The Moon

The Moon (Latin: Luna) is Earth's only natural satellite and the fifth largest natural satellite in the Solar System.

The Moon is the only celestial body to which humans have travelled and upon which humans have landed. The first artificial object to escape Earth's gravity and pass near the Moon was the Soviet Union's Luna 1, the first artificial object to impact the lunar surface was Luna 2, and the first photographs of the normally occluded far side of the Moon were made by Luna 3, all in 1959. The first spacecraft to perform a successful lunar soft landing was Luna 9, and the first unmanned vehicle to orbit the Moon was Luna 10, both in 1966. The United States (U.S.) Apollo program achieved the only manned missions to date, resulting in six landings between 1969 and 1972. Human exploration of the Moon ceased with the conclusion of the Apollo program, although several countries have announced plans to send people or robotic spacecraft to the Moon.

Luna 1

Luna 2

A series of Soviet Moon probes, including orbiters, landers, and sample-return craft, launched between 1959 and 1976. Lunas were the first manmade objects to reach escape velocity, crash into the Moon, photograph the Moon’s farside, soft land on the Moon, automatically return lunar surface material to Earth, and deploy a rover on the Moon’s surface.

Luna 3

Luna 9

On 20th July 1969, a man set foot on an extra-terrestrial surface for the very first time in History. This man was Neil Armstrong. Apollo 11 was the name of the first mission to land on the moon.A Saturn V launched Apollo 11 from the Kennedy Space Center on July 16, 1969 .

From the Apollo missions, we discovered how the Moon’s surface temperature can be extremely hot and extremely cold, depending on whether it is receiving sunlight or not. The Moon’s surface is also dry and chalky. However, orange rocks on the surface provide evidence of volcanic activity once in the Moon’s history. Most importantly, the Apollo missions proved that man can walk on another world, something that would have been unimaginable one hundred years earlier.

http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/imgcat/thumbnail_pages/moon_thumbnails.html

Neil Alden Armstrong (born August 5, 1930) is a former American astronaut, test pilot, university professor, and United States Naval Aviator. He is the first person to set foot on the Moon.

Neil Armstrong was the first, with Edwin Aldrin as the second man. Their footsteps remain on the surface of the Moon now and will remain there for million of years. After their first mission, a few months after, Apollo 12 landed two more astronauts on the Moon on 14th November. Apollo 13 headed for the Moon, but an explosion on the spacecraft caused the mission to be cancelled and the astronauts to have to return to the Earth, using a home-made piece of equipment to prevent poisonous carbon dioxide from building up in the spacecraft. Aftermath, four more missions landed men on the Moon, with Apollo17 being the last on 7th December 1972.

The Apollo 11 mission was the first manned mission to land on the Moon. It was the fifth human spaceflight of Project Apollo and the third human voyage to the Moon. Launched on July 16, 1969, it carried Commander Neil Alden Armstrong, Command Module Pilot Michael Collins and Lunar Module Pilot Edwin Eugene 'Buzz' Aldrin, Jr.

On July 20, Armstrong and Aldrin became the first humans to land on the Moon, while Collins orbited above. The mission fulfilled President John F. Kennedy's goal of reaching the moon by the end of the 1960s, which he expressed during a 1961 speech: "I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth."

Landing of a man in the Moon


Picture of The Earth viewed from The Moon

The lunar module was named Eagle after the bald eagle depicted on the insignia; the bald eagle is the national bird of the United States. The command module was named Columbia, a traditional, feminized name for the United States used in song and poetry.
On July 20, 1969 the lunar module Eagle separated from the command module Columbia.

Command module

Buzz Aldrin spoke the first words (albeit technical jargon) from the LM on the lunar surface. Throughout the descent Aldrin had called out navigation data to Armstrong, who was busy piloting the LM. As Eagle landed Aldrin said, "Contact light! Okay, engine stop. ACA - out of detent." Armstrong acknowledged "Out of detent" and Aldrin continued, "Mode control - both auto. Descent engine command override off. Engine arm - off. 413 is in." Then Armstrong said the famous words, "Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed." Armstrong's abrupt change of call sign from "Eagle" to "Tranquility Base" caused momentary confusion at Mission Control.

After more than 2½ hours on the lunar surface, they had left behind scientific instruments such as a retroreflector array used for the Lunar Laser Ranging Experiment. They also left an American flag, an Apollo 1 mission patch, and a plaque (mounted on the LM Descent Stage ladder) bearing two drawings of Earth (of the Western and Eastern Hemispheres), an inscription, and signatures of the astronauts and Richard Nixon. The inscription read Here Men From The Planet Earth First Set Foot Upon the Moon, July 1969 A.D. We Came in Peace For All Mankind. They also left behind a memorial bag containing a gold replica of an olive branch as a traditional symbol of peace, the Apollo 1 patch, and a silicon message disk.

Aldrin entered Eagle first.While moving in the cabin Aldrin accidentally broke the circuit breaker that armed the main engine for lift off from the moon. There was initial concern this would prevent firing the engine, which would strand them on the moon. Fortunately a felt-tip pen was sufficient to activate the switch. Had this not worked, the Lunar Module circuitry could have been reconfigured to allow firing the ascent engine.

The moon is a cold, dry orb whose surface is studded with craters and strewn with rocks and dust (called regolith). The moon revolves around the Earth in about one month (27 days 8 hours). It rotates around its own axis in the same amount of time. The same side of the moon always faces the Earth; it is in a synchronous rotation with the Earth.

The moon has no atmosphere. On the moon, the sky is always appears dark, even on the bright side (because there is no atmosphere). Also, since sound waves travel through air, the moon is silent; there can be no sound transmission on the moon.


The surface of the moon is scarred by millions of (mostly circular) impact craters, caused by asteroids, comets, and meteorites. There is no atmosphere on the moon to help protect it from bombardment from potential impactors (most objects from space burn up in our atmosphere). Also, there is no erosion (wind or precipitation) and little geologic activity to wear away these craters, so they remain unchanged until another new impact changes it.