Programma Apollo della NASA (1963-1972): libri

Rocket Ranch : The Nuts and Bolts of the Apollo Moon Program at Kennedy Space Center

Jonathan Ward accompagna il lettore all'interno delle strutture del Kennedy Space Center per descrivere i primi sistemi informatici della NASA utilizzati per il collaudo di veicoli spaziali e razzi, e per spiegare come si svolgevano i test e i lanci. La descrizione delle prime operazioni include un racconto straziante degli sforzi eroici compiuti dagli addetti alla piattaforma di lancio durante l'incendio dell'Apollo 1.
Questo volume, che fa da complemento al libro dell'autore "Countdown to a Moon Launch: Preparing Apollo for Its Historic Journey", esplora ogni aspetto delle strutture che hanno funto da base per le missioni Apollo/Saturn.

Centinaia di illustrazioni arricchiscono le testimonianze dirette di oltre 70 responsabili e ingegneri del programma Apollo. L'era delle missioni Apollo/Saturn è stata forse il periodo più entusiasmante nella storia dell'esplorazione spaziale americana. Cape Canaveral e il Kennedy Space Center brulicavano di attività.
Migliaia di lavoratori arrivarono in città per costruire le strutture e lanciare le missioni necessarie a portare un americano sulla Luna entro la fine del decennio. Il lavoro al Kennedy Space Center (KSC) implicava molto più che il semplice lancio di razzi. Era un luogo unico al mondo.

I tecnici eseguivano operazioni complesse e i pericoli erano ovunque, tra cui fulmini, incendi, combustibili altamente tossici, serpenti, calore, esplosivi, fuoriuscite di ossigeno liquido e persino plutonio. La ricompensa per mesi di settimane lavorative di sette giorni su sette sotto un'intensa pressione era assistere al decollo del Saturn V.

Per chiunque abbia mai desiderato lavorare al Kennedy Space Center durante l'era Apollo, questo libro è la cosa migliore che si possa trovare. L'unica cosa che manca è l'odore del carburante per razzi al mattino.

Dettagli del libro

Autore:	Jonathan H. Ward
Formato:	331 pagine, 24 x 17.5 x 1.6 cm, brossura
Illustrazioni:	112 foto in B&N e 89 in colori
Lingua:	inglese
Editore:	Springer International Publishing AG (CH, 2015)
ISBN:	9783319177885

Apollo - Guidance, Navigation and Control - Design Survey of the Apollo Inertial Subsytem

The Design Survey of the Apollo Inertial Subsystem was funded by NASA under Contract NAS-l2-642. This contract was administered by the NASA Electronics Research Center of Cambridge, Massachusetts. The purpose of this document is to record the history of the Apollo Inertial Subsystem design and development (CSM and LM) in order to provide a source document for subsequent design criteria monographs.

The record provided by this document covers the de sign, development, and testing of an inertial subsystflm intended for manned spaceflight beyond earth orbits. In addition, it highlights the experience and knowledge accumulated by this portion of the Apollo program.
Finally, technical and program-oriented recommendations have evolved naturally from the experience documented and such recommendations are given as an important part of this Design Survey.

Dettagli del libro

Autore:	MIT, NASA Manned Spacecraft Center
Formato:	194 pagine, 24.5 x 19 x 1 cm, brossura
Illustrazioni:	illustrazioni in B&N
Lingua:	inglese
Editore:	Books Express Publishing (GB, 2012)
ISBN:	9781780398457

Apollo 12 - On the Ocean of Storms

In July 1969 the 'amiable strangers' that made up the crew of the historic Apollo 11 flight successfully achieved the first manned lunar landing. Several months later, three close friends set off on an even more challenging mission. Free of the burden of making history, the Apollo 12 astronauts were determined to really enjoy their experience while taking care of business.

This is the story of their mission, told largely in their own words. Their exploits and accomplishments showed how conservative the inaugural mission had been. With its two moonwalks, deployment of the first geophysical station on the Moon, and geological sampling, Apollo 12 did what many had hoped would be achieved by the first men to land on the Moon.

The Apollo 12 mission also spectacularly demonstrated the precision landing capability required for success in future lunar surface explorations. In addition to official documents, published prior to and after the mission, "Apollo 12 - On The Ocean Of Storms" draws on the flight transcript and post-mission debriefing to recreate the drama.

Features:
- contains over 30 pages of colour images, including high-resolution scans recently produced by NASA from the original Hasselblad film;
- covers the mission from its planning through to completion;
- includes conversations among the crew in the spacecraft that were not transmitted;
- is the definitive 'popular' account of this mission.

