Wood reports that Discoveries stemming from the Apollo 11 mission solved many problems that had vexed scientists for hundreds of years. Research and discoveries over the preceding 360 years identified many critical questions and led to a variety of answers: How did the Moon form, how old is its surface, what is the origin of lunar craters, does the Moon have an atmosphere, how did the Moon change over time, is the Moon geologically active today, and did life play any role in lunar evolution?
In general, scientists could not convincingly answer most of these questions because they had too little data and too little understanding of astronomy and geology, and were forced to rely on reasoning and speculation, in some cases wasting hundreds of years of effort. Surprisingly, by 1969, most of the questions had been correctly answered, but a paucity of data made it uncertain which answers were correct.
Finally, it must be stated that although hundreds of people studied the Moon over the last 400 years only a few significantly advanced understanding of lunar conditions, origin and evolution. Based on this review I propose that these were: Galileo, Hevelius, Auzout, Mädler, Gilbert, Öpik, Gifford, Dietz, Baldwin, Gene Shoemaker, [also Jack Schmitt] and Hartmann; I was privileged to meet five of these heroes. Two of these innovators made almost no impact on lunar studies because their papers were published in journals not read by scientists studying the Moon, and the paper of a third was totally ignored. Additionally, most of these lunar heroes completed their important lunar work in fewer than about five years.
Only Baldwin, Shoemaker and Hartmann devoted more than a decade to the Moon. Additionally, these three generated new data, not just theories or observations, to develop and test their ideas. And only since the decade leading to Apollo did lunar (and then planetary) studies develop into a discipline offering graduate education and possibilities of career-long funding (often with hiatuses); Hartmann was among the first of a new generation of young people educated to become lunar and planetary scientists.
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