Interesting in all in studying the moon. It was close, it was boring, you could see it pretty clearly. There wasnt much there. Jerad was the only one that wanted to do and that became important in 1961 when the president announced that we were going to send people to the moon. Why did he come to tucson to study the moon. Jerard made it a hub of science and in my book i talk about tucson as the birthplace of science, not only did we have dark skies but a clear view of the planets. He set up telescopes dedicated to studying moon and planet, essentially unheard of at the time. How is astronomy different from Planetary Science . Planetary scientists studied things that were closer to us. If you want to study planets, you have to understand sciences and a very different type of feel. Weve discovered extra solar planets which are out beyond and you need techniques in both fields, you need to know geology but very powerful telescopes in looking at things that are far away. Who was funding professor kiper. When he came to the university he was lucky to have supportive president , so the very original Planetary Laboratory, quite large and famous was actually set up in the institute of atmospheric physics department. This seems strange. But the Astronomy Department didnt really want gerard. So he actually ended up in the institute of atmospheric physics and thats where everything started. Can you draw a direct line between gerard coming to tucson in 1960 and Neil Armstrong stepping on the moon in july of 1969 . We are familiar with the famous photograph of Neil Armstrongs fingerprint in the moon. What a lot of people dont know thats incredible triumph for American Engineering and inginuity. There were theories at the time that the moon was dust and so a lot of people thought that was ridiculous but we didnt know, we couldnt disprove the theory with the information we had. Students were making maps and they were able to prove that the moon was solid enough to bare an astronauts weight and people in tucson were the ones that prove that had was possible. At what point did nasa pick up with gerard . Very early in the 1960s. They had a whole bunch of missions before that that were intend today study the moon and get the information that we needed about the moon and so in the early 1960s they started sending spacecrafts and what that means a space graph that crashed lands on the surface of the moon. The idea to give back a photograph. It was taking photos as it was going down and the first several of these were all failures and i think it was about in 1964 they died today reorganize the whole project and they asked him to lead this team and so gerard got ranger 7 that successfully got first closeup photograph of the moon. Under character is whittaker. He was such a fascinating person because he was an am sure astronomer. He was from england and joined amateur association and not a lot of people were doing at the time. He met gerard kiper at a meeting. There were about 400 people at the meeting and only whittaker replied. He was going to go back to england when it was all over and he ended up staying and making maps for the moon on incredible endeavor to put astronauts on the moon. What happened to gerard after 1949 . He knew about the time that the 1970s rolled around that the laboratory was not going last unless they became a Teaching Department and so they had the incredible vision he wasnt entirely interested in teaching, he was interesting in research but had incredible vision to know that the Research Funding was going to trickle away and if we wanted to get out not just the moon but much further out in the solar system, he was going to need to make sure the laboratory would last and founded the department of Planetary Sciences which is is still here in the university of arizona today and passed on the baton to the directors after him to keep both the laboratory going. What kind of work are they doing today . All kinds of incredible work today. Of course, it started with the moon and it didnt end there. Scientists there and alumni had been involved involved in everye mission that we sent out to the solar system which is an incredible thing. The university of arizona was the First University to have Ground Control to run a mission, that was the Phoenix Mars Mission which landed in mars in 2008 and now working on the second one, out there right now, its headed for asteroid and its going to bring back a sample. Said your job is to interview the oldtimers and capture their stories before they are gone and so one of the first people i talk to is whittaker and a dozen other people and by tend of the year, it was a yearlong project and i went to mike and said, there are so many stories to capture. Let me keep working on this. I did that for four years. I worked my way in undergraduate degree and i didnt know right away that it was going to be a book. It actually wasnt until michael passed away in 2011 that i sort of pulled all of that writing and i think i can turn into a story that would honor his vision that that was an important thing to capture. That turn intoed under desert sky. What are you doing in tucson now . I live up in flag staff now. Im a Science Writer. I didnt know i was going to be a Science Writer and this book really launched me into that career and im working on ive got a second book out called mythical river and im working on a third one. The Planetary Lab is doing wonderful things. They are still research about solar system. Only recently we got the first closeup pictures of pluto which were fantastic. All kinds of surprises there. And then, of course, theres asteroids. We think asteroid maybe the thing that seeded our planet with life and molecules and water. Thats kind of a hypothesis they want to test. Under desert skies is the name of the book how tucson mapped the way to the moon and planet Melissa Sevigny is the author. Thank you. Here is a look at some of the books being published this week. Senior editor of motherboard brian merchant explores the history behind iphone in one device. British neuroscientist shares research on the line between full consciousness and brain death in into the gray zone and also being published kate recall it is life of robert smalls, former slave who became the first africanamerican captain of a u. S. Army ship. New York University journalism professor Mitchell Stevens discovers legacy of thomas in voice of america and cardiac surgeon reflects on his surgeries in open heart. Watch for many of the authors in the near future on book tv on cspan2. [applause]