Exploration of the Moon

Apollo 12 lunar module Intrepid prepares to descend towards the surface of the Moon. NASA photo.

The physical exploration of the Moon began when Luna 2, a space probe launched by the Soviet Union, made an impact on the surface of the Moon on September 14, 1959. Prior to that the only available means of exploration had been observation from Earth. The invention of the optical telescope brought about the first leap in the quality of lunar observations. Galileo Galilei 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.

NASA's Apollo program was the first, and to date only, mission to successfully land humans on the Moon. The first landing took place in 1969, when astronauts placed scientific instruments and returned lunar samples to Earth.

Early history

A study of the moon from Robert Hooke's Micrographia, 1665

The ancient Greek philosopher Anaxagoras (d. 428 BC) reasoned that the Sun and Moon were both giant spherical rocks, and that the latter reflected the light of the former. His non-religious view of the heavens was one cause for his imprisonment and eventual exile.^[1] In his little book On the Face in the Moon's Orb, Plutarch 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. Aristarchus went a step further and computed the distance from Earth, together with its size, obtaining a value of 20 times the Earth radius for the distance (the real value is 60; the Earth radius was roughly known since Eratosthenes).

Although the Chinese of the Han Dynasty (202 BC–202 AD) believed the Moon to be energy equated to qi, their 'radiating influence' theory recognized that the light of the Moon was merely a reflection of the Sun (mentioned by Anaxagoras above).^[2] This was supported by mainstream thinkers such as Jing Fang,^[2] who noted the sphericity of the Moon.^[2] Shen Kuo (1031–1095) of the Song Dynasty (960–1279) 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.^[2]

By 499 AD, the Indian astronomer Aryabhata mentioned in his Aryabhatiya that reflected sunlight is the cause behind the shining of the moon.^[3]

Habash al-Hasib al-Marwazi, a Persian astronomer, conducted various observations at the Al-Shammisiyyah observatory in Baghdad between 825 and 835 AD.^[4] 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.^[4] In the 11th century, the Islamic physicist, Alhazen, investigated moonlight, which he proved through experimentation originates from sunlight and correctly concluded that it "emits light from those portions of its surface which the sun's light strikes."^[5]

By the Middle Ages, 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".^[6] In 1609, Galileo Galilei drew one of the first telescopic drawings of the Moon in his book Sidereus Nuncius and noted that it was not smooth but had mountains and craters. Later in the 17th century, Giovanni Battista Riccioli and Francesco Maria Grimaldi 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.

Thomas Harriot, as well as Galilei, drew the first telescopic representation of the Moon and observed it for several years. His drawings, however, remained unpublished.^[7] The first map of the Moon was made by the Belgian cosmographer and astronomer Michael Florent van Langren in 1645.^[7] Two years later a much more influential effort was published by Johannes Hevelius. 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, who gave the large naked-eye spots the names of seas and the telescopic spots (now called craters) the name of philosophers and astronomers.^[7] In 1753 the Croatian Jesuit and astronomer Roger Joseph Boscovich discovered the absence of atmosphere on the Moon. In 1824 Franz von Gruithuisen explained the formation of craters as a result of meteorite strikes.^[8]

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. In 1834–1836, Wilhelm Beer and Johann Heinrich Mädler published their four-volume Mappa Selenographica and the book Der Mond in 1837, which firmly established the conclusion that the Moon has no bodies of water nor any appreciable atmosphere.

Space race

The Cold War-inspired "space race" and "moon race" between the Soviet Union and the United States of America 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 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 image returned of another world from space showed the Moon's far side.

Apollo 17 astronaut Harrison Schmitt standing next to a boulder at Taurus-Littrow during the third EVA (extravehicular activity). NASA photo.

The first man-made object to reach the Moon was the unmanned Soviet probe Luna 2, 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. Though vague by today's standards, the photos showed that the far side of the Moon almost completely lacked maria. In an effort to compete with these Soviet successes, U.S. President John F. Kennedy proposed the national goal of landing a human 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."^[9]

The Soviets nonetheless remained in the lead for some time. Luna 9 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, launched March 31, 1966.

