Lives of the Planets

Lives of the Planets
© 2007 Richard Corfield
304 pages

            Ever wanted to take a tour of the solar system, but were deterred by that little problem of explosively decompressing once in the vacuum of space? Lives of the Planets takes readers on a tour by remote, through the history of American, Russian, British, European, and Japanese probes.  Like the moons of Jupiter, it contains a lot of diversity in a modest number of pages, being a physical exploration of our cosmic neighborhood, a history of our robotic journeying, and lectures in brief  along in the trail.  Each stop along the way presents cause for a new topic;  Richard Corfield writes on atmospheric dynamics near Venus, the origins of life on Earth, the vagaries of gravitational mechanics near Jupiter and the asteroid belt, etc.   Pluto is treated with the rest of the Kuiper bet objects.  There's a great deal of entertaining astronomical history to be found here -- history both distant (the formation of our solar system) and recent (our exploration of the same).  Actual content on the planets is harder to come by, however, and therein lies this very likeable book's weakness:  the information on the planets, if gathered together, might constitute a full essay on their own. This is an utterly delightful collection of thoughts on our exploration of the solar system, and what the search has taught us about astronomy in general, but it doesn't quite deliver as a work on the planets in particular. 

 

A Man on the Moon

A Man on the Moon:  the Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts 
© 1994 Andrew Chaikin
670 pages

Yet a higher goal was calling, and we vowed to reach it soon

So we gave ourselves a decade to put fire on the moon

And Apollo told the world, "We can do it if we try! --"

And there was One Small Step, and a fire in the sky. 

("Fire in the Sky", Prometheus Music)

What is it like to step foot upon the moon? Barring the sudden rise of consumer-friendly lunar tourism, our best hope of finding out is to ask ask the men who have done, the twelve astronauts of the Apollo program's last four missions. Andrew Chaikin did just that, and based on lengthy interviews with not only the astronauts but their wives, various flight control officers, and engineers involved with the program, has produced a stellar history of the Apollo program.

Granted, it would be difficult to write a poor history of the Apollo program; even a staid recitation of the facts could not conceal the drama of the United States committing itself to landing on the moon in under a decade, relying on technology, training, procedures, and knowledge that didn't yet exist -- and then doing it repeatedly while all the world watched. Chaikin focuses only on Apollo, opening with "The Fire" (which killed the crew of Apollo I during a routine test), but the book suffers nothing for this, as information about Mercury and Gemini filters in through the accounts of the lives of the astronauts.  Had Chaikin focused only on the technology and politics of Apollo, he could have written a fine work, but his emphasis on the human aspect of lunar exploration, based on extensive interviews with the astronauts,  makes the account truly shine. He allows the reader to join the men of Apollo -- to  hurl ourselves into the blackness of space for three days, protected only by a paper-thin metal shell, and then step foot on another world where to witness the sum of our prior existence as a blue ball hanging alone in the sky. How did such a profound sight effect them?

Although a long an enthusaist of the space program, this book and the drama based on it have opened my eyes to how little of the story I knew. Apollo 11, which is in the news recently owing to Neil Armstrong passing away, was the culimination of a series of flights that tested the command module that took the astronauts from the Earth to the moon, and of the lunar module that carried them down.  To go from the Earth to the moon, from primitive rockets to sophisticated spacecraft that linked worlds -- if only for a decade --is a marvelous feat,  doubly so given the challenges. Even as humanity looked toward the stars, it waged war against itself:  the United States could have easily been distracted by Vietnam and the increasing furore of the Civil Rights movement. The program itself was checkered with problems: its first mission ended in total failure, the crew engulfed in flames;  the astronauts had embarked on an exploration of terra so incognita it wasn't terrra at all.  How does a company on Earth, its every experience dominated by the gravity of Earth, create a vehicle that could travel through the stars and navigate on the moon? What a triumph to human ingeunity and creativity. And then there were the personal problems. This is a story that is dedicated to all of the men who took part in the adventure of lunar exploration, and it doesn't end with Armstrong, Aldrin, and Michael Collins. Every man has a story to tell, like Alan Shephard. The first man in space, he sat out most of the space program for medical reasons until experimental surgery made him flightworthy again. His return to active status made him the oldest man in space, and he had to prove himself against not only the young bucks who he had been supervising, but the bittersweet legacy of his own accomplishment. Sure, he had been the first American in space -- but he spent fifteen minutes up there, and never even achieved orbit. Or take Harrison Schmitt, a geologist who took part in the last Apollo mission. He was the first scientist on the moon; all who went before him were pilots first and scientists second. And the story doesn't end with the men: the majority of them were married, and Chaikan's account explores the unusual stresses astronaut families had to endure through the years.


This history of Apollo is, in a word, marvelous -- not just for remembering what was done, but reflecting on what it meant to the astronauts, and what it means as a society today. In the epilogue, Chaikan touches base with each of the men involved, and most regard Earth's failure to pursue the possibilities of further human spaceflight with disappointment.

"Instead of letting the moon be the gateway to our future, we have let it become a brief chapter in our history. The irony is that in turning away from space exploration -- whose progress is intimately linked to the future of mankind -- we rob ourselves of the long-term vision we desperately need. Any society, if it is to flourish instead of merely survive, must strive to transcend its own limits. It is still as Kennedy said: Exploration, by virtue of difficulty, causes us to focus our abilities and make them better."

