Robotic exploration of the Moon
Encyclopedia
Pioneer program
- Pioneer 0Pioneer 0Pioneer 0 was a failed United States space probe that was designed to go into orbit around the Moon, carrying a television camera, a micrometeorite detector and a magnetometer, as part of the first International Geophysical Year science payload...
(United StatesUnited StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, 1958) – failure – orbiter - Pioneer 1Pioneer 1On October 11, 1958, Pioneer 1 became the first spacecraft launched by NASA, the newly formed space agency of the United States. The flight was the second and most successful of the three Thor-Able space probes.- Spacecraft design :...
(United States, 1958) – failure – orbiter - Pioneer 2Pioneer 2Pioneer 2 was the last of the three project Able space probes designed to probe lunar and cislunar space. Shortly after launch at 07:30:00 UTC on November 8, 1958, the third stage of the launch vehicle separated but failed to ignite, and Pioneer 2 did not achieve its intended lunar orbit...
(United States, 1958) – failure – orbiter
- Pioneer 3Pioneer 3Pioneer 3 was a spin stabilized spacecraft launched at 05:45:12 UTC on 6 December 1958 by the U.S. Army Ballistic Missile Agency in conjunction with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration...
(United States, 1958) – failure – flyby - Pioneer 4Pioneer 4Pioneer 4 was a spin-stabilized spacecraft launched as part of the Pioneer program on a lunar flyby trajectory and into a heliocentric orbit making it the first U.S. probe to escape from the Earth's gravity. It carried a payload similar to Pioneer 3: a lunar radiation environment experiment using a...
(United States, 1959) – partial success – flyby
Luna programme
- Luna 1Luna 1Luna 1 , first known as First Cosmic Ship, then known as Mechta was the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Moon and the first of the Luna program of Soviet automatic interplanetary stations successfully launched in the direction of the Moon.While traveling through the outer Van Allen...
(Soviet UnionSoviet UnionThe Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, 1959) – success – flyby - Luna 2Luna 2Luna 2 was the second of the Soviet Union's Luna programme spacecraft launched to the Moon. It was the first spacecraft to reach the surface of the Moon...
(Soviet Union, 1959) – success – impactor - Luna 3Luna 3The Soviet space probe Luna 3 of 1959 was the third space probe to be sent to the neighborhood of the Moon, and this mission was an early feat in the spaceborne exploration of outer space...
(Soviet Union, 1959) – success – flyby - Luna 4Luna 4Luna 4 was the USSR's first successful spacecraft of their "second generation" Luna program. The spacecraft, rather than being sent on a straight trajectory toward the Moon, was placed first in a low Earth orbit and then the rocket stage reignited to send it on a curving path towards the...
(Soviet Union, 1963) – partial failure – lander (became probe) - Luna 9Luna 9Luna 9 was an unmanned space mission of the Soviet Union's Luna program. On February 3, 1966 the Luna 9 spacecraft was the first spacecraft to achieve a soft landing on any planetary body other than Earth and to transmit photographic data to Earth.The automatic lunar station that achieved the...
(Soviet Union, 1966) – success – lander - Luna 10Luna 10Luna 10 was a Luna program, robotic spacecraft mission, also called Lunik 10.The Luna 10 spacecraft was launched towards the Moon from an Earth orbiting platform on March 31, 1966. It was the first artificial satellite of the Moon...
(Soviet Union, 1966) – success – orbiter - Luna 11Luna 11Luna 11 was an unmanned space mission of the Soviet Union's Luna program. It is also called Lunik 11.Luna 11 was launched towards the Moon from an earth-orbiting platform and entered lunar orbit on 27 August 1966...
(Soviet Union, 1966) – success – orbiter - Luna 12Luna 12-External links:*...
(Soviet Union, 1966–67) – success – orbiter - Luna 13Luna 13-External links:* *...
(Soviet Union, 1966) – success – lander - Luna 14Luna 14-External links:*...
(Soviet Union, 1968) – success – orbiter
- Luna 15Luna 15-External links:*...
(Soviet Union, 1969) – failure – lander (crashed) - Luna 16Luna 16-External links:*...
