Reddit Reddit reviews A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts

We found 22 Reddit comments about A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.

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A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts
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22 Reddit comments about A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts:

u/[deleted] · 19 pointsr/space
u/chiknpikncottonplukn · 9 pointsr/IAmA

I wonder if Andrew Chaikin would know who he is. Oh, and if you're interested in knowing about the Apollo missions, his is the definitive book

u/Senno_Ecto_Gammat · 8 pointsr/space

This question gets asked all the time on this sub. I did a search for the term books and compiled this list from the dozens of previous answers:

How to Read the Solar System: A Guide to the Stars and Planets by Christ North and Paul Abel.


A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson.


A Universe from Nothing: Why There is Something Rather than Nothing by Lawrence Krauss.


Cosmos by Carl Sagan.

Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space by Carl Sagan.


Foundations of Astrophysics by Barbara Ryden and Bradley Peterson.


Final Countdown: NASA and the End of the Space Shuttle Program by Pat Duggins.


An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth: What Going to Space Taught Me About Ingenuity, Determination, and Being Prepared for Anything by Chris Hadfield.


You Are Here: Around the World in 92 Minutes: Photographs from the International Space Station by Chris Hadfield.


Space Shuttle: The History of Developing the Space Transportation System by Dennis Jenkins.


Wings in Orbit: Scientific and Engineering Legacies of the Space Shuttle, 1971-2010 by Chapline, Hale, Lane, and Lula.


No Downlink: A Dramatic Narrative About the Challenger Accident and Our Time by Claus Jensen.


Voices from the Moon: Apollo Astronauts Describe Their Lunar Experiences by Andrew Chaikin.


A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts by Andrew Chaikin.


Breaking the Chains of Gravity: The Story of Spaceflight before NASA by Amy Teitel.


Moon Lander: How We Developed the Apollo Lunar Module by Thomas Kelly.


The Scientific Exploration of Venus by Fredric Taylor.


The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe.


Into the Black: The Extraordinary Untold Story of the First Flight of the Space Shuttle Columbia and the Astronauts Who Flew Her by Rowland White and Richard Truly.


An Introduction to Modern Astrophysics by Bradley Carroll and Dale Ostlie.


Rockets, Missiles, and Men in Space by Willy Ley.


Ignition!: An Informal History of Liquid Rocket Propellants by John Clark.


A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking.


Russia in Space by Anatoly Zak.


Rain Of Iron And Ice: The Very Real Threat Of Comet And Asteroid Bombardment by John Lewis.


Mining the Sky: Untold Riches From The Asteroids, Comets, And Planets by John Lewis.


Asteroid Mining: Wealth for the New Space Economy by John Lewis.


Coming of Age in the Milky Way by Timothy Ferris.


The Whole Shebang: A State of the Universe Report by Timothy Ferris.


Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandries by Neil deGrasse Tyson.


Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution by Neil deGrasse Tyson.


Rocket Men: The Epic Story of the First Men on the Moon by Craig Nelson.


The Martian by Andy Weir.


Packing for Mars:The Curious Science of Life in the Void by Mary Roach.


The Overview Effect: Space Exploration and Human Evolution by Frank White.


Gravitation by Misner, Thorne, and Wheeler.


The Science of Interstellar by Kip Thorne.


Entering Space: An Astronaut’s Oddyssey by Joseph Allen.


International Reference Guide to Space Launch Systems by Hopkins, Hopkins, and Isakowitz.


The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality by Brian Greene.


How the Universe Got Its Spots: Diary of a Finite Time in a Finite Space by Janna Levin.


This New Ocean: The Story of the First Space Age by William Burrows.


The Last Man on the Moon by Eugene Cernan.


Failure is Not an Option: Mission Control from Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond by Eugene Cernan.


Apollo 13 by Jim Lovell and Jeffrey Kluger.


The end

u/gravity_low · 6 pointsr/space

If you haven't already I highly recommend reading A Man on the Moon by Andrew Chaikin. It has all of the wonderful stories about the Apollo missions, especially with this quite spirited crew

u/zitronante · 5 pointsr/Austria

Falls du allgemeines Interesse am Raumfahrtprogramm der USA hast, und das noch nicht kennst: Andrew Chalkins "A man on the moon"

Sehr interessantes Buch

u/Thoguth · 5 pointsr/DebateAChristian

> Could you eloborate on which piece of evidence is most convincing to you?

>I personally feel that the evidence for figures like Alexander the Great and Abraham Lincoln is significantly stronger than the evidence that Jesus was God incarnate, for example.

