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 8 - Water in a Land of False Seas
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
“Beside the Mare Crisium, that sea
Where water never was, sit down with me
And let us talk of Earth, where long ago
We drank the air and saw the rivers flow
Like comets through the green estates of man,
And fruit the color of Aldebaran
Weighted the curving boughs.”
A century ago water on the Moon began as an idea with the worst possible intellectual pedigree. In 1894 Hans Hörbiger, a successful engineer (who invented a valve to control blast furnaces’ airflow), had a curious vision of the Universe. His Glacial-Kosmogonie, published in 1912, propounded the Welteislehre (“World Ice”) theory, with the Moon, our Galaxy, and even space itself dominated by water ice, apparently inspired by the icelike appearance of the Moon in the night sky.
Hörbiger’s book was championed by respected German amateur selenographer Philipp Fauth, aided by Hörbiger and family. Public extravaganzas promoted the theory to common knowledge. Its cold, northerly tenor in opposition to Einstein’s relativity (and even Newtonian physics) attracted Nazi leaders. Welteislehre became party doctrine, and Fauth was promoted by S. S. Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler to university professor (having never taught at that level or conducted sufficient research). Fauth named a lunar crater Hörbiger (following his death in 1931). During and after the Third Reich, Hans Schindler wrote several books expanding the World Ice theory, soon discredited. In 1948 Hörbiger’s name was stripped from the crater (although a crater Fauth remains).
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- Chapter
- Information
- The New MoonWater, Exploration, and Future Habitation, pp. 227 - 260Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2014