Exploration of the Moon - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The physical exploration of the Moon began when Luna 2

Luna 2

Luna 2 was the second of the Soviet Union's Luna programme spacecraft launched to the Moon. It was the first spacecraft to reach the surface of the Moon...

, a space probe

Space probe

A robotic spacecraft is a spacecraft with no humans on board, that is usually under telerobotic control. A robotic spacecraft designed to make scientific research measurements is often called a space probe. Many space missions are more suited to telerobotic rather than crewed operation, due to...

launched by the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

, made an impact on the surface of the Moon

Moon

The Moon is Earth's only known natural satellite,There are a number of near-Earth asteroids including 3753 Cruithne that are co-orbital with Earth: their orbits bring them close to Earth for periods of time but then alter in the long term . These are quasi-satellites and not true moons. For more...

on September 14, 1959. Prior to that the only available means of exploration had been observation. The invention of the optical telescope

Optical telescope

An optical telescope is a telescope which is used to gather and focus light mainly from the visible part of the electromagnetic spectrum for directly viewing a magnified image for making a photograph, or collecting data through electronic image sensors....

brought about the first leap in the quality of lunar observations. Galileo Galilei

Galileo Galilei

Galileo Galilei , was an Italian physicist, mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher who played a major role in the Scientific Revolution. His achievements include improvements to the telescope and consequent astronomical observations and support for Copernicanism...

is generally credited as the first person to use a telescope for astronomical purposes; having made his own telescope in 1609, the mountains and craters on the lunar surface were among his first observations using it.

In 1969, NASA

NASA

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...

's Project Apollo

Project Apollo

The Apollo program was the spaceflight effort carried out by the United States' National Aeronautics and Space Administration , that landed the first humans on Earth's Moon. Conceived during the Presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower, Apollo began in earnest after President John F...

first successfully landed people on the Moon. They placed scientific experiments there and returned rocks and data that suggested the Moon is of a similar composition to the Earth

Earth

Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...

Early history

In Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia is a toponym for the area of the Tigris–Euphrates river system, largely corresponding to modern-day Iraq, northeastern Syria, southeastern Turkey and southwestern Iran.Widely considered to be the cradle of civilization, Bronze Age Mesopotamia included Sumer and the...

, Babylonian astronomers by the early first millennium BC had discovered a repeating 18-year cycle of lunar eclipse

Lunar eclipse

A lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes behind the Earth so that the Earth blocks the Sun's rays from striking the Moon. This can occur only when the Sun, Earth, and Moon are aligned exactly, or very closely so, with the Earth in the middle. Hence, a lunar eclipse can only occur the night of a...

s. They had also known by this time that 19 solar years is about equal to 235 lunar months. In the 2nd century BC, Seleucus of Seleucia

Seleucus of Seleucia

Seleucus of Seleucia was a Hellenistic astronomer and philosopher. Coming from Seleucia on the Tigris, the capital of the Seleucid empire, or, alternatively, Seleukia on the Red Sea, he is best known as a proponent of heliocentrism and for his theory of the origin of tides.- Heliocentric theory...

correctly theorized that tide

Tide

Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravitational forces exerted by the moon and the sun and the rotation of the Earth....

s were caused by the Moon, although he believed that the interaction was mediated by the Earth's atmosphere

Earth's atmosphere

The atmosphere of Earth is a layer of gases surrounding the planet Earth that is retained by Earth's gravity. The atmosphere protects life on Earth by absorbing ultraviolet solar radiation, warming the surface through heat retention , and reducing temperature extremes between day and night...

. According to Strabo

Strabo

Strabo, also written Strabon was a Greek historian, geographer and philosopher.-Life:Strabo was born to an affluent family from Amaseia in Pontus , a city which he said was situated the approximate equivalent of 75 km from the Black Sea...

(1.1.9), Seleucus was the first to state that the tide

Tide

Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravitational forces exerted by the moon and the sun and the rotation of the Earth....

s are due to the attraction of the Moon, and that the height of the tides depends on the Moon's position relative to the Sun

Sun

The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is almost perfectly spherical and consists of hot plasma interwoven with magnetic fields...

.

By the mid-first millennium BC, Indian astronomers described the Moon’s monthly elongation in the Aitareya Brāhmana
Aitareya Brahmana
The Aitareya Brahmana is the Brahmana of the Shakala shakha of the Rigveda, an ancient Indian collection of sacred hymns. This work, according to the tradition is ascribed to Mahidasa Aitareya.-Contents:...

. By 499 AD, the Indian astronomer Aryabhata

Aryabhata

Aryabhata was the first in the line of great mathematician-astronomers from the classical age of Indian mathematics and Indian astronomy...

mentioned in his Aryabhatiya
Aryabhatiya
Āryabhaṭīya or Āryabhaṭīyaṃ, a Sanskrit astronomical treatise, is the magnum opus and only extant work of the 5th century Indian mathematician, Āryabhaṭa.- Structure and style:...

that reflected sunlight is the cause behind the shining of the moon.

Among the first in the Western world to offer a scientific explanation for the Moon was the Greek

Ancient Greece

Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...

philosopher Anaxagoras

Anaxagoras

Anaxagoras was a Pre-Socratic Greek philosopher. Born in Clazomenae in Asia Minor, Anaxagoras was the first philosopher to bring philosophy from Ionia to Athens. He attempted to give a scientific account of eclipses, meteors, rainbows, and the sun, which he described as a fiery mass larger than...

(d. 428 BC), who reasoned that the Sun and Moon were both giant spherical rocks, and that the latter reflected the light of the former. His atheistic view of the heavens was one cause for his imprisonment and eventual exile. In Aristotle's

Aristotle

Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology...

(384–322 BC) description of the universe, the Moon marked the boundary between the spheres of the mutable elements (earth, water, air and fire), and the imperishable stars of aether

Aether (classical element)

According to ancient and medieval science aether , also spelled æther or ether, is the material that fills the region of the universe above the terrestrial sphere.-Mythological origins:...

. This separation was held to be part of Aristotelian physics

Aristotelian physics

Aristotelian Physics the natural sciences, are described in the works of the Greek philosopher Aristotle . In the Physics, Aristotle established general principles of change that govern all natural bodies; both living and inanimate, celestial and terrestrial—including all motion, change in respect...

for many centuries after.
In the philosophy of Aristotle

Aristotle

, the heavens, starting at the Moon, were the realm of perfection, the sublunary region was the realm of change and corruption, and any resemblance between these regions was strictly ruled out. Aristotle himself suggested that the Moon partook perhaps of some contamination from the realm of corruption. In his little book On the Face in the Moon's Orb, Plutarch

Plutarch

Plutarch then named, on his becoming a Roman citizen, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus , c. 46 – 120 AD, was a Greek historian, biographer, essayist, and Middle Platonist known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia...

expressed rather different views on the relationship between the Moon and Earth. He suggested that the Moon had deep recesses in which the light of the Sun did not reach and that the spots are nothing but the shadows of rivers or deep chasms. He also entertained the possibility that the Moon was inhabited. It had been suggested already in antiquity that the Moon was a perfect mirror and that its markings were reflections of earthly features, but this explanation was easily dismissed because the face of the Moon never changes as it moves about the Earth. The explanation that finally became standard was that there were variations of "density" in the Moon that caused this otherwise perfectly spherical body to appear the way it does. The perfection of the Moon, and therefore the heavens, was thus preserved.
Aristarchus

Aristarchus of Samos

Aristarchus, or more correctly Aristarchos , was a Greek astronomer and mathematician, born on the island of Samos, in Greece. He presented the first known heliocentric model of the solar system, placing the Sun, not the Earth, at the center of the known universe...

went a step further and computed the distance

Aristarchus On the Sizes and Distances

On the Sizes and Distances is widely accepted as the only extant work written by Aristarchus of Samos, an ancient Greek astronomer who flourished circa 280–240 BC...

from Earth, together with its size, obtaining a value of 20 times the Earth radius

Earth radius

Because the Earth is not perfectly spherical, no single value serves as its natural radius. Distances from points on the surface to the center range from 6,353 km to 6,384 km...

for the distance (the real value is 60; the Earth radius was roughly known since Eratosthenes

Eratosthenes

Eratosthenes of Cyrene was a Greek mathematician, poet, athlete, geographer, astronomer, and music theorist.He was the first person to use the word "geography" and invented the discipline of geography as we understand it...

).

During the Warring States of China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

, astronomer Shi Shen

Shi Shen

Shi Shen was a Chinese astronomer and contemporary of Gan De born in the State of Wei, also known as the Master Shi Shen .-Observations:...