On December 24, 1968, the crew of Apollo 8, Frank Borman, James Lovell and William Anders, 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 human to walk on the lunar surface was Neil Armstrong, commander of the U.S. mission Apollo 11. The first robot lunar rover to land on the Moon was the Soviet vessel Lunokhod 1 on November 17, 1970 as part of the Lunokhod program. To date, the last human to stand on the Moon was Eugene Cernan, who as part of the mission Apollo 17, walked on the Moon in December 1972. See also: A full list of lunar Apollo astronauts.

Moon rock samples were brought back to Earth by three Luna missions (Luna 16, 20, and 24) and the Apollo missions 11 through 17 (except Apollo 13, 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 in 1976 they suddenly stopped. The Soviet Union started focusing on Venus and space stations and the U.S. on Mars and beyond, and on the Skylab and Space Shuttle programs.

Before the moon race the US had pre-projects for scientific and military moonbases: the Lunex Project and Project Horizon. Besides manned landings, the abandoned Soviet manned lunar programs included the building of a multipurpose moonbase "Zvezda", the first detailed project, complete with developed mockups of expedition vehicles^[10] and surface modules.^[11]

Recent exploration

Cassini–Huygens took this image during its lunar flyby, before it traveled to Saturn

In 1990 Japan visited the Moon with the Hiten spacecraft, becoming the third country to place an object in orbit around the Moon. The spacecraft released the Hagoromo probe into lunar orbit, but the transmitter failed, thereby preventing further scientific use of the mission. In September 2007, Japan launched the SELENE 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.^[12]

The European Space Agency 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 and infrared imagery of the lunar surface. SMART 1 entered lunar orbit 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.^[13]

China has begun the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program for exploring the Moon and is investigating the prospect of lunar mining, specifically looking for the isotope helium-3 for use as an energy source on Earth.^[14] China launched the Chang'e 1 robotic lunar orbiter 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 lunar orbiter. China landed the rover Chang'e 3 on the Moon on December 14, 2013,.^[15] Chang'e 3 is the first spacecraft to soft-land on lunar surface since Luna 24 in 1976.

India's national space agency, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), launched Chandrayaan-1, an unmanned lunar orbiter, on October 22, 2008.^[16] 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.^[17][18] The unmanned Moon Impact Probe landed on the Moon at 15:04 GMT on November 14, 2008 ^[19] 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.^[20]

The Ballistic Missile Defense Organization and NASA launched the Clementine mission in 1994, and Lunar Prospector in 1998. NASA launched the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, on June 18, 2009, which has collected imagery of the Moon's surface. It also carried the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS), which investigated the possible existence of water in Cabeus crater. GRAIL is another mission, launched in 2011.

The first commercial mission to the moon was accomplished by the Manfred Memorial Moon Mission (4M), led by LuxSpace, an affiliate of German OHB AG.^[21][22] The 4M spacecraft made a moon flyby on a night of 28 October 2014, after which it entered elliptical Earth orbit, exceeding its designed lifetime by four times.^[23][24]

Plans

The NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter

Following the abandoned US Constellation program, plans for manned flights followed by moonbases were declared by Russia, Europe (ESA), China, Japan and India. All of them intend to continue the exploration of Moon with more unmanned spacecraft.

China plans to conduct a sample return mission with its Chang'e 5 spacecraft in 2017.^[25]

India expects to launch another lunar mission by 2016, which would place a motorized rover on the Moon.^[26]

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 the plan reverts to robotic missions.^[27]

Russia also announced to resume its previously frozen project Luna-Glob, an unmanned lander and orbiter, which is slated to launch in 2016.^[28] In 2015, Roscosmos stated that Russia plans to place an astronaut on the Moon by 2030 leaving Mars to NASA. The purpose is to work jointly with NASA and avoid a space race^[29]

Germany also announced in March 2007 that it would launch a national lunar orbiter, LEO in 2012.^[30] However the mission was cancelled due to budgetary constraints.^[31]

In August 2007, NASA stated that all future missions and explorations of the Moon will be done entirely using the metric system. This was done to improve cooperation with space agencies of other countries which already use the metric system.^[32]

The European Space Agency has also announced its intention to send a manned mission to the Moon, as part of the Aurora programme. In September 2010, the agency introduced a "Lunar lander" programme with a target of autonomous mission to the moon in 2018.^[33]

On September 13, 2007, the X Prize Foundation, in concert with Google, Inc., announced the Google Lunar X Prize. 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."^[34]

In March 2014, SpaceX indicated that while their current focus is not on Lunar space transport, they will consider commercial launch contracts for one-off Moon missions.^[35]

