Ewen Whitaker (1922-2016)
BSc Hons Mechanical Engineering, 1943
LUNAR PIONEER
Ewen pioneered new lunar photography techniques, which determined landing sites for the Apollo space missions.
Ewen Whitaker enjoyed a long and successful career as a lunar astronomer. Specialising in the geography of the Moon, his work made key contributions to the space race, not least selecting landing sites for dozens of moon landings.
Although he spent most of his life in Arizona, studying at Woolwich Polytechnic was key to Ewen’s career. It was at his first job as an engineer that he enrolled to study at Woolwich. After he graduated, Ewen moved to the Royal Observatory, Greenwich where he began working on a lunar observation programme in 1951 that would later contribute to early space navigation.
His big break came in 1955 when he met the astronomer Gerard Kuiper, who was looking for collaborators to compose the first photographic atlas of the moon. As Ewen explained to the documentary Desert Moon in 2014, he was the only one to take Kuiper up on the project.
After joining Kuiper, Ewen plunged headlong into one of the 20th Century’s most breath-taking fi elds. He moved to America with his wife, Beryl, in 1958, and remained there for a long career in moon-mapping.
He pioneered new techniques for ultraviolet and infrared photography of the moon’s surface, which determined where the Apollo 12 mission would land, and briefed astronauts for the Apollo 13, 15 and 16 missions on their landing sites. This earnt him a reputation as one of the preeminent lunar experts of his generation.
Ewen Whitaker (1922-2016)
BSc Hons Mechanical Engineering, 1943
LUNAR PIONEER
Ewen pioneered new lunar photography techniques, which determined landing sites for the Apollo space missions.
Ewen Whitaker enjoyed a long and successful career as a lunar astronomer. Specialising in the geography of the Moon, his work made key contributions to the space race, not least selecting landing sites for dozens of moon landings.
Although he spent most of his life in Arizona, studying at Woolwich Polytechnic was key to Ewen’s career. It was at his first job as an engineer that he enrolled to study at Woolwich. After he graduated, Ewen moved to the Royal Observatory, Greenwich where he began working on a lunar observation programme in 1951 that would later contribute to early space navigation.
His big break came in 1955 when he met the astronomer Gerard Kuiper, who was looking for collaborators to compose the first photographic atlas of the moon. As Ewen explained to the documentary Desert Moon in 2014, he was the only one to take Kuiper up on the project.
After joining Kuiper, Ewen plunged headlong into one of the 20th Century’s most breath-taking fi elds. He moved to America with his wife, Beryl, in 1958, and remained there for a long career in moon-mapping.
He pioneered new techniques for ultraviolet and infrared photography of the moon’s surface, which determined where the Apollo 12 mission would land, and briefed astronauts for the Apollo 13, 15 and 16 missions on their landing sites. This earnt him a reputation as one of the preeminent lunar experts of his generation.
