Do you know which countries in the world have successfully reached the moon? Not only the United States has successfully landed on the moon, but even India has achieved the goal of reaching the moon. Today we will take an inventory of several countries in the world that have successfully reached the moon.
Lunar perspective
1st place: Soviet Union
The USSR was the first country in the world to successfully reach the moon. On September 12, 1959, the Soviet Union launched the "Luna II" probe, which landed the moon two days later, becoming the first messenger to reach the moon in human history. It is also the world's first spacecraft to make a hard landing on the lunar surface.
Soviet lunar probe
Due to the impact of Luna II on its arrival on the moon, his radio communication equipment stopped working. Nevertheless, the exploration of Luna 2 has also given humans a new understanding of the moon. For example, the moon has no magnetic field, and there are no radiation belts like the "Van Allen belt" around the moon. And this feat also opened the curtain on human exploration and landing on the moon.
Later, on January 31, 1966, the Soviet Union launched Luna Nine, which became the world's first lunar soft landing probe. But the Soviet Union did not realize the dream of a manned lunar landing, like the United States.
Second place: United States
The United States was the first country in the world to successfully put astronauts on the moon. Since the late fifties, the United States has begun the lunar exploration project, but it has not been successful. Later, the United States began to organize a manned lunar landing program, known as the "Apollo program". It was not until January 30, 1964, that the US launch of Prowler Six achieved a hard landing of human probes on the moon. This hard landing also brought great confidence to the US lunar exploration. Subsequently, on May 30, 1966, Seeker 1 successfully orbited the moon and achieved a soft landing on the moon.
Apollo spacecraft
The following year, in 1967, the "Apollo XI" spacecraft carried three astronauts to the moon, of which Armstrong and Aldrin successfully landed on the moon, realizing the ideal of human beings on the moon for the first time. Since then, the United States has launched the Apollo spacecraft six times, five of which have been successful. The last moon landing was on December 14, 1972. However, although the United States has accomplished such a remarkable human feat, the details of the human moon landing have many doubts, and some people even call the American moon landing a movie hoax directed and acted.
Armstrong landed on the moon
However, today, more than forty years later, the United States has restarted its lunar landing program, known as the "Artemis program", to return to the moon in 2040.
Humans left their first footprints on the moon
Just on November 16, 2022, the United States successfully launched a lunar landing rocket called "Project Artemis".
3rd place: Japan
Japan is the third country in the world to smash a human craft into the moon. Why is it smashed into the moon, not hard and soft landings?
Simulation of the moment the probe smashes into the moon
Let's start with Japan's lunar exploration program. In 1991, Japan officially launched the Luna A program, when they launched a lunar exploration satellite called "Flying Sky". The main purpose of this satellite is to verify the precise determination and control of spacecraft orbits and to test efficient data transmission technologies. To put it bluntly, Japan wants to launch a satellite that can orbit the moon. However, because Japan did not have satellite recovery technology at that time, after the Flying Sky completed its mission, it broke away from orbit around the moon on April 10, 1993 and smashed directly into the Furnerus lunar crater on the lunar surface.
Furnerius lunar crater
However, in 2007, Japan resumed a lunar exploration program, and on September 14, 2007, it launched a lunar satellite called "Moon Goddess" to make a comprehensive observation of the moon. Similarly, after completing the mission, although Japan did not achieve the goal of directly reaching the moon, the satellites of the two lunar exploration programs also reached the lunar surface through impact, which is considered to be the country that successfully reached the moon.
Fourth place: European Space Agency
Europe was the fourth region to successfully reach the moon. On 27 September 2003, the SMART-1 lunar probe, launched by the European Space Agency, hit the Moon on 3 September 2006 after completing its mission. The successful arrival on the moon became the first lunar exploration activity since mankind entered the 21st century.
European Aviation Agency
Europe's lunar exploration program actually began preparations as early as 1994, when the European Space Agency proposed a detailed plan to return to the moon and establish a lunar base. Although the European space agency has not made another lunar exploration in recent years, they plan to complete the lunar exploration in four stages by 2020, and intend to send astronauts to the moon in 2021. The construction of a permanent lunar base will be completed around 2025 and mining on the moon will begin. Now let's look at the plan at that time and slap in the face!!
