Editing Eugene Merle Shoemaker (section)

===Astrogeology and Apollo===

[[File:Shoemaker training astronauts at Brooks Camp, Katmai National Park.png|thumb|right|Shoemaker training astronauts at [[Brooks Camp]], [[Katmai National Park]]<ref>{{cite book |last1=Phinney |first1=William |title=Science Training History of the Apollo Astronauts |date=2015 |publisher=NASA SP -2015-626 |page=65}}</ref>]]

In 1960, Shoemaker directed a team at the [[USGS]] center in [[Menlo Park, California]], to generate the first [[geological map]] of the Moon using photographs taken by [[Francis G. Pease]].  Shoemaker also helped pioneer the field of [[Planetary geology|astrogeology]] by founding the [[Astrogeology Research Program]]. He was prominently involved in the [[Ranger program|Lunar Ranger]] missions to the Moon, joining the television imaging team of [[Harold Urey]] and [[Gerard Kuiper]], which turned into a preparatory mission for the future crewed landing.  Shoemaker was then chosen to be the [[principal investigator]] for the [[Surveyor program]]'s television experiment, and then the lunar geology principal investigator for [[Apollo 11]], [[Apollo 12]], and [[Apollo 13]].<ref name=Levy/>{{rp|85–86, 92–97, 101, 119, 136}}

Shoemaker was also involved in the training of the American [[astronaut]]s.  He himself was a possible candidate for an [[Apollo program|Apollo]] Moon flight and was set to be the first geologist to walk on the Moon but was disqualified due to being diagnosed with [[Addison's disease]], a disorder of the [[adrenal gland]].  Shoemaker would train astronauts during field trips to [[Meteor Crater]] and [[Sunset Crater]] near Flagstaff.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://astrogeology.usgs.gov/About/AstroHistory/astronauts.html|title=About – USGS Astrogeology Science Center|website=astrogeology.usgs.gov|access-date=31 March 2018|archive-date=November 17, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111117022504/http://astrogeology.usgs.gov/About/AstroHistory/astronauts.html|url-status=live}}</ref> He was a [[CBS News]] television commentator on the early Apollo missions, especially the [[Apollo 8]] and [[Apollo 11]] missions, appearing with [[Walter Cronkite]] during live coverage of those flights.<ref name="Astronomy obit">{{cite journal
 | last        = Graham
 | first       = Rex
 | title       = Making an exceptional impact. (planetary scientists Eugene and Carolyn Shoemaker)
 | journal     = Astronomy
 |date=May 1998
 | url         = http://business.highbeam.com/136942/article-1G1-20461558/making-exceptional-impact
 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130509131721/http://business.highbeam.com/136942/article-1G1-20461558/making-exceptional-impact
 | url-status    = dead
 | archive-date = 2013-05-09
 | access-date  = 2013-02-12
 | page        = 36
 | publisher   = Kalmbach Publishing Co.
 | location    = Waukesha, Wisconsin
 | issn        = 0091-6358
}}
</ref>

According to [[David H. Levy]], just before the crewed Moon landings,
{{blockquote|"With humanity about to set forth upon this new world, geologists and astronomers were divided as to whether the lunar surface was a result of volcanic forces from beneath, or cosmic forces from above.  In 1949, Ralph Baldwin had articulated that the Moon's craters were mostly of impact origin and Gene Shoemaker revived the idea again around 1960.  He saw craters on the Moon as logical impact sites that were formed not gradually, in [[geologic time scale|eons]], but explosively, in seconds."<ref name=Levy/>{{rp|58–59}}
}}

He was awarded the [[John Price Wetherill Medal]] from the [[Franklin Institute]] in 1965. Coming to [[California Institute of Technology|Caltech]] in 1969, he started a systematic search for Earth orbit-crossing [[asteroid]]s, which resulted in the discovery of several families of such asteroids, including the [[List of Apollo asteroids|Apollo asteroids]]. Shoemaker advanced the idea that sudden geologic changes can arise from [[asteroid]] strikes and that asteroid strikes are common over geologic time periods.  Previously, [[Impact crater|astrobleme]]s were thought to be remnants of extinct volcanoes&nbsp;– even on the Moon.