Apollo 8: The Mission That Changed Everything by Martin W. Sandler

But now it was the whole globe receding in size, dwindling until it became a disk.  We were the first humans to see the world in its majestic totality, an intensely emotional experience for each of us. We said nothing to each other, but I was sure out thoughts were identical -- of our families on that spinning globe. And maybe we shared another thought I had...This must be what God sees." 
                                                                                                             Frank Borman


As with any book about the space race, Apollo 8: The Mission That Changed Everything begins with President John F. Kennedy's famous speech on May 25, 1961, challenging America to put a man on the moon by the end of the 1960's.

The Americans seemed to be well behind the Soviets who had not only launched Sputnik, the world's first artificial satellite, but also sent Soviet cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin into orbit around the Earth, the first human to do so. In 1961, communism seemed to be on the rise in every part of the world: a new communist government had been established in Cuba, half of the city of Berlin had just been taken over by communists and the civil war in Vietnam was about to intensify.

In the 1960s, the space program in the U.S. continued to work towards its goal of putting a man on the moon. Each mission built upon the  previous one, which offered  lessons. In 1968, Apollo 8 was set to launch on December 21 and this mission would be another step in that goal, testing the lunar module. But the objective of the mission was drastically altered and escalated when NASA learned from the CIA that the Soviets had a rocket capable of carrying two men to the moon and that it was being moved into launch position. Although the Soviets would not able to land on the Moon, a successful mission to the Moon would mean they would be able to say they were first to the Moon.

George Low, manager of the Apollo Spacecraft Program knew he had to act. Low came up with the plan to send Apollo 8, sans lunar lander to the Moon, to test communications and navigation systems. Low knew he would have to sell this to the head of the Apollo project, Christopher Kraft, but in the end he succeeded. Not only was getting to the Moon first an important technological achievement in terms of the space race, it was important too. One of the main objectives of the space race was to prove that American capitalism was more successful than Soviet communism.

All three Apollo 8 astronauts, Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders were on board with the revised mission objectives. Eventually NASA's Administrator, James E Webb also gave the go-ahead for the revised mission that would see Apollo 8 head to the moon and return to Earth. This decision meant enormous changes to the mission; a new flight plan and retraining the astronauts, in particular Bill Anders who was to pilot the lunar module but now had to train for the command and service modules. Anders was also responsible for "surveying the lunar surface for future landing sites."

What follows is the thrilling account of Apollo 8's remarkable journey from liftoff atop the Saturn V rocket to the Moon and back. Apollo 8: The Mission That Changed Everything tells the story of how NASA scientists and the Apollo 8 astronauts came together, took enormous risks to make a daring mission an outstanding success.

Discussion

Apollo 8: The Mission That Changed Everything tells the story of the remarkable mission that was rejigged in order to put America ahead of the Soviets in the space race. Sandler begins by setting the stage for the events of Apollo 8 - the famous speech by Kennedy. However, the original objectives of the Apollo 8 mission were drastically altered when new intelligence revealed the Soviet Union's potential ability to travel to the Moon. From this point on, Sandler focuses on the changes to the Apollo mission and the enormous risks the Apollo 8 astronauts were being asked to undertake.

These risks included creating new flight plan and using the largest rocket in the world that was still largely untested. Then there was the difficulty of both placing the spacecraft on trajectory to intersect the Moon as well as achieving lunar orbit. NASA flight director Gene Kranz likened the first to "threading the needle, shooting a spacecraft from a rotating Earth at the leading edge of the Moon, a moving target a quarter of a million miles away."  The enormous distance between the Earth and Moon meant that should anything go wrong, and the trip back was three days. The astronauts also needed to perform an SPS burn to put them into orbit around the moon and a third burn to push them out of lunar orbit and back to Earth. On their return to Earth they also needed to accomplish reentry exactly. If the spacecraft's reentry was too steep, the gravitational forces on the astronauts as well as temperatures on the craft's heat shield would be extreme. A too shallow reentry would mean the risk of the spacecraft "bouncing off" the atmosphere causing it to "soar into a huge elliptical orbit around the earth."

Earthrise taken by Bill Anders

Much of the backstory to space exploration and the United States and Soviet space programs is told in separate sections using light blue paper with a faint image of the Moon. These sections are informative and fill in the blanks on certain aspects of the story, both cultural and science related. For example,  Pioneers of Rocketry explores the three scientists who laid the groundwork for modern rocketry, Russia's Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, Germany's Hermann Oberth,  and the United States' Robert Goddard. Other special topics include Soviet rocket engineer Sergei Korolev who developed the world's first intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) and who also designed Sputnik. Other sections include Paving the Way For Apollo 8 which summaries the first space missions that laid the groundwork for Apollo 8 including Project Mercury and the Gemini missions, The Families which focuses on how the mission impacted the astronauts families, and What's In A Name which discusses how areas of the Moon have been named.

