Le Roman de la Lune

A sweeping work of popular science tracing the history of the Moon, from the myths and beliefs of antiquity to the close of the Apollo programme. Pierre Kohler covers in turn the earliest observations and the birth of selenography, the explanation of tides and eclipses, lunar cartography, the debate over the origin of craters and the Moon's activity, then exploration by robotic probes (Luna, Ranger, Surveyor, Lunar Orbiter) and by crewed flights. The book closes on the scientific gains of Apollo and a forecast of humankind settling on "the seventh continent".