(fl. 4th century BC) gave instructions for predicting solar and lunar eclipses based on the relative positions of the Moon and Sun. Although the Chinese of the Han Dynasty

Han Dynasty

The Han Dynasty was the second imperial dynasty of China, preceded by the Qin Dynasty and succeeded by the Three Kingdoms . It was founded by the rebel leader Liu Bang, known posthumously as Emperor Gaozu of Han. It was briefly interrupted by the Xin Dynasty of the former regent Wang Mang...

(202 BC–202 AD) believed the Moon to be energy equated to qi
Qi
In traditional Chinese culture, qì is an active principle forming part of any living thing. Qi is frequently translated as life energy, lifeforce, or energy flow. Qi is the central underlying principle in traditional Chinese medicine and martial arts...

, their 'radiating influence' theory recognized that the light of the Moon was merely a reflection of the Sun (mentioned by Anaxagoras above). This was supported by mainstream thinkers such as Jing Fang

Jing Fang

Jing Fang , born Li Fang , courtesy name Junming , was a Chinese music theorist, mathematician and astrologer. Born in present-day Puyang, Henan during the Han Dynasty , he was the first to notice how closely a succession of 53 just fifths approximates 31 octaves...

(78–37 BC) and Zhang Heng

Zhang Heng

Zhang Heng was a Chinese astronomer, mathematician, inventor, geographer, cartographer, artist, poet, statesman, and literary scholar from Nanyang, Henan. He lived during the Eastern Han Dynasty of China. He was educated in the capital cities of Luoyang and Chang'an, and began his career as a...

(78–139 AD), but it was also opposed by the influential philosopher Wang Chong

Wang Chong

Wang Chong , courtesy name Zhongren , was a Chinese philosopher active during the Han Dynasty. He developed a rational, secular, naturalistic and mechanistic account of the world and of human beings and gave a materialistic explanation of the origin of the universe. His main work was the Lùnhéng...

(27–97 AD). Jing Fang noted the sphericity of the Moon, while Zhang Heng accurately described a lunar eclipse and solar eclipse. These assertions were supported by Shen Kuo

Shen Kuo

Shen Kuo or Shen Gua , style name Cunzhong and pseudonym Mengqi Weng , was a polymathic Chinese scientist and statesman of the Song Dynasty...

(1031–1095) of the Song Dynasty

Song Dynasty

The Song Dynasty was a ruling dynasty in China between 960 and 1279; it succeeded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period, and was followed by the Yuan Dynasty. It was the first government in world history to issue banknotes or paper money, and the first Chinese government to establish a...

(960–1279) who created an allegory equating the waxing and waning of the Moon to a round ball of reflective silver that, when doused with white powder and viewed from the side, would appear to be a crescent. He also noted that the reason for the Sun and Moon not eclipsing every time their paths met was because of a small obliquity in their orbital paths.

Habash al-Hasib al-Marwazi, a Persian astronomer, conducted various observations at the Al-Shammisiyyah observatory in Baghdad

Baghdad

Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...

between 825 and 835 AD. Using these observations, he estimated the Moon's diameter as 3,037 km (equivalent to 1,519 km radius) and its distance from the Earth as 215,209 miles, which come close to the currently accepted values. In 1021, the Islamic physicist, Alhazen, accurately explained the Moon illusion

Moon illusion

The Moon illusion is an optical illusion in which the Moon appears larger near the horizon than it does while higher up in the sky. This optical illusion also occurs with the sun and star constellations. It has been known since ancient times, and recorded by numerous different cultures...

in the Book of Optics
Book of Optics
The Book of Optics ; ; Latin: De Aspectibus or Opticae Thesaurus: Alhazeni Arabis; Italian: Deli Aspecti) is a seven-volume treatise on optics and other fields of study composed by the medieval Muslim scholar Alhazen .-See also:* Science in medieval Islam...

, which stated that judging the distance of an object depends on there being an uninterrupted sequence of intervening bodies between the object and the observer. With the Moon, there are no intervening objects, therefore since the size of an object depends on its observed distance, which is in this case inaccurate, the Moon appears larger on the horizon. Through Alhazen's work, the Moon illusion gradually came to be accepted as a psychological phenomenon. He also investigated moonlight

Moonlight

Moonlight is the light that reaches Earth from the Moon. This light does not originate from the Moon, but from sunlight. The Moon does not, however, reflect sunlight like a mirror, but it reflects light from those portions of its surface which the Sun's light strikes. See diffuse reflection.In...

, which he proved through experiment

Experiment

An experiment is a methodical procedure carried out with the goal of verifying, falsifying, or establishing the validity of a hypothesis. Experiments vary greatly in their goal and scale, but always rely on repeatable procedure and logical analysis of the results...

ation that it originates from sunlight

Sunlight

Sunlight, in the broad sense, is the total frequency spectrum of electromagnetic radiation given off by the Sun. On Earth, sunlight is filtered through the Earth's atmosphere, and solar radiation is obvious as daylight when the Sun is above the horizon.When the direct solar radiation is not blocked...

and correctly concluded that it "emits light from those portions of its surface which the sun's light strikes."

By the Middle Ages

Middle Ages

The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...

, before the invention of the telescope, an increasing number of people began to recognise the Moon as a sphere, though many believed that it was "perfectly smooth". In 1609, Galileo Galilei

Galileo Galilei

drew one of the first telescopic drawings of the Moon in his book and noted that it was not smooth but had mountains and craters. Later in the 17th century, Giovanni Battista Riccioli

Giovanni Battista Riccioli

Giovanni Battista Riccioli was an Italian astronomer and a Catholic priest in the Jesuit order...

and Francesco Maria Grimaldi

Francesco Maria Grimaldi

Francesco Maria Grimaldi was an Italian Jesuit priest, mathematician and physicist who taught at the Jesuit college in Bologna....

drew a map of the Moon and gave many craters the names they still have today. On maps, the dark parts of the Moon's surface were called maria (singular mare) or seas, and the light parts were called terrae or continents.

The medieval followers of Aristotle, in the Islamic world and then in Christian Europe, tried to make sense of the lunar spots in Aristotelian terms. Thomas Harriot

Thomas Harriot

Thomas Harriot was an English astronomer, mathematician, ethnographer, and translator. Some sources give his surname as Harriott or Hariot or Heriot. He is sometimes credited with the introduction of the potato to Great Britain and Ireland...

, as well as Galilei, drew the first telescopic representation of the Moon and observed it for several years. His drawings, however, remained unpublished. The first map of the Moon was made by the Belgian cosmographer and astronomer Michael Florent van Langren in 1645. Two years later a much more influential effort was published by Johannes Hevelius

Johannes Hevelius

Johannes Hevelius Some sources refer to Hevelius as Polish:Some sources refer to Hevelius as German:*Encyplopedia Britannica * of the Royal Society was a councilor and mayor of Danzig , Pomeranian Voivodeship, in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth...

. In 1647 Hevelius published Selenographia, the first treatise entirely devoted to the Moon. Hevelius's nomenclature, although used in Protestant countries until the eighteenth century, was replaced by the system published in 1651 by the Jesuit astronomer Giovanni Battista Riccioli

Giovanni Battista Riccioli

Giovanni Battista Riccioli was an Italian astronomer and a Catholic priest in the Jesuit order...

, who gave the large naked-eye spots the names of seas and the telescopic spots (now called craters) the name of philosophers and astronomers. In 1753 the Croatian Jesuit and astronomer Roger Joseph Boscovich

Roger Joseph Boscovich

Ruđer Josip Bošković was a theologian, physicist, astronomer, mathematician, philosopher, diplomat, poet, Jesuit, and a polymath from the city of Dubrovnik in the Republic of Ragusa , who studied and lived in Italy and France where he also published many of his works.He is famous for...

discovered the absence of atmosphere on the Moon. In 1824 Franz von Gruithuisen

Franz von Gruithuisen

Baron Franz von Paula Gruithuisen was a Bavarian physician and astronomer. He taught medical students before becoming a professor of astronomy at the University of Munich in 1826....

explained the formation of craters as a result of meteorite

Meteorite

A meteorite is a natural object originating in outer space that survives impact with the Earth's surface. Meteorites can be big or small. Most meteorites derive from small astronomical objects called meteoroids, but they are also sometimes produced by impacts of asteroids...

strikes.

The possibility that the Moon contains vegetation and is inhabited by selenites was seriously considered by major astronomers even into the first decades of the 19th century. The contrast between the brighter highlands and darker maria create the patterns seen by different cultures as the Man in the Moon

Man in the Moon

The Man in the Moon is an imaginary figure resembling a human face, head or body, that observers from some cultural backgrounds typically perceive in the bright disc of the full moon...

