due to the increased emphasis on the scientific exploration of the Moon. The next portion of the book contains an excellent section titled "On the Moon With Apollo 15." This section focuses on the geology of the Hadley Rille/Apennine Mountains landing site, the science experiments that will be conducted on the surface and the equipment and tools that will be used to accomplish these tasks. This portion of the book was published separately by NASA in 1971 and a used copy now sells for around 25$. The next section of the book, the Pre-flight Mission Operations Report, presents an overview of planned timelines (work plan), while the next section, the Post-flight Mission Operations Report, presents the actual timelines, points out the discrepancies between the two timelines and describes any problems with the hardware
The crew debrief section, which is about 100 pages long, contains the crew comments and feelings about various parts of the mission and for the most part avoids the technical language that many of the NASA documents include; however there are several sections where the crew practically talks in acronyms. The crew debrief contains crew comments from the suiting up phase to the landing, plus comments about the training (did it or did not help the crew). Dave Scott and Jim Irwin dominate most of the crew debrief, since most of the questioning and mission focused on the lunar surface operations; however, Al Worden has a lot to say about his photographic survey of the moon and his deep space EVA (the first one ever conducted). I always find the crew debriefing quite enjoyable, because it is the closest thing to being there and you get two or three first had view points of various aspects of the mission.
The enclosed CD (be careful it is hard to get out) contains a lot of color and black and white photographs, several NASA films and an extremely interesting feature on the development of the Lunar Rover.
Some general information that might be useful.
1) These reports are just scanned-in documents from previously released NASA press kits, etc., In order to preserve the spirit of the original reports, all typographical and grammatical errors have NOT been fixed.
2) Proceeds from the book goes to "The Watch" an asteroid impact research project of the Space Frontier Foundation. In other words, Apogee Books is making very little off the sale of US government produced books.
3) Many people have asked why the post mission reports are not included. Since NASA has published many books with hundred of pages (The NASA SP series), and the data from these missions is still being analyzed, it would be impossible to do.
Rating: 4
Summary: Only One Flaw.
Comment: The Nasa Mission Report series are FANTASTIC products. I cannot more highly recommend them. BUT: they only have one flaw. Getting the CD-Rom out of their tight package on the rear page runs the risk of badly damaging the back cover if you're not careful. And that's what I unfortunately did to my copy of Apollo 15. I suggest using a sharp letter-opener very carefully to pierce and open the seal at the top of the CD-Rom's plastic sleeve. What's this book/CD-Rom like? The range of documents and video clips is excellent and the photos are not too bad, but I've seen clearer versions of some of these pictures elsewhere. The video of "In The Mountains Of The Moon" is disappointingly fuzzy and pixelated, unlike the rest of the clips which are very good. Roll on Volume Two!!
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
