Since the times of Galileo, who was the first to discover that the Moon, just like the Earth, was a planetary body, the humankind have dreamed of travelling to the Moon and exploring, the first hand, all of its hidden riddles. A few great fiction and philosophical works of the 19th century, in which the human thought attempted to overcome the gravity of the Earth and successfully fly up towards the Moon to explore the fantastic possibilities of lunar landing, are certainly worth mentioning. Among them, Jules Verne’s “From the Earth to the Moon, and Round the Moon”, Herbert G. Wells’s “The First Men in the Moon”, and “A Voyage to the Moon: With Some Account of the Manners and Customs, Science, and Philosophy, of the People of Morosofia, and Other Lunarians” written by George Tucker, are the real literary jewels.
The concept of landing on the Moon was seriously approached in the mid-20th century, when the science and technologies became advanced enough to help the humankind switch from fantasising to acting. Since 1959, when the Soviet Union implemented the first successful unmanned voyage to the Moon, and until 1976, when people seemed to have satisfied their hot interest in lunar explorations, the total amount of eighteen Moon landings were accomplished, six of which were manned lunar missions ventured by the Americans. Also, a number of crash landings accompanied the heroic lunar saga of those years. Here is a complete chronological list of successful and otherwise important lunar landings, which reflects the glorious history of human exploration of the Moon:
- The 1959 was a year when the Moon was reached for the first time by the machines made by men from the Earth. The Soviet spacecrafts Luna 2 (January, 1959) and Luna 3 (October, 1959) were launched and eventually crashed onto the lunar surface, thus fulfilling the fame that had been designated for them. The mission was successfully accomplished and signified the true lunar triumph of the humankind. Those first Moon landings returned historical close-up photographs of the Moon and never-seen-before pictures of the far side of the Moon.
- In about the same historical period, the Americans tried to reach the Moon with their Pioneers’ and Rangers’ missions, but, unfortunately, fifteen of those attempted flights to the Moon, which were launched within the period of 1958 -1964, were destined to fail. However, the three last Rangers (Rangers 7 on July 1964, Ranger 8 on February 1965, and Ranger 9 on March 1965) succeeded in their crashes on the lunar surface and returning to the Earth more than seventeen thousand photographs from the Moon.
- In 1966, the Moon was reached for the first time by human spacecrafts not by means of crashing, but by actual landing. Those were the Soviet unmanned missions Luna 9 (February 1966) and Luna 13 (December 1966), both of which performed a technique of successful “hard landing” on the lunar surface. The fruit of those lunar voyages was mainly in photography – both spacecrafts returned unique panoramic photos of the surface of the Moon, including those of lunar rocks and the horizon. The pictures were the first photographed images from the surface of another planetary body, ever transmitted to the Earth.
- Within the period of 1966 – 1968, the Americans implemented a new lunar program, which was mainly designed to explore and locate safe spots on the lunar surface, suitable for future manned landing on the Moon, and to test the existing technologies of a safe and controlled touchdown. The total of seven unmanned Surveyor flights towards the Moon were launched, and five of them successfully landed on the lunar surface:
1) Surveyor 1 (June 1966) was the first American spacecraft to achieve soft landing on the Moon, at the location named “Oceanus Procellarum” (the Ocean of Storms). Surveyor 1 was equipped with two TV cameras which were transmitting images from the Moon’s surface.
2) Surveyor 3 landed at the lunar Mare Cognitium (located within Oceanus Procellarum) in April of 1967, although its touchdown was complicated by bouncing due to radar problems. Nevertheless, the mission was successful, and the spaceship transmitted back to the Earth more than six thousand precious lunar images, including close-ups of the lunar soil. Also, the place of Surveyor 3 touchdown was selected as a landing spot for the future manned mission to the Moon.
3) Surveyor 5 touched down the Moon at Mare Tranquillitatis in September of 1967. Despite a potentially dangerous helium leak, it was able to transmit lunar images for a period of two weeks.
4) Surveyor 6 landed on the Moon at Sinus Medii in November of 1967. Alongside with transmitting to the Earth more than thirty thousand pictures from the Moon, Surveyor 6 also collected valuable data on radar and thermal reflectivity, touchdown dynamics, and chemical composition of the lunar soil.
5) Surveyor 7 (January 1968) was the last successful Moon lander under the US robotic Surveyor program. Lunar Tycho Crater was the place of its soft and totally perfect landing. That spacecraft was better equipped than its predecessors, carrying, among other technological novelties, a TV camera with improved polarizing filters. Its mission was successfully accomplished.
