The Moon has captured the attention of humankind for as long as we have gazed upon the stars. Reflecting the Sun’s light each dark night, its presence reminds us of worlds beyond our own. But astronauts have done much more than simply look upon it. On 20 July 1969 the first humans landed on the Moon. As part of a series of missions dubbed the Apollo program, NASA astronauts returned to Earth with more knowledge of the rocky orb than our species had ever acquired before. But to think that a handful of missions to this world would make us experts of this foreign terrain would be a mistake. We have only explored a tiny portion of the Moon, and there is still so much more to learn.
It’s been half a century since we last visited the Moon, and NASA has made clear its plans