Timeline of Moon exploration

Mission (1950–1959)	Launch	Arrival at Moon	Termination	Objective	Scientific result
Pioneer 0	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	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	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	6 December 1958		7 December 1959	Flyby	Launch failure
Luna 1 (Mechta, Dream, E-1 No.4)	2 January 1959	4 January 1959		Impactor	Partial success (first successful flyby 5,995 km, shown Moon's magnetic field absence)
Pioneer 4	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	12 September 1959	13 September 1959		Impactor	Success (first spacecraft reaching the moon surface, impacted east of Mare Serenitatis, discovered time variations in the electron flux and energy spectrum in the Van Allen radiation belt)
Pioneer P-1	24 September 1959		24 September 1959	Orbiter	Launch failure
Luna 3	4 October 1959	6 October 1959		Flyby	Success (first pictures of Moon far side)
Pioneer P-3	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	25 September 1960		25 September 1960	Orbiter	Launch failure
Pioneer P-31	15 December 1960		15 December 1960	Orbiter	Launch failure
Ranger 3	26 January 1962	28 January 1962		Impactor	Failure (flyby)
Ranger 4	23 April 1962	26 April 1962	26 April 1962	Impactor	Failure (no mid-course correction, crashed at Moon far-side)
Ranger 5	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	2 April 1963	>6 April 1963		Lander	Failure (flyby)
Ranger 6	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	28 July 1964	31 July 1964		Impactor	Success
Ranger 8	17 February 1965	20 February 1965		Impactor	Success
Cosmos 60	12 March 1965			Lander	Failed to leave Earth orbit
Ranger 9	21 March 1965	24 March 1965		Impactor	Success
Luna E-6 No.8	10 April 1965		10 April 1965	Lander	Launch failure
Luna 5	9 May 1965	12 May 1965		Lander	Failure (crashed at Sea of Clouds)
Luna 6	8 June 1965	11 June 1965		Lander	Failure (flyby)
Zond 3	18 July 1965	20 July 1965		Flyby	Success
Luna 7	4 October 1965	7 October 1965		Lander	Failure (crashed at Oceanus Procellarum)
Luna 8	3 December 1965	6 December 1965		Lander	Failure (crashed at Oceanus Procellarum)
Luna 9	31 January 1966	3 February 1966	6 February 1966	Lander	Success (first spacecraft to achieve a soft landing and first pictures from Moon surface, landed at Oceanus Procellarum)
Cosmos 111	1 March 1966		3 March 1966	Orbiter	Launched into wrong orbit
Luna 10	31 March 1966	3 April 1966	30 May 1966	Orbiter	Success (first lunar orbiter)
Surveyor 1	30 May 1966	2 June 1966	7 January 1967	Lander	Success (landed at Oceanus Procellarum)
Lunar Orbiter 1	10 August 1966	14 August 1966	29 October 1966	Orbiter	Success
Luna 11	24 August 1966	27 August 1966	1 October 1966	Orbiter	Success
Surveyor 2	20 September 1966	23 September 1966	23 September 1966	Lander	Failure (crashed near Copernicus crater)
Luna 12	22 October 1966	25 October 1966	19 January 1967	Orbiter	Success
Lunar Orbiter 2	6 November 1966	10 November 1966	11 October 1967	Orbiter	Success
Luna 13	21 December 1966	24 December 1966	28 December 1966	Lander	Success (landed at Oceanus Procellarum)
Lunar Orbiter 3	5 February 1967	8 February 1967	9 October 1967	Orbiter	Partial success (picture acquisition cut short)
Surveyor 3	17 April 1967	20 April 1967	3 May 1967	Lander	Success (portions subsequently retrieved by Apollo 12 astronauts)
Lunar Orbiter 4	4 May 1967	8 May 1967	<31 October 1967	Orbiter	Partial success (picture acquisition cut short)
Surveyor 4	14 July 1967	17 July 1967	17 July 1967	Lander	Failure (may have exploded before reaching surface)
Lunar Orbiter 5	1 August 1967	5 August 1967	31 January 1968	Orbiter	Success
Surveyor 5	8 September 1967	11 September 1967	17 December 1967	Lander	Success
Surveyor 6	7 November 1967	10 November 1967	14 December 1967	Lander	Success
Surveyor 7	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	7 April 1968	10 April 1968		Orbiter	Success
Zond 5	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	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	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	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	13 July 1969		21 July 1969	Sample return	Failure (crashed at Mare Crisium)
Apollo 11	16 July 1969	18 July 1969	24 July 1969	Orbiter	Success
		20 July 1969	21 July 1969	Sample return	Success (21.5 kg of lunar rocks retrieved, first humans on the Moon surface)
Zond 7	7 August 1969	11 August 1969	14 August 1969	Flyby	Success
