Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Chapter 1 The Importance of the Moon
- Chapter 2 First Steps
- Chapter 3 Moon/Mars
- Chapter 4 An International Flotilla
- Chapter 5 The Moon Rises from the Ashes
- Chapter 6 Moons Past
- Chapter 7 The Pull of the Far Side
- Chapter 8 Water in a Land of False Seas
- Chapter 9 Inconstant Moon
- Chapter 10 Moonlighting
- Chapter 11 Lunar Living Room
- Chapter 12 Lunar Power
- Chapter 13 Stepping Stone
- Chapter 14 Return to Earth
- Glossary
- Appendix A Von Braun et al. Space and Lunar Exploration Issues
- Appendix B Topics in Transient Phenomena on the Moon
- Index
- References
Chapter 5 - The Moon Rises from the Ashes
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 September 2014
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Chapter 1 The Importance of the Moon
- Chapter 2 First Steps
- Chapter 3 Moon/Mars
- Chapter 4 An International Flotilla
- Chapter 5 The Moon Rises from the Ashes
- Chapter 6 Moons Past
- Chapter 7 The Pull of the Far Side
- Chapter 8 Water in a Land of False Seas
- Chapter 9 Inconstant Moon
- Chapter 10 Moonlighting
- Chapter 11 Lunar Living Room
- Chapter 12 Lunar Power
- Chapter 13 Stepping Stone
- Chapter 14 Return to Earth
- Glossary
- Appendix A Von Braun et al. Space and Lunar Exploration Issues
- Appendix B Topics in Transient Phenomena on the Moon
- Index
- References
Summary
From his mind the Moon was born,
And from his eye the Sun.
– “The Sacrifice of Primal Man” in the Rig Veda“The moon is backing away from us
an inch and a half each year. That means
if you’re like me and were born
around fifty years ago the moon
was a full six feet closer to the earth.
What’s a person supposed to do?
I feel the gray cloud of consternation
travel across my face. I begin thinking
about the moon-lit past, how if you go back
far enough you can imagine the breathtaking
hugeness of the moon, prehistoric
solar eclipses when the moon covered the sun
so completely there was no corona, only
a darkness we had no word for”
– Dorianne Laux, 2004, “Facts About the Moon”
Mythology in most traditional cultures tells of the Moon’s birth. It seems appropriate that, of all creation’s elements, the Moon was born from the Hindu primal entity’s mind. Of all scientific accounts of creation of major extraterrestrial Solar System bodies, the Moon’s has most generated debate, and still does. Foremost physicists attacked the problem, and it has orbited basic scientific questions such as Earth’s age and how the Sun and stars generate energy. The effect of the Moon’s birth on Earth was so profound and unbelievably violent that it took time to accept it. Before Apollo, understanding the Moon’s birth was largely a mental exercise, starved for data, while stellar or galactic astrophysics progressed via remote telescopic and spectroscopic observations. Now we ask how much our understanding of the Moon’s origin is complete and correct.
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- Chapter
- Information
- The New MoonWater, Exploration, and Future Habitation, pp. 158 - 173Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2014