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NASA Missions AS-506: Apollo 11 Owners’ Workshop Manual 1969-2019 by Christopher Riley and Phil Dolling (book review).

This is the 10th reprint of ‘NASA Missions AS-506: Apollo 11 Owners’ Workshop Manual 1969-2019’ by Christopher Riley and Phil Dolling and I reviewed the original release back in 2009. There are a few more pages so I’ll focus on them, especially as it focuses on the future of Man on the Moon. These are in the final chapter from pages 181-201.

In these twenty pages, we look at the new rockets created by Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk although I’m surprised these gents haven’t worked together than do separate projects. Learning from previous NASA information, Musk has tended emphasis towards making reusable rockets and the Pintle rocket engine than different engines for each stage, cutting costs.

Ultimately, NASA will rent spaceflight than own outright as they did in the past. You do have to wonder how long before NASA learns from all of this and get back into making their own spaceships or even why their previous contractors haven’t thought along similar lines. In the meantime, Musk is focusing on getting manned flights to the Moon and ultimately Mars. Considering at present, he is offering per person, $85m to the International Space Station as compared to the current $400 million, there is an immense difference to catch up on.

There is a final look at the questions the authors have to counter by people who think landings on the Moon were a hoax and should provide you with information to counter such people. The final comment by astronaut Mike Collins that no two Americans together can keep a secret has the most relevance, more so as you had so many people working on the project.

If you haven’t got this book yet, then grab this gold covered edition and have a read before Apollo 11’s 50 anniversary on 20th July 2019 and have some awe for an historical event and hope for the present when we visit our satellite once more. It will always be fascinating seeing you explain to your sprogs that the computer they had on the Apollo lander had less capacity than current smartphones and people really did have to think for themselves.

GF Willmetts

April 2019

(pub: Haynes. 211 page illustrated large hardback. Price: £22.99 (UK). ISBN: 978-1-85521-592-6)

check out website: www.haynes.co.uk

Amazon has it wrong. It isn’t out in May but right now so order direct.

 

UncleGeoff

Geoff Willmetts has been editor at SFCrowsnest for some 21 plus years now, showing a versatility and knowledge in not only Science Fiction, but also the sciences and arts, all of which has been displayed here through editorials, reviews, articles and stories. With the latter, he has been running a short story series under the title of ‘Psi-Kicks’ If you want to contribute to SFCrowsnest, read the guidelines and show him what you can do. If it isn’t usable, he spends as much time telling you what the problems is as he would with material he accepts. This is largely how he got called an Uncle, as in Dutch Uncle. He’s not actually Dutch but hails from the west country in the UK.

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