Paul Lowman has been involved in a wide range of space research programs at the Goddard Space Flight Center. In 1963-4 he took part in planning for the Apollo missions. He was Principal Investigator for Synoptic Terrain Photography on the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo earth orbital missions, an experiment that laid the foundation for Landsat. Between 1965 and 1970 he taught lunar geology at the University of California, Catholic University of America, Washington DC, and the Air Force Institute of Technology. Dr Lowman was also involved with the Mariner 9 Mars mission, the Apollo X-ray fluorescence experiment and Apollo 11 and 12 sample analysis among others. His main research interest was and still is the origin of continental crust, as approached through comparative planetology. In 1974, Dr Lowman received the Lindsay Award from the Goddard Space Flight Center. He was elected a Fellow of the Geological Society of America in 1975, and of the Geological Society of Canada in 1988. Drawing on his dual career in terrestrial and lunar geology, he authored Space Panorama (1968), Lunar Panorama (1970), and The Third Planet (1972). He also contributed to Mission to Earth (1976), the first NASA compilation of Landsat pictures edited by N. M. Short.
Foreword Neil Armstrong
Preface
Acknowledgements
1. Preview of the orbital perspective: the Million Year Day
2. Space geodesy
3. Satellite studies of geomagnetism
4. Remote sensing: the view from space
5. Impact cratering and terrestrial geology
6. Comparative planetology and the origin of continental crust
7. Geology and biology: the influence of life on terrestrial geology
Afterword
Appendix A. Elements of physical geology
Appendix B. Lunar missions, 1958 to 1994
Appendix C. Planetary missions, 1961 to 1992
Glossary of geologic terms
Selected bibliography (by chapter)
Index.