This is the first time in 40 years that the story of the Apollo 12 mission to the Moon has been told in its entirety, using official documents, flight transcripts, and post-mission debriefing to recreate the drama.

Dettagli del libro

Autore:	David M. Harland
Formato:	560 pagine, 24 x 17 cm, brossura
Illustrazioni:	30 pagine foto in colori
Lingua:	inglese
Editore:	Springer-Verlag New York Inc. (USA, 2011)
ISBN:	9781441976062

Apollo 13 Manual - An engineering insight into how NASA saved the crew of the crippled Moon mission (Haynes Space Manual)

On 13 April 1970, Apollo 13 suffered a near-catastrophic explosion. The planned lunar landing was instantly called off and the new challenge was to get the spacecraft safely back to Earth.

When the carbon dioxide in the three astronauts' exhaled breath threatened to asphyxiate them, the crew improvised a filter device, which had been tested in Mission Control, to make the air breathable.
Only hours before hurtling back into the atmosphere did they power up the Apollo spacecraft again - not knowing if it had been fatally damaged in the explosion.

Pagine del libro "Apollo 13 Manual - An engineering insight into how NASA saved the crew of the crippled Moon mission"

Here is the in-depth, inside technical story of how a potential disaster became NASA's finest hour, told by a member of the team working in Mission Control during the crisis to ensure the astronauts' safety.
Includes descriptions of the Saturn V, CM-109, SM-109 and LM-7.

Dettagli del libro

Autore:	David Baker
Formato:	208 pagine, 28 x 21.5 x 1.6 cm, copertina rigida
Illustrazioni:	185 foto in B&N e 108 in colori
Lingua:	inglese (un dizionario tecnico inglese-italiano è disponibile gratuitamente per il download qui)
Editore:	Haynes Publishing (GB, 2013)
Collana:	Haynes Space Manual
ISBN:	9780857333872

Apollo Moon Missions - The Unsung Heroes

In 1961, President John F. Kennedy issued a challenge: the United States would land a man on the moon and return him safely to Earth before the end of the decade. It seemed like an impossible task and one that the Russians - who had launched the first satellite and put the first man into Earth orbit - would surely perform before us. The ingenuity, passion, and sacrifice of thousands of ordinary men and women, from all walks of life, enabled the space program to meet this extraordinary goal. In all, six crews would land on the moon before Congress withdrew financial backing for the program. This is the story of the men and women who worked behind the scenes, without fanfare or recognition, to make these missions a success. Thirty years later, they still speak of Apollo with pride, sometimes even awe.

After Apollo moonwalker John Young told journalist Billy Watkins in a 1999 interview that nobody knows anything about the people who helped make those flights so successful, Watkins made it his mission to identify the unsung heroes and learn their stories.

His subjects include: Julian Scheer (NASA publicist); Sonny Morea, lead designer of the Lunar Rover; Hugh Brown, one of the few African Americans who worked on the Apollo program; JoAnn Morgan, one of the few women involved in the space program; Joan Roosa, widow of Apollo 14 astronaut Stuart Roosa; Joe Schmitt, veteran suit technician was responsible for making sure the suits were leak-proof and hooked up correctly; Joseph Laitin, who came up with the idea for the Apollo 8 astronauts to read the first ten verses of Genesis during their Christmas Eve television broadcast from the moon; and Clancy Hatelberg, the Navy diver, who plucked the first humans to walk on the moon from the Pacific Ocean after the Apollo 11 landing.

Dettagli del libro

Autore:	Billy W. Watkins
Formato:	224 pagine, 24 x 16.5 x 2.3 cm, copertina rigida
Illustrazioni:	illustrazioni in B&N
Lingua:	inglese
Editore:	ABC-CLIO (USA, 2005)
ISBN:	9780275987022

Countdown to a Moon Launch : Preparing Apollo for its Historic Journey

Thousands of workers labored at Kennedy Space Center around the clock, seven days a week, for half a year to prepare a mission for the liftoff of Apollo 11. This is the story of what went on during those hectic six months. "Countdown to a Moon Launch" provides an in-depth look at the carefully choreographed workflow for an Apollo mission at KSC.

Using the Apollo 11 mission as an example, readers will learn what went on day by day to transform partially completed stages and crates of parts into a ready-to-fly Saturn V.
Firsthand accounts of launch pad accidents, near misses, suspected sabotage, and last-minute changes to hardware are told by more than 70 NASA employees and its contractors. A companion to "Rocket Ranch", it includes many diagrams and photographs, some never before published, to illustrate all aspects of the process. NASA's groundbreaking use of computers for testing and advanced management techniques are also covered in detail.

