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Summary: The Engineering and Project Management Behind the LM
Review: .... While there are a lot of engineering terms and technical descriptions of hardware, there are no engineering formulae. The author, Thomas J. Kelley, was the chief engineer of the Grumman-built Lunar Module (LM), during its design, development and testing phases and also for part of the early landings on the Moon. The author presents a new and untold story of the development of one the greatest marvels of modern engineering, the first vehicle designed solely for manned space exploration. That is, the human side of the development of this space vehicle.The first few chapters of the book describe how Grumman developed the proposal that ultimately won the NASA contract to build the LM. The book then moves onto the development of conceptual ideas, the final design, the building, the testing and finally the flying of the LM to the lunar surface. The book concludes with a good summary of each Apollo mission, including the Apollo 13 mission, which used the LM as a lifeboat, and his thoughts about the Apollo program and the beginning of the Space Shuttle program. I found the opening chapters of the book that were devoted to writing the winning NASA proposal and the subsequent contract negotiations and the development of the LM very interesting. This winning proposal was less than 100 pages!!!!!. Try that today. Through out these and other parts of the book, the author is not afraid to criticized his company, upper management and fellow co-workers and take the blame when he was wrong. While there are many technical details in each of these sections of the book, most of the chapters describe in great detail the project management of the LM. For me, the most interesting part of this part was the human side of the development of the LM. He describes in detail how he and others felt about what they were doing, if they could really do it and the thrill of actually building the LM. For example, through out the first lunar landing, he always questioning himself, "Did we forget anything?" A feeling that I share ever time NASA launches a Shuttle. When I finished this book, I had a great understanding of the human side of this massive engineering project, which was (or is) until now an untold story. This book clearly captures the excitement of everyone behind the scenes who worked on the Apollo project. If you have any interest in the space program, even today's projects, this book will give you understanding of those people who developed these wonderful machines.
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Summary: Excellent description of life on a real engineering project
Review: I bought this book hoping to learn the engineering secrets and insider trivia about the Lunar Module. The book includes this type of material although I was hoping for more engineering details. However, the real value of this book is the experience Tom Kelly communicates about managing a complex engineering project. My experience is on much smaller aerospace projects but I totally recognized similar events, frustrations, failures, and successes. I suspect most readers find the management details dry and uninteresting but I found them to be gold nuggets of knowledge and, sometimes, inspiration. All of the technical details of building great engineering works such as a spacecraft can be completely figured out given no deadline or other constraints. But the real world challenge is figuring out how to do stuff that's never been done before with limited resources, insufficient budget, and short schedules. "Moon Lander" conveys this working environment very well. I would highly recommend this book to college engineering students and to people that would like to work in the aerospace field. This book tells the story of what it's REALLY like to work on an aerospace project.
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Summary: Nice
Review: I consider Moon Lander a worthwhile collection to my NASA collection. While not as interesting as the stories of the astronauts (e.g., Lovell's Lost Moon, Shepard & Slayton's Moon Shot) or mission control folks (Chris Kraft's Flight and Gene Kranz's Failure Is Not an Option) it does tell an important part of the story of how we got to the moon. Being an engineer, I appreciate the engineering that went into the development of the moon lander. Sometimes Kelly spends a little too much time on explaining organization charts, but when he sticks to the design, development and deployment of the space craft the book works. I also would have liked a few more illustrations and photographs. If you are looking for a book on the Apollo program this is not the one I would start with, but if you have read about the astronauts and mission control folks and want to learn about the engineers then Moon Lander is definitely worthwhile.
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Summary: For those with a serious interest in engineering
Review: I don't want to repeat much of what the previous reviewers said, as I agree with most of it. There is no question that the content of the book is engaging, detailed, and intereseting. What I would like to add is that I can only give this book 4 stars because of my significant interest and background in engineering. For my friends and family who love the space program but are more interested in the history and emotion, I always recommend A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts by Andrew L. Chaikin. This book by Kelly I only recommend to my friends who are scientists and engineers, or perhaps those with a serious technical side to them. This is not so much a book about emotions and drama as it is a description of how real people solved an engineering and management problem. It can be a overly dry and dull for some. Will you understand this book without a degree in engineering? Yes, it is not the type of book that tries to talk over the head of the reader. Will you want to wade through all the technical details and alphabet soup of acronyms unless you love engineering? I doubt it. I've let a number of non-technical people borrow this book and most returned it without getting past the second chapter. The general response was that it was hard for them to "Get into it". One thing that I really enjoyed about this book was that it spent a lot of time on the issues of management that are often glossed over at the expense of sticking only to the technical details. There is a lot of time spent on the debate that occured before decisions were made, the outcome of the decisions, and the fallout if the decision turned out to be a bad one. Now there is something few authors (especially managers) would be willing to admit to--a mistake. It is refreshing to see that addressed in such detail. If anything, I would highly recommend this anyone who is considering engineering as a future career. It does an excellent job of describing the day to day activities that are required in a big engineering project (space program or otherwise). If you read this book and find it exciting and interesting (as I did), then engineering may be for you.