(Soviet Union, 1970) – success – sample return - Luna 17Luna 17-External links:*...
(Soviet Union, 1970) – success – lander- Lunokhod 1Lunokhod 1Lunokhod 1 was the first of two unmanned lunar rovers landed on the Moon by the Soviet Union as part of its Lunokhod program. The spacecraft which carried Lunokhod 1 was named Luna 17...
(Soviet Union, 1970–71) – success – rover
- Lunokhod 1
- Luna 19Luna 19Luna 19 , was an unmanned space mission of the Luna program. Luna 19 extended the systematic study of lunar gravitational fields and location of mascons . It also studied the lunar radiation environment, the gamma-active lunar surface, and the solar wind...
(Soviet Union, 1971–72) – success – orbiter - Luna 20Luna 20Luna 20 was the second of three successful Soviet lunar sample return missions. It was flown as part of the Luna program, also called Lunik 20, as a robotic competitor to the six successful Apollo lunar sample return missions....
(Soviet Union, 1972) – success – sample return - Luna 21Luna 21-External links:*...
(Soviet Union, 1973) – success – lander- Lunokhod 2Lunokhod 2Lunokhod 2 was the second of two unmanned lunar rovers landed on the Moon by the Soviet Union as part of the Lunokhod program....
(Soviet Union, 1973) – success – rover
- Lunokhod 2
- Luna 22Luna 22Luna 22 was an unmanned space mission, part of the Soviet Luna program, also called Lunik 22.Luna 22 was a lunar orbiter mission...
(Soviet Union, 1974–75) – success – orbiter - Luna 24Luna 24-External links:*...
(Soviet Union, 1976) – success – sample return
Ranger program
- Ranger 3Ranger 3Ranger 3 is a spacecraft of the Ranger program that was launched to study the Moon on January 26, 1962. The space probe was designed to transmit pictures of the lunar surface to Earth stations during a period of 10 minutes of flight prior to impacting on the Moon, to rough-land a seismometer...
(United States, 1962) – failure – impactor - Ranger 4Ranger 4Ranger 4 was a spacecraft of the Ranger program designed to transmit pictures of the lunar surface to Earth stations during a period of 10 minutes of flight prior to crashing upon the Moon, to rough-land a seismometer capsule on the Moon, to collect gamma-ray data in flight, to study radar...
(United States, 1962) – partial failure – impactor (impacted, but didn't take pictures) - Ranger 5Ranger 5Ranger 5 was a spacecraft of the Ranger program designed to transmit pictures of the lunar surface to Earth stations during a period of 10 minutes of flight prior to impacting on the Moon, to rough-land a seismometer capsule on the Moon, to collect gamma-ray data in flight, to study radar...
(United States, 1962) – partial failure – impactor (became flyby) - Ranger 6Ranger 6Ranger 6 was designed to achieve a lunar impact trajectory and to transmit high-resolution photographs of the lunar surface during the final minutes of flight up to impact. The spacecraft carried six television vidicon cameras, 2 wide angle and 4 narrow angle to accomplish these objectives...
(United States, 1964) – failure – impactor
- Ranger 7Ranger 7Ranger 7 was the first US space probe to successfully transmit close images of the lunar surface back to Earth. It was also the first completely successful flight of the Ranger program. Launched on 28 July 1964, Ranger 7 was designed to achieve a lunar impact trajectory and to transmit...
(United States, 1964) – success – impactor - Ranger 8Ranger 8Ranger 8 was a spacecraft designed to achieve a lunar impact trajectory and to transmit high-resolution photographs of the lunar surface during the final minutes of flight up to impact. The spacecraft carried six television vidicon cameras, two wide angle and four narrow angle to accomplish these...
(United States, 1964) – success – impactor - Ranger 9Ranger 9Ranger 9 was designed to achieve a lunar impact trajectory and to transmit high-resolution photographs of the lunar surface during the final minutes of flight up to impact. The spacecraft carried six television vidicon cameras, 2 wide angle and 4 narrow angle to accomplish these objectives...
