The success of the Apollo 11 mission in putting men on the moon and bringing them back safely with samples of lunar material marks the beginning of what promises to be a period of fruitful exploration of the moon by men and machines. The objective will be to answer a large number of questions about the origin and evolution of the moon, its geology, its chemical and physical structure and what light its history can shed on the history of other bodies in the solar system. Our purpose in this article is to discuss the major questions the coming manned expeditions to the moon will be taking up and to describe the techniques likely to be employed on such missions.
In an astronomical sense the moon is usually considered to be a satellite of the earth. From the viewpoint of planetary processes, however, the moon can be regarded as the smallest of the "terrestrial" planets (the others being the earth, Mars, Venus and Mercury). Because its distance from the sun is about equal to that of the earth, the moon is subject to external influences similar to those affecting the earth. The moon's smaller size, however, implies a history quite different from the earth's.
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