"THRILLING. ... Up-end[s] the Apollo narrative entirely." -The
Times (London) A "brilliantly observed" (Newsweek) and "endlessly
fascinating" (WSJ) rediscovery of the final Apollo moon landings,
revealing why these extraordinary yet overshadowed
missions-distinguished by the use of the revolutionary lunar roving
vehicle-deserve to be celebrated as the pinnacle of human adventure
and exploration. One of The Wall Street Journal's 10 Best Books of
the Month 8:36 P.M. EST, December 12, 1972: Apollo 17 astronauts
Gene Cernan and Jack Schmitt braked to a stop alongside Nansen
Crater, keenly aware that they were far, far from home. They had
flown nearly a quarter-million miles to the man in the moon's left
eye, landed at its edge, and then driven five miles in to this
desolate, boulder-strewn landscape. As they gathered samples, they
strode at the outermost edge of mankind's travels. This place, this
moment, marked the extreme of exploration for a species born to
wander. A few feet away sat the machine that made the achievement
possible: an electric go-cart that folded like a business letter,
weighed less than eighty pounds in the moon's reduced gravity, and
muscled its way up mountains, around craters, and over undulating
plains on America's last three ventures to the lunar surface. In
the decades since, the exploits of the astronauts on those final
expeditions have dimmed in the shadow cast by the first moon
landing. But Apollo 11 was but a prelude to what came later: while
Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin trod a sliver of flat lunar desert
smaller than a football field, Apollos 15, 16, and 17 each
commanded a mountainous area the size of Manhattan. All told, their
crews traveled fifty-six miles, and brought deep science and a far
more swashbuckling style of exploration to the moon. And they
triumphed for one very American reason: they drove. In this
fast-moving history of the rover and the adventures it ignited,
Earl Swift puts the reader alongside the men who dreamed of driving
on the moon and designed and built the vehicle, troubleshot its
flaws, and drove it on the moon's surface. Finally shining a
deserved spotlight on these overlooked characters and the missions
they created, Across the Airless Wilds is a celebration of human
genius, perseverance, and daring.
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