moon

The Moon

Apollo 17 astronaut Harrison Schmitt standing next to boulder at Taurus-Littrow during third EVA (NASA PR AS17-140-21496) ( 226k) URL: http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/photo_gallery/photogallery-moon.html

Abstract:

    Mankind has been fascinated with the Moon for thousands of years. The Moon is our closest neighbor, and is the brightest object in the night sky. Ever since man first observed the Moon, he has been fascinated with its shifting cycles and the great mysteries it held. It was considered a goddess by many ancient civilizations including the Romans and the Egyptians. In the early 1600's when Galileo first turned a telescope to view the moon, he discovered that the moon was mot just a big smooth ball in the sky. Galileo saw mountains and craters on the Moon. This was just the beginning for space exploration, not only on the Moon, but other large bodies in the universe could also be observed much easier. As technology increased so did the human interest. In the late 1950's the Soviet Union sent up the first orbiters to take picture of the Moon. The United States followed, and spent millions of dollars to land successfully and walk on the Moon, four times. Moon exploration has continued after a brief hiatus in the 1980's.
    In 1994, NASA launched into orbit Clementine. Originally the Clementine spacecraft was designed to test "Star Wars" sensors and track missiles. The spacecraft had no instruments on it to gather information about the Moon, so they decided to use Clementine's transmitter to beam radio waves into the dark regions of the South Pole of the Moon, as well as lighted areas. After sweeping a 200 km path across the South Pole, the radar echo of the orbit was altered in ways consistent with the existence of ice on the Moon. On January 7, 1998, Lunar Prospector was launched into orbit by the United States and is now in orbit around the Moon. The spacecraft was designed to map the surface composition of the Moon, determine if there is Polar ice on the Moon, measure the magnetic and gravitational fields, and study out gassing events on the Moon. The mission will last from one year to three, during which many experiments will be conducted to support the finding of Clementine mission.
    The latest finding by the Lunar Prospector, which seem to confirm ice at the Lunar poles, have sparked a new interest in establishing moon bases and colonies on the Moon. In the future many nations are attempting to launch future mission to the Moon, including Japan, United States, and the European Space Agency. One such future plan was dubbed LUNOX by NASA, for "Lunar Oxygen", the idea was to extract oxygen from the lunar soil and establish a moon base. The resources that the Moon has are sure to be as alluring as the gold rush of the 19th century a lot of problems have to be worked out by governments and private interest groups before the resources can be developed and commercialized.

Table of Contents:

I. The Past
    1. Background Information
    2. Origin of the Moon
    3. Ancient History
    4. Exploration

II. The Present
    1. Introduction
    2. Location of the Moon
    3. Clementine
    4. Prospector
    5. Conclusion

III. The Future
    1. Introduction
    2. Manned Station Possibility
    3. Lunar Resources
    4. Future Missions
    5. Conclusion

Conclusion

Phases of the Moon ----What is the Current Phase

Observations

Bibliography

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URL: http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/imagcat/html/mission_page/EM_Apollo_17_page1.html
Southward looking oblique view of Mare Imbrium and Copernicus crater on the Moon. Copernicus crater is seen almost edge-on near the horizon at the center. The crater is 107 km in diameter and is centered at 9.7 N, 20.1 W. In the foreground is Mare Imbrium, peppered with secondary crater chains and elongated craters due to the Copernicus impact. The large crater near the center of the image is the 20 km diameter Pytheas, at 20.5 N, 20.6 W. At the upper edge of the Mare Imbrium are the Montes Carpatus. The distance from the lower edge of the frame to the center of Copernicus is about 400 km. This picture was taken by the metric camera on Apollo 17. (Apollo 17, AS-2444)

Page Created by: Phil, Saf, and Jason

Last modified: 05/23/1998