, the rabbit

Moon rabbit

The Moon rabbit, also called the Jade Rabbit, in folklore is a rabbit that lives on the moon, based on pareidolia that identifies the markings of the moon as a rabbit. The story exists in many cultures, particularly in East Asian folklore, where it is seen pounding in a mortar and pestle...

and the buffalo, among others.
In 1835, the Great Moon Hoax

Great Moon Hoax

"The Great Moon Hoax" refers to a series of six articles that were published in the New York Sun beginning on August 25, 1835, about the supposed discovery of life and even civilization on the Moon...

fooled some people into thinking that there were exotic animals living on the Moon. Almost at the same time however (during 1834–1836), Wilhelm Beer and Johann Heinrich Mädler were publishing their four-volume and the book in 1837, which firmly established the conclusion that the Moon has no bodies of water nor any appreciable atmosphere.

Space race

The Cold War

Cold War

The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...

-inspired "space race

Space Race

The Space Race was a mid-to-late 20th century competition between the Soviet Union and the United States for supremacy in space exploration. Between 1957 and 1975, Cold War rivalry between the two nations focused on attaining firsts in space exploration, which were seen as necessary for national...

" and "moon race" between the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

and the United States of America

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

accelerated with a focus on the Moon. This included many scientifically important firsts, such as the first photographs of the then-unseen far side of the Moon

Far side of the Moon

The far side of the Moon is the lunar hemisphere that is permanently turned away, and is not visible from the surface of the Earth. The far hemisphere was first photographed by the Soviet Luna 3 probe in 1959, and was first directly observed by human eyes when the Apollo 8 mission orbited the Moon...

in 1959 by the Soviet Union, and culminated with the landing of the first humans on the Moon in 1969, widely seen around the world as one of the pivotal events of the 20th century, and indeed of human history in general.

The first man-made object to reach the Moon was the unmanned Soviet probe Luna 2

Luna 2

Luna 2 was the second of the Soviet Union's Luna programme spacecraft launched to the Moon. It was the first spacecraft to reach the surface of the Moon...

, which made a hard landing on September 14, 1959, at 21:02:24 Z. The far side of the Moon was first photographed on October 7, 1959 by the Soviet probe Luna 3

Luna 3

The Soviet space probe Luna 3 of 1959 was the third space probe to be sent to the neighborhood of the Moon, and this mission was an early feat in the spaceborne exploration of outer space...

. In an effort to compete with these Soviet successes, U.S. President John F. Kennedy

John F. Kennedy

John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....

proposed the national goal of landing a man on the Moon. Speaking to a Joint Session of Congress on May 25, 1961, he said

"First, I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space."

The Soviets nonetheless remained in the lead for some time. Luna 9

Luna 9

Luna 9 was an unmanned space mission of the Soviet Union's Luna program. On February 3, 1966 the Luna 9 spacecraft was the first spacecraft to achieve a soft landing on any planetary body other than Earth and to transmit photographic data to Earth.The automatic lunar station that achieved the...

was the first probe to soft land on the Moon and transmit pictures from the Lunar surface on February 3, 1966. It was proven that a lunar lander would not sink into a thick layer of dust, as had been feared. The first artificial satellite of the Moon was the Soviet probe Luna 10

Luna 10

Luna 10 was a Luna program, robotic spacecraft mission, also called Lunik 10.The Luna 10 spacecraft was launched towards the Moon from an Earth orbiting platform on March 31, 1966. It was the first artificial satellite of the Moon...

(launched March 31, 1966).

On December 24, 1968, the crew of Apollo 8

Apollo 8

Apollo 8, the second manned mission in the American Apollo space program, was the first human spaceflight to leave Earth orbit; the first to be captured by and escape from the gravitational field of another celestial body; and the first crewed voyage to return to Earth from another celestial...

, Frank Borman

Frank Borman

Frank Frederick Borman, II is a retired NASA astronaut and engineer, best remembered as the Commander of Apollo 8, the first mission to fly around the Moon, making him, along with fellow crew mates Jim Lovell and Bill Anders, the first of only 24 humans to do so...

, James Lovell

Jim Lovell

James "Jim" Arthur Lovell, Jr., is a former NASA astronaut and a retired captain in the United States Navy, most famous as the commander of the Apollo 13 mission, which suffered a critical failure en route to the Moon but was brought back safely to Earth by the efforts of the crew and mission...

and William Anders

William Anders

William Alison Anders is a former United States Air Force officer, NASA astronaut, businessman, and engineer. He is, along with Apollo 8 crewmates Frank Borman and Jim Lovell, one of the first three persons to have left Earth orbit and traveled to the Moon .-Biography:Anders was born to Arthur...

, became the first human beings to enter lunar orbit and see the far side of the Moon in person. Humans first landed on the Moon on July 20, 1969. The first man to walk on the lunar surface was Neil Armstrong

Neil Armstrong

Neil Alden Armstrong is an American former astronaut, test pilot, aerospace engineer, university professor, United States Naval Aviator, and the first person to set foot upon the Moon....

, commander of the U.S. mission Apollo 11
Apollo 11
In early 1969, Bill Anders accepted a job with the National Space Council effective in August 1969 and announced his retirement as an astronaut. At that point Ken Mattingly was moved from the support crew into parallel training with Anders as backup Command Module Pilot in case Apollo 11 was...

. The first robot lunar rover

Lunar rover

The Lunar Roving Vehicle or lunar rover was a battery-powered four-wheeled rover used on the Moon in the last three missions of the American Apollo program during 1971 and 1972...

to land on the Moon was the Soviet vessel Lunokhod 1

Lunokhod 1

Lunokhod 1 was the first of two unmanned lunar rovers landed on the Moon by the Soviet Union as part of its Lunokhod program. The spacecraft which carried Lunokhod 1 was named Luna 17...

on November 17, 1970 as part of the Lunokhod program. To date, the last man to stand on the Moon was Eugene Cernan, who as part of the mission Apollo 17

Apollo 17

Apollo 17 was the eleventh and final manned mission in the American Apollo space program. Launched at 12:33 a.m. EST on December 7, 1972, with a three-member crew consisting of Commander Eugene Cernan, Command Module Pilot Ronald Evans, and Lunar Module Pilot Harrison Schmitt, Apollo 17 remains the...

walked on the Moon in December 1972. See also: A full list of lunar Apollo astronauts.

Moon rock samples

Moon rock

Moon rock describes rock that formed on the Earth's moon. The term is also loosely applied to other lunar materials collected during the course of human exploration of the Moon.The rocks collected from the Moon are measured by radiometric dating techniques...

were brought back to Earth by three Luna missions (Luna 16

Luna 16

-External links:*...

, 20

Luna 20

Luna 20 was the second of three successful Soviet lunar sample return missions. It was flown as part of the Luna program, also called Lunik 20, as a robotic competitor to the six successful Apollo lunar sample return missions....

, and 24

Luna 24

-External links:*...

) and the Apollo missions 11 through 17 (excepting Apollo 13

Apollo 13

Apollo 13 was the seventh manned mission in the American Apollo space program and the third intended to land on the Moon. The craft was launched on April 11, 1970, at 13:13 CST. The landing was aborted after an oxygen tank exploded two days later, crippling the service module upon which the Command...

, which aborted its planned lunar landing).

From the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s there were 65 Moon landings (with 10 in 1971 alone), but after Luna 24

Luna 24

-External links:*...

in 1976 they suddenly stopped. The Soviet Union started focusing on Venus

Venus

Venus is the second planet from the Sun, orbiting it every 224.7 Earth days. The planet is named after Venus, the Roman goddess of love and beauty. After the Moon, it is the brightest natural object in the night sky, reaching an apparent magnitude of −4.6, bright enough to cast shadows...

and space station

Space station

A space station is a spacecraft capable of supporting a crew which is designed to remain in space for an extended period of time, and to which other spacecraft can dock. A space station is distinguished from other spacecraft used for human spaceflight by its lack of major propulsion or landing...

s and the U.S. on Mars

Mars

Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after the Roman god of war, Mars. It is often described as the "Red Planet", as the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance...

and beyond, on Skylab

Skylab

Skylab was a space station launched and operated by NASA, the space agency of the United States. Skylab orbited the Earth from 1973 to 1979, and included a workshop, a solar observatory, and other systems. It was launched unmanned by a modified Saturn V rocket, with a mass of...

and Space Shuttle

Space Shuttle

The Space Shuttle was a manned orbital rocket and spacecraft system operated by NASA on 135 missions from 1981 to 2011. The system combined rocket launch, orbital spacecraft, and re-entry spaceplane with modular add-ons...

programs.

Before "moon race" US had a avan-projects of scientific and military moonbases of Werner von Braun, Lunex Project

Lunex Project

The Lunex Project was a US Air Force 1958 plan for a manned lunar landing prior to the Apollo Program. The final lunar expedition plan in 1961 was for a 21-airman underground Air Force base on the Moon by 1968 at a total cost of $ 7.5 billion....

, Project Horizon

Project Horizon

Project Horizon was a study to determine the feasibility of constructing a scientific / military base on the Moon. On June 8, 1959, a group at the Army Ballistic Missile Agency produced for the U.S. Department of the Army a report entitled Project Horizon, A U.S. Army Study for the Establishment...

