Book of the Month - By Kathleen Thorne

Moondust
By Andrew Smith

Published by Bloomsbury
Cost €13.50

This book takes us back to the Apollo moon programme, as it unfolded between 1969 and 1972. Six spaceships reached the surface of the moon during that time – Apollo 11, 12, 14, 15, 16 and 17. Each of these had two astronauts on board and a command-module pilot. The author manages to interview the nine astronauts who are still alive – thus giving us some fascinating insights into the lives of people who achieved one of the most amazing feats of the 20th century.

In the course of the interview with Charlie Duke (Apollo 16), news comes of the death of Pete Conrad (Apollo 12) in a motor cycle accident. The place of the accident happened to be called Ojai, the Native American word for Moon. Author Andrew Smith was a child living in Orinda, California at the time of the first moon landing. He records his experiences of that event and the excitement it engendered.

However, the public did not know how close to disaster that first landing came. At 250 feet above the moon surface, there was only 90 seconds worth of fuel left, and the crew were having difficulty finding a suitable place to land. Moreover, we learn that the level of risk-taking throughout the programme would be unacceptable by today’s standards.

One of the more startling pieces of revelation is how badly paid the astronauts were. Most were paid around $17, 000 per annum – not a fortune even in those days. They were also paid $8 a day for being away from home. The price of their accommodation was deducted because the government was providing a bed in the spaceship. In the US, there is a group of people who insist that the trips to the moon never happened. It was, they claim, a set-up by NASA. They argue vociferously for their point of view and subject the astronauts to challenges whenever they get the opportunity.

facts, revelations and even meditation about an extraordinary period in 20th-century history. The author intersperses details of world events and the social history that kept pace with the Apollo programme. It was the era of Vietnam, the Beatles, hippies and flower power. Will moon exploration die and just become an entry in the history books? One of the astronauts reminds us that it was 127 years between Columbus stumbling upon America and the founding of Jamestown. Another suggests that if our civilisation is wiped out by a catastrophe, the knowledge gained by learning to live and work on the moon will enable some to survive the devastation of a civilisation-ending event.

This book should appeal as much to those who are too young to have experienced the magic of it all, as to those who remember the excitement in what were otherwise fairly drab times.

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