Overview
Beattie tells this story within the context of what we knew about the moon in the 1960s, the ongoing programs that looked ahead to the first successful landing, and the objections that had to be overcome within NASA's entrenched engineering culture. Beattie concentrates on activities directly related to science, including behind-the-scenes controversies. He also discusses the important contributions of some of the lesser-known participants and contractors, who played a much larger role than previous books on the program have acknowledged.
Taking Science to the Moon provides the early history of on-site lunar experiments, raising important questions about a shift in NASA policy which led to some of the most dramatic planetary-science developments of our time.
Synopsis
"Transports the reader behind NASAs facade, and into the 1960s' politics, planning sessions, turf battles, camaraderie, and jealousies of the world's major space agency. An absorbing, insightful, and revealing critical history." -- The Observatory
Gordon A. Swann
An excellent account of the workings at NASA headquarters leading up to and during the Apollo era. The author, a geologist and former navy jet pilot, spent a significant amount of his career assuring that good science be done on the Moon. Those of us who participated in that science owe much to Don.
Editorials
Astronomy Now
We get valuable insights into how committees worked and into the struggles for scientific payload space on lunar landers, and into how geological objectives were devised. We also discover how fears of contamination from lunar organisms led to the creation of an elaborate quarantine facility for the first men on the moon. This is a fascinating book.
— Martin Heath
Journal of Geology
This is a very detailed yet clearly written and interesting account of the tremendous effort involved in getting the greatest science return from the Apollo program, starting with having it included in the first place.
— Steven Simon
The Observatory
Taking Science to the Moon transports the reader behind NASAs facade, and into the 1960s' politics, planning sessions, turf battles, camaraderie, and jealousies of the world's major space agency. An absorbing, insightful, and revealing critical history of what eventually turned out to be a hugely successful scientific endeavor.
— David W. Hughes