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General Information
Specific Topics
- Orbit: Space.com article
on the Earth-Moon system.
- Moon Ranging: The experiment set up by Apollo 11
astronauts.
- Surface: Map
of the Moon from Observatorio Arval; List of major maria
from the U of North Dakota.
- Origin of the Moon: Planetary Science Institute page;
space.com article.
- Moon Light Effects: Keith Cooley's page
of photos and explanations.
- Blue Moon: obliquity.com page.
- The Moon Hoax: NASA's response
to those who say we never went to the Moon.
Past Missions (Planetary
Society overview page)
- Luna program: A series of Soviet
missions, including Luna
1 (the first spacecraft to reach the Moon, in 1959) Luna
2 (the first spacecraft to land on the Moon, in 1959), Luna
3 (took the first photographs of the far side in 1959), Luna
4 (1966), Luna
9 (1966), Luna
13 (1966), Luna
21 (1973), Luna
22 (1974).
- Lunar Orbiter program (NASA):
1966-67.
- Lunar Surveyor program (NASA):
1966-68, first safe landings on the Moon.
- Apollo program (NASA,
NASM): Took 12 astronauts
to the Moon in 1969-72; Lunar Surface Journal.
- Clementine (NASA
site, NRL site):
Mapped the Moon in 1994.
- Lunar Prospector (NASA,
CNN):
Arrived at the Moon in early 1998; Deliberately made to crash
on the Moon's surface in July 1999, when its mission was over,
in hopes of using the crash to detect evidence of water.
Present and Future Missions
- SMART-1:
ESA 6-month orbital mission launched in September 2003 to study
the Moon's composition using advanced IR and X-ray instruments.
- Lunar-A:
Japanese mission, scheduled for launch 2004-08-01. It will image
the surface of the Moon and drop seismic instruments into the
surface on opposite sides of the Moon, to monitor moonquakes,
measure the near-surface thermal properties and heat flux, and
study the lunar core and interior structure.
- Lunar Reconnaisance Orbiter: NASA spacecraft to
be launched in fall 2008 with a 1-year primary mission; Its objectives
are designed to gather data useful in plotting out future robotic and
human lunar landing sites and to identify potential lunar
resources.
- Selene
1: Japanese-US mission, expected to be launched in late
2005. It will observe the lunar surface from its orbit around
it, before testing a technique for landing part of the spacecraft
on the Moon.
Moon-Related Commercial
Companies
- Exploration and Communication: LunaCorp site.
- Transportation: TransOrbital, Inc site
(scientific and commercial payloads).
- Tourism: Moon Resort and Casino site
("because you've been everywhere else").
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