Go to the moon, go crazy (new book)

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radarredux

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The New York Times Book Review section reviews:<br /><br />Moondust : In Search of the Men Who Fell to Earth <br />By Andrew Smith<br />http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/11/books/review/11thompson.html<br />(registration may be required)<br /><br />The author hunts down the surviving nine Moon walkers and "finds them still grappling with the experience, in oddly divergent ways." A few quotes from the review:<br /><br />"<i>NASA spent billions to give them the biggest rush any explorer has ever felt. So you can begin to appreciate the peculiarly cosmic dimensions of their eventual midlife crises: after you've been to the moon, whatever do you do with the rest of your life?</i>"<br /><br />"<i>Even more gripping are Smith's explorations of just how dangerous those voyages were. Virtually every one narrowly avoided catastrophe.</i>"<br /><br />"<i>Open up a paper these days, and you'll find critics slamming NASA for having a ''broken safety culture.'' Sure, but as Smith documents, spaceflight is inherently dangerous, and the United States of yore -- the one that actually sent people into deep space, instead of financing a go-nowhere shuttle that runs pointless laps around the Earth -- was willing to tolerate levels of risk that today would be considered, pun intended, complete lunacy.</i>"<br /><br />What goes through my mind when I see books like these: Will the 13th person walk on the Moon before these remaining 9 die?
 
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JonClarke

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I've read it, it has some interesting stuff but for the most part reveals nothing new. It also contains some disturbing errors, such as describing Arthur Clarke as a nazi. The best bit was reading that Bart Sibrel had been stalking quite a few Apollo astronauts (Duke and Mitchell come to mind) before Buzz slugged him.<br /><br />Jon <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><em>Whether we become a multi-planet species with unlimited horizons, or are forever confined to Earth will be decided in the twenty-first century amid the vast plains, rugged canyons and lofty mountains of Mars</em>  Arthur Clarke</p> </div>
 
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rsp1202

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The author states that during Apollo 11/Eagle's landing phase, Aldrin and/or Armstrong saw (to paraphrase) a previously landed moon probe. Factually inaccurate; Apollo 12 landed near Surveyor 3, but I believe they only saw it after they had landed and gone EVA on the surface.
 
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