My colleagues and friends at The Economist have been very supportive. Particular thanks to Barbara Beck, Rosie Blau, Tim de Lisle, Daniel Franklin and Tom Standage, whose editing of various pieces in this area was very helpful, to Simon Wright for selflessly shouldering displaced workload, to Yvonne Ryan for services to sanity, and most especially to Zanny Minton Beddoes, who gave this book the great gift of time. Gifts of space for which money could not provide true recompense were provided by the Arvon Foundation at The Hurst in Shropshire—many thanks to Natasha Carlish and Dan Pravitt, and to fellow retreaters Sandy, Carsten, Sam and Claire—and by Ali Shaw in Southsea. Spatial generosity of a more temporary kind was provided by a number of coffee shops, most notably the Buenos Aires Café in Greenwich and the Southsea Coffee Company, and various pubs, notably the Wave Maiden in Southsea, The Union in Greenwich and the Barley Mow in Kemptown.
For spiritual support, moral and otherwise, I thank my various Morton, Jacques Morton, Pearson, Daykin, Lucas, Hynes, Loft, O’Fallon Carlson, Hynes Ciernia and other relatives, as well as sundry Bacons, Herle Schaffers, Prior Offenders and so forth.
To the person who found the missing notebook containing late thoughts for this book’s improvement, saw on its first page my name and contact details along with a declaration that it was very important to me and hinting at reward but nevertheless did not get in touch: the opposite of thanks.
The idea for this book, which arrived a few hours before the idea that I should be the one to write it, came from a meeting of the Economist Books advisory board in late 2017. Many thanks to Clive Priddle at PublicAffairs and Ed Lake and Andrew Franklin at Profile Books for seeing its merit, and to Clive for taking it forward, in a somewhat tonally mutated form, as its editor, a mere 20 years after we first started working on a book together. Thanks also to Melissa Veronesi at PublicAffairs for managing a somewhat crammed publication process deftly and with great generosity, and to Christina Palaia for an excellent copyedit.
Sarah Chalfant and Alba Ziegler Bailey were, as always, both very effective and immensely supportive through the whole process; thanks to them, to Ekin Oklap and the rest of the Wylie Agency. And a big hello to Joy.
I am hugely grateful to my friend Ralph Aeschliman for the maps that enhance this volume and for the timeline. I am also grateful to the publishers of Paul Bowles and James Joyce for permission to quote from their work in the epigraphs. Small parts of this book derive from pieces earlier published in The Economist, and I am grateful for the permission to rework them here.
Various people not contractually obliged to read all or part of the manuscript have nevertheless generously done so at various stages of its development; my thanks to Thony Christie, Bill Hartmann, John Logsdon, David Morrison, Adam Roberts, Simon Schaffer and Francis Spufford. Particular thanks in this regard to John Morton—who also walked up a mountain in furtherance of the fortunes of the book project that was put aside in favour of this one—to the perceptive, eagle-eyed Olivia Judson as well as the helpfully critical Kevin Zahnle.
As always, most thanks of all to my beloved Nancy Hynes, who has always liked looking at and imagining the Moon and who happily shared visions, ideas, observations and poetry with me, as well as being a support and an inspiration in so many other ways.
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OLIVER MORTON has written about space for decades in publications ranging from The Economist to Nature to Prospect to the New Yorker. Asteroid 10716 olivermorton is named after him.
PRAISE FOR THE MOON
“The Moon is such a fascinating object in human history. From its dominance in our neighboring sphere, to its romantic impetus, to its symbol of national stature, to its position as a mere stepping stone to greater exploits, the Moon has been omnipresent in the human sky. And no book about the Moon that I’ve ever read captures the multifaceted nature of the Moon as does Oliver Morton’s The Moon. As impressive as the subject matter he deals with is the quality of Oliver Morton’s writing. Whether describing the clockwork of the lunar cycle or the history of the Moon’s influence in human affairs, Morton’s writing is clear, incredibly informative, and flows like poetry. A truly delightful and informative read.”
—RUSTY SCHWEICKART, lunar module pilot, Apollo IX
“A multidisciplinary triumph, combining a deep understanding of science fiction and myth with accurate, up-to-date lunar science and space technology.”