Well, for Alexander the great, we have 5 written accounts that tell us about him. These were all written 400+ years after his death, and most of them were based on previous works (that we no longer have.) For Jesus we have the 4 gospels, the book of Acts, and Paul's writings in his epistles. If you count each epistle individually that's 26 different sources total. (Not counting the book of Revelation -- though if you want to count that, 27 sources.)

Dating the writings to the mid-1st-century, is like a writing about the moon landing dated in the 2000's. (Incidentally, the book widely recognized to be the best non-fiction on the Apollo program, A Man on the Moon was published in 2002, 33 years after the first moon landing, about the same distance between Jesus' resurrection and the oldest-dated books of the New Testament.)

There are at least fragments of these dated from as early as the 1st century, and even more 2nd- and 3rd-hand commentary on them going back to the 2nd century. Some of these are close enough to original events that living witnesses could verify them, and others are close enough that those who had extended direct contact with these witnesses could contribute useful input.

The way I see it, if you're going to believe the Bible accounts are false, you have to come up with a convincing explanation for them. The two I've heard of are that it was a bunch of well-meaning cult members who inadvertently built a legend, and that it was a cynically manufactured story, given with the intention to fleece the people and enrich leaders.

But neither of those stories holds up under scrutiny to me. The authors of the scripture make it clear, both in their tone and in their explicit wording, that they are talking about actual, known, witnessed events, not just fables or fairy tales. They're either telling the truth or they are cynically lying for effect.

And I don't think cynical lies makes sense either. The writings we have come from a time well before Christianity was respected, when it was widely persecuted by both Jews and Romans. People tend to lie when they believe they have something to gain from it, but if the gospel was not true and they knew it, they had nothing to gain and everything to lose.

I know some of this depends on dating which is not universally recognized as accurate, but when I scrutinize the reasons for the dating (as best I understand them) I find that independent of what part of the message I want to or don't want to believe, I agree more with the methods behind the dating that I think is correct. (That is, I'm not just picking a date arbitrarily because it makes it easier to believe -- although sometimes I feel that others are doing such because it makes it easier to discount.)

Oh, and the theory that it was manufactured or revised in the middle ages? That really doesn't match up with what evidence we have. In order to make that kind of forgery, the magesterium would've had to know things about dating of writings that we didn't even start doing until centuries later... It's more likely real than fake, because they just didn't have the technology to fake it.

u/Lee_Ars · 5 pointsr/aviation

Thank you :) If you're looking for some rabbit holes, and if it's not gauche to recommend my own work, I've written at length about a few different aspects of the Apollo program:

Going boldly: Behind the scenes at NASA’s hallowed Mission Control Center

Apollo Flight Controller 101: Every console explained

No, a “checklist error” did not almost derail the first moon landing

45 years after Apollo 13: Ars looks at what went wrong and why

How NASA brought the monstrous F-1 “moon rocket” engine back to life

Putting my own writing aside and focusing on real authoritative sources, there's also the Apollo Lunar Surface Journal. Between that and its companion site, the Apollo Flight Journal, you have a carefully annotated and curated collection of every transmission, photograph, spoken word, and artifact from the entire Apollo program. Warning: you can lose entire weeks of your life here, especially in the high-rez photo galleries (much of the photography was done on 70mm medium format Hasselblad cameras, and the restored and digitized images are astonishingly beautiful and detailed).

If you prefer your space facts in printed form, I very much recommend Woods' How Apollo Flew to the Moon as an excellent one-stop-shop for understanding everything that happened in the Apollo program.

There are two must-have books that completely and totally capture the human adventure that was Apollo. The first is Chaikin's A Man on the Moon, which focuses on the crews and the landings (and was used as the primary source for the excellent HBO mini, [From the Earth to the Moon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/From_the_Earth_to_the_Moon_(miniseries), which everybody should watch because it's basically "Band of Brothers in space" and has awesome scenes like this). The second is Cox & Murray's Apollo: Race to the Moon, which focuses on Mission Control and the almost unbelievable amount of work that had to happen on the ground to make Apollo happen.

There are lots of other excellent Apollo books, but those two (Chaikin and Cox & Murray) are the two to buy if you want some absolutely mind-blowing reading.

Sorry to saturate you with links, but Apollo is kind of my thing :D

u/osm_catan_fan · 4 pointsr/todayilearned

2 books I've enjoyed that together give a pretty thorough view of things:

A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts - All the Apollo missions, and a source for the HBO series "From the Earth to the Moon"

Failure Is Not an Option: Mission Control From Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond - A memoir that's a look at the technical stories and folks supporting the astronauts, starting at our space program's early days.

