Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771

ENGINEERING COLLOQUIUM

Monday, November 22, 2004 / 3:30 PM, Building 8 Auditorium [NOTE room change]

Andrew Chaikin

"The Other Moon Landings: A Soviet Triumph in the Shadow of Apollo"

ABSTRACT -- In the early days of the race to the moon, it appeared that the Soviet Union would triumph with the first manned landing. The Soviet space program had successfully sent the first man-made object to the moon, transmitted the first photos of the backside of the moon, transmitted the first images from the lunar surface, and even sent the first living beings (turtles and simpler organisms) to make a circumlunar voyage. But with the Apollo 8 mission's successful orbit around the moon, and the failures of all the giant Soviet N-1 boosters that were required for any manned lunar mission, it was clear that the first humans on the moon would be Americans. With their manned landing effort in limbo, the Soviets substituted rovers for human explorers. Named Lunakhod (Russian for "moonwalker"), the rovers would be driven in "real-time" by two five-men crews in a control center in the city of Simferopol. Two successful Lunakhod rovers lasted for a combined 15 months on the lunar surface. These rovers traveled over 27 miles across the rugged lunar terrain between 1970 and 1973. This colloquium will discuss the story of those rovers, their design, operations, and successes/failures.

SPEAKER -- Andrew Chaikin has authored books and articles about space exploration and astronomy for more than two decades. He is also active as a lecturer at museums, schools, and corporate events, and in radio and television appearances. Mr. Chaikin is best known as the author of A Man on the Moon: The Triumphant Story of the Apollo Space Program, first published in 1994. This acclaimed work was the main basis for Tom Hanks' HBO miniseries, From the Earth to the Moon, which won the Emmy for best miniseries in 1998. A three-volume, fully illustrated edition of A Man on the Moon was published by Time-Life books in 1999. Mr. Chaikin co-edited The New Solar System, a compendium of writings by planetary scientists, now in its fourth edition. He is also the author of Air and Space: The National Air and Space Museum Story of Flight. He collaborated with moonwalker-turned-artist Alan Bean to write Apollo: An Eyewitness Account, and he co-authored the text for the highly successful collection of Apollo photography, Full Moon. His most recent book, SPACE: A History of Space Exploration in Photographs, was published in 2002.

From 1999 to 2001, Mr. Chaikin served as Executive Editor for Space and Science at SPACE.com, the definitive website for all things space. He was also the editor of SPACE.com's print magazine, Space Illustrated. Mr. Chaikin is a commentator for National Public Radio's Morning Edition, and has appeared on Good Morning America, Nightline, and the NPR programs Fresh Air and Talk of the Nation. A former editor of Sky & Telescope magazine, Mr. Chaikin has also been a contributing editor of Popular Science and has written for Newsweek, Air&Space/Smithsonian, World Book Encyclopedia, Scientific American, and other publications.