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Book Review: Mike Mars Around The Moon
Mike Mars Around the Moon
Donald A. Wollheim Doubleday & Company, 1964 In these days with the Space Race long past us and even the Soviet Union a fading memory, it is easy to forget many of the stories of courage and daring and bravado that marked the space programs, public and secret, of the 1960s. We are therefore indebted to Wollheim and publishers for their stirring narratives of the astronaut corps of Space Task Group Q. Of course no one in this group could be unfamiliar with Colonel Michael Alfred Robert Samson -- whose initials gave him the catchy name of Mike Mars -- and his astonishing career, but Wollheim helpfully reminds the reader that as of this flight Mars had only had adventures flying the X-15, Project Mercury, Dyna-Soar, the Antarctic project of X-15 flights, and the famous Gemini flight in which he encountered and destroyed a mysterious,hostile Soviet satellite. At the start of this book, Mars has been informed that the Soviets were planning to launch a circumlunar flight and reestablish their claims to supremacy in space. Inspired by manager Dr. Van Ness, the six astronauts of Task Group Q prepare for a test flight of the then-experimental Advanced Saturn C-5 and then ride the rocket around the Moon. It's worth noting this is a two-stage configuration, used just to toss the Apollo C/SM around the moon. Public plans at this time were, of course, to not launch any Saturns except in all-up configurations, making their partial and test configurations in the secret space program all the more surprising. Mars, Johnny Bluehart, and Jack Lannigan -- the "Tycho Team" of commander, navigator, and systems manager -- witness the first test flight of this Advanced Saturn and wheel the next out of the Vehicle Assembly Building (a massive structure capable of holding and rapidly launching *six* Advanced Saturns). After (it's alleged) Soviet agents attack the "Copernicus Team" of Hart Williams, Joseph Stacey, and Orin McMahon, injuring them (though not severely), the Tycho Team is promoted to the prime crew of Apollo One. Their flight, which we now know to be both a race against Soviet cosmonaut Arkady Kosmodin and an attempt to identify the source of a strange and unearthly music detected by some Project Ozma recordings, goes extremely well despite alleged mines planeted in their path by the Soviet spoilsports. These A-bombs are detonated harmlessly by the rapidly launched Copernicus Team on Apollo Two while Mars's crew makes its look around the Moon. While watching the awesome sight of Earth setting behind the Moon and realizing themselves to be the first humans ever to be completely out of sight of Earth, Mars improves his crew's spirits with a poem: Michael Mars is my name, America's my nation. Space-flying is my game And Mars my destination! While it does not have the literary resonances of the recitation Borman, Lovell, and Anders' "Genesis" recitation from Apollo 8, it does have a certain basic charm. Wollheim writes his narrative with great vitality; it's hard to not be swept up in the energy. That said, it reveals some shocking gaps for those trying to use it as a historical reference: biographical data on the astronauts is provided only in asides. Discussions of the flight controllers, the mission trainers, the command structure of Task Group Q is barely outlined. Unforgivably for a set of books describing such a little-known but important corner of space history the dates of flights and mission lifetimes are not provided. Nevertheless, I don't wish to discourage anyone from picking up this book, or any of the other chronicles of Mike Mars's career. Despite thier shortcomings they offer a fascinating view into the great and most exciting days of the Space Race, and any regular to this group will most certainly enjoy the insight. Joseph Nebus ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
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Book Review: Mike Mars Around The Moon
On 20 Jul 2003 13:40:24 -0400, (Joseph Nebus) wrote:
Michael Mars is my name, America's my nation. Space-flying is my game And Mars my destination! "The trip will be boring and lame and fun will be small in ration. Since none of our crew is a dame We'll have to resort to masturba..." OM -- "No ******* ever won a war by dying for | http://www.io.com/~o_m his country. He won it by making the other | Sergeant-At-Arms poor dumb ******* die for his country." | Human O-Ring Society - General George S. Patton, Jr |
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Book Review: Mike Mars Around The Moon
"Joseph Nebus" wrote:
Nevertheless, I don't wish to discourage anyone from picking up this book, or any of the other chronicles of Mike Mars's career. Despite thier shortcomings they offer a fascinating view into the great and most exciting days of the Space Race, and any regular to this group will most certainly enjoy the insight. I enjoyed reading a few of the "Mike Mars" series when I was younger... they were *great*. I found a few more used copies about 4-5 years ago and got them for my son to read! Nifty... thanks for the memories. Roger -- Roger Balettie former Flight Dynamics Officer Space Shuttle Mission Control http://www.balettie.com/ |
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Book Review: Mike Mars Around The Moon
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