Exploration of the Moon
The physical exploration of the Moon began when
The first soft landing on the far side of the Moon was made by the Chinese robotic spacecraft Chang'e 4 in early 2019, which successfully deployed the Yutu-2 robotic lunar rover. The first soft landing on the South Pole of the Moon was made by the Indian lander Vikram of Chandrayaan-3 in 2023, which successfully deployed the Pragyan rover.[1] [2]
Before spaceflight
The
Chinese philosophers of the
Indian astronomer Aryabhata stated in his fifth-century text Aryabhatiya that reflected sunlight is what causes the Moon to shine.[5]
Persian astronomer
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".[9] 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.
In 1753, the Croatian Jesuit and astronomer Roger Joseph Boscovich discovered the absence of atmosphere on the Moon. In 1824, Franz von Paula Gruithuisen explained the formation of craters as a result of meteorite strikes.[11]
The possibility that the Moon contains vegetation and is inhabited by
Space Race
The
The first artificial object to fly by the Moon was uncrewed Soviet probe Luna 1 on January 4, 1959, and went on to be the first probe to reach a heliocentric orbit around the Sun.[14] Few knew that Luna 1 was designed to impact the surface of the Moon.
The first probe to impact the surface of the Moon was the Soviet probe Luna 2, which made a hard landing on September 14, 1959, at 21:02:24 UTC. 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.
The first American probe to fly by the Moon was Pioneer 4 on March 4, 1959, which occurred shortly after Luna 1. It was the only success of eight American probes that first attempted to launch for the Moon.[15]
In an effort to compete with these Soviet successes, U.S. President John F. Kennedy proposed the Moon landing in a Special Message to the Congress on Urgent National Needs:
Now it is time to take longer strides – time for a great new American enterprise – time for this nation to take a clearly leading role in space achievement, which in many ways may hold the key to our future on Earth.
...For while we cannot guarantee that we shall one day be first, we can guarantee that any failure to make this effort will make us last.
...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 in the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish.
...let it be clear that I am asking the Congress and the country to accept a firm commitment to a new course of action—a course which will last for many years and carry very heavy costs...[16] Full text
Ranger 1 launched in August 1961, just three months after President Kennedy's speech. It would be three more years and six failed Ranger missions until Ranger 7 returned close up photos of the Lunar surface before impacting it in July 1964. A number of problems with launch vehicles, ground equipment, and spacecraft electronics plagued the Ranger program and early probe missions in general. These lessons helped in Mariner 2, the only successful U.S. space probe after Kennedy's famous speech to congress and before his death in November 1963.[17] U.S. success rates improved greatly from Ranger 7 onward.
In 1966, the USSR accomplished the first soft landings and took the first pictures from the lunar surface during the Luna 9 and Luna 13 missions.
The U.S. followed Ranger with the
In September 1968 the Soviet Union's Zond 5 sent tortoises on a circumlunar mission, followed by turtles aboard Zond 6 in November. 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 humans to walk on the lunar surface were Neil Armstrong, commander of the U.S. mission Apollo 11 and his fellow astronaut Buzz Aldrin.
The first robot
Before the Moon race, the U.S. had pre-projects for scientific and military moonbases: the Lunex Project and Project Horizon. Besides crewed landings, the abandoned Soviet crewed lunar programs included the building of a multipurpose moonbase "Zvezda", the first detailed project, complete with developed mockups of expedition vehicles[19] and surface modules.[20]
After 1990
Japan
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 spacecraft. 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.[21]
In 2023,
On 29 January, the lander resumed operations after being shut for a week. JAXA said it re-established contact with the lander and its solar cells were working again after a shift in lighting conditions allowed it to catch sunlight.
SLIM showed perseverance and survived another
European Space Agency
The
China
China has begun the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program for exploring the Moon and is investigating the prospect of
China planned to conduct a
India
India's national space agency, the
Chandrayaan-2 was followed by Chandrayaan-3 the third lunar exploration mission by the Indian Space Research Organisation. It also carried the lander named Vikram and the rover named Pragyan, and completed the first soft landing on the south polar region of the moon.[43][44][45]
United States
The
NASA launched the
Russia
On 10 August 2023, Russia launched the Luna 25 mission, its first mission to the Moon since 1976.[46] On August 20 it crashed into the Moon after a guidance error that resulted in an anomalous orbit lowering maneuver.[47]
South Korea
South Korea launched the lunar orbiter Danuri on 4 August, 2022, and it arrived at the Moon on 16 December 2022. This is the first phase of South Korea's lunar exploration program, with plans to launch another lunar lander and probe.[48]
Commercial missions
In 2007, the X Prize Foundation together with Google launched the Google Lunar X Prize to encourage commercial endeavors to the Moon. A prize of $20 million was to be awarded to the first private venture to get to the Moon with a robotic lander by the end of March 2018, with additional prizes worth $10 million for further milestones.[49][50] As of August 2016, 16 teams were reportedly participating in the competition.[51] In January 2018 the foundation announced that the prize would go unclaimed as none of the finalist teams would be able to make a launch attempt by the deadline.[52]
In August 2016, the US government granted permission to US-based start-up Moon Express to land on the Moon.[53] This marked the first time that a private enterprise was given the right to do so. The decision is regarded as a precedent helping to define regulatory standards for deep-space commercial activity in the future. Previously, private companies were restricted to operating on or around Earth.[53]
On 29 November 2018, NASA announced that nine commercial companies would compete to win a contract to send small payloads to the Moon in what is known as Commercial Lunar Payload Services. According to NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine, "We are building a domestic American capability to get back and forth to the surface of the moon.".[54]
The first commercial mission to the Moon was accomplished by the
The Beresheet lander operated by Israel Aerospace Industries and SpaceIL impacted the Moon on April 11, 2019, after a failed landing attempt.[59]
Plans
Following the abandoned US
India is planning and it is studying a potential collaboration with Japan to launch the Lunar Polar Exploration Mission in 2026–28.
Russia also announced plans to resume its previously frozen project Luna-Glob, an uncrewed lander and orbiter, which was slated to launch in 2021 but did not manifest.[60] 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.[61] A Russian Lunar Orbital Station has been proposed to orbit around the Moon after 2030.
In 2018, NASA released plans to return to the Moon with commercial and international partners as part of an overall agency Exploration Campaign in support of
On November 3, 2021, NASA announced it had picked a landing site in the lunar south polar region near the crater Shackleton for an uncrewed spacecraft that included NASA's Polar Resources Ice-Mining Experiment-1. The precise location was termed the Shackleton Connecting Ridge, which features the advantage of near-continuous solar exposure and line-of-sight with Earth for communication.[65]
ESA's Moonlight Initiative aims to create a small network of communication and navigation satellites orbiting the Moon to support the Artemis landings.[66] These would enable communication with Earth even when out of direct line-of-sight. They would also provide navigation signals similar to the Global Positioning System on Earth, requiring precision timekeeping. Moonlight planners have proposed creating a new time zone for the Moon for this purpose, culminating in the introduction of the Coordinated Lunar Time standard in 2024.[67] Due to the lower gravity and relative motion, time passes more quickly on the Moon, making every 24-hour period elapse 56 microseconds early when measured from Earth.[68]
See also
- Artemis program
- Colonization of the Moon
- Tourism on the Moon
- Lunar outpost (NASA)
- International Lunar Exploration Working Group
- List of artificial objects on the Moon
- List of Apollo astronauts
- List of lunar probes
- Lunar resources
- Moon landing
- Timeline of Solar System exploration
- Starship HLS
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