. Besides the manned landings, abandoned Soviet moon program

Soviet Moonshot

The Soviet manned lunar programs were a series of programs pursued by the Soviet Union to land a man on the Moon in competition with the United States Apollo program to achieve the same goal set publicly by President John F. Kennedy on May 25, 1961...

included a building the multipurpose moonbase Zvezda

Zvezda (moonbase)

Zvezda moonbase , also DLB Lunar Base — plan and project of 1962—1974 of Soviet manned moonbase as successor N1-L3 manned lunar expedition program. It was the first detailed such project more developed than early US Horizon and Lunex projects and later Apollo Lunar Base Wernher von Braun and NASA...

, first detailed such project with developed mockups of expedition vehicles and surface modules.

Recent exploration

In 1990 Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

visited the Moon with the Hiten

Hiten

The Hiten Spacecraft , given the English name Celestial Maiden and known before launch as MUSES-A , part of the MUSES Program, was built by the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science of Japan and launched on January 24, 1990...

spacecraft, becoming the third country to place an object in orbit around the Moon. The spacecraft released the Hagoromo

Hagoromo

Hagoromo may refer to:* Hagoromo, a small space orbiter released by the Japanese spacecraft Hiten* Hagoromo , a Japanese Noh play* hagoromo, heavenly kimono of tennin, tennyo, tenshi...

probe into lunar orbit, but the transmitter failed, thereby preventing further scientific use of the mission. In September 2007, Japan launched the SELENE

SELENE

SELENE , better known in Japan by its nickname after the legendary Japanese moon princess, was the second Japanese lunar orbiter spacecraft. Produced by the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science and the National Space Development Agency , both now part of the Japan Aerospace Exploration...

spacecraft, with the objectives "to obtain scientific data of the lunar origin and evolution and to develop the technology for the future lunar exploration", according to the JAXA official website.

The BMDO and NASA launched the Clementine mission

Clementine mission

Clementine was a joint space project between the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization and NASA...

in 1994, and Lunar Prospector

Lunar Prospector

The Lunar Prospector mission was the third selected by NASA for full development and construction as part of the Discovery Program. At a cost of $62.8 million, the 19-month mission was designed for a low polar orbit investigation of the Moon, including mapping of surface composition and possible...

in 1998.

The European Space Agency

European Space Agency

The European Space Agency , established in 1975, is an intergovernmental organisation dedicated to the exploration of space, currently with 18 member states...

launched a small, low-cost lunar orbital probe called SMART 1 on September 27, 2003. SMART 1's primary goal was to take three-dimensional X-ray

X-ray

X-radiation is a form of electromagnetic radiation. X-rays have a wavelength in the range of 0.01 to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30 petahertz to 30 exahertz and energies in the range 120 eV to 120 keV. They are shorter in wavelength than UV rays and longer than gamma...

and infrared

Infrared

Infrared light is electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength longer than that of visible light, measured from the nominal edge of visible red light at 0.74 micrometres , and extending conventionally to 300 µm...

imagery of the lunar surface. SMART 1 entered lunar orbit

Orbit

In physics, an orbit is the gravitationally curved path of an object around a point in space, for example the orbit of a planet around the center of a star system, such as the Solar System...

on November 15, 2004 and continued to make observations until September 3, 2006, when it was intentionally crashed into the lunar surface in order to study the impact plume.

The People's Republic of China

People's Republic of China

China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...

has begun the Chang'e program

Chang'e program

Chang’e 1 was an unmanned Chinese lunar-orbiting spacecraft, part of the first phase of the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program. The spacecraft was named after the Chinese Moon goddess, Chang'e....

for exploring the Moon and is investigating the prospect of lunar mining, specifically looking for the isotope

Isotope

Isotopes are variants of atoms of a particular chemical element, which have differing numbers of neutrons. Atoms of a particular element by definition must contain the same number of protons but may have a distinct number of neutrons which differs from atom to atom, without changing the designation...

helium-3

Helium-3

Helium-3 is a light, non-radioactive isotope of helium with two protons and one neutron. It is rare on Earth, and is sought for use in nuclear fusion research...

for use as an energy source on Earth. China launched the Chang'e 1 robotic lunar orbiter

Orbiter

An orbiter is a space probe that orbits a planet.-Asteroids:*NEAR Shoemaker...

on October 24, 2007. Originally planned for a one-year mission, the Chang'e 1 mission was very successful and ended up being extended for another four months. On March 1, 2009, Chang'e 1 was intentionally impacted on the lunar surface completing the 16 month mission.

On October 1, 2010, China launched the Chang'e 2

Chang'e 2

Chang'e 2 is a Chinese unmanned lunar probe that was launched on 1 October 2010. It was a follow-up to the Chang'e 1 lunar probe, which was launched in 2007. Chang'e 2 was part of the first phase of the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program, and conducted research from a 100-kilometer-high lunar orbit...

lunar orbiter.

India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

's national space agency, Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), launched Chandrayaan-1, an unmanned lunar orbiter, on October 22, 2008. The lunar probe was originally intended to orbit the Moon for two years, with scientific objectives to prepare a three-dimensional atlas of the near and far side of the Moon and to conduct a chemical and mineralogical mapping of the lunar surface. The unmanned Moon Impact Probe

Moon Impact Probe

The Moon Impact Probe developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation , India's national space agency, was a lunar probe that was released by ISRO's Chandrayaan-1 lunar remote sensing orbiter which in turn was launched, on 22 October 2008, aboard a modified version of ISRO's Polar Satellite...

landed on the Moon at 15:04 GMT on November 14, 2008 making India the fourth country to touch down on the lunar surface. Among its many achievements was the discovery of the widespread presence of water molecules in lunar soil.

NASA launched a preliminary unmanned mission, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter

Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter

The Lunar Precursor Robotic Program is a program of robotic spacecraft missions which NASA will use to prepare for future human spaceflight missions to the Moon. Two LPRP missions, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite , were launched in June 2009...

, on June 18, 2009. LRO will take high resolution imagery of the Moon's surface and carries the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS

LCROSS

The Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite was a robotic spacecraft operated by NASA. The mission was conceived as a low-cost means of determining the nature of hydrogen detected at the polar regions of the moon. The main LCROSS mission objective was to explore the presence of water ice...

), which will investigate the possible existence of water in Cabeus crater.

Future plans

Following the abandoned US Constellation program, plans for manned flights followed by moonbases were declared by Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

, Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

(ESA), China

China

, Japan

Japan

and India

India

. All of them intend to continue the exploration of Moon with more unmanned spacecraft.

China

People's Republic of China

plans to land the rover

Rover (space exploration)

A rover is a space exploration vehicle designed to move across the surface of a planet or other astronomical body. Some rovers have been designed to transport members of a human spaceflight crew; others have been partially or fully autonomous robots...

Chang'e 3

Chang'e 3 is a Chinese lunar exploration mission, incorporating a robotic lander and rover. Scheduled for launch in 2013 as part of the second phase of the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program, it will be China's first lunar rover, and the first spacecraft to make a soft landing on the Moon since the...

on the Moon in 2012 or 2013, and to conduct a sample return mission

Sample return mission

A sample return mission is a spacecraft mission with the goal of returning tangible samples from an extraterrestrial location to Earth for analysis. Sample return missions may bring back merely atoms and molecules or a deposit of complex compounds such as dirt and rocks...

in 2017. If successful, Chang'e 3 will be the first spacecraft to land on lunar surface, since Luna 24

Luna 24

-External links:*...

in 1976.

India

India

expects to launch another indigenous lunar mission by 2013 which would place a motorized rover

Rover (space exploration)

on the surface of the Moon.

Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) plans a manned lunar landing around 2020 that would lead to a manned lunar base by 2030; however, there is no budget yet for this project and plan reverts to robotic missions.

Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

also announced to resume its previously frozen project Luna-Glob

Luna-Glob

Luna-Glob is the name of a Moon-exploration program by the Russian Federal Space Agency based on plans dating back to 1997. Due to financial problems, however, the project was put on hold only to be revived a few years later. Initially scheduled for launch in 2012, the mission has been brought...

, an unmanned lander and orbiter, which is slated to launch in 2012.

Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

also announced in March 2007 that it will launch a national lunar orbiter, LEO

LEO (spacecraft)

LEO is the name of a proposed German mission to the Moon, announced by the German Aerospace Center Director Walter Doellinger on March 2, 2007. Because the needed money for the year 2009 was diverted elsewhere, the start of the project was delayed indefinitely...

in 2012. However the mission was cancelled due to budgetary constraints.

In August 2007, NASA stated that all future missions and explorations of the Moon will be done entirely using the metric system

International System of Units

The International System of Units is the modern form of the metric system and is generally a system of units of measurement devised around seven base units and the convenience of the number ten. The older metric system included several groups of units...

