Lunar Exploration

Paolo Ulivi provides a well-paced, rapidly moving, balanced, even-handed account of lunar exploration as a popular history. He covers the unmanned programmes, e.g. Ranger, and other American probes in the late ‘50s and in the later chapters he looks at recent lunar exploration and future plans for the same. It’s a book that will be perfect for an enthusiast or someone coming to the story for the first time, as it does not include excessive technical depth. Uniquely drawing on recently declassified documents, detail of Chinese lunar exploration projects is provided, as well as nuclear lunar weapons of the ‘50s developed by the super powers, Soviet Russia and the United States.

From the reviews:

"Lunar Exploration during the past decade was driven by national pride to prove its technological prowess … . These factors are intricately woven in this book … . Planetary Exploration has emerged as one of the most challenging technological agenda … . The book describes the enormity of these efforts, bringing out the mile stones in a lucid and commendable manner, providing a rare insight ... . The book is very timely … . is supplemented by several appendices. … it is a book that every lunar enthusiast would like to read." (N.G. Bhandari, Earth, Moon and Planets, Issue 93, 2005)

"With the Moon now firmly in the sights of the world’s space agencies once again … this concise account of lunar exploration to date is most timely. … Detailed accounts of all the missions, successful and unsuccessful are given … . The book concludes with several appendices of data tables and additional reading, and the whole work is well illustrated throughout … . Both a useful reference and a good read, this is another winner for the Springer-Praxis Astronomy and Space Science Series." (Liftoff, Issue 224, November-December, 2004)

"This book gives a detailed account of the dozens of spacecraft that have got to the moon since the 1950’s. It describes not only the spacecraft and their missions, but also the results of each mission, with an insight into the politics and management of the various space programmes." (Book News on the Internet, January, 2005)

"This book is about the numerous spacecraft, manned and unmanned, that were sent to the Moon since September 1959 … . The author has written an engaging and interesting book which gives a wide-ranging account of lunar exploration missions over the last four and a half decades. It is up-to-date … and looks at future missions by various countries including Japan and China." (John, O’ Donoghue, Astronomy & Space, March, 2005)

"In deciding onthe coverage of his book, Paolo Ulivi has decided to concentrate on the scientific results of lunar exploration missions … . Its seven chapters cover the early lunar missions … . Later chapters deal with the return to the Moon of the 1990’s. … the book is illustrated with about a hundred black-and-white photos and line drawings, which have been chosen largely for their technical content … . As such, the book is a useful and accessible package and reasonably priced." (International Space Review, January, 2005)

"In this detailed account … Paolo Ulivi has set out to describe every lunar project and mission, whether proposed, failed, or successful, since the beginning of the Space Age. … The value of the book for space buffs is increased by an extensive bibliography and appendices … . A useful reference source for everyone interested in how humanity has attempted to learn more about the small world on our cosmic doorstep." (Peter Bond, The Observatory, Vol. 125 (1184), 2005)

"Man’s first attempts to send space crafts to the Moon are getting on towards 50 years old after the Americans were the first to try with Pioneer 0 in August 1958 … . In this thoroughly comprehensive summary Ulivi details every attempt, successful and unsuccessful, manned and unmanned. … There are plenty of surprises for the uninitiated. … If you have more than a passing interest of the history of manned or robotic lunar exploration … this book can only be highly recommended." (Roger Feasey, ASS – Journal of the Auckland Astronomical Society, September, 2004)

"The author of this book takes us through all the lunar missions – crewed as well as robotic … . The information is presented in a strict chronological order … . provides a rather nice time-line comparison. … On the whole a highly recommended book which is a useful addition to the excellent series of space books being published by Springer/Praxis." (Jos Heyman, News Bulletin of theAstronautical Society of Western Australia, Vol. 29 (11), 2004)