—DAVID MORRISON, founding director, NASA Lunar Science Institute
“Beautifully written: evocative, witty, and truly informative. I thought I knew a lot about the Moon but I nonetheless learned all sorts of fascinating new things, and thoroughly enjoyed myself doing so. Combining science and science fiction is not easy and Oliver Morton manages it seamlessly and brilliantly! Superb.”
—ADAM ROBERTS, author of The Palgrave History of Science Fiction and The Thing Itself
“A hymn to the Moon. I can’t think of a wiser, more eloquent or better-informed companion for a journey around our natural satellite than Oliver Morton, whose poetic prose displays a breadth of knowledge not often found in science writing.”
—Roger Highfield, director of external affairs, the Science Museum Group
“Our Moon, a spherical bit of unchanging inanimate rock, nonetheless captivates us with its romance and its beauty. Its tantalizing almost deceptive proximity makes it also a destination, both a past one and a promising one for the future. In this poetically written and informative book, Oliver Morton takes us through all aspects of this very familiar but very foreign territory, which has inspired stories and study for decades. What a remarkable achievement and one well worth exploring.”
—LISA RANDALL, Frank B. Baird Professor of Science, Harvard University
SOURCES AND FURTHER READING
THESE NOTES ARE INTENDED AS A GUIDE TO THE BOOKS AND papers in the bibliography that will tell you more about the various topics touched on in the book’s chapters. Books mentioned specifically in the text are not necessarily mentioned here.
THE MOON IN GENERAL
The late Paul Spudis did more, I think, than anyone to argue for the merits of a Return to the Moon; the book forms of those arguments are Spudis (1996) and Spudis (2016). In terms of the past, Scott Montgomery provides a fascinating history of looking at the Moon from antiquity to the 17th century in Montgomery (1999). For books on the Apollo programme, see notes for Chapter III. To lose yourself in past designs for lunar spaceships, go to Godwin (2008); for myth and folklore, see Cashford (2003).
I first came to see the Moon in detail through Lewis (1969). These days I recommend the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera website at http://lroc.sese.asu.edu/. I first circumnavigated it with Dr Dolittle and Dr Cargreaves in Lofting (1928) and Heinlein (1947).
INTRODUCTION
The paper I was reading on the Caltrain was Wingo (2016).
CHAPTER I
The French earthshine observations are in Arnold et al (2002) and those from Arizona in Woolf et al (2002); further developments in the field are in Sterzick et al (2011). Lovelock’s original insights into life and the chemical disequilibrium of the atmosphere can be found in Lovelock (1979). The subject of earthshine as both secondary light and evidence for Copernicanism is dealt with eye-openingly in Reeves (1997), and the links between Copernicanism and a belief in life on other planets/worlds are the main theme of Dick (1984). The history of Project Diana is in Butrica (1997), the genesis of the communications satellite is Clarke (1946) and the use of the Stanford dish for intelligence purposes is in Perry (2015). The transcript of the Apollo 8 voice recorders is NASA (1969). The definitive work on “Earthrise” is Poole (2008), and that on Kubrick’s and Clarke’s “2001: A Space Odyssey”, Benson (2018).
CHAPTER II
Montgomery (1999) is a lovely and thoughtful account of early images of the Moon, and the place t
o go for more on van Eyck. Whitaker is the definitive account of Moon maps, though true aficionados will need to check out Kopal and Carder (1974), too. Pumfrey (2011) explains Gilbert’s contribution and purposes. Roberts (2016) provides a superb account of early-modern science fiction, and indeed of the rest of the genre; for a more Moon-specific take, try Bennett (1983). The history of islands as Edens, environments and fantasies is explored in Grove (1995). On Nasmyth, see Nasmyth and Carpenter (1871), Nasmyth (1882) and Robertson (2006). The slow coming into being of the impact theory is chronicled in Marvin (1986) and Koeberl (2001), and its later stages in Wilhelms (1993). The material on Hartmann comes from Bill himself and from Hartmann (1981). For the Moon as photographed from its surface (and elsewhere), there is no better introduction than Light (1999).
