Astromaterials Curation
Astromaterials Curation and Acquisition Office has the responsibility for protecting, preserving, and distributing extraterrestrial samples in support of solar system exploration. These sample collections include lunar rocks and regoliths returned by the Apollo missions....
Enhanced Radar Imagery of Lunar South Pole
NASA has obtained the highest resolution terrain mapping to date of the moon's rugged south polar region. Scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., generated the imagery using data collected with the facility's Goldstone Solar System Radar.
NASA History Office: A History of Apollo Missions:
"Where No Man Has Gone Before: A History of Apollo Lunar Exploration Missions" By W. David Compton. Published as NASA Special Publication-4214 in the NASA History Series. The purpose of this book is only partly to record the engineering and scientific accomplishments of the men and women who made it possible for a human to step away from his home planet for the first time.
Lunar Precursor Robotic Program:
LPRP is to undertake robotic lunar exploration missions that will return data to advance our knowledge of the lunar environment and allow U.S. exploration architecture objectives to be accomplished earlier and with less cost through application of robotic systems.
Lunar Reconnaissance Orbitor
The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) is the first mission in NASA's Vision for Space Exploration, a plan to return to the moon and then to travel to Mars and beyond. LRO will launch in late 2008 with the objectives to finding safe landing sites, locate potential resources, characterize the radiation environment, and demonstrate new technology.
The Scientific Context for Exploration of the Moon
An important new National Research Council study was released in 2007.
We know more about many aspects of the Moon than about any world beyond our own, and yet we have barely begun to solve its countless mysteries. The Moon is, above all, a witness to 4.5 billion years (Ga) of solar system history...
National Space Science Data Center
On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first human being to set foot on the Moon. The first step onto the Lunar surface from the Apollo 11 Lunar Module, the Eagle, fulfilled the promise of President John F. Kennedy that the U.S. would land a man on the Moon before the end of the decade.
The Science Mission Directorate (SMD)
The SMD engages the Nation's science community, sponsors scientific research, and develops and deploys satellites and probes in collaboration with NASA's partners around the world to answer fundamental questions requiring the view from and into space.
Lunar Programs & Projects Office
The Lunar Programs & Projects Office has a sequence of missions intended to meet objectives which enable a successful human return to the Moon in 2015-2020. Each mission will build upon the strategic knowledge, measurements, discoveries and emplaced infrastructure capabilities provided and enabled by prior missions.
Space Life Sciences Directorate (SLSD)
The mission of the SLSD is to be the world's leader in understanding the space frontier and the opportunities, capabilities, and limitations of humans living and working on that frontier. To accomplish our mission, the Directorate manages and implements a broad range of applied and basic scientific research.
International Links
JAXA Selene mission
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency(JAXA) launched "KAGUYA (SELENE)" by the H-IIA Launch Vehicle at 10:31:01 a.m. on September 14, 2007 (JST) from Tanegashima Space Center. The major objectives of the "KAGUYA" mission are to obtain scientific data of the lunar origin and evolution and to develop the technology for the future lunar exploration.
UK Lunar Penetrator Consortium:
This document describes the current objectives and the status of the UK consortium to develop kinetic micro-penetrators for the UK PPARC initiative for a 2013 Lunar Exploration mission