. This was done to improve cooperation with space agencies of other countries which already use the metric system.

The European Space Agency

European Space Agency

The European Space Agency , established in 1975, is an intergovernmental organisation dedicated to the exploration of space, currently with 18 member states...

has also announced its intention to send a manned mission to the Moon, as part of the Aurora programme

Aurora Programme

The Aurora programme is a human spaceflight programme of the European Space Agency established in 2001 with the primary objectives of creating, and then implementing, a European long-term plan for exploration of the Solar System using robotic spacecraft and human spaceflight...

. In September 2010 the agency introduces a "Lunar lander" programme with a target of autonomous mission to the moon in 2018.

On September 13, 2007, the X Prize Foundation

X Prize Foundation

The X PRIZE Foundation is a non-profit organization that designs and manages public competitions intended to encourage technological development that could benefit mankind....

, in concert with Google, Inc.

Google

Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...

, announced the Google Lunar X Prize

Google Lunar X Prize

The Google Lunar X PRIZE, abbreviated GLXP, sometimes referred to as Moon 2.0, is a space competition organized by the X Prize Foundation, and sponsored by Google. It was announced at the Wired Nextfest on 13 September 2007...

. This contest requires competitors "to land a privately funded robotic rover on the Moon that is capable of completing several mission objectives, including roaming the lunar surface for at least 500 meters and sending video, images and data back to the Earth."