This book will demystify the question of how NASA could build and launch Apollo missions using 1960s technology. You'll discover that there was no magic involved - just an abundance of discipline, willpower, and creativity.

Dettagli del libro

Autore:	Jonathan H. Ward
Formato:	435 pagine, 25.5 x 17.5 x 1.8 cm, brossura
Illustrazioni:	193 foto in B&N e 78 in colori
Lingua:	inglese
Editore:	Springer International Publishing AG (CH, 2015)
ISBN:	9783319177915

Exploring the Moon : The Apollo Expeditions (40th Anniversary Edition)

A story of one of the great adventures of our time. David Harland concentrates on the final three lunar landings (Apollos 15, 16 and 17); each of which spent three days on the Moon and used the famous 'lunar rover' to get around.
He focuses on the exploration carried out by the Apollo astronauts whilst on the lunar surface and combines the words of the astronauts themselves with the photographs they took. It is a lunar travelogue, a minute-by-minute account of what the astronauts did, said and felt, enhanced by their subsequent reflections.

Although the book can be read just for its description of human adventure, it also explains how the astronauts worked as the first extraterrestrial field geologists. New to this edition are specifically assembled, high-resolution panoramic pictures based on scans recently released by NASA of the original film.
The result is a stunning impression of the lunar surface. As you read this book, you will seem to walk with the astronauts as they explore . . .

Contents:
- The Apollo challenge
- The robots
- Magnificent desolation
- 'Pin-point' landing
- Knowledge from the Moon
- The wonder of the unknown at Hadley-Apennine
- Surprise at Descartes-Cayley
- The beautiful valley of Taurus-Littrow
- Luna revival
- Apollo in context
- Spaceflight log
- Lunar landing sites
- Apollo missions, facts and figures
- Apollo lunar samples.

Dettagli del libro

Autore:	David Harland
Formato:	403 pagine, 28 x 21 cm, brossura
Illustrazioni:	300 foto in B&N e 32 in colori
Lingua:	inglese
Editore:	Springer-Verlag New York Inc. (USA, 2008)
ISBN:	9780387746388

How Apollo Flew to the Moon (2nd Edition)

This new and expanded edition of the bestselling How Apollo Flew to the Moon tells the exciting story of how the Apollo missions were conducted and follows a virtual flight to the Moon and back.

From launch to splashdown, hitch a ride in the incredible Apollo spaceships, the most sophisticated machines of their time. Explore each step of the journey and glimpse the enormous range of disciplines, techniques, and procedures the Apollo crews had to master.
Although the tremendous technological accomplishments are well documented, the human dimension is not forgotten, and the book calls on the testimony of the people who were there at the time.

A wealth of fascinating and accessible material is provided, including: the role of the powerful Saturn V; the reasoning behind the trajectories; the day-to-day concerns of human and spacecraft health; the triumphs and difficulties of working in an unforgiving and hostile environment while surrounded by hard vacuum and pernicious dust; and the sheer daring that was involved in traveling to the Moon in the mid-20th century.

Contents:
- Apollo: an extraordinary adventure
- The Apollo flights: a brief history
- Launch: a fiery departure
- Earth orbit and TLI
- Retrieving the lander
- Navigating to the Moon
- Coasting to the Moon
- Entering lunar orbit: the LOI manoeuvre
- Preparations for landing
- Next stop: the Moon
- Down in the dust
- Exploration at its greatest
- Rendezvous and docking
- Heading for home
- Re-entry.

Dettagli del libro

Autore:	W. David Woods
Formato:	576 pagine, 24.5 x 17 cm, brossura
Illustrazioni:	128 foto in B&N e 127 in colori
Lingua:	inglese
Editore:	Springer-Verlag New York Inc. (USA, 2011)
ISBN:	9781441971784

NASA Apollo Spacecraft - Command and Service Module - News Reference

Originally created in 1968 by prime contractor North American Rockwell for NASA, the Apollo Spacecraft News Reference (CSM) was intended to educate members of the media, government, and private sector contractors about one of history's most ambitious undertakings. Within its pages you'll find general information about the Apollo Program, and detailed examinations of component Modules, Subsystems and Support, with special focus on the Command Module. ( A companion volume focusing on the LEM is also available.)