(United States, 1964) – success – impactor
Zond program
- Zond 3Zond 3Zond 3 was a member of the Soviet Zond program sharing designation Zond, while being part of Mars 3MV project. It was unrelated to Zond spacecraft designed for manned circumlunar mission . Zond 3 completed a successful Lunar flyby, taking a number of good quality photographs for its time...
(Soviet Union, 1965) – success – flyby - Zond 5Zond 5Zond 5, a formal member of the Soviet Zond program and unmanned version of Soyuz 7K-L1 manned moon-flyby spacecraft, was launched from a Tyazheliy Sputnik in Earth parking orbit to make scientific studies during a lunar flyby and to return to Earth....
(Soviet Union, 1968) – success – flyby - Zond 6Zond 6Zond 6, a formal member of the Soviet Zond program and unmanned version of Soyuz 7K-L1 manned moon-flyby spacecraft, was launched on a lunar flyby mission from a parent satellite in Earth parking orbit...
(Soviet Union, 1968) – success – flyby
- Zond 7Zond 7This article was originally based on material from ...
(Soviet Union, 1969) – success – flyby - Zond 8 (Soviet Union, 1970) – success – flyby
Surveyor program
- Surveyor 1Surveyor 1Surveyor 1 was the first lunar soft-lander in the unmanned Surveyor program of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration . This lunar soft-lander gathered data about the lunar surface that would be needed for the manned Apollo Moon landings that began in 1969...
(United States, 1966) – success – lander - Surveyor 2Surveyor 2Surveyor 2 was to be the second lunar lander in the unmanned American Surveyor program to explore the Moon.It was launched September 20, 1966 from Cape Kennedy, Florida aboard an Atlas-Centaur rocket....
(United States, 1966) – crashed – lander - Surveyor 3Surveyor 3Surveyor 3 was the third lander of the American unmanned Surveyor program sent to explore the surface of the Moon. Launched on April 17, 1967, Surveyor 3 landed on April 20, 1967 at the Mare Cognitum portion of the Oceanus Procellarum...
(United States, 1967) – success – lander - Surveyor 4Surveyor 4Surveyor 4 was the fourth lunar lander in the American unmanned Surveyor program sent to explore the surface of the Moon.*Launched July 14, 1967; landed July 17, 1967*Weight on landing: 625 lb...
(United States, 1967) – crashed – lander
- Surveyor 5Surveyor 5Surveyor 5 was the fifth lunar lander of the American unmanned Surveyor program sent to explore the surface of the Moon.*Launched September 8, 1967; landed September 11, 1967*Weight on landing: 303 kg...
(United States, 1967) – success – lander - Surveyor 6Surveyor 6Surveyor 6 was the sixth lunar lander of the American unmanned Surveyor program that reached the surface of the Moon.*Launched November 7, 1967; landed November 10, 1967*Mass on landing: 299.6 kg Surveyor 6 landed on the Sinus Medii...
(United States, 1967) – success – lander - Surveyor 7Surveyor 7Surveyor 7 was the seventh and last lunar lander of the American unmanned Surveyor program sent to explore the surface of the Moon.*Launched January 7, 1968; landed January 10, 1968*Weight on landing: 305.7 kg...
(United States, 1968) – success – lander
Lunar Orbiter program
- Lunar Orbiter 1Lunar Orbiter 1The Lunar Orbiter 1 robotic spacecraft, part of the Lunar Orbiter Program, was designed primarily to photograph smooth areas of the lunar surface for selection and verification of safe landing sites for the Surveyor and Apollo missions...
(United States, 1966) – success – orbiter - Lunar Orbiter 2Lunar Orbiter 2The Lunar Orbiter 2 spacecraft was designed primarily to photograph smooth areas of the lunar surface for selection and verification of safe landing sites for the Surveyor and Apollo missions...
(United States, 1966–67) – success – orbiter - Lunar Orbiter 3Lunar Orbiter 3The Lunar Orbiter 3 was a spacecraft launched by NASA in 1967, designed primarily to photograph areas of the lunar surface for confirmation of safe landing sites for the Surveyor and Apollo missions...
