About the Book:

A beautiful showcase of hand-drawn geological charts of the Moon, combined with a retelling of the symbolic and mythical associations of Earth’s satellite. President Kennedy’s rousing ‘We will go to the Moon’ speech on 25 May 1961 set Project Apollo in motion and spurred on scientists at the US Geological Survey in their efforts to carry out geologic mapping of the Moon. Over the next 11 years a team of 22 created 44 superb charts – one for each named quadrangle on the Earthside of the Moon.

In Lunar, for the first time, you can see every beautifully hand-drawn and coloured chart accompanied by expert analysis and interpretation by Smithsonian science curator Matthew Shindell. Long a source of wonder, fascination and symbolic significance, the Moon was crucial to prehistoric man in their creation of a calendar; it played a key role in ancient creator myths and astrology; and if has often been associated with madness. Every mythical and cultural association of the Moon throughout history is explored in this sumptuous volume, culminating in the 1969 Moon landing, which heralded the beginning of a whole new scientific journey.

About the Authors:

Dava Sobel is an American writer of popular expositions of scientific topics. She was born in The Bronx, New York City, and graduated from The Bronx Highschool of Science and Binghampton University. Her book, Galileo's Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and Love was a finalist for the 2000 Pulitzer Price for Biography or Autobiography.

Dr. Matthew Shindell is a historian of science whose work focuses on the history of the earth and planetary sciences, with an emphasis on the development of research programs in these fields during the Cold War. At the National Museum of Air and Space in Washington D.C, he curates the Museum’s collection of spacecraft, instruments, and other artifacts related to the exploration and study of the solar system.