The Cosmos

In this article, Michael Schirber writes on the new lunar exploration projects on the horizon, 50 years after the Apollo mission:

“The Apollo 11 mission is remembered primarily as a technological feat—epitomized by a first footprint in lunar soil—but it was also a scientific achievement. When Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin stepped out of the Eagle Lander on July 20, 1969, they installed several small measuring devices including a seismometer, a solar wind particle collector, and an array of reflectors meant to bounce laser pulses back to Earth. These instruments—and others brought by subsequent Apollo missions—remained on the Moon long after the humans left. They provided a number of key results, such as observing the first moonquakes and measuring the makeup of the lunar interior. “The Apollo scientific legacy has been enormous and underpins much of our understanding of the terrestrial planets,” says planetary scientist Ian Crawford from the University of London…”

Read more here.