5th place: China
Chang'e-1, launched on October 24, 2007, successfully completed Chinese first orbital exploration of the moon. After successfully completing the mission, it hit the Moon on March 1, 2009. In fact, as early as 2004, the mainland officially launched the lunar exploration project and named it the "Chang'e Project", which formulated a four-stage mission.
- The mission of the first phase of the lunar exploration project: is to realize the exploration around the moon, and the Chang'e-1 satellite successfully completed the exploration around the moon and reached the lunar surface.
Chang'e X
- The second phase of the lunar exploration project is to realize the soft landing of the lunar surface and automatic patrol survey. Chang'e-2 was successfully launched on October 1, 2010, and carried out a number of technical verifications, making full preparations for the "Chang'e-3" lunar landing.
On December 2, 2013, the probe of Chang'e-3 was launched. The "Jade Rabbit" lunar rover not only broke through the soft landing of the moon, but also patrolled the moon at a speed of 200 meters per hour and a rhythm of about seven meters per "step", and carried out deep exploration of the lunar surface, obtaining a large amount of engineering and scientific data for the continent.
On December 8, 2018, Chang'e-4 was successfully launched and achieved the first soft landing and patrol survey on the far side of the moon. The first probe to land on the far side of the moon is significant and far-reaching.
- The task of the third phase of the lunar exploration project is to realize unmanned sampling return.
On November 24, 2020, the Long March 5 Yao-5 carrier rocket carrying the Chang'e-5 probe was successfully launched and launched into a predetermined orbit. On December 1, Chang'e-5 landed in the lunar frontal pre-selected landing zone and sampled the moon. In the early morning of December 17, the Chang'e-5 returner landed on Earth with lunar samples, realizing China's first unmanned lunar sampling return. The three phases of the mainland's lunar exploration project have all been completed perfectly.
Now that the fourth phase of the lunar exploration project has been fully launched, we look forward to the success of the mainland lunar exploration project and are proud of the mainland's aerospace scientists.
6th place: India
India is the sixth country in the world to reach the moon. On October 22, 2008, India successfully launched the Chandrayaan-1 lunar probe and achieved a flight around the moon. During the two-year flight around the moon, the geological structure and mineral resources of the moon were investigated, but in the end it lost contact with the ground and crashed on the lunar surface.
The first time he lost contact
Subsequently, India began a new round of lunar exploration and successfully launched the Chandrayaan-2 lunar probe on July 22, 2019. This time India aims to orbit the moon and land at the south pole of the moon, and collect data on crystals, rocks and soil. Unfortunately, on September 7, when Chandrayaan-2 intended to make a soft landing on the moon, it also lost contact with the ground when it was 2.1 kilometers away from the moon. The Indians can be said to have planted their heads twice in the missing area.
The second loss of contact
Although both missions failed, India plans to launch a third lunar mission in June next year. Chandrayaan-3 intends to challenge a soft landing again to see what more India can do.
7th place: Israel
Israel is the seventh country in the world to reach the moon, but Israel did not arrive on the moon artificially, but fell on it. In the early morning of April 12, 2019, the Genesis lunar probe fell to the lunar surface due to a main engine failure. However, Israel's lunar probe was not led by the Israeli state, but was raised and promoted by private donations for the research and development of the Israeli space company. And the Falcon 9 carrier rocket used in the launch was provided by the American company SpaceX.
Although the launch process went smoothly, when preparing to land on the moon, there was a problem with the main engine, which caused the probe to fall directly to the lunar surface.
However, the failure of this lunar exploration has not made Israel lose confidence, and they are currently officially launching the "Genesis II" lunar landing program in 2020 and announcing another attempt to go to the moon in four years. With less than 1 year to go, it is estimated that the plan is also stillborn.
These are the seven countries in the world that have successfully reached the moon so far. Which country do you think will be to achieve the moon again?