Timeline of Moon exploration

Mission (1950–1959)	Launch	Arrival at Moon	Termination	Objective	Result
Pioneer 0 Pioneer 0 Pioneer 0 was a failed United States space probe that was designed to go into orbit around the Moon, carrying a television camera, a micrometeorite detector and a magnetometer, as part of the first International Geophysical Year science payload...	17 August 1958		17 August 1958	Orbiter	Launch failure
Luna E-1 No.1	23 September 1958		23 September 1958	Impactor	Launch failure
Pioneer 1 Pioneer 1 On October 11, 1958, Pioneer 1 became the first spacecraft launched by NASA, the newly formed space agency of the United States. The flight was the second and most successful of the three Thor-Able space probes.- Spacecraft design :...	11 October 1958		13 October 1958	Orbiter	Launch failure
Luna E-1 No.2	11 October 1958		11 October 1958	Impactor	Launch failure
Pioneer 2 Pioneer 2 Pioneer 2 was the last of the three project Able space probes designed to probe lunar and cislunar space. Shortly after launch at 07:30:00 UTC on November 8, 1958, the third stage of the launch vehicle separated but failed to ignite, and Pioneer 2 did not achieve its intended lunar orbit...	8 November 1958		8 November 1958	Orbiter	Launch failure
Luna E-1 No.3	4 December 1958		4 December 1958	Impactor	Launch failure
Pioneer 3 Pioneer 3 Pioneer 3 was a spin stabilized spacecraft launched at 05:45:12 UTC on 6 December 1958 by the U.S. Army Ballistic Missile Agency in conjunction with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration...	6 December 1958		7 December 1959	Flyby	Launch failure
Luna 1 Luna 1 Luna 1 , first known as First Cosmic Ship, then known as Mechta was the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Moon and the first of the Luna program of Soviet automatic interplanetary stations successfully launched in the direction of the Moon.While traveling through the outer Van Allen...	2 January 1959	4 January 1959		Impactor	Partial success (first successful flyby 5,995 km)
Pioneer 4 Pioneer 4 Pioneer 4 was a spin-stabilized spacecraft launched as part of the Pioneer program on a lunar flyby trajectory and into a heliocentric orbit making it the first U.S. probe to escape from the Earth's gravity. It carried a payload similar to Pioneer 3: a lunar radiation environment experiment using a...	3 March 1959	4 March 1959	7 March 1959	Flyby	Partial success (flyby 60,000 km)
Luna E-1A No.1	18 June 1959		18 June 1959	Impactor	Launch failure
Luna 2 Luna 2 Luna 2 was the second of the Soviet Union's Luna programme spacecraft launched to the Moon. It was the first spacecraft to reach the surface of the Moon...	12 September 1959	13 September 1959		Impactor	Success (first spacecraft reaching the moon surface, impacted east of Mare Serenitatis)
Pioneer P-1 Pioneer P-1 Pioneer P-1 was a failed mission in the Pioneer program. The spacecraft was a 1 meter diameter sphere, with a propulsion module. It was launched on September 24, 1959 on an Atlas-C Able launcher. It was to carry a TV camera and a magnetic field sensor. It was to be spin-stabilized, and was known as...	24 September 1959		24 September 1959	Orbiter	Launch failure
Luna 3 Luna 3 The Soviet space probe Luna 3 of 1959 was the third space probe to be sent to the neighborhood of the Moon, and this mission was an early feat in the spaceborne exploration of outer space...	4 October 1959	6 October 1959		Flyby	Success (first pictures of Moon far side)
Pioneer P-3 Pioneer P-3 Pioneer P-3 was intended to be a lunar orbiter probe, but the mission failed shortly after launch. The objectives were to place a highly instrumented probe in lunar orbit, to investigate the environment between the Earth and Moon, and to develop technology for controlling and maneuvering...	26 November 1959		26 November 1959	Orbiter	Launch failure
Mission (1960–1969)	Launch	Arrival at Moon	Termination	Objective	Result
Luna E-3 No.1	15 April 1960		15 April 1960	Flyby	Launch failure
Luna E-3 No.2	16 April 1960		16 April 1960	Flyby	Launch failure
Pioneer P-30 Pioneer P-30 Pioneer P-30 was intended to be a lunar orbiter probe, but the mission failed shortly after launch on September 25, 1960. The objectives were to place a highly instrumented probe in lunar orbit, to investigate the environment between the Earth and Moon, and to develop technology for controlling...	25 September 1960		25 September 1960	Orbiter	Launch failure
Pioneer P-31 Pioneer P-31 Pioneer P-31 was intended to be a lunar orbiter probe, but the mission failed shortly after launch. The objectives were to place a highly instrumented probe in lunar orbit, to investigate the environment between the Earth and Moon, and to develop technology for controlling and maneuvering...	15 December 1960		15 December 1960	Orbiter	Launch failure
Ranger 3 Ranger 3 Ranger 3 is a spacecraft of the Ranger program that was launched to study the Moon on January 26, 1962. The space probe was designed to transmit pictures of the lunar surface to Earth stations during a period of 10 minutes of flight prior to impacting on the Moon, to rough-land a seismometer...	26 January 1962	28 January 1962		Impactor	Failure (flyby)
Ranger 4 Ranger 4 Ranger 4 was a spacecraft of the Ranger program designed to transmit pictures of the lunar surface to Earth stations during a period of 10 minutes of flight prior to crashing upon the Moon, to rough-land a seismometer capsule on the Moon, to collect gamma-ray data in flight, to study radar...	23 April 1962	26 April 1962	26 April 1962	Impactor	Failure (no mid-course correction, crashed at Moon far-side)
Ranger 5 Ranger 5 Ranger 5 was a spacecraft of the Ranger program designed to transmit pictures of the lunar surface to Earth stations during a period of 10 minutes of flight prior to impacting on the Moon, to rough-land a seismometer capsule on the Moon, to collect gamma-ray data in flight, to study radar...	18 October 1962	21 October 1962		Impactor	Failure (flyby)
Luna E-6 No.2	4 January 1963		11 January 1963	Lander	Launched into wrong orbit
Luna E-6 No.3	3 February 1963		3 February 1963	Lander	Launch failure
Luna 4 Luna 4 Luna 4 was the USSR's first successful spacecraft of their "second generation" Luna program. The spacecraft, rather than being sent on a straight trajectory toward the Moon, was placed first in a low Earth orbit and then the rocket stage reignited to send it on a curving path towards the...	2 April 1963	>6 April 1963		Lander	Failure (flyby)
Ranger 6 Ranger 6 Ranger 6 was designed to achieve a lunar impact trajectory and to transmit high-resolution photographs of the lunar surface during the final minutes of flight up to impact. The spacecraft carried six television vidicon cameras, 2 wide angle and 4 narrow angle to accomplish these objectives...	30 January 1964	2 February 1964	2 February 1964	Impactor	Failure (TV camera, only instrument, did not work)
Luna E-6 No.6	21 March 1964		21 March 1964	Lander	Launch failure
Luna E-6 No.5	20 April 1964		20 April 1964	Lander	Launch failure
Ranger 7 Ranger 7 Ranger 7 was the first US space probe to successfully transmit close images of the lunar surface back to Earth. It was also the first completely successful flight of the Ranger program. Launched on 28 July 1964, Ranger 7 was designed to achieve a lunar impact trajectory and to transmit...	28 July 1964	31 July 1964		Impactor	Success
Ranger 8 Ranger 8 Ranger 8 was a spacecraft designed to achieve a lunar impact trajectory and to transmit high-resolution photographs of the lunar surface during the final minutes of flight up to impact. The spacecraft carried six television vidicon cameras, two wide angle and four narrow angle to accomplish these...	17 February 1965	20 February 1965		Impactor	Success
Cosmos 60 Cosmos 60 Kosmos 60 was an E-6 series probe, launched by the Soviet Union on March 12, 1965. It was the sixth attempt at a lunar soft-landing mission, with a design similar to that of Luna 4...	12 March 1965			Lander	Failed to leave Earth orbit
Ranger 9 Ranger 9 Ranger 9 was designed to achieve a lunar impact trajectory and to transmit high-resolution photographs of the lunar surface during the final minutes of flight up to impact. The spacecraft carried six television vidicon cameras, 2 wide angle and 4 narrow angle to accomplish these objectives...	21 March 1965	24 March 1965		Impactor	Success
Luna E-6 No.8	10 April 1965		10 April 1965	Lander	Launch failure
Luna 5 Luna 5 Luna 5 was an unmanned space mission of the Luna program, also called Lunik 5. It was designed to continue investigations of a lunar soft landing. The retrorocket system failed, and the spacecraft impacted the lunar surface at the Sea of Clouds....	9 May 1965	12 May 1965		Lander	Failure (crashed at Sea of Clouds)
Luna 6 Luna 6 Luna 6 was an unmanned space mission of the Luna program, also called Lunik 6. Luna 6 was intended to travel to the Moon, but, because a mid-course correction failed, it missed the Moon by 159,612.8 km....	8 June 1965	11 June 1965		Lander	Failure (flyby)
Zond 3 Zond 3 Zond 3 was a member of the Soviet Zond program sharing designation Zond, while being part of Mars 3MV project. It was unrelated to Zond spacecraft designed for manned circumlunar mission . Zond 3 completed a successful Lunar flyby, taking a number of good quality photographs for its time...	18 July 1965	20 July 1965		Flyby	Success
Luna 7 Luna 7 Luna 7 was an unmanned space mission of the Soviet Luna program, also called Lunik 7. The Luna 7 spacecraft was intended to achieve a soft landing on the Moon...	4 October 1965	7 October 1965		Lander	Failure (crashed at Oceanus Procellarum)
Luna 8 Luna 8 Luna 8 , also known as Lunik 8, was a lunar space probe of the Luna program. It was launched with the objective of achieving a soft landing on the Moon. However, its retrorocket firing occurred too late, and suffered a hard impact on the lunar surface on the Oceanus Procellarum...	3 December 1965	6 December 1965		Lander	Failure (crashed at Oceanus Procellarum)
Luna 9 Luna 9 Luna 9 was an unmanned space mission of the Soviet Union's Luna program. On February 3, 1966 the Luna 9 spacecraft was the first spacecraft to achieve a soft landing on any planetary body other than Earth and to transmit photographic data to Earth.The automatic lunar station that achieved the...	31 January 1966	3 February 1966	6 February 1966	Lander	Success (first pictures from Moon surface, landed at Oceanus Procellarum)
Cosmos 111 Cosmos 111 Kosmos 111 was the first Soviet attempt to orbit a spacecraft around the Moon. The design was probably similar to the later successful Luna 10 spacecraft. It was launched on March 1, 1966. The mission was a failure. The Blok-L upper stage lost roll control and failed to send the spacecraft on a...	1 March 1966		3 March 1966	Orbiter	Launched into wrong orbit
Luna 10 Luna 10 Luna 10 was a Luna program, robotic spacecraft mission, also called Lunik 10.The Luna 10 spacecraft was launched towards the Moon from an Earth orbiting platform on March 31, 1966. It was the first artificial satellite of the Moon...	31 March 1966	3 April 1966	30 May 1966	Orbiter	Success (first lunar orbiter)
Surveyor 1 Surveyor 1 Surveyor 1 was the first lunar soft-lander in the unmanned Surveyor program of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration . This lunar soft-lander gathered data about the lunar surface that would be needed for the manned Apollo Moon landings that began in 1969...	30 May 1966	2 June 1966	7 January 1967	Lander	Success (landed at Oceanus Procellarum)
Lunar Orbiter 1 Lunar Orbiter 1 The Lunar Orbiter 1 robotic spacecraft, part of the Lunar Orbiter Program, was designed primarily to photograph smooth areas of the lunar surface for selection and verification of safe landing sites for the Surveyor and Apollo missions...	10 August 1966	14 June 1966	29 October 1967	Orbiter	Success
Luna 11 Luna 11 Luna 11 was an unmanned space mission of the Soviet Union's Luna program. It is also called Lunik 11.Luna 11 was launched towards the Moon from an earth-orbiting platform and entered lunar orbit on 27 August 1966...	24 August 1966	27 August 1966	1 October 1966	Orbiter	Success
Surveyor 2 Surveyor 2 Surveyor 2 was to be the second lunar lander in the unmanned American Surveyor program to explore the Moon.It was launched September 20, 1966 from Cape Kennedy, Florida aboard an Atlas-Centaur rocket....	20 September 1966	23 September 1966	23 September 1966	Lander	Failure (crashed near Copernicus crater)
Luna 12 Luna 12 -External links:*...	22 October 1966	25 October 1966	19 January 1967	Orbiter	Success
Lunar Orbiter 2 Lunar Orbiter 2 The Lunar Orbiter 2 spacecraft was designed primarily to photograph smooth areas of the lunar surface for selection and verification of safe landing sites for the Surveyor and Apollo missions...	6 November 1966	10 November 1966	11 October 1967	Orbiter	Success
Luna 13 Luna 13 -External links:* *...	21 December 1966	24 December 1966	28 December 1966	Lander	Success (landed at Oceanus Procellarum)
Lunar Orbiter 3 Lunar Orbiter 3 The Lunar Orbiter 3 was a spacecraft launched by NASA in 1967, designed primarily to photograph areas of the lunar surface for confirmation of safe landing sites for the Surveyor and Apollo missions...	5 February 1967	8 February 1967	9 October 1967	Orbiter	Partial success (picture acquisition cut short)
Surveyor 3 Surveyor 3 Surveyor 3 was the third lander of the American unmanned Surveyor program sent to explore the surface of the Moon. Launched on April 17, 1967, Surveyor 3 landed on April 20, 1967 at the Mare Cognitum portion of the Oceanus Procellarum...	17 April 1967	20 April 1967	3 May 1967	Lander	Success
Lunar Orbiter 4 Lunar Orbiter 4 Lunar Orbiter 4 was designed to take advantage of the fact that the three previous Lunar Orbiters had completed the required needs for Apollo mapping and site selection...	4 May 1967	8 May 1967	<31 October 1967	Orbiter	Partial success (picture acquisition cut short)
Surveyor 4 Surveyor 4 Surveyor 4 was the fourth lunar lander in the American unmanned Surveyor program sent to explore the surface of the Moon.Launched July 14, 1967; landed July 17, 1967Weight on landing: 625 lb...	14 July 1967	17 July 1967	17 July 1967	Lander	Failure (may have exploded before reaching surface)
Lunar Orbiter 5 Lunar Orbiter 5 Lunar Orbiter 5, the last of the Lunar Orbiter series, was designed to take additional Apollo and Surveyor landing site photography and to take broad survey images of unphotographed parts of the Moon's far side...	1 August 1967	5 August 1967	31 January 1968	Orbiter	Success
Surveyor 5 Surveyor 5 Surveyor 5 was the fifth lunar lander of the American unmanned Surveyor program sent to explore the surface of the Moon.Launched September 8, 1967; landed September 11, 1967Weight on landing: 303 kg...	8 September 1967	11 September 1967	17 December 1967	Lander	Success