Apollo 8 captures the astronaut's reactions to the incredible experiences of seeing Earth diminish as they travelled towards the Moon, recording the Earth rise on the Moon's horizon and seeing the dark side of the Moon for the first time. All three astronauts were deeply affected by these sights. What struck them was the Earth's fragility. Anders' colour photograph titled Earthrise made different impressions on each of the astronauts. For Lovell, it "became a symbol of the Earth's fragility, a reminder of just how small and insignificant the Earth's place in the universe truly is..." This impression was not unique to just Lovell, but to the millions and millions of people on Earth who watch the broadcasts from Apollo 8 and who saw this photograph.

Apollo 8: The Mission That Changed Everything is a fascinating account of a mission that changed the space race and gave the American's the technical advantage to successfully land on the Moon a mere seven months later. Sandler includes plenty of photographs, a detailed section containing Source Notes, a Bibliography, short profiles of the Apollo 8 astronauts after the mission and an Index. A great book for anyone interested in accounts of the space race and the Apollo missions.

Earthrise image:  https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap181224.html

Book Details:

Apollo 8: The Mission That Changed Everything by Martin W. Sandler
Somerville, Massachusetts: Candlewick Press        2018
160 pp.

The Astronaut Who Painted The Moon by Dean Robbins

The Astronaut Who Painted the Moon is about Alan Bean, NASA astronaut who flew on Apollo 12 and who is also know for his artwork portraying his space experiences. In this picture book by Dean Robbins, Bean, after blasting off in a rocket to take him to the moon, reminisces about dreaming about becoming a pilot someday. He took navy flight training and wished he could paint what he saw. In art class, Bean learned about patterns and forms and experimented with bold bright colours. He wanted his art to convey to people how he felt.

Bean's spacecraft took four days to travel the 240,000 miles to the Moon. On the Moon, Bean found it had its own kind of beauty, "Gray dust as far as he could see. Thousands of black craters. Hard white sunlight. And everything perfectly still."

Bean enjoyed his time on the Moon and was puzzled and entranced by its uniqueness and difference to Earth. When he tried to explain what it was like he found words were simply not enough. To convey to friends and family just what it was like, Bean began to paint the Moon and the astronauts. He used unusual colours, stamped them with astronaut boots, even sprinkled dust from his spacesuits on his art! His artwork was appealing and eventually came to be displayed in galleries. Alan Bean had succeeded in conveying to others the stark beauty he experienced on the Moon.

Discussion
The Astronaut Who Painted The Moon gives young readers an inside look at the remarkable life of Alan Bean, astronaut and painter extraordinaire.

Alan LaVern Bean was born on March 15, 1932 in Wheeler, Texas. Bean attended the University of Texas, where he was a Navy ROTC student, earning a degree in aeronautical engineering. After completing flight training Bean became part of Attack Squadron 44 based at Jacksonville, Florida. In 1960, Bean attended the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School in Maryland. His instructor was Pete Conrad who would later be his commander on Apollo 12. Bean was a test pilot who flew several different types of test aircraft.

Bean missed being selected for the second group of NASA astronauts but was selected in the third group in October of 1963. He was part of the backup crew for Gemini 10 and Apollo 9. On the Apollo 12 mission, Bean was the Lunar Command Module pilot. The launch saw the rocket hit twice by lightning which scrambled the electrical systems but the mission went forward without complications after Bean restored the telemetry system. Apollo 12 with Bean and Pete Conrad landed on the Moon's Ocean of Storms while Dick Gordon remained in the command module orbiting the moon. On November 19, 1969,  Bean was the fourth man to walk on the surface of the Moon.

In 1973, Bean returned to space as the Commander of the second crew to inhabit the Skylab space station built by the Americans. He was also part of the Space Shuttle program, but in the capacity of training astronauts. This gave Bean the time to work a bit on his artistic endeavours. Bean retired from NASA in 1981 and passed away in 2018, the last crew member of Apollo 12.

Bean was overwhelmed by his experience on the Moon's surface. Having taking art courses before he became an astronaut, Bean decided to retire in 1981 and devote his time to painting. He wanted to convey this experiences on the Moon through his art. As a scientist Bean would have had to paint the Moon grey, but as an artist he could consider the use of colour. And that's what he worked on - how to paint the Moon in colours that would work, while still portraying in realistically.

Bean had never seriously considered becoming an artist until a friend suggested he try this after his Skylab mission. He preferred to work in acrylics. What makes Bean's artwork even more interesting and unique is that the base coat of all his paintings contain pieces of the flag or name tag sewn on his space suit, pieces of the Kaplan gold foil from the command module, and even charred pieces from the command module. Readers can learn more about Alan Bean's artistic process at alanbeangallery.com Select Alan Bean - Artist and Astronaut which links to an essay by Ulrich Lotzmann about Bean's NASA career and his technique as an artist.

