Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Altiora pete, 14 April 2008
You will find devastating criticism of this book on the American Amazon site, amazon.com. Some of these relate to the NYU edition of 2006. The grosser errors, such as account that Apollo 9 went into lunar orbit, have been corrected in the Vintage Books edition of 2008 (page 230 of both editions). The author now correctly says that the testing of the docking manoeuvres by Apollo 9 took place in earth orbit. Similarly the statement that "An explosion ripped through the outer skin of the Command Module" of Apollo 13 has been corrected, placing the explosion within the Service Module (page 250 in both editions). According to one posted comment, deGroot was deeply embarrassed by these errors. Still the basic errors were made and undermine the scholarship.
The author is dismissive of Russian technology, crediting them with merely having oversized rockets (designed to lift their oversized nuclear warheads) but being far behind in all other aspects. This criticism is nothing new, but was also questioned long ago. When Lunik III successfully circled the moon, sending back pictures of the far side, Time of October 12 1959 pointed out that this required an accomplished package of instruments (by 1959 standards) as well as a powerful rocket.
I have no problems with the phrase "Dark Side of the Moon" as a title and metaphor. But on page 98 Lunik III is said to have taken "snapshots of the dark side". It would have been the height of folly for the Russians to have photographed the far side while it was in darkness; the published photographs show that it was not. Does the author, in the one sentence where he ought to drop the metaphor, not know the difference between the dark side and the far side of the moon?
The relative value of manned and unmanned exploration of both the moon and Mars is again becoming topical. DeGroot understands the value of near earth and geo stationary satellites for their utility in providing communication, navigation and observation. He shows no appreciation of the scientific interest of investigating the moon. It is perhaps not within his expertise to tell us how this might better have been done in the 1960s using unmanned missions. Given the success of the Mars Rovers Opportunity and Spirit, at very modest cost, the value of a manned mission to Mars needs to be questioned very seriously. Similarly, the case against a manned return to the moon would be strengthened by consideration of the unmanned exploration that is now beginning in earnest and what might be achieved by a series of unmanned lunar rovers capable of returning samples to earth.
The quotations from the Times, Telegraph and Observer on the book's cover are all complementary. I have more sympathy with the view of Robin McKie writing in the Guardian (3rd February 2008) "DeGroot, a sharp and witty writer, has prepared his case assiduously, though for my taste he overstates it badly, wilfully ignoring the romance and chutzpah of what was, after all, the 20th-century's crowning human achievement. More to the point, Dark Side of the Moon lacks any primary sources or interviews and is, essentially, a cuttings job, albeit a clever, enjoyable one."
I suspect that deGroot is a man with a profound social conscience who believes that the billions spent on the Space Race should have been spent on social welfare. He may well be right. Altiora pete. But writing an entire book saying how the money should not have been spent sounds like carping. Like most readers who have submitted reviews, I cannot recommend this book.
|
|
|
22 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Not as good as it thinks it is, 16 Mar 2007
First, a spoiler. America and the USSR ran a race to see who could put on the most spectacular space events throughout the 1960s. It culminated in a maned landing on the Moon in July 1969.
Secondly, this book isn't really about that. Well, not entirely. It is about a perception of the race to the Moon that comes out of some dusty memos and selective quotations (all quotations are selective) and it adds to a rather sour taste in the mind. The problem is it is pretty unrelenting. The aim of the book is to show what a phenomenal waste of time sending anything much into space is, with the exception of communications and weather satellites presumably. The problem with the book is that the tone has sarcastic light moments and deadpan serious moments but doesn't seem to acknowledge that the Moon landings were a genuine achievement.
I presume the author wrote it on his laptop. He probably researched much of it on-line and almost certainly spent some time watching DVDs of the space program. Well,he hit some of the indirect spin offs - miniaturisation of electronics. Not that you would know that anything came out of the Moon landing program according to DeGroot. He has a downer on it and that's that.
There are minor quibbles about accuracy which are irrelevant really, both to his thesis and his willingness to be open. He says he set out to write a good ol' American boys story but the research changed his mind. I suspect the fact that the market is pretty much sewn up tight, with memoirs from astronauts and flight controllers, tomes on technical matters relating to Apollo and wider histories of spaceflight, whereas a sceptical view of the program is lacking in the popular literature. So here it is, a one sided polemic that, if you have read any of the other books out there on Apollo, you'd already know.
The best thing about the Apollo program is what was said on the plaque on the leg of Eagle, the Apollo 11 lunar module: we came in peace for all mankind. The space race was war minus the shooting. It was a contest to see who could reach the highest up the urinal wall. That meant not dropping bombs on other countries. It meant jobs at home and probably the most effective economic sanctions against the USSR anyone could have thought of. It meant the Cold War didn't actually get hot. DeGroot will disagree but it is self evident.
I'd recommend The Race by james Schefter ahead of this book. It is funnier, better written and more honest an account of the space race than DeGroot has written. Oh, and it's cheaper.
|
|
|
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
One side of the Story, 16 Sep 2008
With the hindsight of 21st century cynicism it's easy to look back at the moon landings with some suspicion. We've all heard the conspiracy theories about NASA's adventures in the 60's, but here the intention seems to prove that project Apollo was just a huge waste of time and money for all involved. In fact this book is so unbalanced that it constantly refers to the Space race as if only the US were involved.
While the author certainly has a fair point that manned spaceflight is infinitely more difficult and costly than unmanned explorations, to suggest it has absolutely no worth and has achieved nothing is overstating the case very strongly.
Apollo was politically motivated, but there was also a real effort to get some science done up there, in fact as a result of those missions and their carefully collected samples traditional theories for the origins of the moon were overturned. The field of Astrogeology advanced massively as a result.
The author also fails to mention in any depth the Russian Lunar Programme, so well documented in many publications now available. So while the Soviet's had at one time 3 separate manned Lunar projects running, his only mention is that a cosmonaut was hours away from launch in a zond mission in 1968 - a claim which has been widely discredited elsewhere (Two sides of the Moon is most certainly not a reliable reference book, just a good read). No mention either that the Soviets were still trying to undertake Lunar missions into the early 70's, and indeed other nations have continued unmanned explorations long after man had first visited the 'worthless rock' of the authors viewpoint.
Alternative views on this massive achievement are always welcome, but at least try and give a balanced account - not everyone involved was a self-serving egotist! A more interesting question might be what would have happened to US manned space exploration if the quagmire of Vietnam had not engulfed the US and tainted the second half of the 60s.
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
by Gerard DeGroot
by Jed Mercurio
![In The Shadow Of The Moon [DVD] [2007]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51jcCQzbotL._SL500_SS90_.jpg)
DVD ~ John Young
See all Product Description
![In The Shadow Of The Moon [DVD] [2007]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51jcCQzbotL._SL75_SS50_.jpg)
With an Amazon.co.uk Gift Certificate, you can get them what they want (even if you don't know what that is). 
Amazon Home