Astronomy: The Moon!
"We choose to go to the Moon"
Commemorating President John F. Kennedy's historic speech delivered at Rice University on September 12, 1962.
Streaming Video (requires Rice sign in)
- Apollo 11-The Eagle Has LandedOn Sunday, July 20th, 1969, around the World, nearly 1 Billion people watched this event on television, as the first man from Earth prepared to set foot upon the moon. "One small step for man. One giant leap for mankind."
- Women in SpaceThis program traces the history of women pioneers in the U.S. space program. Some, like aviators Wally Funk and Jerrie Cobb, passed the same grueling tests as male astronauts, only to be dismissed by NASA, the military and even Lyndon Johnson. It was not until 1995 that Eileen Collins became the first woman to pilot a spacecraft.
Web Links
- Astromaterials Curation at NASARocks and Soils from the moon!
- Google MoonThis site provides "a mosaic of landing site images and a tour of the Apollo landings" on the moon. Click to zoom in on the landing sites for the "six missions of the Apollo Program, which lasted from 1963 to 1972." Also includes a FAQ and a relief map showing moon elevations. From Google, in partnership with scientists at the NASA Ames Research Center.
- Apollo Lunar Surface JournalTranscripts of the Apollo lunar missions 11-17 are presented here, with most of them separated into convenient chapters such as "landing day."
- Lunar MeteoritesQuestions and answers about "lunar meteorites, or lunaites, [which] are meteorites from the Moon. In other words, they are rocks found on Earth that were ejected from the Moon by the impact of an asteroidal meteoroid or possibly a comet." Includes images, references to journal articles, a list of lunar meteorites, a gallery of "meteorwrongs" (rocks mistakenly identified as meteorites), and related material. From a lunar geochemist at Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri.
- Apollo to the Moon
Devoted to the Apollo project and the quest to land a man on the moon. Includes articles on the space race, President Kennedy, Apollo 11 and the first lunar landing, and what came after Apollo 11; photographs and information on lunar rocks; a list of artifacts connected to the space race; and a timeline (1957 to 1975). From the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.
Woodson Archives Materials
- Guide to the F. Curtis Michel Scientist-Astronaut Papers, 1951-1981Stored off-site at the Library Service Center. Please request this material via woodson@rice.edu or call 713-348-2586.
- Guide to the John F. Kennedy Space Effort Speech at Rice University records, 1961-1962 UA 109This record group consists of printed material and audio covering John F. Kennedy's visit and speech on the Nation's Space Effort at Rice University on September 12, 1962.
Resources about the Apollo Program
Carrying the Fire by Call Number: TL789.85 A33 1974ISBN: 0374119171Publication Date: 1974-01-01
Apollo by Call Number: TL789.8 .U6 A558 1989ISBN: 0671611011Publication Date: 1989-07-01
A Man on the Moon by Call Number: TL789.8 .U6 A5244 1995ISBN: 0140097066Publication Date: 1995-05-01
First Man by Call Number: TL789.85 .A75 H36 2005ISBN: 9780743256315Publication Date: 2005-10-18On July 20, 1969, the world stood still to watch thirty-eight-year-old American astronaut Neil A. Armstrong become the first person ever to step on the surface of another heavenly body. Perhaps no words in human history became better known than those few he uttered at that historic moment.Upon his return to Earth, Armstrong was honored and celebrated for his monumental achievement. He was also -- as James R. Hansen reveals in this fascinating and important authorized biography -- misunderstood.
Failure Is Not an Option by ISBN: 1439148813Publication Date: 2009-06-23This memoir of a veteran NASA flight director tells riveting stories from the early days of the Mercury program through Apollo 11 (the moon landing) and Apollo 13, for both of which Kranz was flight director. Gene Kranz was present at the creation of America's manned space program and was a key player in it for three decades.
We Could Not Fail by ISBN: 9780292772496Publication Date: 2015-05-01.The Space Age began just as the struggle for civil rights forced Americans to confront the long and bitter legacy of slavery, discrimination, and violence against African Americans. Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson utilized the space program as an agent for social change, using federal equal employment opportunity laws to open workplaces at NASA and NASA contractors to African Americans while creating thousands of research and technology jobs in the Deep South to ameliorate poverty. We Could Not Fail tells the inspiring, largely unknown story of how shooting for the stars helped to overcome segregation on earth.
Earthrise by ISBN: 9780300137668Publication Date: 2008-11-06Earthrise tells the remarkable story of the first photographs of Earth from space and the totally unexpected impact of those images.
John F. Kennedy and the Race to the Moon by ISBN: 9780230110106Publication Date: 2011-02-10While there are many biographies of JFK and accounts of the early years of US space efforts, this book uses primary source material and interviews with key participants to provide a comprehensive account of how the actions taken by JFK's administration have shaped the course of the US space program over the last 45 years.
Digital Apollo by ISBN: 9780262134972Publication Date: 2008-04-04How human pilots and automated systems worked together to achieve the ultimate in flight--the lunar landings of NASA's Apollo program. As Apollo 11's Lunar Module descended toward the moon under automatic control, a program alarm in the guidance computer's software nearly caused a mission abort. Neil Armstrong responded by switching off the automatic mode and taking direct control. He stopped monitoring the computer and began flying the spacecraft, relying on skill to land it and earning praise for a triumph of human over machine. In Digital Apollo, engineer-historian David Mindell takes this famous moment as a starting point for an exploration of the relationship between humans and computers in the Apollo program.
The Office of Public Affairs has provided several extra DVD copies of volume 3 of "Rice University on film" [videorecording] / produced by Rice University.
This contains clips from the Kennedy speech in a short program titled "Why Go to the Moon?" along with other video productions about Rice ,
call number:LD4711 .R32 R527
Books
- The day we found the universe / Marcia Bartusiak QB15 .B37 2009
- Voices from the moon : Apollo astronauts describe their lunar experiences / Andrew Chaikin with Victoria Kohl. TL799 .M6 C434 2009
- The Sun and The Moon/ Matthew Goodman. QB 581.9 .G66 2008
- Observing the Moon/ Gerald North. 2nd Edition. QB 581.N67 2007
- The Planets/ Dava Sobel. QB601 .S63 2005
- Lunar Exploration: Human Pioneers and Robotic Surveyors/ Paolo Ulivi QB582.5 .U44 2004
- The moon : a biography / David Whitehouse. QB581 .W54 2001
- Observing the moon : a practical guide for amateurastronomers / Peter T. Wlasuk. QB581 .W63 2000
- Observing the moon : the modern astronomer's guide /Gerald North. QB581 .N67 2000
- To a rocky moon : a geologist's history of lunar exploration / Don E. Wilhelms. QB592 .W54 1999
Subject Guide
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