Both these books are in-depth and not over-dramatized.

u/flashbang123 · 3 pointsr/asktrp

I started to read more when I was trying to unplug. TV/Netflix/phones can really pull you out of reality, make your brain weak as you begin to lose control of your thoughts. Just try not watching TV/youtube for 3 days...why is it so hard? Are we addicted to screens or are we just lazy. Research neuroplasticity, and how you can make your brain work for you (any how you fall into additive traps when you lose control of your attention). A lot of people on here are recommending meditation, I can't stress how important this is.

Start by reading someting that interests you...check out r/suggestmeabook if you need some help. Also, I can recommend some great books:

  • Snow Crash - Neil Stephenson // The best cyberpunk/sci-fi roller-coaster of a read I have come across.
  • The Iliad - Homer / Fagles translaition // Read this to understand the mankind's greatest story about war, violence and masculinity - this is about the Trojan war (well 4 days near the end), and was widely considered to be the Bible for ancient Greeks.
  • A Man on the Moon - Andrew Chaikin // Fascinating (and accurate) account of NASA's Apollo space program from start to finish.
  • Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed - Ben Rich // Behind-the-scenes account of the Skunk Works program and the incredible achievements they made back in the day.

    Best of luck.

u/djellison · 3 pointsr/space

A Man on the Moon by Andy Chaiken is considered THE text on the Apollo program. If formed the basis of the mini series From the Earth to the Moon

Failure is not an Option by Gene Kranz is a wonderful first hand account of life in the trenches from Mercury thru Apollo.

And my personal favorite space book - Roving Mars which was turned into a great IMAX movie as well.

u/Falcon109 · 3 pointsr/AskHistorians

No problem! As for some good reading that is pretty non-technical but still really delves into the manned space programs, I would highly recommend "A Man On The Moon", by Andrew Chaikin. It is appreciated as being one of the best breakdowns of the Apollo Program, and is a great read filled with a ton of interesting information.

Also, ANY of the astronaut auto-biographies are fantastic. As for a few examples, Eugene Cernan's "The Last Man On The Moon" is a great and candid read in my opinion, as is Neil Armstrong's "First Man: The Life of Neil Armstrong". Chris Hadfield's "An Astronauts Guide To Life On Earth" is also excellent and very candid and open as well, covering a lot of stuff about STS and ISS. "Failure Is Not An Option", written by former NASA Flight Director Gene Kranz, is also a great read that gets into a lot of the NASA mission management from Mercury to Apollo, and likewise with astronaut Deke Slayton's great bio titled "Deke!", since Slayton was NASA's Director of Flight Crew Operations after he was grounded due to a heart issue, making him largely responsible for crew assignments at NASA during Gemini and Apollo.

Another good one is "This New Ocean" by William Burrows. It covers the history of humankind's fascination with spaceflight and rocketry, from the ancient myths of Daedalus and Icarus and the early chinese experiments with fireworks right up to the STS shuttle and ISS, and goes into not just mission specifics, but the historical geo-politics and geo-military wranglings that really defined the first "Space Race" with the Soviets.

Actually, here is a link to a list of a bunch of good books written by or about astronauts and the space programs, and just about every book on this list I would recommend.

Also, if you have not yet seen it, I STRONGLY recommend that you check out the fantastic HBO mini-series "From The Earth To The Moon". Produced and directed by Tom Hanks and Ron Howard with a star-studded cast, this 12-episode critically acclaimed mini-series is extremely accurate historically, and covers the entirety of the Apollo Program, from before the Apollo 1 fire to Apollo 17's final steps on the lunar surface. It is basically like Tom Hanks and Ron Howard's other fantastic mini-series "Band of Brothers", but rather than covering WWII, it focuses on Apollo and the race to the Moon. I cannot recommend that mini-series enough, as it is brilliant produced, directed, and acted, and, above all, historically accurate.

u/Thornkale · 2 pointsr/booksuggestions

A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts https://www.amazon.com/dp/014311235X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_A09MAbW4ASA4B

Very interesting and readable

u/barrows_arctic · 2 pointsr/self

Wings by Tom D. Crouch is good. He was the curator of the National Air & Space Museum (Smithsonian), and it's basically a history of all development of flight and flying machines.

If you liked The Right Stuff, I'd also recommend Man on the Moon. It's more specific to what follows the Mercury astronauts obviously (Gemini and Apollo), but it is quite good.

