Moon - Spacecraft

This list represents only the spacecraft relevant to holdings in the CEPS RPIF collection. This is not a complete list of spacecraft missions to the Moon.

The Ranger spacecraft were designed to obtain high resolution photographs of the Moon to plan for future Surveyor and Apollo missions.

: The Lunar Orbiter program was implemented to obtain coverage of the Lunar surface to determine possible landing sites for the Surveyor missions and the Apollo manned missions.

: The Surveyor project successfully soft-landed five spacecraft on the Moon demonstrating the feasibility of Lunar surface landings and obtained scientific and technical information needed for the Apollo manned landing program.

: The Apollo manned missions consisted of 3 different "series". The "G" series which included Apollo 8 and 10 orbited the Moon. Apollo 11,12, and 14, designated the "H" series, each landed two astronauts on the Moon while one remained in orbit. Surface experiments were performed but mobility of the astronauts was limited. The "J" series missions, Apollo 15,16 and 17, were similar to the "H" series missions but carried more equipment including: the Lunar Roving Vehicle which extended the astronauts' range of activity; the Panoramic camera which was mounted on the orbiting spacecraft and provided greater aerial coverage and obtained high resolution photographs for given areas; and the Metric or Mapping Camera System also mounted on the orbiting spacecraft, which provided photographs of high geometric precision.

: The Galileo spacecraft was designed to study Jupiter's atmosphere, satellites and surrounding magnetosphere. It began its probe in December 1995. Because it requires a Venus-Earth-Earth gravity assist, the spacecraft was able to make useful scientific observations of these planets (and the Earth's Moon) and exercise its scientific capabilities on its long journey to Jupiter. Galileo also flew close to the asteroid belt providing close-up observations of asteroids Gaspra and Ida. More about Galileo.

CLEMENTINE: The Clementine spacecraft was launched on January 25, 1994. Clementine orbited the moon from February 6 to May 5, collecting more image data than all of the Apollo missions combined and providing the first detailed imagery of the Lunar south pole. A planned flyby of the near-Earth asteroid 1620 Geographos was cancelled. The mission, sponsored by the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization, was initially conceived to test advanced, lightweight technology for ballistic-missile defense applications.

RPIF Moon