Surveyor 6 Surveyor 6 Surveyor 6 was the sixth lunar lander of the American unmanned Surveyor program that reached the surface of the Moon.Launched November 7, 1967; landed November 10, 1967Mass on landing: 299.6 kg Surveyor 6 landed on the Sinus Medii...	7 November 1967	10 November 1967	14 December 1967	Lander	Success
Surveyor 7 Surveyor 7 Surveyor 7 was the seventh and last lunar lander of the American unmanned Surveyor program sent to explore the surface of the Moon.Launched January 7, 1968; landed January 10, 1968Weight on landing: 305.7 kg...	7 January 1968	10 January 1968	20 February 1968	Lander	Success
Luna E-6LS No.112	7 February 1968		7 February 1968	Lander	Launch failure
Luna 14 Luna 14 -External links:*...	7 April 1968	10 April 1968		Orbiter	Success
Zond 5 Zond 5 Zond 5, a formal member of the Soviet Zond program and unmanned version of Soyuz 7K-L1 manned moon-flyby spacecraft, was launched from a Tyazheliy Sputnik in Earth parking orbit to make scientific studies during a lunar flyby and to return to Earth....	15 September 1968	18 September 1968	21 September 1968	Flyby	Success (first spacecraft and living beings to return to Earth from lunar flyby)
Zond 6 Zond 6 Zond 6, a formal member of the Soviet Zond program and unmanned version of Soyuz 7K-L1 manned moon-flyby spacecraft, was launched on a lunar flyby mission from a parent satellite in Earth parking orbit...	10 November 1968	14 November 1968	17 November 1968	Flyby	Partial success (depressurisation lead to biologicals death, crashed due to failure in parachute)
Apollo 8 Apollo 8 Apollo 8, the second manned mission in the American Apollo space program, was the first human spaceflight to leave Earth orbit; the first to be captured by and escape from the gravitational field of another celestial body; and the first crewed voyage to return to Earth from another celestial...	21 December 1968	24 December 1968	27 December 1968	Orbiter	Success (first manned lunar orbiter)
Luna E-8 No.201	19 February 1969		19 February 1969	Rover	Launch failure
Apollo 10 Apollo 10 Apollo 10 was the fourth manned mission in the American Apollo space program. It was an F type mission—its purpose was to be a "dry run" for the Apollo 11 mission, testing all of the procedures and components of a Moon landing without actually landing on the Moon itself. The mission included the...	18 May 1969	21 May 1969	26 May 1969	Orbiter	Success (lander test in Moon orbit)
Luna E-8-5 No.402	14 June 1969		14 June 1969	Sample return	Launch failure
Luna 15 Luna 15 -External links:*...	13 July 1969		21 July 1969	Sample return	Failure (crashed at Mare Crisium)
Apollo 11 Apollo 11 In early 1969, Bill Anders accepted a job with the National Space Council effective in August 1969 and announced his retirement as an astronaut. At that point Ken Mattingly was moved from the support crew into parallel training with Anders as backup Command Module Pilot in case Apollo 11 was...	16 July 1969	19 July 1969	24 July 1969	Orbiter	Success
	16 July 1969	20 July 1969	21 July 1969	Sample return	Success (21.5 kg of lunar rocks retrieved, first humans on the Moon surface)
Zond 7 Zond 7 This article was originally based on material from ...	7 August 1969	11 August 1969	14 August 1969	Flyby	Success
Cosmos 300 Cosmos 300 Kosmos 300 was the fourth Soviet attempt at an unmanned lunar sample return. It was probably similar in design to the later Luna 16 spacecraft. It was launched, on a Proton rocket, on September 23, 1969. The mission was a failure. The engines on the Block D upper stage failed, leaving the...	23 September 1969		23 September 1969	Sample return	Launched into wrong orbit
Cosmos 305 Cosmos 305 Kosmos 305 was the fifth Soviet attempt at an unmanned lunar sample return. It was probably similar in design to the Luna 16 spacecraft. It was launched, on a Proton rocket, on October 22, 1969. The engines on the Block D upper stage failed, terminating the mission. This left the spacecraft...	22 October 1969		22 October 1969	Sample return	Launched into wrong orbit
Apollo 12 Apollo 12 Apollo 12 was the sixth manned flight in the American Apollo program and the second to land on the Moon . It was launched on November 14, 1969 from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, four months after Apollo 11. Mission commander Charles "Pete" Conrad and Lunar Module Pilot Alan L...	14 November 1969	17 November 1969	24 November 1969	Orbiter	Success
	14 November 1969	19 November 1969	20 November 1969	Sample return	Success (First precise landing, recovered parts from Surveyor 3 Surveyor 3 Surveyor 3 was the third lander of the American unmanned Surveyor program sent to explore the surface of the Moon. Launched on April 17, 1967, Surveyor 3 landed on April 20, 1967 at the Mare Cognitum portion of the Oceanus Procellarum... )
Mission (1970–1979)	Launch	Arrival at Moon	Termination	Objective	Result
Apollo 13 Apollo 13 Apollo 13 was the seventh manned mission in the American Apollo space program and the third intended to land on the Moon. The craft was launched on April 11, 1970, at 13:13 CST. The landing was aborted after an oxygen tank exploded two days later, crippling the service module upon which the Command...	11 April 1970	15 April 1970	17 April 1970	Sample return	Failure (flyby, crew returned to Earth)
S-IV S-IV The S-IV was the second stage of the Saturn I, a rocket-powered launch vehicle used by NASA for early flights in the Apollo program.The S-IV was manufactured by the Douglas Aircraft Company and later modified by them to the S-IVB, a similar but distinct stage used on the Saturn IB and Saturn V...	11 April 1970	14 April 1970	14 April 1970	Impactor	Success (provided signal for the Apollo 12 Passive Seismic Experiment)
Luna E-8-5 No.405	6 February 1970		6 February 1970	Sample return	Launch failure
Luna 16 Luna 16 -External links:*...	12 September 1970	20 September 1970	24 September 1970	Sample return	Success (first robotic lunar sample return, 101 g)
Zond 8	20 October 1970	24 October 1970	27 October 1970	Flyby	Success
Luna 17 Luna 17 -External links:*...	10 November 1970	17 November 1970	17 November 1970	Lander	Success (soft-landed the Lunokhod 1)
Lunokhod 1 Lunokhod 1 Lunokhod 1 was the first of two unmanned lunar rovers landed on the Moon by the Soviet Union as part of its Lunokhod program. The spacecraft which carried Lunokhod 1 was named Luna 17...	10 November 1970	17 November 1970	14 September 1971	Rover	Success (First lunar rover)
Apollo 14 Apollo 14 Apollo 14 was the eighth manned mission in the American Apollo program, and the third to land on the Moon. It was the last of the "H missions", targeted landings with two-day stays on the Moon with two lunar EVAs, or moonwalks....	31 January 1971	4 February 1971	9 February 1971	Orbiter	Success
	31 January 1971	5 February 1971	6 February 1971	Sample return	Success
Apollo 15 Apollo 15 Apollo 15 was the ninth manned mission in the American Apollo space program, the fourth to land on the Moon and the eighth successful manned mission. It was the first of what were termed "J missions", long duration stays on the Moon with a greater focus on science than had been possible on previous...	26 July 1971	29 July 1971	7 August 1971	Orbiter	Success
		30 July 1971	2 August 1971	Sample return	Success (first manned Lunar Roving Vehicle)
PFS-1		4 August 1971	January 1973	Orbiter	Success (measured plasma, energetic particle intensities and lunar magnetic fields)
Luna 18 Luna 18 Luna 18 was an unmanned space mission of the Luna program, also called Lunik 18.Luna 18 was placed in an earth parking orbit after it was launched and was then sent towards the Moon. On September 7, 1971, it entered lunar orbit. The spacecraft completed 85 communications sessions and 54 lunar...	2 September 1971	11 September 1971	11 September 1971	Sample return	Failure (crashed near the edge of the Sea of Fertility)
Luna 19 Luna 19 Luna 19 , was an unmanned space mission of the Luna program. Luna 19 extended the systematic study of lunar gravitational fields and location of mascons . It also studied the lunar radiation environment, the gamma-active lunar surface, and the solar wind...	28 September 1971	3 October 1971	3–20 October 1972	Orbiter	Success
Luna 20 Luna 20 Luna 20 was the second of three successful Soviet lunar sample return missions. It was flown as part of the Luna program, also called Lunik 20, as a robotic competitor to the six successful Apollo lunar sample return missions....	14 February 1972	21 February 1972	25 February 1972	Sample return	Success
Apollo 16 Apollo 16 Young and Duke served as the backup crew for Apollo 13; Mattingly was slated to be the Apollo 13 command module pilot until being pulled from the mission due to his exposure to rubella through Duke.-Backup crew:...	16 April 1972	19 April 1972	27 April 1972	Orbiter	Success
		21 April 1972	23 April 1972	Sample return	Success
PFS-2		24 April 1972	29 May 1972	Orbiter	Partial success (orbit decayed earlier than anticipated)
Apollo 17 Apollo 17 Apollo 17 was the eleventh and final manned mission in the American Apollo space program. Launched at 12:33 a.m. EST on December 7, 1972, with a three-member crew consisting of Commander Eugene Cernan, Command Module Pilot Ronald Evans, and Lunar Module Pilot Harrison Schmitt, Apollo 17 remains the...	7 December 1972	10 December 1972	19 December 1972	Orbiter	Success
	7 December 1972	11 December 1972	15 December 1972	Sample return	Success (first geologist on the Moon)
Luna 21 Luna 21 -External links:*...	8 January 1973	15 January 1973	15 January 1973	Lander	Success (soft-landed the Lunokhod 2)
Lunokhod 2 Lunokhod 2 Lunokhod 2 was the second of two unmanned lunar rovers landed on the Moon by the Soviet Union as part of the Lunokhod program....	8 January 1973	15 January 1973	3 June 1973	Rover	Success
Luna 22 Luna 22 Luna 22 was an unmanned space mission, part of the Soviet Luna program, also called Lunik 22.Luna 22 was a lunar orbiter mission...	29 May 1974	2 June 1974	early November 1975	Orbiter	Success
Luna 23 Luna 23 Luna 23 was an unmanned space mission of the Luna program, also called Lunik 23.Luna 23 was a Moon lander mission which was intended to return a lunar sample to Earth. Launched to the Moon by a Proton SL-12/D-1-e booster, the spacecraft was damaged during landing in Mare Crisium...	28 October 1974	6 November 1974	9 November 1975	Sample return	Partial success (sample drilling failed)
Luna 24 Luna 24 -External links:*...	9 August 1976	18 August 1976	22 August 1976	Sample return	Success
Mission (1990–1999)	Launch	Arrival at Moon	Termination	Objective	Result
Hiten Hiten The Hiten Spacecraft , given the English name Celestial Maiden and known before launch as MUSES-A , part of the MUSES Program, was built by the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science of Japan and launched on January 24, 1990...	24 January 1990	19 March 1990	10 April 1993	Orbiter	Success (first aerobraking maneuver by a deep space probe)
Clementine	25 January 1994	19 February 1994	June 1994	Orbiter	Success
Lunar Prospector Lunar Prospector The Lunar Prospector mission was the third selected by NASA for full development and construction as part of the Discovery Program. At a cost of $62.8 million, the 19-month mission was designed for a low polar orbit investigation of the Moon, including mapping of surface composition and possible...	7 January 1998	11 January 1998	31 July 1999	Orbiter	Success
Mission (2000–2009)	Launch	Arrival at Moon	Termination	Objective	Result
SMART-1 SMART-1 SMART-1 was a Swedish-designed European Space Agency satellite that orbited around the Moon. It was launched on September 27, 2003 at 23:14 UTC from the Guiana Space Centre in Kourou, French Guiana. "SMART" stands for Small Missions for Advanced Research in Technology...	27 September 2003	15 November 2004	3 September 2006	Orbiter	Success (first use of an ion engine to reach the Moon)
SELENE SELENE SELENE , better known in Japan by its nickname after the legendary Japanese moon princess, was the second Japanese lunar orbiter spacecraft. Produced by the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science and the National Space Development Agency , both now part of the Japan Aerospace Exploration...	14 September 2007	3 October 2007	10 June 2009	Orbiter	Success
Chang'e 1	24 October 2007	5 November 2007	1 March 2009	Orbiter	Success
Chandrayaan-1	22 October 2008	12 November 2008	29 August 2009	Orbiter	Success (discovery of water on the moon)
Moon Impact Probe Moon Impact Probe The Moon Impact Probe developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation , India's national space agency, was a lunar probe that was released by ISRO's Chandrayaan-1 lunar remote sensing orbiter which in turn was launched, on 22 October 2008, aboard a modified version of ISRO's Polar Satellite...	22 October 2008	14 November 2008	14 November 2008	Impactor	Success (first Asian object on the surface of the moon)
Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter The Lunar Precursor Robotic Program is a program of robotic spacecraft missions which NASA will use to prepare for future human spaceflight missions to the Moon. Two LPRP missions, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite , were launched in June 2009...	18 June 2009	23 June 2009	ongoing	Orbiter	Success
Shepherding spacecraft (LCROSS) LCROSS The Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite was a robotic spacecraft operated by NASA. The mission was conceived as a low-cost means of determining the nature of hydrogen detected at the polar regions of the moon. The main LCROSS mission objective was to explore the presence of water ice...		9 October 2009	9 October 2009	Impactor	Success (near observation of Centaur impact)
Centaur upper stage (LCROSS) LCROSS The Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite was a robotic spacecraft operated by NASA. The mission was conceived as a low-cost means of determining the nature of hydrogen detected at the polar regions of the moon. The main LCROSS mission objective was to explore the presence of water ice...		9 October 2009	9 October 2009	Impactor	Success
Mission (2010–Present)	Launch	Arrival at Moon	Termination	Objective	Result
Chang'e 2 Chang'e 2 Chang'e 2 is a Chinese unmanned lunar probe that was launched on 1 October 2010. It was a follow-up to the Chang'e 1 lunar probe, which was launched in 2007. Chang'e 2 was part of the first phase of the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program, and conducted research from a 100-kilometer-high lunar orbit...	1 October 2010	5 October 2010	ongoing	Orbiter	Success
Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory The Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory is an American lunar science mission in NASA's Discovery Program, which will use high-quality gravitational field mapping of the Moon to determine its interior structure...	10 September 2011		ongoing	Two orbiters

