LUN-01
Lunar Surface
Craters + Highlands
The Moon's surface contains ancient impact craters, mountains, valleys, plains and enormous impact basins.
Lunar File 002
MOON
Earth's companion.
An ancient world.
Our nearest frontier.
Explore the Moon's violent geological history, strange environment and continuing role in humanity's return to deep space.
EARTH-MOON SYSTEM
NATURAL SATELLITE
VISUAL ARCHIVE
LUNA / ORBITAL VIEW
Lunar observation
DIAMETER
3,474 km
About 27% of Earth's diameter
AVERAGE DISTANCE
384,400 km
Approximate distance from Earth
SURFACE GRAVITY
1.62 m/s²
About 16.5% of Earth's gravity
ORBITAL PERIOD
27.3 DAYS
Sidereal orbital period
LUNAR SYSTEMS
A silent world
shaped by impacts.
The Moon preserves an extraordinary geological record. Its surface has been shaped by impacts, ancient volcanism and billions of years of exposure to space.
Lunar systems overview
LUN-02
Extreme Temperatures
-173°C → +127°C
Without a substantial atmosphere to distribute heat, lunar surface temperatures can change dramatically between day and night.
LUN-03
Synchronous Rotation
Same Face
The Moon rotates once on its axis in roughly the same time it takes to orbit Earth, so we generally see the same hemisphere.
LUN-04
Ancient Record
4.5 B Years
With little atmosphere and no active weather system like Earth's, the lunar surface preserves evidence of ancient impacts.
VIEW 01
Moon in Space
VIEW 02
Lunar Surface
VIEW 03
Impact History
LUNAR KNOWLEDGE
Did you know?
Our closest celestial neighbor contains some of the strangest environments humans have ever explored.
01
The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite
It is the largest natural satellite relative to the size of its host planet in the Solar System.
02
There is no ordinary weather
The Moon has an extremely thin exosphere, so there are no Earth-like winds, clouds or rain shaping its surface.
03
Footprints can last a very long time
With virtually no wind or rain to erase them, marks left by astronauts can remain preserved on the lunar surface.
04
The Moon creates ocean tides
The gravitational pull of the Moon is one of the main drivers of Earth's ocean tides.
05
The Moon is slowly moving away
The average distance between Earth and the Moon increases by roughly a few centimeters each year.
06
The far side is not the dark side
The far side of the Moon receives sunlight too. It simply faces away from Earth because of synchronous rotation.
LUNAR GEOLOGY
An ancient surface
SURFACE ARCHITECTURE
Read the Moon
like a geological archive.
Because the Moon has almost no atmosphere and no Earth-like rain or wind, its surface preserves evidence of events that happened billions of years ago.
01
HIGHLANDS
LUNAR REGIONBright, rugged regions dominated by heavily cratered terrain and ancient lunar crust.
02
MARIA
LUNAR REGIONLarge dark plains formed when ancient volcanic activity filled enormous impact basins with basaltic lava.
03
CRATERS
LUNAR REGIONImpact structures created when asteroids and other objects collided with the lunar surface.
04
POLAR REGIONS
LUNAR REGIONAreas near the lunar poles contain permanently shadowed locations that are important targets for exploration.
HUMAN EXPLORATION
The Moon became
humanity's first frontier.
Robotic missions first revealed the lunar environment. Later, human missions demonstrated that people could travel to another world, work there and return safely.
Robotic exploration
Lunar mapping
Sample collection
Future surface missions
EXPLORATION STATUS
● ACTIVE ERA
LUNAR FRONTIER
Return to the Moon
LUNAR EXPLORATION
Our journey to the Moon
More than six decades of robotic and human exploration have transformed the Moon from a distant object into a destination.
1959
First Lunar Flyby
Luna 1 became the first spacecraft to escape Earth's gravity and pass near the Moon.
1966
First Soft Landing
Luna 9 achieved the first successful soft landing on the lunar surface.
1969
First Humans on the Moon
Apollo 11 landed astronauts on the lunar surface, marking a historic moment in human exploration.
1972
Apollo 17
The final Apollo lunar landing brought astronauts to the Moon's surface in December 1972.
TODAY
Return to the Moon
New robotic and crewed lunar programs are expanding scientific exploration and preparing for longer-term activity.
OUR NEAREST WORLD
Close enough to reach.
Strange enough to explore.
The Moon is more than a destination from Earth's past. It may become one of the most important stepping stones toward humanity's future in space.
CONTINUE EXPLORING
The next worlds are waiting.
Continue through the SMCC exploration network and travel farther from Earth.