Chapters include: Introduction, Saturn Launch Vehicles, Mission Description, The Moon and the History of Space Flight, Apollo Flight Tests, Command Module Overview, Service Module Overview, Lunar Module and SLA (Spacecraft-LM Adapter) Overview, Crew Accomodations, Displays and Controls, Docking Subsystem, Earth Landing Subsystem, Electrical Power Subsystem, Environmental Control Subsystem, Launch Escape Subsystem, Reaction Control Subsystem, Service Propulsion Subsystem, Telecommunications Subsystem, Stabilization and Control, Guidance and Navigation, Spacesuits, Final Testing, Safety, Reliability and Training, Apollo Manufacturing, Apollo Subcontractors, CSM Contract, Biographies, Apollo Chronology, Apollo Facts, Glossary, Abbreviations, Index.

Although it may be one of the most complete studies of the systems and technology that made the "giant leap" possible, it's never been easy to find copies of this text because copies were never widely released - until now. This reprint is of an edition featuring a mission similar to Apollo 12, and features all the original text, diagrams and photos. It's a wonderful reference for the space flight fan, docent or engineering buff or for anyone else who ever wondered, "How'd they do that!"

Dettagli del libro

Autore:	NASA, Grumman
Formato:	384 pagine, 25.5 x 20.5 x 2 cm, brossura
Illustrazioni:	riccamente illustrato con foto e disegni
Lingua:	inglese
Editore:	Periscope Film (USA, 2011)
ISBN:	9781937684990

NASA Apollo Spacecraft - Familiarization Manual

This manual provides general introductory data for personnel associated with the Apollo program. Each command and service module system is discussed in general terms, but with sufficient detail to convey a clear understanding of the systems. In addition, the Apollo earth orbit and lunar landing missions are described, planned, completed, and test programs or missions are identified. Manufacturing, training equipment, ground support equipment, space vehicles and the lunar module are all covered in gross terms.

The source information used in the preparation of this manual was that available as of November 1, 1966. This manual was prepared for the NASA by Space and Information Systems Division of North American Aviation, Inc., Downey, California. Illustrated throughout.

Dettagli del libro

Autore:	Manned Spacecraft Center, North American Aviation Inc.
Formato:	204 pagine, 24.5 x 19 x 1 cm, brossura
Illustrazioni:	illustrazioni in B&N
Lingua:	inglese
Editore:	Books Express Publishing (GB, 2012)
ISBN:	9781780398440

NASA's Moon Program - Paving the Way for Apollo 11

In 'Paving the Way for Apollo 11' David Harland explains the lure of the Moon to classical philosophers, astronomers, and geologists, and how NASA set out to investigate the Moon in preparation for a manned lunar landing mission. It focuses particularly on the Lunar Orbiter and Surveyor missions.

With high resolution color scans from NASA/original Hasselblad film, this colorful book brings to life the flight detail of the Apollo missions. It is the first published account accessible to enthusiasts who wish to know what transpired during the missions.

Table of contents: Astronomers' Moon - Geologists' Moon - The space age dawns - Preparing Ranger - The Apollo commitment - Ranger struggles - Ranger triumphs - Soviet activity - Developing Lunar Orbiter - On the surface - The Apollo zone - Scratching the Moon - Orbiters for science - Tasting the Moon - Apollo development - Apollo picks up the pace.

Dettagli del libro

Autore:	David M. Harland
Formato:	504 pagine, 24 x 17 x 2.3 cm, brossura
Illustrazioni:	170 riccamente illustrato con foto in B&N e in colori
Lingua:	inglese
Editore:	Springer-Verlag New York Inc. (USA, 2007)
ISBN:	9780387681313

Projekt Apollo - Die frühen Jahre (Raumfahrt-Bibliothek)

This volume of the German "Raumfahrtbibliothek" is dedicated to what is probably the most ambitious space project of all time: the manned landing on the moon.
Space travel was still in its infancy. The Americans had just completed their first space flights when the bold plan was made - and announced by Kennedy - to send a man to the moon by the end of the 1960s! The necessary technologies did not yet exist at all.
A highly exciting journey through time full of setbacks and at the same time unbridled optimism.

Pagine del libro "Projekt Apollo - Die frühen Jahre"

Dettagli del libro

Autore:	Eugen Reichl
Formato:	144 pagine, 20.5 x 14 cm, brossura
Illustrazioni:	38 foto in B&N e 86 in colori
Lingua:	tedesco
Editore:	Motorbuch Verlag (D, 2014)
Collana:	Raumfahrt-Bibliothek
ISBN:	9783613036659