Leonard David

As one might expect of something from National Geographic, this book is chock full of beautiful pictures supplemented by fact-rich text. Although putatively tied to the NatGeo Channel's "Mars" TV show, the book stands completely on its own. Its contents are quite up-to-the-minute current. Perhaps its weakest spots are where it tries to look into the far future. My favorite sections are its "Heroes": single-page bio/backgrounders that celebrate the work of those who have helped and are helping us reach for Mars.… (más)

Leonard David's book is one part history, one part theory. The first half deals with the world's rush to land on the moon, and the second half explores the possibilities that come with mining its resources and colonizing it. All of this is interesting, but the book is a shallow exploration of these ideas. It's enough to give you a cursory idea of what a realistic (albeit incredibly optimistic) vision of the future is, particularly when it comes to mining moon ice and setting up lunar bases. Still, it doesn't explore these issues in any depth.… (más)

’ve read many works of fiction that are set in space, watched many movies and TV shows set in space, but I’ve never really read much nonfiction about space.

And you can rest assured that you are in good hands here with journalist Leonard David, who has been reporting on space-related news for over 50 years.

The race to the moon began in the 1960s, between the Soviet Union and the US. But today it is a very different landscape – in January, the Chinese landed a spacecraft on the far side of the moon; a spacecraft from an Israeli nonprofit crash-landed on the moon in April; India’s moon-lander is scheduled to take off later this year; or how about Japan, which plans its own lunar rover to land next year? The race to space is definitely back on and this book is published just at the right time to tell us all about the history behind it all, as well as what’s upcoming developments that we can expect in lunar exploration.



Some fascinating tidbits of information were gathered from my reading of this book.

Such as:

“Three sealed samples, one each from Apollo 15, 16, and 17, remain unopened, intentionally saved until technology and instrumentation has advanced to the point that investigators can maximize the scientific return on these unique specimens.”

I couldn’t help wondering when exactly that would be. How, for instance, could anyone decide, oh we should open this year, when who knows what kind of scientific advancement could happen next year? It’s not like science and technology is going to stop improving (or at least I hope not) so who makes that decision and how do they make such a decision?

Reading this book made me wonder, would I go to space if that were an option in the future? Would I want to go to the moon? I don’t know if I would. I don’t think I like the idea of hurtling up in a spacecraft powered by rockets (that’s probably why the first astronauts were pilots). How about you? Would you want to be a space tourist?
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