(United States, 1967) – success – orbiter
- Lunar Orbiter 4Lunar Orbiter 4Lunar Orbiter 4 was designed to take advantage of the fact that the three previous Lunar Orbiters had completed the required needs for Apollo mapping and site selection...
(United States, 1967) – success – orbiter - Lunar Orbiter 5Lunar Orbiter 5Lunar Orbiter 5, the last of the Lunar Orbiter series, was designed to take additional Apollo and Surveyor landing site photography and to take broad survey images of unphotographed parts of the Moon's far side...
(United States, 1967–68) – success – orbiter
Hiten
- HitenHitenThe Hiten Spacecraft , given the English name Celestial Maiden and known before launch as MUSES-A , part of the MUSES Program, was built by the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science of Japan and launched on January 24, 1990...
(JapanJapanJapan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, 1990–93) – success – orbiter- HagoromoHitenThe Hiten Spacecraft , given the English name Celestial Maiden and known before launch as MUSES-A , part of the MUSES Program, was built by the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science of Japan and launched on January 24, 1990...
(Japan, 1990) – failure – orbiter
- Hagoromo
SELENE
- SELENESELENESELENE , better known in Japan by its nickname after the legendary Japanese moon princess, was the second Japanese lunar orbiter spacecraft. Produced by the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science and the National Space Development Agency , both now part of the Japan Aerospace Exploration...
(Japan, 2007-09) – success – orbiter- RSAT (Japan, 2007-09) – success – orbiter
- VSAT (Japan, 2007-09) – success – orbiter
Chinese Lunar Exploration Program (CLEP)
- Chang'e 1 (ChinaPeople's Republic of ChinaChina , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
, 2007–09) – success – orbiter - Chang'e 2Chang'e 2Chang'e 2 is a Chinese unmanned lunar probe that was launched on 1 October 2010. It was a follow-up to the Chang'e 1 lunar probe, which was launched in 2007. Chang'e 2 was part of the first phase of the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program, and conducted research from a 100-kilometer-high lunar orbit...
(China, 2010-) – success – orbiter/impacter
Indian Lunar Exploration Program
- Chandrayaan 1 (IndiaIndiaIndia , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, 2008–09) - success (discovered & confirmed water on Moon) - orbiter- Moon Impact ProbeMoon Impact ProbeThe Moon Impact Probe developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation , India's national space agency, was a lunar probe that was released by ISRO's Chandrayaan-1 lunar remote sensing orbiter which in turn was launched, on 22 October 2008, aboard a modified version of ISRO's Polar Satellite...
(India, 2008) - success - impactor
- Moon Impact Probe
Lunar Precursor Robotic Program
- Lunar Precursor Robotic Program (United States, 2009-)
- LCROSSLCROSSThe Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite was a robotic spacecraft operated by NASA. The mission was conceived as a low-cost means of determining the nature of hydrogen detected at the polar regions of the moon. The main LCROSS mission objective was to explore the presence of water ice...
(United States, 2009) - success - impactor - Lunar Reconnaissance OrbiterLunar Reconnaissance OrbiterThe Lunar Precursor Robotic Program is a program of robotic spacecraft missions which NASA will use to prepare for future human spaceflight missions to the Moon. Two LPRP missions, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite , were launched in June 2009...
(LRO) (United States, 2009-) - success - orbiter
- LCROSS
Discovery Program
- Discovery ProgramDiscovery ProgramNASA's Discovery Program is a series of lower-cost, highly-focused American scientific space missions that are exploring the Solar System. It was founded in 1992 to implement then-NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin's vision of "faster, better, cheaper" planetary missions...
(United States, 2011-)- Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL)Gravity Recovery and Interior LaboratoryThe Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory is an American lunar science mission in NASA's Discovery Program, which will use high-quality gravitational field mapping of the Moon to determine its interior structure...
(United States, 2011-) - in transit
- Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL)
See also
- List of current and future lunar missions
- List of lunar probes
- Robotic spacecraftRobotic spacecraftA robotic spacecraft is a spacecraft with no humans on board, that is usually under telerobotic control. A robotic spacecraft designed to make scientific research measurements is often called a space probe. Many space missions are more suited to telerobotic rather than crewed operation, due to...
- Apollo program