Moon Hunters: NASA's Remarkable Expeditions to the Ends of the Solar Systems

Don't overlook this book. It is extremely well written and the content held my attention from beginning to end. It is the best account I have ever read regarding the US unmanned space program from the early space race through the Apollo era. The book provides fine accounts of the people and technology involved in the unmanned program, particularly the contributions of the scientists at JPL. I'm awestruck at the technology invented by these scientists and their scientific discoveries. The JPL was often ignored in the shadow of the more popular manned space program. Moreover, I believe the discoveries discussed in "Moon Hunters" contribute more to space science than the manned space program. The book is easy to read and has extremely intersting information about the planets and moons of our Solar System. Perhaps more remarkable is how the JPL scientists were able to navigate unmanned craft in deep space with such great accuracy to "visit" the many moons of the solar system.

The writer often uses too many adjectives. The book is however full of interesting tidbits of information about the science returned from voyager etc. It also has some interesting anecdotes about the people and events surrounding a mission.Over all : a good book to get you started on solar system science-kg

Kluger has tackled the task of covering the complete history of the exploration of the solar system's moons. In 320 pages Kluger has managed to fill a long standing gap in the historic documentation of space exploration. Beginning with the Ranger projects of the 1960's the author continues summarizing the major planetary/moon visits up until this time (2001). While, in so few pages, the book cannot delve into the level of technical and management detail that many would like to see, the author has done justice to the task in so few pages. Kluger has gone well beyond the usual abbreviated technical presentations found in NASA/JPL news releases. This book should prove of great interest to engineers involved in space and ocean exploration where technical failure is a constant threat. Those who practice engineering understand that learning how things fail is as important as learning how things succeed and Kluger has shown several examples of the engineering difficulties and work arounds that led to the most far reaching and remarkable exploratory effort in human history. From a scientific perspective the author has done a nice job summarizing the scientific interests and expectations for the known moons in the solar system. This book will prove to be a good one source reading for a concise summary of planetary exploration to this time.

This is a lively, often anecdotal account of many of the lunar and planetary missions developed by NASA/Cal Tech's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The prologue in particular is overdramatic, but fortunately it settles down after that. The focus is on two projects: JPL's first program, the Ranger lunar missions, and the spectacular Voyager missions to the outer planets. The latter in particular is covered with great thoroughness from program conception to the final flyby, and beyond. It provides some interesting insight into the politics and pragmatism behind these great adventures.If I have a criticism of this book, it's a simple one: there aren't enough pictures. There are only eight pages worth of color pictures, which isn't enough to do justice even to the Voyager missions. I can only think it was a misguided attempt to save costs.Overall, though, it's an easy (for this space buff, anyway) and fascinating read about some of the most significant unmanned projects of the space age so far.

This book focuses entirely on unmanned missions and all the human participants are entirely earth-based, so you might imagine that the story could be quite dry and clinical but Jeffrey Kluger brings the story to life in a most engaging and entertaining way. This book is a real page-turner -- you'll feel compelled to read it from cover-to-cover in one sitting! He brings the characters to life and the long cast involved on some of these amazingly longlived missions. It's a fascinating story with lots of amazing facts that I never knew before the read. And, it's an even better read than "The Race" which has garnered a lot of praise and also a very good book in its own right.