CHAPTER III
Books devoted to Apollo could be piled on top of each other to at least the height of a Saturn V. The ones I most recommend are Chaikin (1995) for the overall story, Collins (1974) for being there, Cox and Murray (1990) for the way it was done, Logsdon (2013) for the politics, Mailer (1971) for the chutzpah and Wilhelms (1993) for the geology and its modes of production. Also of great use for this chapter were Harland (2008), Launius (1994), McDonald (2017) and, especially for the launch sequence, Woods (2016). Not used so much, but excellent and worth recommending, are Scott and Jurek (2014) and Scott (2017). The surface transcripts are from Jones and Glover (ongoing), which is a truly remarkable resource, as is Woods with others (ongoing).
The early history of spaceflight is chronicled in McDougall (1985), and links between rocketry and science fiction are discussed in Carter (1974), which is my source for the quotation from Oberth; for Heinlein’s time in Hollywood, see Patterson (2016), and for an excellent introduction to the world of mid-century American SF, see Nevala-Lee (2018). Day (2007) is a good account of military moonbase plans. There are terrific Bonestell Moon illustrations in Richardson (1961), which gives a very good sense of pre-Apollo understanding of the Moon. For the LM, see Kelly (2001) and Riley (2009); for spacesuits, see the magnificent and many-layered De Monchaux (2011) and also St Clair (2018); for simulation, see Mindell (2008). For black astronauts, see Logsdon (2014). Dava Sobel’s friend’s lunophagy is in Sobel (2005). Buzz Aldrin’s Communion is in Chaikin (1995).
CHAPTER IV
The political and social context of the Apollo and early-post-Apollo years is dealt with thoughtfully in Maher (2015). For an introduction to the Anthropocene and debates over its timing, see Lewis and Maslin (2018), and for a consideration of its impact on the humanities, see Chakrabarty (2009). David Grinspoon puts forth his ideas about the Anthropocene and Tranquility Base in Grinspoon (2016); a broader take on the need to consider the Anthropocene beyond the Earth can be found in Olson and Messeri (2015). For the Chaotian and Hadean periodization of the very early solar system, see Goldblatt et al (2010). For the day of the collision, see von Trier (2011) and Asphaug (2014), a review which provides some of the history of the idea of the giant impact and some of the questions yet to answer. For the synestia, see Lock and Stewart (2017) and Lock et al (2018). On the need for a Moon, see Brownlee and Ward (2000) and Waltham (2016). For a balanced take on the fortunes of the concept of a Late Heavy Bombardment, see Bottke and Norman (2017). The idea that it is better to leave the planet than endure a large impact’s after-effects comes from Sleep and Zahnle (1998). For “Earth’s Attic”, see Armstrong, Wells and Gonzales (2002).
CHAPTER V
The orphans of Apollo documentary is Potter (2008); for a sense of what it is to be such an orphan, I recommend Klerkx (2004). For O’Neill, see O’Neill (1976), Brand (1977) and McCray (2012); for space-based cornucopianism, see Pournelle (1981), and for its links to the military, see Westwick (2018). Heidegger on the Moon as the end of the world is from Lazier (2011). Tumlinson with Medlicott (2005) brings together many reasons and plans for the Return; helium 3 is discussed in Spudis (1996); Dennis Wingo makes the case for platinum from the Moon in Wingo (2004); the National Academy of Sciences (2007) and the Lunar Exploration Analysis Group (2016) set out the scientific rationale. The idea of America as a second creation is explored in Nye (2003).
CHAPTER VI
The quotation from the Saturday Review is from Barnouw (1970). For Elon Musk’s achievements and character, see Vance (2015), and for what was the latest version of his infrastructure for a multiplanetary species (but will probably be superseded by the time you read this), see Musk (2018). Robert Zubrin’s Moon proposal is Zubrin (2018). Miller et al (2015) is a fascinating analysis of a public-private Return to the Moon.
CHAPTER VII
A version of the BOLAS idea is described in Stubbs et al (2018); the charms of Rima Bode are described in Spudis and Richards (2018). For lava tubes, see Chappaz et al (2017) and Kaku et al (2017). Lockwood (2007) deals with radiation (and other) risks. On the legal issues surrounding the Peaks of Eternal Light, Elvis, Milligan and Krolikowski (2016) is fascinating. Pretty much no one talks about pregnancy.