Future missions

Name	Estimated launch	Elements	Notes
Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer The Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer is a space exploration mission scheduled for launch in early 2013. To carry out the mission NASA will send a robotic spacecraft into orbit around the Moon, and use instruments aboard the spacecraft to study the Moon's atmosphere and dust in the...	1 May 2012	Orbiter	Instruments will include a dust detector, a neutral mass spectrometer, an ultraviolet-visible spectrometer, and a laser communications terminal.
Luna-Glob Luna-Glob Luna-Glob is the name of a Moon-exploration program by the Russian Federal Space Agency based on plans dating back to 1997. Due to financial problems, however, the project was put on hold only to be revived a few years later. Initially scheduled for launch in 2012, the mission has been brought...	2012	Orbiter	Orbiter to include astrophysics experiments, dust monitors, plasma sensors, including the LORD Lord Lord is a title with various meanings. It can denote a prince or a feudal superior . The title today is mostly used in connection with the peerage of the United Kingdom or its predecessor countries, although some users of the title do not themselves hold peerages, and use it 'by courtesy'... astronomy payload, designed to study ultra-high-energy cosmic rays. Carries cancelled Lunar-A penetrators.
Lunar-A LUNAR-A LUNAR-A is a cancelled Japanese spacecraft project that was originally scheduled to be launched in August 2004. After many delays LUNAR-A is a cancelled Japanese spacecraft project that was originally scheduled to be launched in August 2004. After many delays LUNAR-A is a cancelled Japanese... penetrators	2012	Impactor	Two penetrators to deeply penetrate the lunar regolith Regolith Regolith is a layer of loose, heterogeneous material covering solid rock. It includes dust, soil, broken rock, and other related materials and is present on Earth, the Moon, some asteroids, and other terrestrial planets and moons.-Etymology:... on opposite sides of Moon.
Chandrayaan-2 Chandrayaan-2 Chandrayaan-2 , is a joint lunar exploration mission proposed by the Indian Space Research Organisation and the Russian Federal Space Agency and has a projected cost of...	2014	Orbiter, lander, rover	Orbiter to carry five payloads, three new, while other two are improved versions of those on Chandrayaan-1.The Russian Federal Space Agency Russian Federal Space Agency The Russian Federal Space Agency , commonly called Roscosmos and abbreviated as FKA and RKA , is the government agency responsible for the Russian space science program and general aerospace research. It was previously the Russian Aviation and Space Agency .Headquarters of Roscosmos are located... will provide the lander that will carry the Indian rover.
Chang'e 3 Chang'e 3 Chang'e 3 is a Chinese lunar exploration mission, incorporating a robotic lander and rover. Scheduled for launch in 2013 as part of the second phase of the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program, it will be China's first lunar rover, and the first spacecraft to make a soft landing on the Moon since the...	2013	Rover	Six-wheeled lunar vehicle to be landed at Sinus Iridum Sinus Iridum Sinus Iridum is a plain of basaltic lava that forms a northwestern extension to the Mare Imbrium. It is surrounded from the northeast to the southwest by the Montes Jura range. The protruding part of the range at the southwest end is named Promontorium Heraclides, while that at the northeast end... .
Astrobotic Technology Astrobotic Technology Astrobotic Technology is a privately held seed-stage company formed by Carnegie Mellon professor Red Whittaker and his associates, with the goal of winning the Google Lunar X Prize...	2013–2014	Lander, Rover	First scheduled launch of a private Private spaceflight Private spaceflight is flight above Earth altitude conducted by and paid for by an entity other than a government. In the early decades of the Space Age, the government space agencies of the Soviet Union and United States pioneered space technology augmented by collaboration with affiliated design... lander, rover and moon payload competing for various prizes Inducement prize contest An inducement prize contest is a competition that awards a cash prize for the accomplishment of a feat, usually of engineering. IPCs are typically designed to extend the limits of human ability... including the Google Lunar X Prize Google Lunar X Prize The Google Lunar X PRIZE, abbreviated GLXP, sometimes referred to as Moon 2.0, is a space competition organized by the X Prize Foundation, and sponsored by Google. It was announced at the Wired Nextfest on 13 September 2007... .

External links

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