Stats for nerds
4recommend
6mentions
6people
2009–2026years
67% recommend33% neutral
Mentions per year
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- Yes, I enjoyed Kranz’s book as well, though I thought it was quite different. If you liked that, I might suggest “Moon Lander” by Thomas J Kelly, which was the basis for the “From the Earth to the Moon” episode “Spider” (also excellent). You may also enjoy “More than My Share of it All” by Clarence ‘Kelly’ Johnson, about the early history of Lockheed’s Skunk Works.
- Depending how deep you want to dive into this rabbit-hole:
-How Apollo flew to the Moon: https://amzn.eu/d/1QtsN1D Covers in my opinion all aspects of the Apollo/Saturn programme, including design, technology, procedures and a lot of history as well. A must read if you are interested in such things
-Moon Lander https://amzn.eu/d/bI3wpt7 Memoire of Thomas Kelly the chief engineer for the Lunar Lander. Gives great insights of the technical and management challenges while desiging the first "true" spaceship. Highly recommendet!
-Digital Apollo: https://amzn.eu/d/0KigTU9 Focuses on software development (actually an afterthought to hardware development) for the Command Module and the Moon Lander and on the important aspect how much controll should be given to the astronauts against automatic systems. Includes a very detailed analysis of the software alarms that almost compromised the first moon landing.
-Failure Is Not An Option: https://amzn.eu/d/ix6CWnq The memoir of the Gene Kranz, the tough, no bullshit flight controller pictured in the Apollo 13 movie. Kranz was a key player in the manned space program for decades. Here we learn that almost each moon mission had critical moments and had to be saved by the teams at mission controll and the astronauts.
Other interesting books: -Moon Launch: https://amzn.eu/d/1Z6U5f6 on Saturn Apollo Launch Operations -Sunburst and Apollo: https://amzn.eu/d/2ms3IW8 a personal memoire of one of the software designers for the LM computer
Hope there is something interesting for you in the list.
- The best place to start is Apollo by Murray/Cox: https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/282086.Apollo Rather than focusing on the astronauts, this is very much a story of the engineering and management that made the project possible.
From someone who helped develop the lunar lander, there's Thomas J. Kelly's "Moon Lander: How We Developed the Apollo Lunar Module": https://www.amazon.com/dp/1588342735/
Another good book (so I've heard - I own a copy but haven't made time to read it yet) is Sunburst and Luminary by Don Eyles, who worked on the guidance system at MIT: https://www.sunburstandluminary.com/SLhome.html
For deep technical details (but light on first-person stories), there's How Apollo Flew to the Moon: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2323178.How_Apollo_Flew_...
Finally, not strictly related to the space race, but for some truly wonderful first-hand tales from the development of rocket propellants, you can't beat John D. Clark's Ignition!: https://www.amazon.com/Ignition-Informal-Propellants-Univers...
- If you want to learn about the evolution and operation of Mission Control, "Failure Is Not an Option"[1] by Gene Kranz (Ed Harris in Apollo 13) is fantastic.
For more Apollo geekery, check out "Moon Lander: How We Developed the Apollo Lunar Module" [2] by Thomas J. Kelly, the Grumman Program Manager. His guidelines for making the LM reliable are just as relevant today:
* Specify the highest quality systems and components the current state of the art could achieve.
* Provide system-level redundancy whenever possible, preferably by dissimilar means...
* Provide component-level redundancy at the highest component level possible...
* Strive for simplicity and ample design safety margins.
* Test extensively and exhaustively in various environments and stress levels, including stress to failure. Document all failures and investigate until the specific cause is found and design, manufacturing, or operational corrections have been made.
[1] http://www.amazon.com/Failure-Not-Option-Mission-Control/dp/...
[2] http://www.amazon.com/Moon-Lander-Developed-Smithsonian-Spac...
- The engineers at Grumman went to extraordinary lengths to trim weight from the Lunar Module so that its single ascent engine could boost it from the lunar surface. The book Moon Lander by chief engineer Thomas J. Kelly tells the story.
The flag was extended by a wire along the top.