CHAPTER VIII
“The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress” is insightfully discussed in Franklin (1980), Davies (2018) and Mendelsohn (2019), though this analysis does not follow theirs in all respects. Baxter (2015) is a very helpful and insightful overview of the politics of lunar science fiction. Charles Cockell has done a world that thinks little about such things a signal service in providing his own ideas about extraterrestrial liberty in Cockell (2008, 2009, 2010) and also assembling the views of others in Cockell (2015a, 2015b, 2016). The environmental trend in history can be seen in Davis (2000), Wood (2014) and Parker (2014), among many other places. Mary Douglas’s conception of pollution is set out in Douglas (1966). Damjanov (2013) is strongly recommended to those with an interest in moon ghosts: it is fascinating on both hauntology and heterotropia. The bright-earthshine theory of lunar asymmetry is Roy et al (2014). Silk (2018) makes the case for a radio telescope on the lunar far side. An outline of the possibilities for starshots can be found in Lubin (2016) with updates at the Breakthrough Initiative website (http://breakthroughinitiatives.org/initiative/3).
CODA
The piece I was writing at the time is Morton (2016). The remains of that Newsweek International cover package are Morton (1999). Mike Elliott is touchingly remembered in Franklin (2016).
That midnight launch and landing were witnessed with, inter alia, Jeff Foust (@Jeff_Foust) of Space News and Loren Grush (@lorengrush) of The Verge. If you want to keep up to date with news about space in general, I can recommend no more-helpful Twitter feeds.
REFERENCES
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Armstrong, John C., Wells, Llyd E., and Gonzalez, Guillermo. (2002). “Rummaging through Earth’s attic for remains of ancient life.” Icarus 160:183–196.
Arnold, L., Gillet, S., Lardière, O., Riaud, P., and Schneider, J. (2002). “A test for the search for life on extrasolar planets: Looking for the terrestrial vegetation signature in the Earthshine spectrum.” Astronomy & Astrophysics 392:231–237.
Asimov, Isaac. (1972). “The tragedy of the Moon.” Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, July.
Asphaug, Erik. (2014). “Impact origin of the Moon?” Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences 42:551–578.
Baldwin, Ralph Belknap. (1949). The Face of the Moon. University of Chicago Press.
Barnouw, Eric. (1970). The Image Empire. (A History of Broadcasting in the United States, Volume III). Oxford University Press.
Baxter, Stephen. (2015). “The birth of a new republic: Depictions of the governance of a free Moon in science fiction.” In Cockell, C. (ed.), Human Governance Beyond Earth: Implications for Freedom. Springer.
Bear, Greg. (1990). Heads. Orbit.
Behn, Aphra. (1687). “The emperor of the Moon.” In The Works of Aphra Behn, Volume III.
Bennett, Maurice J. (1983). “Edgar Allen Poe and the literary tradition of lunar specul
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Benson, Michael. (2018). Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke, and the Making of a Masterpiece. Simon & Schuster.
Bottke, William F., and Norman, Marc D. (2017). “The Late Heavy Bombardment.” Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences 45:619–647.
Bova, Ben. (1976). Millennium: A Novel About People and Politics in the Year 1999. Random House.
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Boyle, Colleen. (2013). “You saw the whole of the Moon: The role of imagination in the perceptual construction of the Moon.” LEONARDO, 46:246–252.
Brand, Stewart (ed.). (1977). Space Colonies. Whole Earth Catalogue Press.
Brownlee, Donald, and Ward, Peter. (2000). Rare Earth: Why Complex Life Is Uncommon in the Universe. Copernicus.
Butrica, Andrew J. (1997). To See the Unseen: A History of Planetary Radar Astronomy. NASA.
Carter, Paul A. (1974). “Rockets to the Moon, 1919–1944: A dialogue between fiction and reality.” American Studies 15:31–46.
Cashford, Jules. (2003). The Moon: Myth and Image. Octopus.
Chaikin, Andrew. (1995). A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts. Penguin.
Chakrabarty, Dipesh. (2009). “The climate of history: Four theses.” Critical Inquiry 35:197–222.
Chappaz, L., Sood, Rohan, Melosh, Henry J., Howell, Kathleen C., Blair, David M., Milbury, Colleen, and Zuber, Maria T. (2017). “Evidence of large empty lava tubes on the Moon using GRAIL gravity.” Geophysical Research Letters 44. doi:10.1002/2016GL071588
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