Chaikin, p. 583

Having grown up with the shuttle program, I regarded its demise with sadness. But now, reflecting on the legacy of Apollo, the shuttle seems so utterly pedestrian. We once pushed the envelope and landed on other worlds, and now we're content to make runs around the block?  But I have hope. Earlier this month, just as I was reading this work, NASA experienced another astounding victory by landing the largest rover yet on Mars. Its landing procedures have to been seen to be believed,  and I'm as astonished and excited about that as Chaikan made me about Apollo.  And outside the United States, other nations are more aggressive about venturing into space. Humanity's return to the moon is inevitable -- and when it happens, it will be a testament not only to the scientific and material prosperity of modern nations, but the courage and spirit of the men of Apollo.

The Oceans

The Oceans
© 2000 Ellen J. Prager with Sylvia A. Earle
314 pages

Seventy percent of the Earth's surface is covered in water, constituting a vast and largely unknown world of its own -- vitally important to ours, but scarcely explored and barely understood. Beneath the placid (but sometimes storm-tossed) surface lay valley with depths that have never been plumbed; volcanic mountains; great beasts whose size staggers the imagination, and creatures so bizarre that they could just as easily hail from another world. The Oceans is a brief but substantial introduction to this fascinating and vitally important element of our planet.

Life began in the oceans, albeit in very different waters from the ones we delight in today. Prager opens the book with a history of 'evolution's drama', following the growth and divergence of life through th Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras, ending with our own Cenozoic. The oceans have been home to a marvelous variety of life throughout the ages, and the authors devote the rest of the book to understanding the current oceanic environment, examine its chemical, geologic, and biological aspects in turn. Even those of us who don't live near a coast experience the ocean's effects on our lives, through weather; a separate section covers hurricanes, monsoons, El Niño effects, sea level changes, and the increasing impact of global warming. Given how much of our  economies -- indeed, planetary life itself -- depends on the health of the seas, an understanding of them is crucial, especially for those in political and economic leadership. Unfortunately, humans -- not known for being the most farsighted of creatures -- have been steadily destroying that environment for decades. In "A Once-Bountiful Sea",  the authors examine the kinds of damage being done, but offer some encouragement in the fact that some governments are taking the issue seriously, if only out of economic reality and not out of concern for the global environment. The final chapter looks to the future of oceanography, for what we know is dwarfed by what we don't; only 95% of the ocean have been explored. The best is yet to come.

While the subject is fascinating by itself, and utterly relevant, Ellen Prager also proves to be an excellent guide through the oceans, not drowning the reader in details but still delivering depth. She proves talented at explaining fundamental processes in a lucid way -- for instance, showing how waves worth.  She's the author of several other books (Sex, Drugs, and Sea Slime: the Ocean's Oddest Creatures and Why They Matter;  Furious Earth: the Science and Nature of Earthquakes, Volcanoes, and Tsunamis, among others), and I'll definitely be looking into them in the future.

Related:

• Virtually anything by Jacques-Yves Cousteau. 

The Planet that Wasn't

The Planet that Wasn't
© 1976 Isaac Asimov
237 pages

Isaac Asimov routinely penned science essays in various magazines, and given his eagerness to publish books, often produced collections of said science essays. The Planet that Wasn't is one such collection, covering pure science as well as science's perception in society. The title essay refers to the speculated planet of Vulcan, which was thought to exist between Mercury and the Sun, proposed as a way to account for Mercury's slight orbital deviation. Vulcan could never be found, because it did not exist:  our entire understanding of physics had to change (from Newtonian mechanics to Einstein's relativity) before Mercury's orbit was truly understood.  After some initial astrophysics,  a brief series of essays takes us from the versatility of carbon to biochemistry, and Asimov devotes a chapter to the working of the gallbladder, cholesterol, and high blood pressure. The latter essays move from science to its relationship with society: "The Nightfall Effect" addresses the notion that human beings can only settle outer space on other planetary bodies, and not space stations, while "The Flying Dutchman" tackles UFOs.  My favorite essay is "The Bridge of the Gods', which addresses the physics of the rainbow and treated me to a history of optics.

Enjoyable as ever, but I would say that...being an Asimovophile.

Earth Science Made Simple

Earth Science Made Simple
© 2004 Edward F. Albin
224 pages

Earth science! Fun!  I enjoy reading these little guides as introductions to a subject or refreshers on it, and Earth Science Made Simple fits the bill.  Four separate sections cover Geology, Oceanography, Meteorology, and Planetary Science, the last of which applies the principles observed on Earth to understand  the other planets in the solar system.  The book begins with the basics, introducing geology with a primer on atoms and elements. The authors frequently remind readers of material they've surveyed already, when new material is building upon it, mitigating the occasional need to thumb back through the book. The introductions serve the text well, connecting sections together, and the text is replete with illustrations, most of which are helpful. Only one, a list of the planets, seemed more distracting than helpful: while the authors make it clear the planets are not drawn to scale,  they do depict the planets as varying in size (Jupiter being large compared to the rest, Pluto being tiny) -- which will throw readers off when they see Venus (almost as large as Earth) as being drawn slightly smaller than Mercury!

Because this is an introduction to the subject,  more detailed explanations are rare. Were they present, the book would be much larger.  While there are no end-of-chapter quizzes for the reader to test comprehension, the sections open with a glossary of terms that you should be able to identify at section's end, and there are numerous little practical experiments suggested in sidebars that readers can use to see principles at work for themselves -- like witnessing crystal growth after  introducing distilled Epsom salt into a pie pan coated in black construction paper, then leaving it in direct sunlight.  This lives up to the strong expectations I have of the Made Simple series.