Man on the Moon: a day in the life of Bob

Product Information

Chaikin collaborated with moonwalker-turned-artist Alan Bean to write Apollo: An Eyewitness Account, published in 1998 by the Greenwich Workshop Press. He also co-edited The New Solar System, a compendium of writings by planetary scientists, now in its fourth edition. His essays include the chapter on human spaceflight in The National Geographic Encyclopedia of Space, published in 2004, and Live from the Moon: The Societal Impact of Apollo for NASA’s 2007 book The Societal Impact of Spaceflight. The writing is also just really good - the exciting parts were exciting! The moving bits were moving. What really made it for me was the experiences of the astronauts - it's very human. This is really not that technical, although now I kind of want to see what's written about the geology of the moon. Like did you know that NASA just opened up some samples from Apollo 17?? They set them aside for 50 years until science had advanced. So cool. I read a bunch about Martian geology after watching some of Mike Brown's lectures - apparently I'm into geology now?

The story is told in third person which allows the reader to feel that they are following Bob closely, allowing them to warm to the character, making him likeable. The story is set in the style of “a day in the life” and uses time to show this. This technique makes it easy for children to follow as it allows them to relate it to their day to day life, such as getting up and having breakfast and having a bath before going to bed. Indeed, the most appealing aspect of A Man on the Moon is how Chaikin puts a face on the missions and men that are far from famous, from the other astronauts to the mission controllers and even those people involved in the design and manufacture of the space crafts. Chaikin's narrative focuses, primarily, on the men/missions who went to the moon (versus the holistic Apollo program), with a particular relish for the "skipper" missions—the ones that are usually skipped over during the Apollo summaries (i.e., 12, 14, 15, 16). I mostly appreciated it, since I, too, have fallen into the trap of not really considering the latter Apollo flights as anything exciting—but they were, and are: they introduced new equipment and tested new boundaries around life on the moon. Each mission had minor things adjusted or added to it or expanded within it, which makes the evolution of Apollo that much more obvious and interesting. A Trip to the Moon (1902) was released one year after the publication of Wells's book. Some film historians, most notably Georges Sadoul, have regarded the film as a combination of two Jules Verne novels ( From the Earth to the Moon and Around the Moon) plus adventures on the Moon taken from Wells's book. More recent scholarship, however, suggests that A Trip to the Moon draws on a wider variety of source materials, and it is unclear to what extent its filmmaker was familiar with Wells. [16] Creative writing- there are so many opportunities for creative writing tasks as a direct result of looking at this book. For example, writing postcards as if they were visiting the moon, writing tourist leaflets all about the moon (perhaps in collaboration with science lessons), writing Bob’s job description and then applying for that job etc.Children love clueless Bob and the aliens who ‘aren’t really there’. Bob is as silly as he looks and it is fun to play with the idea of a grown up with such an important job (keeping the moon clean and tidy and performing for space tourists) can be so oblivious to what we can see (as the adult, it’s fun to pretend you can’t see them too). This worked really well as a class text with year 1 children, lots of opportunities to explore inference and dramatic irony and both the story and the beautiful oil painting illustrations capture their imagination enough to provide a term’s worth of activities alongside topic exploration: Today, at the NASA space centers in Houston and Florida, the Saturn Vs for Apollo 18 and 19 [both missions canceled] lie on tourist stands, like unfinished obelisks, reminders of a time that seems now as remote as the moon itself. Across the distance of a [half] century, Apollo is an anomaly. There was a rare confluence of historical forces in 1961: A perceived threat to national prestige from the Soviet Union was met by a dynamic leader, John Kennedy, and economic prosperity allowed him to launch a massive effort to demonstrate America’s capabilities. The moon was the ideal target – close enough to reach, audacious enough to capture the imagination.

History will,however,always remember Neil Armstrong as the first man on the moon.The others,have largely been forgotten. Stark, Sonja (18 January 2010). "The First Men in the Moon in 3-D". Times Union. Archived from the original on 7 October 2011 . Retrieved 13 February 2010.

To write the second part of the build-up of a narrative

The First Men in the Moon is a scientific romance, originally serialised in The Strand Magazine and The Cosmopolitan from November 1900 to June 1901 and published in hardcover in 1901, [2] by the English author H. G. Wells, who called it one of his "fantastic stories". [3] The novel tells the story of a journey to the Moon undertaken by the two protagonists: a businessman narrator, Mr. Bedford; and an eccentric scientist, Mr. Cavor. Bedford and Cavor discover that the Moon is inhabited by a sophisticated extraterrestrial civilisation of insect-like creatures they call "Selenites". The inspiration seems to come from the famous 1865 book by Jules Verne, From the Earth to the Moon, and the opera by Jacques Offenbach from 1875. Verne's novel also uses the word "Selenites" to describe inhabitants of the Moon . [4] Plot summary [ edit ] Frontispiece illustration

The book ends with a look at the things people did after Apollo had ended. But at this point I had mostly lost interest. I don’t remember any zero-gravity peeing happening in that chapter. Chaikins 'A man on the Moon' is a comprehensive and chronological story about the people, the engineering and the politics allied to the completion of John F Kennedy's mission to reach the moon. In terms of the Apollo missions this book is the authoritative masterpiece. The crew of Apollo 15,was involved in a "stamps" scandal,as they tried to make money from their voyage.John Young,commanded Apollo 16,and along with Jim Lovell,was the most travelled of all the astronauts. Andrew Chaikin does an exceptional job of recounting the Apollo missions, ensuring that it is not all about Neil, Buzz and "What's-his-name?" (Michael Collins, for anyone who's interested). Soon after the publication of The First Men in the Moon, Wells was accused by the Irish writer Robert Cromie of having stolen from his novel A Plunge into Space (1890), which used an antigravity device similar to that in Chrysostom Trueman's The History of a Voyage to the Moon (1864). [19] Both novels had certain elements in common, such as a globular spaceship built in secret after inventing a way to overcome Earth's gravity. Wells simply replied: "I have never heard of Mr Cromie nor of the book he attempts to advertise by insinuations of plagiarism on my part." [20]The story starts by introducing Bob in his home and explaining his morning routine and his journey to work. Following on from this it also shows the process of Bob getting ready for work at the launch pad, specifically the time he has to arrive, be ready and leave by, which is a recurring theme throughout the book. The book then goes into detail of what Bob does at work on the moon such as keeping it clean and tidy, and giving guided tours. Another recurring theme within the book is the phrase “there’s no such thing as aliens” which may encourage speculation among the children reading and provoke discussion. The story then explains the process of the end of Bob’s day and his journey home. The story finishes with Bob’s evening routine and a question about whether aliens really do exist. The author loves this subject and it shows. The story of the Apollo astronauts is far more interesting that you might think. They weren’t just a bunch of cookie-cutter flyboys. They were all, to a man, dedicated to the mission and its success, but their many divergent personalities make for a fascinating story.