In light ofApollo 11’s50th anniversary this week , the earth has focused on those historical first few steps on the Moon and everything that led up to them . But how much do you have it off about the 20 subsequent Moon landing place ? To fill you in , Smithsonian.com make aninteractive mapof the Moon with the who , what , where , when , and how of each successful lunar mission .
The map is color - coded : reddened for Russian Luna missions , green for China ’s Chang’e 3 and Chang’e 4 , and blue for the U.S. ’s Apollo ( differentiate with adept ) and Surveyor military mission ( childlike rings ) . you may select each ikon to inflate a paragraph with a short summary of the mission and its notable accomplishments .
After Russia ’s unmanned Luna 9 became the first craft to pertain down on the Moon in 1966 , 18 other triumphant landings followed in just a decade . The 20th did n’t happen until 37 eld later , when China reach its first landing with Chang’e 3 in 2013 . The most late occurred this past January , when China ’s Chang’e 4 became the first space vehicle to land on the far side of theMoon . Chang’e 4 and its rover , Yutu 2 , are still explore the Moon as you translate this , and China hop-skip to launch its follow - up missionary post , Chang’e 5 , as early as this yr .
SixApollomissionslanded humanson the Moon , and there have n’t been any actual astronauts on its open since . But the 15 robotic landing have contributed to our lunar knowledge in a secure , more cost - effective way . If you look at the map , you could see that most of the space vehicle have landed near the Moon ’s equator on the near side , where the terrain is mostly basaltic plains — the far side contains craters and even mountains . With more Chang’e missions to add up from China , and NASA ’s Artemis missions in the kit and caboodle , Smithsonian.com may soon have to make a 360 ° version of itsmap .
[ h / tSmithsonian.com ]
