The Moon The Moon formed nearly 4.5 billion years ago, not long after the formation of the Earth. It formed from the debris left over after a giant impact between Earth and a Mars-sized body. As of November 2014, the Moon is the only celestial body other than Earth on which humans have set foot. The Soviet Unions Luna programme was the first to reach the Moon with unmanned spacecraft in 1959; the United States NASA Apollo program achieved the only manned missions to date, beginning with the first manned lunar orbiting mission by Apollo 8 in 1968, and six manned lunar landings between 1969 and 1972, with the first being Apollo 11. These missions returned over 380 kg of lunar rocks, which have been used to develop a geological understanding of the Moons origin, the formation of its internal structure, and its subsequent history. After the Apollo 17 mission in 1972, the Moon has been visited by only unmanned spacecraft. Of these, orbital missions have dominated: Since 2004, Japan, China, India, the United States, and the European Space Agency have each sent lunar orbiters, which have contributed to confirming the discovery of lunar water ice in permanently shadowed craters at the poles and bound into the lunar regolith. The post-Apollo era has also seen two rover missions: the final Soviet Lunokhod mission in 1973, and Chinas ongoing Change 3 mission, which deployed its Yutu rover on 14 December 2013. Future manned missions to the Moon have been planned, including government as well as privately funded efforts. The Moon remains, under the Outer Space Treaty, free to all nations to explore for peaceful purposes.
Posted on: Mon, 10 Nov 2014 16:08:02 +0000
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