What do you think?
Rate this book
Back to the Moon: The Next Giant Leap for Humankind
A scientist’s inspiring vision of our return to the Moon as humanity’s next thrilling step in space exploration
Just over half a century since Neil Armstrong first stepped foot on the lunar surface, a new space race to the Moon is well underway and rapidly gaining momentum. Laying out a vision for the next fifty years, Back to the Moon is astrophysicist Joseph Silk’s persuasive and impassioned case for putting scientific discovery at the forefront of lunar exploration.
The Moon offers opportunities beyond our wildest imaginings, and plans to return are rapidly gaining momentum around the world. NASA aims to build a habitable orbiting space station to coordinate lunar development and exploration, while European and Chinese space agencies are planning lunar villages and the mining of precious resources dwindling here on Earth. Powerful international and commercial interests are driving the race to revisit the Moon, but lunar infrastructures could also open breathtaking vistas onto the cosmos. Silk describes how the colonization of the Moon could usher in a thrilling new age of scientific exploration, and lays out what the next fifty years of lunar science might look like. With lunar telescopes of unprecedented size situated in permanently dark polar craters and on the far side of the Moon, we could finally be poised to answer some of the most profound questions confronting humankind, including whether we are alone in the Universe and what our cosmic origins are.
Addressing both the daunting challenges and the immense promise of lunar exploration and exploitation, Back to the Moon reveals how prioritizing science, and in particular lunar astronomy, will enable us to address the deepest cosmic mysteries.
Just over half a century since Neil Armstrong first stepped foot on the lunar surface, a new space race to the Moon is well underway and rapidly gaining momentum. Laying out a vision for the next fifty years, Back to the Moon is astrophysicist Joseph Silk’s persuasive and impassioned case for putting scientific discovery at the forefront of lunar exploration.
The Moon offers opportunities beyond our wildest imaginings, and plans to return are rapidly gaining momentum around the world. NASA aims to build a habitable orbiting space station to coordinate lunar development and exploration, while European and Chinese space agencies are planning lunar villages and the mining of precious resources dwindling here on Earth. Powerful international and commercial interests are driving the race to revisit the Moon, but lunar infrastructures could also open breathtaking vistas onto the cosmos. Silk describes how the colonization of the Moon could usher in a thrilling new age of scientific exploration, and lays out what the next fifty years of lunar science might look like. With lunar telescopes of unprecedented size situated in permanently dark polar craters and on the far side of the Moon, we could finally be poised to answer some of the most profound questions confronting humankind, including whether we are alone in the Universe and what our cosmic origins are.
Addressing both the daunting challenges and the immense promise of lunar exploration and exploitation, Back to the Moon reveals how prioritizing science, and in particular lunar astronomy, will enable us to address the deepest cosmic mysteries.
- GenresScienceNonfiction
304 pages, Hardcover
Published November 1, 2022
12 people are currently reading
135 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
July 4, 2023
Very interesting but a bit all over the place, hopping around from one subject to the next.
March 18, 2023
For the purpose of building the very best space telescopes, and discovering alien life and the origins of the universe, and indeed the unified theory of everything for physics. Also we can pay for it with rare earths and helium-3, and a lunar orbital platform that is the future hub for humanity. It will be safe and efficient, because we will choose the best people to go, and nations will set smart rules, and corps have learned from earth's polution and other health dangers. (so the author says)
When I am 80 years old, I hope I have enough energy to publish a book, connecting the highlights of a lifetime of research, in a hopeful way. I certainly hope I can be this optimistic about the future of exploration, science and humanity.
Artimis was apparently a wise choice for allocating resources, and we have a rush by space nations to go secure the best sites, and establish their own legal frameworks. Silk hopes above all that space telescopes and shared, stable power stations become part of the plans. That science is a large part of the (stated) purpose. Oh my, I do hope so too. If i squit hard, it isn't completely impossible.
The author repeats himself, and the book has a dictated quality to its sentence structure. Much of this is not at all about the moon, but rather about the cutting edge long wavelengths radio astronomy that could potentially be done on the dark side moon, as long as terrestrial governments carve out space and money for pure science.
The book includes some fascinating research details, such as that the 2037 ESA gravitational wave probe LISA will be precise enough to measure mass relative displacement of one-billionth of a centimeter over a distance of a million kilometers. (p150) Jaw dropping stunning.
