Moondust - Andrew Smith
Moondust: In Search of the Men Who Fell to Earth - Andrew Smith
Non-Fiction
Pages: 384
This is an interesting book: part travelogue, part collective biography of the nine remaining men who set foot on the moon and what happened to them after that life-changing experience, and part philosophical discourse on what Apollo and the moon landings have come to mean to us in the forty years since Neil Armstrong became the first man on the moon. I loved it, from start to finish; I couldn't put it down, and when I did I felt thoroughly infected by the author's passion and 'childlike wonder'.
It's that wonder, I think, that keeps us fixating on the moon, on the Apollo space program, and on the men who risked their lives to reach the moon. Because when you look at the numbers, at the billions of dollars that the program cost, all the men and the manpower and the resources, and what did we achieve? A man stood on another world, but in concrete terms, what has it meant? And the answer is, truthfully, very little. Could that money and brainpower have been better spent solving problems here on Earth? Probably. Was Apollo worth it, in those terms?
No, probably not, but that's not why we went. Or perhaps it was, perhaps it was meant to be about technological advances and great leaps forward, and in that sense perhaps Apollo was a failure and that's why we haven't been back since. But it's not why we should go back. Going to the moon, Smith argues, isn't about the moon, it's about us. It's about giving us the perspective to see our own world in its proper context, an opportunity to see how precious and small it is and we all are. Going to the moon doesn't only help us to learn about another world, it helps us to learn about this world and our place in it. To quote Mallory, we should go because it's there. We should go because it's next, because we as humans have always been about moving on, moving up, crossing rivers and climbing mountains and overcoming the next challenge and the next and the next...
It's incredible to me that my mobile phone has more technology in it than the program that put a man on the moon, and you can't help but think, Why did we stop? Why didn't we push on? Why has it all stagnated? If we could put a man on the moon forty years ago why aren't we further along? Where has that desire gone? If everyone could read this book, perhaps that spark might be rekindled, because one day Apollo might prove to be the beginning of a journey that will save our lives, and who would be counting the cost then?
Non-Fiction
Pages: 384
This is an interesting book: part travelogue, part collective biography of the nine remaining men who set foot on the moon and what happened to them after that life-changing experience, and part philosophical discourse on what Apollo and the moon landings have come to mean to us in the forty years since Neil Armstrong became the first man on the moon. I loved it, from start to finish; I couldn't put it down, and when I did I felt thoroughly infected by the author's passion and 'childlike wonder'.
It's that wonder, I think, that keeps us fixating on the moon, on the Apollo space program, and on the men who risked their lives to reach the moon. Because when you look at the numbers, at the billions of dollars that the program cost, all the men and the manpower and the resources, and what did we achieve? A man stood on another world, but in concrete terms, what has it meant? And the answer is, truthfully, very little. Could that money and brainpower have been better spent solving problems here on Earth? Probably. Was Apollo worth it, in those terms?
No, probably not, but that's not why we went. Or perhaps it was, perhaps it was meant to be about technological advances and great leaps forward, and in that sense perhaps Apollo was a failure and that's why we haven't been back since. But it's not why we should go back. Going to the moon, Smith argues, isn't about the moon, it's about us. It's about giving us the perspective to see our own world in its proper context, an opportunity to see how precious and small it is and we all are. Going to the moon doesn't only help us to learn about another world, it helps us to learn about this world and our place in it. To quote Mallory, we should go because it's there. We should go because it's next, because we as humans have always been about moving on, moving up, crossing rivers and climbing mountains and overcoming the next challenge and the next and the next...
It's incredible to me that my mobile phone has more technology in it than the program that put a man on the moon, and you can't help but think, Why did we stop? Why didn't we push on? Why has it all stagnated? If we could put a man on the moon forty years ago why aren't we further along? Where has that desire gone? If everyone could read this book, perhaps that spark might be rekindled, because one day Apollo might prove to be the beginning of a journey that will save our lives, and who would be counting the cost then?