v0.2 - 25-04-2020
Moon landings
Earth's moon is a body that has no atmosphere. Therefore a parachute landing is by definition, impossible. These landings are quite complex as one needs a high amount of control over the rocket engines to perform a safe landing. This can be seen by the motor used on the Apollo Lunar Lander which could be throttled to between 10 and 60% of full thrust. Another moon where landing attempts were to be made is Phobos, one of the Martian moons. Phobos is much smaller than the earth-moon, making landings even more difficult. One could compare a landing on the Martian moons more to an asteroid lander. Landings on these surfaces can be found on separate pages.
The moon landing page has been split into moon landings during the space race and after the space race.
Overview of Lunar Landers
The table below shows the first moon landing attempts starting in 1958. As the moon has no atmosphere all of them used some form of propulsive deceleration if needed. From the table, it can be seen that the first landers used a much simpler impact strategy. This means the kinetic energy upon touchdown is higher, but the capsule is designed to handle this. This overview only contains missions that attempted a lunar landing and not failed missions that never started the landing operation.
Mission | Nationality | Year | Mission type | Status |
Luna 1 | Soviet Union | 1959 | Impactor | Failure - Did not impact, made the first fly by of the moon |
Luna 2 | Soviet Union | 1959 | Impactor | Succesfull |
Ranger 3 | USA | 1962 | Impactor | Failure - Guidance problem |
Ranger 4 | USA | 1962 | Impactor | Failure - Did not deploy solar panels |
Ranger 5 | USA | 1962 | Impactor | Failure - Solar panels shut down by accident |
Ranger 6 | USA | 1964 | Impactor | Succesfull impact, did not return science data |
Ranger 7 | USA | 1964 | Impactor | Succesfull |
Ranger 8 | USA | 1964 | Impactor | Succesfull |
Ranger 9 | USA | 1965 | Impactor | Succesfull |
Luna 5 | Soviet Union | 1965 | Lander | Failure - Hard landing |
Luna 6 | Soviet Union | 1965 | Lander | Failure - Guidance error, became a fly by |
Luna 7 | Soviet Union | 1965 | Lander | Failure - Hard landing |
Luna 8 | Soviet Union | 1965 | Lander | Failure - Landing system failure |
Luna 9 | Soviet Union | 1966 | Lander | Succesfull |
Surveyor 1 | USA | 1966 | Lander | Succesfull |
Surveyor 2 | USA | 1966 | Lander | Failure - Lost in transit |
Luna 13 | Soviet Union | 1966 | Lander | Succesfull |
Surveyor 3 | USA | 1967 | Lander | Succesfull |
Surveyor 4 | USA | 1967 | Lander | Failure - Loss of contact |
Surveyor 5 | USA | 1967 | Lander | Succesfull |
Surveyor 6 | USA | 1967 | Lander | Succesfull |
Surveyor 7 | USA | 1968 | Lander | Succesfull |
Zond 4 | Soviet Union | 1968 | Lunar loop flight | Partial success |
Zond 5 | Soviet Union | 1968 | Lunar loop flight | Success - Rough landing |
Zond 6 | Soviet Union | 1968 | Lunar loop flight | Partial success |
Zond 7 | Soviet Union | 1969 | Lunar loop flight | Success |
Luna 15 | Soviet Union | 1969 | Lander | Failure - Landing |
Apollo 11 | USA | 1969 | Lander - Crewed | Success - First human landing on the moon |
Apollo 12 | USA | 1969 | Lander - Crewed | Success |
Zond 8 | Soviet Union | 1970 | Lunar Loop flight | Success |
Luna 16 | Soviet Union | 1970 | Sample return | Success |
Luna 17 | Soviet Union | 1970 | Lander - Rover | Success - First rover |
Luna 18 | Soviet Union | 1970 | Sample return | Failure - Landing |
Apollo 14 | USA | 1971 | Lander - Crewed | Success |
Apollo 15 | USA | 1971 | Lander - Crewed | Success |
Apollo 16 | USA | 1972 | Lander - Crewed | Success |
Luna 20 | Soviet Union | 1972 | Sample return | Success |
Luna 21 | Soviet Union | 1972 | Lander - Rover | Success |
Apollo 17 | USA | 1972 | Lander - Crewed | Success |
Luna 23 | Soviet Union | 1974 | Sample return | Failure |
Luna 24 | Soviet Union | 1976 | Sample return | Success |
Moon Impact Probe | ISRO | 2008 | Impactor | Success |
Chang'e 3 + Yuto | China | 2013 | Lander - Rover | Success |
Chang'e 4 + Yutu-2 | China | 2019 | Lander - Rover | Success |
Beresheet | Israel | 2019 | Lander | Failure - Landing |
Vikram lander | India | 2019 | Lander | Failure - Landing |
Chang'e 5 | China | 2020 | Sample return | Success |
OMOTENASHI | Japan | 2022 | Lander | Failed after separation with SLS |
Hakuto-R M1 | ISpace | 2022 | Lander | Failure - Landing |
Luna 25 | Roscosmos | 2023 | Lander | Failure |
Chandrayaan 3 | ISRO | 2023 | Lander | Success |
SLIM | JAXA | 2023 | Lander | Success - Partial |
Peregrine | USA - Astrobotic Technology | 2024 | Lander | Failed - in Transit |
Nova-C Odysseus | USA - Intitive Machines | 2024 | Lander | Success - Partial |
v0.2 - 25-04-2020