- From 1969 to1972, the Americans implemented a series of unprecedented manned landings on the Moon, with Neil Armstrong, commander of 11th Apollo mission, to become the first man to step on the lunar surface in July 20 of 1969. That achievement has been universally recognized as one of the most dramatic and profound triumphs of human thought, technology, and courage. (Read more about the first manned landing on the Moon in our article “First Man on the Moon“.) Interestingly enough, the heroic first walk of Neil Armstrong on the lunar surface encouraged the US government to claim the right of ownership of the entire territory of the Moon. Up to now, the Americans have remained the only nation of the world to have successfully sent their astronauts to the Moon. Although the USSR were preparing their own manned lunar voyage in about the same time, too, their mission failed and later was cancelled. In the course of the Apollo mission, six American spacecrafts with total of twenty four pilots on board successfully landed on the Moon. Twelve of those American astronauts walked on the lunar surface. The following is a brief list of accomplishments of the manned Apollo lunar mission:
1) Apollo 11 (July 1969), with three astronauts on board, accomplished the very first in human history manned lunar landing. Armstrong and Aldrin became the first two people from the planet Earth to reach the Moon, with Neil Armstrong to take the first human steps on the lunar surface. Having fulfilled their mission and planted the flag of the USA on the Moon, the astronauts successfully returned home. They also carried back to the Earth priceless samples of the lunar soil.
2) Apollo 12 (November 1969), carrying the crew of three astronauts – Conrad, Gordon, and Bean, landed at the familiar area of the Ocean of Storms, which was previously explored by the Surveyor 3 mission. That was the first manned lunar landing at the precise spot of the Moon.
3) Apollo 14 (January 1971), which carried three astronauts – Shepard, Roosa, and Mitchell, successfully landed in the Fra Mauro lunar formation. The astronauts implemented a few lunar walks, conducted numerous experiments, and even attempted to play golf on the Moon!
4) Apollo 15 (July 1971) is famous as the first prolonged and scientifically-oriented (so-called “J-class”) landed lunar mission that also used Lunar Rover for travelling on the surface of the Moon and collecting samples. The spacecraft remained on the Moon for three days. Astronauts Scott and Irwin spent more than eighteen hours exploring the lunar surface and collected almost two hundred pounds of the lunar material. Despite some troubling health problems that the astronauts developed due to their long stay on the Moon, the crew successfully returned home.
5) Apollo 16 (April 1972) was the second American manned J-mission to the Moon, carrying the crew of Young, Mattingly, and Duke. Due to some technical complications, the duration of the mission was shortened and the astronauts only spent three days on the lunar surface, mainly exploring unique highlands on the Moon with the help of the Lunar Rover vehicle.
6) Apollo 17 (December 1972) completed the series of landed Apollo missions to the Moon. That lunar landing still remains the last manned voyage to the surface of the Moon. The landed crew, which also included the first and only geologist to ever step on the lunar soil – Harrison Schmitt, performed three lunar walks, covered more than 20 miles of the lunar surface, and collected almost 250 lunar rock samples.
Roughly at the same time when the Americans implemented their historical manned missions to the Moon, within the period from 1970 to 1976, the Soviets accomplished five unmanned soft lunar landings with their improved Luna spacecrafts. Here are the basic highlights of their landings on the Moon:
1) Luna 16 landed at Mare Fecunditatis in September of 1970. The spacecraft represented the first Soviet robotic probe, which managed to accomplish a unique task of fully automatic collecting and returning of a lunar soil sample back to the Earth.
2) Luna 17 accomplished its lunar touchdown in the area of Mare Imbrium (Sea of Rains) in November of 1970. The spacecraft also carried the first Soviet robot rover vehicle, Lunohod 1, which was specially designed for the exploration of the lunar surface.
3) Luna 20 landed in the area of Apollonius highlands in February of 1972. That unmanned Moon voyage successfully accomplished the task of obtaining lunar samples by means of deep drilling, with their subsequent sending to the Earth.
4) Luna 21 reached the Moon and landed at LeMonnier Crater in January of 1973. It carried the second, improved, Soviet Lunohod, which helped the mission to automatically collect lunar images and perform several important scientific experiments with lasers.
5) Luna 24 touched down the lunar surface at Mare Crisium in August of 1976, thus representing the last landing on the Moon of the Soviet Luna mission. 170 grams of the lunar soil samples were retrieved and returned to the Earth. So far, the voyage of Luna 24 has remained the last soft landing of human spacecrafts on the Moon.
As to the plans of the mankind for future lunar landings, the US currently thinking of launching the next manned mission to the Moon after 2019, while Russia is planning to send astronauts to the Moon by 2025, with subsequent establishing of the permanent occupied lunar base. Other nations also want to participate in manned exploration of the Moon, but no formal plans have been announced yet.
