The Pilgrim project: A novel

by Hank Searls

Book Overview

The story of a man called upon by his country to take the gravest risk of all. The story that boldly probes behind the international intriques, deadly fears, and heroic exploits of the dramatic race... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0006BM3M6
• Release Date: January 1964
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill
• Length: 274 Pages
• Weight: 1.32 lbs.

Customer Reviews

The Race For The Moon

In 1964, the Mercury Space program was over, Gemini was just beginning and Apollo was still in the design stage. NASA was still five years from landing a man on the moon, but the United States was still in a space race with the Russians. I even remember a Time magazine cover from 1968 with a cosmonaut and an astronaut racing for the moon with the title "Who Will Win The Race To The Moon?" More than forty years later, through the haze of history, we can see that it really wasn't much of a race and the Russians never even got close to sending a man to the moon. This novel, which was originally written as a "what could possibly happen" novel is now, forty years later, actually a "what if" novel. The premise of Hank Searls' novel, which was written in 1964, is the race to put a man on the moon at almost any cost. As the book opens, it is a few years after the end of the Gemini program and Apollo has already begun. The Russians have been consistently beating the United States in space technology and have now secretly put a space station, or platform, into Earth orbit to launch rockets to the moon. While Apollo Three is orbiting earth, a cosmonaut circles the moon once and returns successfully to earth. The Pilgrim Project, a scientific paper which was considered and rejected a year earlier, is now taken seriously. Project Pilgrim will send an astronaut to the moon using a Mercury space capsule and a supply shelter. He will be stranded on the moon (and resupplied with a monthly rocket) for approximately one year until the new Saturn Five booster can be built to launch and land the LEM and two astronauts to resuce him. The novel takes place over a three week period in which an astronaut is readied for his moon shot. Along with his training, debates, both political and moral, rage on as to how important it is to land a man on the moon. The novel is well written and Hank Searls always keeps the reader thinking. Anyone who reads this novel will doubtlessly get into the debate of how drastic should NASA be in order to win the race to the moon.