The are a huge number of sources available related to the Apollo space program, including many original documents from NASA. They include flight plan checklists, specs for various hardware, lunar maps and full voice transcripts of all the missions. Almost of all of this is available online. It’s enough material to keep many historians busy for many years. Of course, I am no historian, and made no attempt to write a history of the Apollo missions. I dipped into these resources in an attempt to capture the “flavour” of the times, reading some documents in detail but, more commonly, browsing through others, looking for the just the right description or explanation to give the writing a smack of authenticity.
Many astronauts from the Apollo program wrote fascinating books of their own. They provided valuable background material to help me visualize both the mundane and profound moments in a moon mission. I relied heavily on books by Deke Slayton, Michael Collins, Gene Cernan and flight director, Gene Kranz.
I think I owe my greatest debt to two magnificent, but very different books. One, a recent biography of von Braun, called, Von Braun: Dreamer of Space, Engineer of War, by Michael J. Neufeld. I had done research on von Braun for several years before bumping into this book. Neufeld’s work easily supersedes everything I had read before and became my bible for filling in the details of the rocket scientist’s life. Finally there was Andrew Chaikin’s definitive history of the Apollo Program, A Man on the Moon, without which I doubt I could have started on my novel.
Many astronauts from the Apollo program wrote fascinating books of their own. They provided valuable background material to help me visualize both the mundane and profound moments in a moon mission. I relied heavily on books by Deke Slayton, Michael Collins, Gene Cernan and flight director, Gene Kranz.
I think I owe my greatest debt to two magnificent, but very different books. One, a recent biography of von Braun, called, Von Braun: Dreamer of Space, Engineer of War, by Michael J. Neufeld. I had done research on von Braun for several years before bumping into this book. Neufeld’s work easily supersedes everything I had read before and became my bible for filling in the details of the rocket scientist’s life. Finally there was Andrew Chaikin’s definitive history of the Apollo Program, A Man on the Moon, without which I doubt I could have started on my novel.
Hopefully I have been able to fuse together the experiences outlined in these many excellent books to create a believable alternate reality. A world in which the reader can explore not only lunar landscapes but the inner ‘mindscapes’ of the book’s principal characters.
Lunatics: Selected Bibliography
Cernan, Eugene and Davis, Don. The Last Man on the Moon. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 1999.
Chaikin, Andrew. A Man on the Moon. New York: Penguin Books, 1994.
Collins, Michael. Carrying the Fire: an astronaut’s journey. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1974.
Jones, Eric M. Apollo Lunar Surface Journal. http://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj, 1995.
Kranz, Gene. Failure is Not an Option--Mission Control from Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000.
Neufeld, Michael J. Von Braun: Dreamer of Space, Engineer of War. New York: Vintage Books, 2007.
Slayton, Donald K with Cassutt, Michael. Deke!: U.S. Manned Space: From Mercury to the Shuttle. New York: Tom Doherty Associates, 1994.
Smith, Andrew. Moondust: In Search of the Men Who Fell to Earth. New York: Harper Collins, 2005.
Woods, W. David. How Apollo Flew to the Moon. Chichester, UK: Praxis Publishing, 2008.
Lunatics: Selected Bibliography
Cernan, Eugene and Davis, Don. The Last Man on the Moon. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 1999.
Chaikin, Andrew. A Man on the Moon. New York: Penguin Books, 1994.
Collins, Michael. Carrying the Fire: an astronaut’s journey. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1974.
Jones, Eric M. Apollo Lunar Surface Journal. http://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj, 1995.
Kranz, Gene. Failure is Not an Option--Mission Control from Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000.
Neufeld, Michael J. Von Braun: Dreamer of Space, Engineer of War. New York: Vintage Books, 2007.
Slayton, Donald K with Cassutt, Michael. Deke!: U.S. Manned Space: From Mercury to the Shuttle. New York: Tom Doherty Associates, 1994.
Smith, Andrew. Moondust: In Search of the Men Who Fell to Earth. New York: Harper Collins, 2005.
Woods, W. David. How Apollo Flew to the Moon. Chichester, UK: Praxis Publishing, 2008.