Artist Sean Rubin attempts to capture Bean's style of painting through his own illustrations in The Astronaut Who Painted The Moon. Rubin uses crosshatching to provide some texture as well as unusual colours such as vibrant purples, reds and blues - colours not found on the Moon, in his illustrations, mimicking to some extent Bean's portrayal of the Moon and the astronauts. The cover which shows Bean painting on the moon, while not realistic (he only painted back on Earth!) conveys how Bean himself viewed his life, "...as an artist who was once an astronaut."

Robbins includes a short section on Alan Bean along with some of his paintings based on photographs taken during the Moon walks, as well as A Brief History Of Space Exploration in the form of a timeline.

The Astronaut Who Painted The Moon will be of interest to those doing a space unit, those interested in moon exploration and the Apollo program as well as STEAM activities as this book melds both science and art. Well presented and highly recommended.

Book Details:

The Astronaut who Painted The Moon by Dean Robbins
New York: Orchard Books         2019

172 Hours On The Moon by Johan Harstad

172 Hours is set in the year, 2019. In 2010, eight men including the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff met to plan a return mission to the moon. They want to return to a secret base, DARLAH 2 built in the Sea of Tranquility from 1974 to 1976. It was built there to investigate some unusual phenomena which the Apollo astronauts encountered during the moon missions. We are never told what much about the first DARLAH base until well into the novel. 

The purpose of this new mission is threefold; to make sure the base is in working condition, to investigate the potential for mining rare Earth metals and to attract media attention so as to secure funding for future missions. To attract the necessary media attention, they decide to send three teenagers on the mission to attract a new generation of supporters for space exploration. The teens will be chosen by lottery, an unrealistic aspect of the plot because it assumes that everyone is suitable for space exploration. This information which is provided in the prologue provides the backstory.

The first section of the novel, entitled Earth focuses for the most part on the three teens chosen for the mission ; Mia Nomeland from Stavanger, Norway, Midori Yoshida from Yokohama, Japan, and sixteen year old Antoine Devereux from Paris, France. Each has their reason for going. For Mia it's the dream of fame even though her parents signed her up for the lottery , for Midori this is her chance to escape her restrictive life in Japan, while for Antoine it's an escape from a broken relationship. Once they learn they are to participate, things move quickly and the teens undergo a rigorous but short three month training program. 


We also learn about Oleg Himmelfarb, an elderly man who once had been "a custodian with the highest security clearance at NASA's Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex in the middle of the Mojave Desert." Now suffering from dementia, he lives in a nursing home. When Oleg hears about the mission he is terrified to the depths of his very being, but he can't remember why.  Eventually Oleg remembers the source of his fear, but near death and unable to speak, he can only provide a clue which may or may not be recognized by the nursing home staff.

The second part, Sky relates the unfolding horror once the mission arrives on the moon. On the moon, things begin going wrong almost immediately and people begin to die. What seemed like the opportunity of a lifetime, becomes a desperate struggle for survival against something they don't understand but they know is evil. One by one, crew and teens disappear and die. The crew then makes the unnerving discovery of the doppelganger. Harstad introduces the doppelganger into the novel to create both confusion among characters and suspense. Soon we don't know who is real and who is not, who survives and who doesn't.

This novels suffers from a somewhat unbalanced structure with 145 pages devoted to the time before the moon expedition in which background is prevented but not much character development occurs. The lack of character development makes it difficult to relate to the teens and especially the crew who are mostly one dimensional characters. But in a novel driven by plot this doesn't matter quite so much. The effect thous is to want to skip these pages for the most part to get to the more interesting parts of the novel.

Harstad's ending is reminiscent of renowned science fiction writer, John Wyndham, whose novels often left readers to figure out what happened on their own. But unlike Wyndham's endings, there is nothing to suggest the twist the story takes and the ending is largely inexplicable.

Also similar to Wyndham, Harstad's science fiction novel is a combination of horror and psychological thriller.The author uses a great number of devices from modern sci-fi/horror movies including Alien and also Japanese horror movies. The Japanese myth of the Kuchisake-onna, the Slit-Mouth Woman, which is a malicious spirit, is introduced into the novel creating an element of impending horror. There is foreshadowing of this spirit in the first part of the book, when Midori is warned by "Hanako-chan" not to go to the moon.

Harstad also works the mystery of the alphanumeric code 6EQUJ5, which was an unknown signal picked up by the Big Ear Radio Observatory in Ohio in August, 1977, into the novel. The origins of this signal have never been determined and it remains unexplained to date. For Harstad this is a warning not to return to the moon.

If you like horror with your science fiction, and don't mind the loose ends, this book will appeal. Many readers will be drawn in by the innovative cover and the nifty premise. Many will leave unsatisfied.

Book Details:
172 Hours on the Moon by Johan Harstad
New York: Little, Brown and Company
355 pp.