Thanks to the Temecula Public Library, I've now completed item #16 on the list, having read Lost Moon by Jim Lovell and Jeffrey Kluger.I have seen Ron Howard's Apollo 13 several (countless) times and always enjoyed it and also always noted that it was based on Lost Moon and always commented to myself, I'll bet that's a great book, I should read it.
Having read it I can say that it is excellent and depressing.
Excellent because the book brings out all the details and technical complexities and interesting factoids about space flight that the movie can only hint at. One example of an interesting tidbit is the "PTC roll." I have never thought about this, but instead of flying straight to the moon, the Apollo spacecraft travelled in a constant 1 RPM Passive Thermal Control roll, designed to rotate the ship through sunlight and shadow, keeping the temperature of craft more or less even. Who knew; I would have thought you just pointed the thing at the moon and lit the candle.
Lost Moon is depressing, because a few short pages into the book you (or I anyway) begin to realize that you are (I am) no rocket scientist. On my good days I like to think I'm somewhat intelligent. After a few chapters of Lost Moon I'm pretty sure I'm a moron.
Of course, it's also more than a little sad to think of Jim Lovell and Fred Haise (another interesting revelation, watching the movie I would have just assumed Hayes) losing their chance at a moon landing, but then if they had landed safely they'd be quickly forgotten like most of the rest of the men on the moon. As it is now, they're immortalized in print and film. Not that that is probably a fair trade as far as they are concerned.
Anyway, I'm glad the Gumbilist finally forced me to act on my impulse to read the book. This having gone so successfully I may have to read Gone to Texas, the basis for the film The Outlaw Josey Wales. It's another I keep telling myself I should read. And it might be a good idea anyway; if it's bad enough, maybe I will feel somewhat intelligent again.
That is interesting about the roll. And, damn, if you are a moron, then I definitely am. I think you sh/def'ly read the Gone to Texas book to make yourself feel better. Or, wait, did any books form the beginnings of: Cliffhanger? Showgirls? Or The Quick & The Dead?
ReplyDeleteI do not need to read this book to confirm that I am, in fact, a moron. I actually want to read True Grit, which was the basis for the movie, uh, True Grit. See what I mean about being a moron?
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