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Summary: For those with a serious interest in engineering
Review: I don't want to repeat much of what the previous reviewers said, as I agree with most of it. There is no question that the content of the book is engaging, detailed, and intereseting. What I would like to add is that I can only give this book 4 stars because of my significant interest and background in engineering. For my friends and family who love the space program but are more interested in the history and emotion, I always recommend A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts by Andrew L. Chaikin. This book by Kelly I only recommend to my friends who are scientists and engineers, or perhaps those with a serious technical side to them. This is not so much a book about emotions and drama as it is a description of how real people solved an engineering and management problem. It can be a overly dry and dull for some. Will you understand this book without a degree in engineering? Yes, it is not the type of book that tries to talk over the head of the reader. Will you want to wade through all the technical details and alphabet soup of acronyms unless you love engineering? I doubt it. I've let a number of non-technical people borrow this book and most returned it without getting past the second chapter. The general response was that it was hard for them to "Get into it". One thing that I really enjoyed about this book was that it spent a lot of time on the issues of management that are often glossed over at the expense of sticking only to the technical details. There is a lot of time spent on the debate that occured before decisions were made, the outcome of the decisions, and the fallout if the decision turned out to be a bad one. Now there is something few authors (especially managers) would be willing to admit to--a mistake. It is refreshing to see that addressed in such detail. If anything, I would highly recommend this anyone who is considering engineering as a future career. It does an excellent job of describing the day to day activities that are required in a big engineering project (space program or otherwise). If you read this book and find it exciting and interesting (as I did), then engineering may be for you.
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Summary: An Epic Journey of Faith, Hope, Trials and Triumph
Review: The Lunar Module has always been my favorite of the Apollo spacecrafts. As a federal contractor I am always interested in the constuction of winning proposals. This book satisfied both of those interests. Mr. Kelly takes the reader on a journey in which (s)he encounters myriad emotions, degrees of failure and levels of success. He introduces you to signifigant players whose names will never become household. He meticulously describes the events and characters that made the Apollo's "Eagle" landing a reality. This is a ver important book and should be read my anyone who dares to dream. If you are indeed reading this review, trust me when I say that I am not easily impressed by much. This book impresses me. Buy it. Read it. Study it. You, too, will become impressed.
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Summary: How Grumann built the LM - first vehicle built for space
Review: This book was completed and released one year before Tom Kelly's death on March 24, 2002.
The book details Tom Kelly's experiences in managing one of the most complex engineering projects of the 1960s. It frankly describes the events, frustrations, failures, and successes. While it may be dry reading for some readers, it provides useful insights for any manager of complex, challenging and highly visible projects - the real world.
I would recommend this book to engineering and technical students who intend on working in the computer, engineering or aerospace industries. This book provides a glimpse into the world of deadlines, budget shortfalls, resource issues and managing perceptions.
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Summary: Excellent book for managers
Review: This was a great book and a quick read! It is detailed, to be sure, but will capture and maintain the interest of anyone who wants to know on how the lunar module came into being. And, I would definitely recommend it to any manager--especially in high-tech engineering organizations--who wants to see how a young engineer learned to organize and manage a huge, multi-year, multi-million dollar, bleeding-edge technology program.
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Summary: An Engineer's Apollo Story
Review: To put it simply: This is a great book telling a great story about a great machine in a great space program. Go buy it and read it. In my view, no aerospace engineering history library is complete without this book, as it contains much still-relevant advice (alas, not always heeded) for modern projects. I can assure you from my own experience, more than 30 years and the Atlantic ocean away, that Kelly's recounting of Grumman's part of the Apollo program is as close you'll ever get to being an engineer/manager in a large scale aerospace project without actually being there. Kelly's book conveys a hands-on feeling of the decade long strain as well as the day-to-day stress, and in general gives you an inside view of the many ups-and-downs of a leading engineering position in the Apollo program. To achieve all this in a single volume in a balanced manner is nothing short of impressive. (I should have some idea about this; myself having worked for several years in the aerospace business as a project engineer, in a 10 years+ missile project spanning four cooperating nations, numbers of subcontractors, government research institutes, procurement agencies and supporting military units.)
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Summary: Best Man to Tell this Story
Review: Tom Kelly is the best man to tell the story of the creation of the Apollo Lunar Module. Involved since the very beginning when he was charged with writing the proposal to NASA, this book is a wealth of knowledge. Fate put him in the correct position to supervise every critical stage in LM design, construction and testing, and this book reflects all that he saw. Some broad information is left out, Kelly's writing assumes you are aquainted with the history of Apollo in at least a general way, making this book a supplement to other more general sources of Apollo information. This is a definite must for the library of any space historian.
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