July 20th is National Moon Day to celebrate the historic American moon landing of 1969.
One Giant Leap: The Impossible Mission That Flew Us to the Moon by Charles Fishman - Book | Large Print | CD Audiobook
"President John F. Kennedy astonished the world on May 25, 1961, when he announced to Congress that the United States should land a man on the Moon by 1970. No group was more surprised than the scientists and engineers at NASA, who suddenly had less than a decade to invent space travel. When Kennedy announced that goal, no one knew how to navigate to the Moon. No one knew how to build a rocket big enough to reach the Moon, or how to build a computer small enough (and powerful enough) to fly a spaceship there. No one knew what the surface of the Moon was like, or what astronauts could eat as they flew there. On the day of Kennedy’s historic speech, America had a total of fifteen minutes of spaceflight experience—with just five of those minutes outside the atmosphere. Russian dogs had more time in space than US astronauts. Over the next decade, more than 400,000 scientists, engineers, and factory workers would send twenty-four astronauts to the Moon. Each hour of space flight would require one million hours of work back on Earth to get America to the Moon on July 20, 1969." -From the Publisher
Moon 3-D: The Lunar Surface Comes to Life by Jim Bell
"After a series of brief essays explaining the history and future of lunar exploration, the volume launches into a spectacular showcase of the best 3-D images available, taken by both robotic and human exploration missions; the pictures shot by the Apollo astronauts on their Moon walk receive special attention. In addition, an artistic selection of non-3D photos appears throughout, along with conceptual designs for future moon-based adventures." -From the Publisher
8 Days: To the Moon and Back - Kanopy
"Seamlessly blending Apollo 11 mission audio featuring conversations between Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins with news footage, NASA archive, and stunning CGI, this film is a stunning recreation of the first moon landing." -From Kanopy
Moon Landing: The Lost Tapes - Hoopla
"On the 50th anniversary of the historic moon landing, this documentary unearths lost tapes of the Apollo 11 astronauts, and explores the dangers and challenges of the mission to the moon." -From Hoopla
American Moonshot: John F. Kennedy and the Great Space Race by Douglas Brinkley - Book | Playaway | eBook on Libby
"On May 25, 1961, JFK made an astonishing announcement: his goal of putting a man on the moon by the end of the decade. In this engrossing, fast-paced epic, Douglas Brinkley returns to the 1960s to recreate one of the most exciting and ambitious achievements in the history of humankind. American Moonshot brings together the extraordinary political, cultural, and scientific factors that fueled the birth and development of NASA and the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo projects, which shot the United States to victory in the space race against the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War. Drawing on new primary source material and major interviews with many of the surviving figures who were key to America’s success, Brinkley brings this fascinating history to life as never before. American Moonshot is a portrait of the brilliant men and women who made this giant leap possible, the technology that enabled us to propel men beyond earth’s orbit to the moon and return them safely, and the geopolitical tensions that spurred Kennedy to commit himself fully to this audacious dream. Brinkley’s ensemble cast of New Frontier characters include rocketeer Wernher von Braun, astronaut John Glenn and space booster Lyndon Johnson. A vivid and enthralling chronicle of one of the most thrilling, hopeful, and turbulent eras in the nation’s history, American Moonshot is an homage to scientific ingenuity, human curiosity, and the boundless American spirit." -From the Publisher
Chasing the Moon by Robert Stone - DVD | Kanopy | Companion Book
"Chasing the Moon reimagines the race to the moon for a new generation, upending much of the conventional mythology surrounding the effort. The series recasts the Space Age as a fascinating stew of scientific innovation, political calculation, media spectacle, visionary impulses and personal drama. With no narration and using only archival footage, the film features a diverse cast of characters who played key roles in these historic events." -From the Publisher
Apollo’s Muse: The Moon in the Age of Photography by Mia Fineman & Beth Saunders
"Celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission, Apollo's Muse honors the rich history of photographic representations of the moon, from rarely seen early daguerreotypes to contemporary video art. Engaging and accessible, the book explores how photographers captured this celestial body-and how the images have in turn inspired artists, writers, and scientists. The book's wide-ranging focus includes extraordinary reproductions of the first successful series of lunar daguerreotypes by the American photographer John Adams Whipple, along with film stills from Voyage dans la Lune (1902) by Georges Melies; American "paper moon" studio portraits; images from the Apollo mission; and works by contemporary artists, including Vija Celmins, Roy Lichtenstein, Aleksandra Mir, Vik Muniz, Nam June Paik, and Robert Rauschenberg. Related prints, drawings, paintings, and astronomical instruments explore artists' fascination with the moon, as an object of both art and science." -From the Catalog
For All Mankind (DVD)
"The documentary chronicles the Apollo space program and mankind's journey to the moon, using no narration, only the voices of the astronauts and mission control. Reinert edits together various film clips and NASA footage from Apollo missions, voice transmissions between the spacecraft and mission control and interviews with the astronauts to present the experiences as a single, epic trip to the moon." -From the Catalog
The Moon: A History for the Future by Oliver Morton
"Every generation has looked towards the heavens and wondered at the beauty of the Moon. Fifty years ago, a few Americans became the first to do the reverse--and shared with Earth-bound audiences the view of their own planet hanging in the sky instead.
Recently, the connection has been discovered to be even closer: a fragment of the Earth's surface was found embedded in a rock brought back from the Moon. And astronauts are preparing to return to the surface of the Moon after a half-century hiatus--this time to the dark side.
Oliver Morton explores how the ways we have looked at the Moon have shaped our perceptions of the Earth: from the controversies of early astronomers such as van Eyck and Galileo, to the Cold War space race, to the potential use of the Moon as a stepping stone for further space exploration.
Advanced technologies, new ambitions, and old dreams mean that men, women, and robots now seem certain to return to the Moon. For some, it is a future on which humankind has turned its back for too long. For others, an adventure yet to begin." -From the Publisher