Cosmos 300	23 September 1969		23 September 1969	Sample return	Launched into wrong orbit
Cosmos 305	22 October 1969		22 October 1969	Sample return	Launched into wrong orbit
Apollo 12	14 November 1969	17 November 1969	24 November 1969	Orbiter	Success
		19 November 1969	20 November 1969	Sample return	Success (First precise landing, recovered parts from Surveyor 3)
Mission (1970–1979)	Launch	Arrival at Moon	Termination	Objective	Result
Apollo 13	11 April 1970	15 April 1970	17 April 1970	Sample return	Failure (flyby, crew returned to Earth)
S-IV		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	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	10 November 1970	17 November 1970	17 November 1970	Lander	Success (soft-landed the Lunokhod 1)
Lunokhod 1			14 September 1971	Rover	Success (First lunar rover, travelled 10,54 kmd)
Apollo 14	31 January 1971	4 February 1971	9 February 1971	Orbiter	Success
		5 February 1971	6 February 1971	Sample return	Success
Apollo 15	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	2 September 1971	11 September 1971	11 September 1971	Sample return	Failure (crashed near the edge of the Sea of Fertility)
Luna 19	28 September 1971	3 October 1971	3–20 October 1972	Orbiter	Success
Luna 20	14 February 1972	21 February 1972	25 February 1972	Sample return	Success
Apollo 16	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	7 December 1972	10 December 1972	19 December 1972	Orbiter	Success
		11 December 1972	15 December 1972	Sample return	Success (first geologist on the Moon)
Luna 21	8 January 1973	15 January 1973	15 January 1973	Lander	Success (soft-landed the Lunokhod 2)
Lunokhod 2			3 June 1973	Rover	Success (longest rover journey on the Moon, 37 km)
Mariner 10	November 3, 1973	November 5, 1973	November 6, 1973	Flyby	Success (took close-up photos of Lunar North Pole on way to Venus and Mercury)
Luna 22	29 May 1974	2 June 1974	early November 1975	Orbiter	Success
Luna 23	28 October 1974	6 November 1974	9 November 1975	Sample return	Partial success (sample drilling failed)
Luna 24	9 August 1976	18 August 1976	22 August 1976	Sample return	Success (returned first samples where water was detected)
Mission (1990–1999)	Launch	Arrival at Moon	Termination	Objective	Result
Hiten	24 January 1990	19 March 1990	10 April 1993	Orbiter/impactor	Success (first aerobraking maneuver by a deep-space probe and first Asian object on the surface of the Moon)
Clementine	25 January 1994	19 February 1994	June 1994	Orbiter	Success
Lunar Prospector	7 January 1998	11 January 1998	31 July 1999	Orbiter/impactor	Success
Mission (2000–2009)	Launch	Arrival at Moon	Termination	Objective	Result
SMART-1	27 September 2003	15 November 2004	3 September 2006	Orbiter/impactor	Success (first use of an ion engine to reach the Moon)
SELENE (Kaguya)	14 September 2007	3 October 2007	10 June 2009	Orbiter/impactor	Success
Chang'e 1	24 October 2007	5 November 2007	1 March 2009	Orbiter/impactor	Success
Chandrayaan-1	22 October 2008	12 November 2008	29 August 2009	Orbiter	Success
Moon Impact Probe		14 November 2008	14 November 2008	Impactor	Success
Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter	18 June 2009	23 June 2009	ongoing	Orbiter	Success
Shepherding spacecraft (LCROSS)		9 October 2009	9 October 2009	Impactor	Success (near observation of Centaur impact)
Centaur upper stage (LCROSS)		9 October 2009	9 October 2009	Impactor	Success
Mission (2010–Present)	Launch	Arrival at Moon	Termination	Objective	Result
Chang'e 2	1 October 2010	5 October 2010	9 June 2011	Orbiter	Success (on extended mission to asteroid 4179 Toutatis)
ARTEMIS	Spring 2010	April 2011		Orbiter	Success (two probes from the THEMIS mission orbiting Earth were diverted to the Moon in 2010)
Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL)	10 September 2011	1 January 2012	17 December 2012	Two orbiters/impactors	Success
Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE)	7 September 2013	6 October 2013	18 April 2014	Orbiter	Success
Chang'e 3	6 December 2013	14 December 2013	ongoing	Lander	Success
Yutu			ongoing	Rover	Partial success (encountered operational difficulties after the first Lunar night)
Chang'e 5-T1	23 October 2014	27 October 2014	31 October 2014	Flyby	Success (Service module on extended mission to L2 point and Lunar orbit)
Manfred Memorial Moon Mission	23 October 2014	28 October 2014	11 November 2014	Flyby	Success (first commercial mission to the moon)

