LUNAR IMPACT - A History of Project Ranger

by R. Cargill Hall

America's first successful attempt at robotic lunar exploration, the nine Project Ranger missions culminated in close-up television images of the moon's surface. Sponsored by NASA and executed by the Jet Propulsion Lab, the project ran from 1959 to 1965. This official NASA publication originating in the Scientific and Technical Information Office as Special Publication 4210 (SP-4210), illustrated by more than 100 photographs, presents the program's complete history.

Genres: History

451 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[Tim Bongard · Rating 4 out of 5]

A pretty good book that is thorough in laying out all the back and forth of Congress, NASA, and JPL learning how to dance together while learning the ropes of making space probes work (or not work). There is a lot of trial and error explored before the Ranger program finally succeeds in doing it what it was designed to do - get high resolution photos of the lunar surface - and that took 7 tries before it finally worked. The last chapter is the best, and touches on how Ranger - without deliberately trying to do so - taught NASA and JPL the things and technology it needed for the projects that followed. It always seemed like the program teetered on the brink of ruin when in reality it was truly foundational work. The book might have been better (in my opinion mind you...) had this point been cultivated a bit more throughout, but it was worth the read.

[Russell · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good history of a 1960's technology development effort. I've always enjoyed reading books about the history of science and technology, and if you enjoy those you'll probably like this one.