The first artificial object reached the Moon on September 12, 1959: this was Lunik 2, launched by the Soviets, the first man-made machine to leave the Earth's orbit and strike another celestial body. However, it wasn't until 1964 that these voyages began to provide some useful information: on July 28 of that year, the American probe Ranger 7 left Cape Canaveral, in Florida, and during the three-day trip transmitted to Earth no less than 4 316 photographs that showed details two thousand times smaller than what could be seen with Earth-bound telescopes. It crashed into the Sea of Clouds, only about fifteen kilometers from the expected point of impact. The first automatic probes which could land softly on the ground reached the Moon in 1966. Once again the Russians were the first ones, with Lunik 9, on January 31. But it is the American probe, Surveyor 1, that on June 2nd of that same year was able to complete a "soft" landing and send a close-up picture of the ground to Earth: the image of the round foot of the probe solidly resting on the ground confirmed that the lunar suface is dusty, but solid enough to support the weight of a man without swallowing him up: an indispensable premise to the Apollo program that is about to begin. The Americans concentrated on this program and the results were incredible: in three and a half years they were able to put 12 men on the lunar surface, leaving behind six fully-equipped automatic laboratories. Instead, the Russians continued to gain experience with automatic probes, achieving two important objectives: the first, with Lunik 16 and Lunik 20, to place an automatic probe on the Moon that can drill into the ground, collect a rock sample and return with it to Earth; the second, with Lunik 17 and Lunik 21, to place two self-propelled vehicles on our natural satellite, Lunokhod 1 and Lunokhod 2, which controlled from the Earth covered several kilometers while filming the moonscape with a television camera and performing various types of measurements. Today, years after these first three missions, we can say that this group of operations, in addition to being an important testing ground for the various techniques and space technologies, also provided a rather complete description of the Moon, answering many questions about its history.
The first artificial object reached the Moon on September 12, 1959: this was Lunik 2, launched by the Soviets, the first man-made machine to leave the Earth's orbit and strike another celestial body. However, it wasn't until 1964 that these voyages began to provide some useful information: on July 28 of that year, the American probe Ranger 7 left Cape Canaveral, in Florida, and during the three-day trip transmitted to Earth no less than 4 316 photographs that showed details two thousand times smaller than what could be seen with Earth-bound telescopes. It crashed into the Sea of Clouds, only about fifteen kilometers from the expected point of impact. The first automatic probes which could land softly on the ground reached the Moon in 1966. Once again the Russians were the first ones, with Lunik 9, on January 31. But it is the American probe, Surveyor 1, that on June 2nd of that same year was able to complete a "soft" landing and send a close-up picture of the ground to Earth: the image of the round foot of the probe solidly resting on the ground confirmed that the lunar suface is dusty, but solid enough to support the weight of a man without swallowing him up: an indispensable premise to the Apollo program that is about to begin. The Americans concentrated on this program and the results were incredible: in three and a half years they were able to put 12 men on the lunar surface, leaving behind six fully-equipped automatic laboratories. Instead, the Russians continued to gain experience with automatic probes, achieving two important objectives: the first, with Lunik 16 and Lunik 20, to place an automatic probe on the Moon that can drill into the ground, collect a rock sample and return with it to Earth; the second, with Lunik 17 and Lunik 21, to place two self-propelled vehicles on our natural satellite, Lunokhod 1 and Lunokhod 2, which controlled from the Earth covered several kilometers while filming the moonscape with a television camera and performing various types of measurements. Today, years after these first three missions, we can say that this group of operations, in addition to being an important testing ground for the various techniques and space technologies, also provided a rather complete description of the Moon, answering many questions about its history.
