This book's subtitle ‘Achieve the impossible with the Apollo Mindset' is its substance.

Apart from finally convincing flat earthers that a moon or two exists out there, Wiseman writes astronautical examples of how we could weave our lives – in other words, an allegory.

He concentrates on the Apollo series, especially Apollo 8 and Apollo 11, the most successful of USA missions to the moon.

He finds in the astronauts hail from middle class backgrounds, that upbringings in often straitened climates predicate missions in life.

Through the narrative, Wiseman places propitious quotations and has drawn on those involved in the exhaustive quest to conquer space.

What we may conclude as minutiae are serious matters and we are left wondering whether life monitored from Earth can ever be successful on either the moon or Mars.

A Spanish proverb of 'tomorrow is the busiest day” of how we should live permeates this work; Wiseman employs other epithets, replete with pithy examples and solid research to back his findings.

In all cases, interviews with some of the most powerful minds in outer space projects, Wiseman finds his subjects modest. He starts with JFK's 1961 aim of landing man on the moon before the end of the 1960s – mission accomplished long after he died.

We meet wonderful characters at ground control, apart from the famous astronauts like Buzz Aldrin (the only astronaut with a doctorate, incidentally), who do the groundwork.

Their calm on a firm footing compared with the imminent dangers in Space was Olympian. An excellent read.

Shoot For The Moon by Richard Wiseman Pbk $00.00

– Phil Campbell (Guest Reviewer).