The Right Stuff movie is pretty good, too, if you haven't seen it. It's on Netflix Instant View (or at least was as recently as a few months ago).

u/fitandfed · 2 pointsr/AskReddit

I thought 'A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts' by Andrew Chaikin was quite excellent. It's really, really well researched, reported and written. Amazon page and here's the author on Colbert.

u/mwinaz3106 · 1 pointr/books

Apollo by Charles Murray and A Man on the Moon by Andrew Chaikin

Apollo is a very readable behind the scenes account of the engineers and other unknown heroes who got us into space.

A Man On The Moon is more about the astronauts and the missions. Chaikin is the only author to have interviewed all Apollo astronauts.

u/bentpablo · 1 pointr/books

After you're through with The Right Stuff (and if you're still in the mood for astronaut/fly boy stories), please check out A Man on the Moon. It's a detailed and entertaining history of the Apollo missions. Quite a hefty tome, I whipped through it in no time. It's a page turner if there ever was one.

u/NotFreeAdvice · 1 pointr/atheism

I am not totally sure what you are asking for actually exists in book form...which is odd, now that I think about it.

If it were me, I would think about magazines instead. And if you really want to push him, think about the following options:

  1. Science News, which is very similar to the front-matter of the leading scientific journal Science. This includes news from the past month, and some in-depth articles. It is much better written -- and written at a much higher level -- than Scientific American or Discover. For a very intelligent (and science-interested) high school student, this should pose little difficulty.
  2. The actual journal Science. This is weekly, which is nice. In addition to the news sections, this also includes editorials and actual science papers. While many of the actual papers will be beyond your son, he can still see what passes for presentation of data in the sciences, and that is cool.
  3. The actual journal Nature. This is also weekly, and is the british version of the journal Science. In my opinion, the news section is better written than Science, which is important as this is where your kid's reading will be mostly done. IN addition, Nature always has sections on careers and education, so that your son will be exposed to the more human elements of science. Finally, the end of nature always has a 1-page sci-fi story, and that is fun as well.
  4. If you must, you could try Scientific American or Discover, but if you really want to give your kid a cool gift, that is a challenge, go for one of the top three here. I would highly recommend Nature.

    If you insist on books...

    I see you already mentioned A Brief History of the Universe, which is an excellent book. However, I am not sure if you are going to get something that is more "in depth." Much of the "in depth" stuff is going to be pretty pop, without the rigorous foundation that are usually found in textbooks.

    If I had to recommend some books, here is what I would say:

  5. The selfish gene is one of the best "rigorous" pop-science books out there. Dawkins doesn't really go into the math, but other than that he doesn't shy away from the implications of the work.
  6. Darwin's Dangerous Idea by Dennett is a great book. While not strictly science, per se, it does outline good philosophical foundations for evolution. It is a dense read, but good.
  7. On the more mathematical side, you might try Godel, Escher, Bach, which is a book that explores the ramifications of recrusiveness and is an excellent (if dense) read.
  8. You could also consider books on the history of science -- which elucidate the importance of politics and people in the sciences. I would recommend any of the following: The Double Helix, A man on the moon, The making of the atomic bomb, Prometheans in the lab, The alchemy of air, or A most damnable invention. There are many others, but these came to mind first.

    Hope that helps! OH AND GO WITH THE SUBSCRIPTION TO NATURE

    edit: added the linksssss
u/veryawesomeguy · 1 pointr/space

check out A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts by Andrew Chaikin

https://www.amazon.ca/Man-Moon-Voyages-Apollo-Astronauts/dp/014311235X

u/santibr001 · 1 pointr/slavelabour

I need the following textbooks:

u/ShutUpDonny12002 · 1 pointr/reddit.com

I think it has to do with gravity (among other things).

I've heard for astronauts it takes a lot of effort to poop in space, because the turd floats in the colon. Either in this book or in this I've read that during the apollo era, they often had to dig it out of their butt by hand. Fortunately, science has advanced and on the ISS they get to crap into a vacuum cleaner.

u/75Rollo · 1 pointr/HelloInternet

A Man on the Moon - Andrew Chalkin. - ISBN: 0-670-81446-6

http://www.amazon.com/Man-Moon-Voyages-Apollo-Astronauts/dp/014311235X

This is the end game here.


As far as I know, Chaikin is the only person to have written a book and interviewed all dozen people who landed on the moon and the eighteen who didn't.

I rate this Seven stars! (out of five)

u/Evanjscott · 1 pointr/Cortex

A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts https://www.amazon.com/dp/014311235X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_8NWuDbYZJJT2W

The author interviewed every single astronaut who went to the moon in the 90s when they were still alive and compiled basically the “definitive” history of the Apollo program. Just the sheer amount of effort put into the program is reflected here and the astronauts different personalities shine through.