July 7, 2014
Desert Moon
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image from Desert Moon wesbite site
Do you always think things are wonderful if they include yourself? Maybe so, for I am greatly impressed by a new documentary video, Desert Moon, that premiered at the University of Arizona's Flandrau Science Center late last month. It is the story of the lunar mapping program done at Gerard Kuiper's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory (LPL) in the 1960s. It talks about Kuiper, and includes interviews with many of us who worked there at the time: Ewen Whitaker, Bob Strom, Bill Hartmann, Dale Cruikshank, Alan Binder, Steve Larson, and me. The video was made as a M.S. project by journalism student Jason Davis. Jason did an excellent job of eliciting stories from us, and editing them together with vintage images and videos to tell not just the LPL contributions but the nation's drive to reach the Moon. Currently the entire video is only shown at Flandrau, but the trailer is great, and Jason has added additional footage and short stories on the website. Based on this work I expect to see Jason producing documentaries for 60 Minutes someday soon.
Chuck Wood
Related Links
UA press release
Yesterday's LPOD: Good Morning, Sunshine
Tomorrow's LPOD: More Res
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