Future missions

Name	Estimated launch	Elements	Notes
(Private) Astrobotic Technology	2016	Lander, rover	First scheduled launch of a private lander, rover and moon payload competing for various prizes including the Google Lunar X Prize.[36]
Chang'e 4	2016	Rover	Back-up to Chang'e 3
Chandrayaan-2	2018	Orbiter, lander, rover	Orbiter to carry five payloads, three new, while other two are improved versions of those on Chandrayaan-1. All the three orbiter, lander and rover will be designed and manufactured by India according to the latest ISRO press-release.
Chang'e 5	2018[25]	Sample return	Chinese lunar sample return mission consisting of a 2-stage lander and an orbiter for collection of lunar samples.
EM-1	Dec 2018	Orion	Unmanned test flight of Orion interplanetary spacecraft, which would pass the Moon on a free return trajectory.
SLIM	2019[37]	Lander, rover[38]	Lander to perform pinpoint landing with error range of 100 m (330 ft),[39] will land near a lava tube entrance.[40]
Chang'e 6	2020	Sample return	Chinese lunar sample return mission consisting of a 2-stage lander and an orbiter for collection of lunar samples.
Luna-Glob	2021	Orbiter	Orbiter to include astrophysics experiments, dust monitors, plasma sensors, including the LORD astronomy payload, designed to study ultra-high-energy cosmic rays.[41]
EM-2	2021	Orion	Manned test flight of Orion spacecraft, which would orbit the Moon in the first mission of its kind in decades.
Luna-Glob	2024[42]	Lander	Lander to explore the polar regions of the Moon, as well as testing landing technologies.[41]

Under study

Name	Estimated launch	Elements	Notes
(Private) Shackleton Energy Company	2016	Lander, Rover	Robotic precursor exploration rover to "identify and characterize the nature, composition and locations of the optimum ice concentrations at the north and south pole craters".[43]

See also

• Colonization of the Moon
• Helium-3
• List of lunar probes
• List of artificial objects on the Moon
• Moon landing
• Robotic exploration of the Moon
• Timeline of Solar System exploration

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Moon missions.

• Lunar mission timeline - NASA
• Recent Lunar missions - NASA
• Exploring the Moon - A history of lunar discovery from the first space probes to recent times
• Another Hit to Hoax:Traces of Man on Lunar Surface

Manned lunar spacecraft Orbiters Apollo Command/Service Module LK-1 / LK-700 (VA) Zond (Soyuz 7K-L1) LOK (Soyuz 7K-L3) Orion PPTS (Federatsiya) Landers Apollo Lunar Module Lunniy Korabl Altair See also Moon landing conspiracy theories List of lunar probes List of artificial objects on the Moon List of missions to the Moon proposed

Moon colonization American projects Project Horizon (1960s) Lunex Project (1960s) Apollo Lunar Base (1970s) JSC Moon Base (1980s) Lunox (1990s) Lunar Outpost (2000s) Soviet and Russian projects Zvezda moonbase (1960s) KLE Complex Lunar Expedition (1970s) L3M (1970s) Lunar Expeditionary Complex (1970s) Energia Lunar Expedition (1980s) Luna-Glob Others projects Man Will Conquer Space Soon! (1950s) Artemis Project (1990s) Human Lunar Return (1990s) Chinese Lunar Base (2020s) JAXA Moon Base (2020s) Proposed sites Sinus Roris Eratosthenes Sinus Medii Montes Apenninus Kepler Shackleton Peary Exploration of the Moon Tourism on the Moon

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