Author Topic: money to spend  (Read 8921 times)

Offline johnbutcher

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money to spend
« on: January 18, 2016, 04:08:15 AM »
Got wagglers this christmas (family name for money in a card).
Looking at the Haynes manual for Apollo 11!
Is this worth me spending £23, to buy, or is there something better for this price?

Offline Zakalwe

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Re: money to spend
« Reply #1 on: January 18, 2016, 04:12:44 AM »
It's OK, but I much prefer this one (assuming you haven't already got it. If you have, then the Haynes won't really be worthwhile)


http://www.amazon.co.uk/Apollo-Springer-Praxis-Exploration-Revised/dp/B00CB5TKOY/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1453108340&sr=1-3&keywords=how+apollo+flew+to+the+moon
"The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.' " - Isaac Asimov

Offline Obviousman

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Re: money to spend
« Reply #2 on: January 18, 2016, 04:21:11 AM »
It's OK, but I much prefer this one (assuming you haven't already got it. If you have, then the Haynes won't really be worthwhile)


http://www.amazon.co.uk/Apollo-Springer-Praxis-Exploration-Revised/dp/B00CB5TKOY/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1453108340&sr=1-3&keywords=how+apollo+flew+to+the+moon

I agree. A number of publications which are far better value but How Apollo Flew To The Moon tops the list.

Offline johnbutcher

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Re: money to spend
« Reply #3 on: January 18, 2016, 04:46:52 AM »
Rather surprisingly, I don't have any Apollo books!
I do have the Airfix LM and CSM models!


Offline johnbutcher

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Re: money to spend
« Reply #5 on: January 18, 2016, 11:00:16 AM »
Now soliciting wagglers for my birthday and have added "How we flew to the moon" to my must buy list.

How? After 40 odd years! Do I not have any Apollo books?

Damn! Just remembered about Spacecraft DVD's (Is that right?".

Offline johnbutcher

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Re: money to spend
« Reply #6 on: January 18, 2016, 11:39:52 AM »
Her indoors in very good mood. Reminded her of the COCO Chanel I got her for Christmas.
Have just ordered Haynes, Gemini , How Apollo, and SaturnV workshop manual.
Gonnae be a good month as I'm on holiday now till the end of the month.

Offline onebigmonkey

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Re: money to spend
« Reply #7 on: January 18, 2016, 12:12:35 PM »
If you fancy some older books, I often gawp at the pictures in my copy of 'Apollo over the moon a view from orbit' which can be had second hand at your online bookshop of choice very reasonably indeed :)

Likewise Mailer's "A fire on the moon" which I am currently enjoying.

Offline johnbutcher

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Re: money to spend
« Reply #8 on: January 18, 2016, 05:16:07 PM »
 A fire on the moon! what's that?

Offline onebigmonkey

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Re: money to spend
« Reply #9 on: January 18, 2016, 05:56:00 PM »
A fire on the moon! what's that?

Norman Mailer was hired by Life magazine to provide articles on the landing, and it's a compilation and expansion of that work.

It's part social commentary, part documentary, part philosophical treatise on what it all meant. He provides a lot of interesting background about what reporters had access to and how they were given information, and there is a wealth of technical detail in there about what went on during the mission. It's useful from a position of defending the history of it all in that it contains that detail as well as verbatim records of conversations with the crew.

His writing style is a little verbose and he really really could learn how to use paragraphs, but it's interesting and thought provoking. A heavyweight (and much more expensive) coffee table version was produced for one of the anniversaries that has lots of photos in it called 'Moonfire'.

Offline johnbutcher

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Re: money to spend
« Reply #10 on: January 19, 2016, 03:36:20 PM »
Haynes gemini manual just arrived!
3 more to come!

Offline johnbutcher

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Re: money to spend
« Reply #11 on: January 22, 2016, 03:19:01 AM »
Haynes manual;
P12,
"Rather than being , a tightly controlled, singular, organisation, NASA has, always, been a collection of field centres, each a fiefdom, that battles for a degree of independence even as headquarters in Washington DC seeks to assert it's authority!"
I've known this for years, but cannot, remember where I learned it.

Offline johnbutcher

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Re: money to spend
« Reply #12 on: January 27, 2016, 10:18:35 AM »
apollo 11 manual arrived yesterday and How Apollo Flew to the moon came today. Got a little bit of reading to do  over the next couple weeks.

Offline Zakalwe

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Re: money to spend
« Reply #13 on: January 27, 2016, 10:46:10 AM »
Andrew Chaikains "A Man on the Moon" is very, very good. it's the book that the mini-series "From Earth to the Moon" was based on:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Man-Moon-Voyages-Astronauts-Collection/dp/0141041838/ref=la_B001HPRC7Q_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1453909393&sr=1-1

Murray and Cox's "Race to the Moon" is probably the definitive story. It's out of print, but well worth searching out.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Apollo-Race-Moon-Charles-Murray/dp/067170625X

From there, you're probably looking at getting into the biographies of the people behind the program and specific parts of the technology. Kranz's "Failure is Not an Option" is a great read:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Failure-Not-Option-Thorndike-Bestsellers/dp/0425179877/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

but probably the best is Michael Collins "Carrying the Fire". Collins is probably the most eloquent of the astronauts in my opinion.

I didn't enjoy Aldrin's books that much...his ego kept getting in the way, though it did give a great insight into the demons that he fought all his life. Armstrongs story was a bit dry (not the story, more the way it was written), but still readable. I did like "Deke!".
Tom Kelly's book is fascinating and is a "must read" in my opinion.

More specialist books about the technology that I would recommend are:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Apollo-Guidance-Computer-Architecture-Operation/dp/1441908765/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1453909342&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Digital-Apollo-Human-Machine-Spaceflight/dp/0262516101/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Saturn-F-1-Engine-Powering-Exploration/dp/0387096299/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1453909363&sr=1-5

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Virtual-Apollo-Pictorial-Engineering-Construction/dp/1896522947/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Virtual-LM-Pictorial-Engineering-Construction/dp/1894959140/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8



"The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.' " - Isaac Asimov

Offline johnbutcher

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Re: money to spend
« Reply #14 on: January 30, 2016, 05:53:15 PM »
NASA:- Saturn V, flight manual came today.