Since the dawn of the space age, more than a hundred spacecraft have left Earth en route to the moon, according to NASA's records. Not all of them made it, especially in the early years, but the ones that did embody some of the most amazing feats of human ingenuity ever seen. The story of lunar exploration splits into two distinct phases. The first, lasting from the late s to mid s, was dominated by the rivalry between the United States and Soviet Union, known as the space race.
With a quickfire string of firsts from both countries, this race to the Moon had an undeniably political dimension to it, but it yielded scientific rewards, too. The Apollo and Luna missions told scientists more about our nearest neighbor in space than we ever knew before, and blazed the trail for all the orbiters, landers and rovers — whether on the moon or other planets — since then. After a pause lasting over a decade, the second phase kicked off in the s — and it's still going strong today.
With a stronger focus on science, this phase is also notable for its international flavor, with spacecraft from Japan, Europe, China, India and Israel all playing a part.
A key goal of these missions has been to locate water and other resources on the moon — holding out the promise of an exciting future in which humans establish a long-term presence there. Some moon missions are designed to study it from a distance, taking photographs and collecting other data as they fly past or orbit it. But we'll start by looking at spacecraft that were designed to descend all the way to the surface, whether in a gentle soft landing, permitting an extended science mission, or a high-velocity impact in which all the science has to be done on the way down.
Less than a year after launching their first satellite, Sputnik , in October , the Soviets were aiming for the moon. After several false starts, they finally made it with Luna 2 in September This was a deliberate crash-landing — the lbs. All the same, it was an astonishing achievement for the s. Related: Sputnik 1! A high-speed impact is one thing, but landing in one piece and surviving long enough to carry out a scientific mission is a technical challenge of a different order.
It wasn't accomplished until Feb. Of the lunar missions during the period, 61 were successful and 48 had failed, it stated. In the early hours of Saturday, Indian space agency ISRO's plan to soft land Chandrayaan-2's Vikram module on the lunar surface did not go as per script.
The lander lost communication with ground stations during its final descent. ISRO officials said, adding that the orbiter of Chandrayaan-2 -- second lunar mission -- remains heathy and safe.
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They spent 22 hours on the Moon in total. Cernan's final words before lifting off were. A total of six flags have been planted on the Moon — one for each US Apollo landing.
Unfortunately, Apollo 11's flag was too close to the landing module and was knocked over by the exhaust when the module launched again.
More recently, higher resolution images from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter show that the other five remain standing. The flags were made of ordinary nylon, so they have all long since been bleached white by the Sun's UV radiation. Shop stylish Moon-inspired gifts Learn more about our closest celestial neighbour the Moon in our books published by Royal Museums Greenwich Shop.
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Visit Us. Search Want to search our collection? Search here. We use cookies to ensure you have the best browsing experience and to help us improve our website. Find out more Accept Cookies. Crewmen aboard the U. Iwo Jima, prime recovery ship for the Apollo 13 mission, hoist the Command Module aboard. Been there, done that. The lightweight unit folded up under the lunar landing module, ran on electric power and boasted its own onboard navigation system that communicated directly with mission control on Earth.
Apollo 15 astronauts drove 17 miles across the lunar surface collecting rocks from different geological formations. One of the Apollo 15 astronauts brought home an ancient hunk of anorthosite that was later determined to be 4.
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