Author Description

From the beginning, the moon has fascinated man. At first he gazed at it in simple awe. Gradually his sense of wonder grew. The moon took on the mystical and religious significance with which he surrounded many natural objects. The legends spread; the questions multiplied: Was the moon in fact the goddess of the hunt? Could she affect the crops, the fertility of women, even the destinies of nations? The craftof astrology arose, and kings and commoners alike heeded the answers it provided. Later came the period of rational theorizing and observation. The questions asked were of a different kind: Why does the moon continue itseternal circuit round the earth? Whence comes its light and what causes its phases? Why does it vanish completely each month? And what of the belief that an object hanging in the sky can influence tides on earth-can such apparent nonsense be the truth? Each question raises multitudes of others. Some have been solved; some remain for future decades, even centuries, to answer. In this book, the editors have attempted to show something of the nature of the lunar dream, its origins, its romance, its future hopes. They have tried to trace man's contacts with the moon, both in his mind and in actuality, from earliest times to present. The story is told in the words of some who have contributed to it, like Galileo and Gagarin. It is told in the poetry of Virgil, Shelley, Keats; in the imaginative writings of Cyrano and Jules Verne, and in the hard factual expositions of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.