Interesting endnotes, such as how we know the distance of the moon over time, as related to tides modifying its angular momentum.
On p269 in the notes, a typo transposes two numbers in the date of the Mt Saint Helens eruption, just about the only number in the book with which I had prior knowledge. I very much hope the other numbers are all fully reliable, since I doubt the book had extensive editing or proofreading.
I do think exploration of the moon will rapidly turn to exploitation, and I worry that science will be left in the dust, but this is exactly the kind of book that helps perhaps avoid that inevitability.
When I am 80 years old, I hope I have enough energy to publish a book, connecting the highlights of a lifetime of research, in a hopeful way. I certainly hope I can be this optimistic about the future of exploration, science and humanity.
Artimis was apparently a wise choice for allocating resources, and we have a rush by space nations to go secure the best sites, and establish their own legal frameworks. Silk hopes above all that space telescopes and shared, stable power stations become part of the plans. That science is a large part of the (stated) purpose. Oh my, I do hope so too. If i squit hard, it isn't completely impossible.
The author repeats himself, and the book has a dictated quality to its sentence structure. Much of this is not at all about the moon, but rather about the cutting edge long wavelengths radio astronomy that could potentially be done on the dark side moon, as long as terrestrial governments carve out space and money for pure science.
The book includes some fascinating research details, such as that the 2037 ESA gravitational wave probe LISA will be precise enough to measure mass relative displacement of one-billionth of a centimeter over a distance of a million kilometers. (p150) Jaw dropping stunning.
Interesting endnotes, such as how we know the distance of the moon over time, as related to tides modifying its angular momentum.
On p269 in the notes, a typo transposes two numbers in the date of the Mt Saint Helens eruption, just about the only number in the book with which I had prior knowledge. I very much hope the other numbers are all fully reliable, since I doubt the book had extensive editing or proofreading.
I do think exploration of the moon will rapidly turn to exploitation, and I worry that science will be left in the dust, but this is exactly the kind of book that helps perhaps avoid that inevitability.
Want to read
December 23, 2022Book Review: Starry-Eyed Dreams of a Lunar Homecoming ~ “Back to the Moon” is astrophysicist Joseph Silk’s impassioned call to return humans to the lunar surface for good—Mark Wolverton @undarkmag https://bit.ly/3Cl3kir
September 1, 2025
Astrophysicist Joseph Silk wanted to write a book about... astrophysics. Or cosmology at least. And he did! But he called it "Back to the Moon".
The parts that are actually about the Moon are really handwavy, a long list of all the sports (golf!) and luxury hotels and mining companies that can't wait to go back to the moon. It's all very superficial, with not even an attempt to some back-of-the-envelop analysis of how the economics of this could work. Oh, and the search for extra-terrestials.
But then he gets to his moon-based telescopes, discussed in more detail. Then get us to a discussion of the astrophysics since the Big Bang, the Great Questions etc., Which was interesting, but not at all much related to the "Back to the Moon".
The parts that are actually about the Moon are really handwavy, a long list of all the sports (golf!) and luxury hotels and mining companies that can't wait to go back to the moon. It's all very superficial, with not even an attempt to some back-of-the-envelop analysis of how the economics of this could work. Oh, and the search for extra-terrestials.
But then he gets to his moon-based telescopes, discussed in more detail. Then get us to a discussion of the astrophysics since the Big Bang, the Great Questions etc., Which was interesting, but not at all much related to the "Back to the Moon".
March 24, 2023
Title is misleading. Based on the cover I expected the book bro discuss the future of space travel in the next decades. The book begins with a history of space exploration, it spends much time on the beginning of the universe , it spends time on the universe a billion years from now. It does spend some time talking about exploring the moon over the next decades. It does present the perils both technological and legal that will be faced. On both f theses fronts I would have like to see a call to action. Especially w,r.t. The legal, I would have like to see, “write to congress and ask them to do x,y,z soon
August 25, 2025
The book’s theme is interesting but it was poorly executed. The book is at times very repetitive and do not go deeper in some interesting topics. Besides that, the book is a bit all over the place. If you are interested in this topic you might be better off searching “why we are going back to the moon” on YouTube and watching the first video that pops up.
August 1, 2023
Very interesting but the weird sentence and paragraph structure was annoying. Needed a better editor.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews