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E-book Lunar Sourcebook : A User's Guide to the Moon
This book was written to provide a single, complete, and annotated description of our present knowledge of the Moon. It is intended for a wide range of readers, including scientists who are studying the Moon and trying to understand its place in the solar system, designers now planning missions to return to the Moon, and engineers and astronauts who may participate in the future exploration of the Moon. We dedicate this book to all of them, because their wide range of thoughts and activities will be essential to the intelligent future use of the Moon. During the last 20 years, the Moon has developed a dual role in human thought. As the Apollo explorations have shown, the Moon is a scientifically important planet. It preserves a unique history of planetary formation and early development, and also
serves as a probe that has recorded the space environment and cosmic radiation for billions of years. Because of its closeness to Earth, the Moon is also an obvious target for long-term human exploration beyond Earth. Knowledge of the Moon’s characteristics, especially its potential usefulness and resources, has become critical for planning the human future in space.
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