Man\'s Exploration of the Moon

MAN'S EXPLORATION of the MOON

Although the moon, Earth's only natural satellite, has been the focus of much study and inquiry for hundreds of years, it was not until the dawn of the age of technology circa the early 1950's that humans began to seriously consider sending rockets, probes and man himself to this lonely and mysterious outpost some 230,000 miles from planet Earth. Of course, the United States and the Soviet Union (i.e., today's Russia) are the nations best-known for their activities related to exploring the moon, but beginning around the mid-1990's, other nations like China, Japan, India and France set out to explore this body in space via a number of probes and satellites, some of which were highly successful and have added substantially to our knowledge concerning the moon and its environment.

Under the auspices of its own National Space Administration, the nation of China successfully launched an unmanned lunar orbiter known as Chang'e 1 in 2007 and plans on sending other orbiters sometime in 2009. The main purpose behind these and future lunar probes is to tap into the moon's immense reserves of naturally-occurring metals like iron and what is known as helium-3 for use in nuclear fusion power plants. Certainly, due to its burgeoning economy, the nation of China sees the moon as a great source of energy and materials for future use in a number of technologically-related endeavors (Heiken, 156).

Much like China, the nation of Japan has demonstrated much interest in exploring the moon which began in the mid-1980's with the LUNAR -- a and SELENE lunar projects. This was followed in 1990 by the launching of a satellite known as MUSES-a/HITEN, aimed at "establishing the technologies including satellite trajectory control which would be required for future lunar and planetary exploration projects" ("Japan's Lunar Exploration," Internet) by Japan. In 1994, Japan's Space Activities Commission created a "long-term vision with the moon as a main target for national space development" in conjunction with the National Space Development Agency and the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science. These and other ambitious lunar projects have succeeded greatly and have provided much data and knowledge related to areas of the moon which are still under intense investigation by the U.S. And Russia ("Japan's Lunar Exploration," Internet).

Similarly, the nation of India sent its first exploratory mission to the moon in September of 2008 known as Chandrayaan-1, aimed at studying the lunar surface for possible naturally-occurring elements which are rare on the Earth. The entity responsible for this successful mission, the Indian Space Research Organization (IRSO), is quite impressive and plans on making some huge strides in the exploration of not only the moon but also other solar bodies (O'Neill, Internet). Established in 1972, this organization was created in order to "develop space-based technologies aimed at enriching" India's ever-growing economy and has plans to launch similar missions sometime after 2010 (O'Neill, Internet).

Obviously, the two nations with the longest and most successful missions to the moon are the United States and Russia, formerly the U.S.S.R. This is often referred to as the "Space Race" from 1947 to 1977, a term used to describe "the attempts by the U.S. And the Soviet Union to land a man on the moon" (Stroud, 186). The most well-known of all the Soviet programs was

Luna, a series of robot missions initiated by the Soviets in 1957 which continued until 1976 and were designed to "study the characteristics of the moon by orbital or landing vehicles carrying remote-controlled equipment." This program was made up of twenty-five missions, most of which failed or were not announced as official segments of the Luna program (Stroud, 188).

The first successful lunar attempt by the Soviets was Luna 1 which made a lunar flyby in 1959, followed by Luna 2 and 3; Luna 4 in 1962 failed and in 1965, the Soviets created the Zond program with Zond 3 reaching the dark side of the moon for the first time. This was followed by Luna 9 which soft-landed on the moon and then Luna 10 which orbited the moon numerous times. Zond 6 then followed with Luna 15 crashing on the moon. In 1970, Luna 16 landed and recovered soil samples, while Luna 17 landed and deployed Lunokhod 1, the first-ever lunar rover. In 1973, Luna 21 was deployed, then Luna 24 which returned soil samples back to Earth. The most successful was Luna 24 in 1976 which landed in the Sea of Crisis (Mare Crisium) and drilled into the lunar surface, recovering samples which were then sent back to Earth (Stroud, 188-204).

Compared to the lunar explorations by the Soviet Union, those of the United States were far more successful in many ways, especially relate to the Apollo program of the 1960's and the first manned landing on the moon in 1969. Overall, the U.S. moon program came about in five specific stages with each stage attempting to build upon the achievements of the last. These stages included the Pioneer program, designed to achieve lunar orbit or a fly-by; however, these missions failed miserably. Then there was the Ranger program, a series of nine probes with the goal being to achieve lunar impact; however, this program experienced many failures but it did lead to the beginnings of great success for the U.S. moon exploration programs that followed. The next program was called the Surveyor, made up of nine important missions with the aim being to photograph the lunar surface and return geological data and information back to Earth. Of all the U.S. unmanned programs, Surveyor was by far the most successful and fruitful. Then came the Lunar Orbiter program, composed of five probes "sent to make extensive photographic coverage of the lunar surface." This program made it possible for the next one, being the Apollo program, which successfully place the first human being on the surface of the moon.