List of man-made objects on the moon

The moon with the locations of the successful soft landings

The list of man-made objects on the moon contains most of the man-made objects that have landed or hit the surface of the moon (in the latter case, the objects as such are partly no longer there, since they have been completely destroyed). Smaller objects such as the retroreflectors and the Apollo Lunar Surface Experiment Package are not listed . Several small objects belonging to the Apollo astronauts are also missing, such as the golf balls that were hit by Alan Shepard during the Apollo 14 mission, flags or the statuette Fallen Astronaut , which was left on the moon by the crew of Apollo 15 . By 2012, a total of 748 objects had remained on the moon.

Five rocket upper stages of the Apollo program form the heaviest objects. While over 190 tons were brought to the moon, only 382 kg of lunar rock was brought back to Earth from the Apollo and Luna missions .

The only artificial objects on the moon that have been used since the end of the respective mission are the retroreflectors for the Lunar Laser Ranging Experiment (LLR) from the Apollo program and from Lunochod 2 and, since April 22, 2010, from Lunochod again 1 .

The objects with a position greater than 90 ° east or west are on the back of the moon . These are Ranger 4 , Lunar Orbiter 1 , Lunar Orbiter 2 , Lunar Orbiter 3 , the relay satellite from Kaguya , Longjiang-2 and the Chinese space probe Chang'e-4 as the only soft-landed object .

The objects are numbered in the order they hit or land.

list

object	Land / Space Agency	landing	Mass (kg) 1	position	comment	image
Lunik 2	Soviet Union	September 13, 1959	390	29.1 °  N , 0 °  E Palus Putredinis	First space probe to hit the moon in a targeted manner.
Third rocket stage of the Vostok von Lunik 2	Soviet Union	September 13, 1959	9,100	29.1 °  N , 0 °  E Palus Putredinis	30 minutes after Lunik 2 it also hit above Palus Putredinis, between the craters Archimedes and Autolycus .
Ranger 4	United States ( NASA )	April 26, 1962	331	12.9 °  S , 129.1 °  W	Despite the failure, Ranger 4 was the first US spacecraft to reach the surface of the moon.
Ranger 6	United States ( NASA )	2nd February 1964	381	9.4 °  N , 21.5 °  E Mare Tranquillitatis	The cameras could not be activated immediately before the impact.
Ranger 7	United States ( NASA )	July 31, 1964	366	10.6 °  S , 20.61 °  W Mare Cognitum	The probe transmitted 4,300 images just before impact.
Ranger 8	United States ( NASA )	February 20, 1965	367	2.64 °  N , 24.77 °  O Mare Tranquillitatis	Before the impact, the probe transmitted 7,300 images.
Ranger 9	United States ( NASA )	March 24, 1965	367	12.79 °  S , 2.36 °  W Alphonsus crater	Transmitted 5,800 images prior to impact, which were also shown live on US television.
Luna 5	Soviet Union	May 12, 1965	1,474	1.6 °  S , 25 °  W Mare Nubium	Crashed after the ground station lost control of the main engine.
Luna 7	Soviet Union	October 7, 1965	1,504	9.8 °  N , 47.8 °  W Oceanus procellarum	Crash after the attitude control system failed, so that the ignition of the brake engine failed.
Luna 8	Soviet Union	December 6, 1965	1,550	9.6 °  N , 62 °  W Oceanus procellarum	Started rotating nine seconds after the brake engine fired and hit the moon hard.
Luna 9	Soviet Union	3rd February 1966	1,580	7.13 °  N , 64.37 °  W Oceanus procellarum	The first soft landing on the moon - and thus on a strange celestial body at all - in the history of space travel.
Luna 10	Soviet Union	May 30, 1966	1,600	unknown	Orbiter , played the International on April 3, 1966 . Hit the moon.
Surveyor 1	United States ( NASA )	June 2, 1966	270	2.45 °  S , 43.22 °  W Oceanus procellarum	First soft landing of a US probe on the moon. The probe worked for around six weeks and transmitted 11,200 images.
Surveyor 2	United States ( NASA )	September 22, 1966	292	4 °  S , 11 °  W Mare Insularum	Was destroyed on hard impact.
Lunar Orbiter 1	United States ( NASA )	October 29, 1966	386	6.35 °  N , 160.72 °  O	From the 26th orbit of the moon on August 18, he began to record and transmitted a total of 229 images until the crash.
Luna 11	Soviet Union	October 31, 1966	1,640	unknown	Was an orbiter of the improved E-6LF series and was launched on August 24, 1966.
Luna 13	Soviet Union	December 24, 1966	1,700	18.87 °  N , 63.05 °  W Oceanus procellarum	An instrumentally improved version of Luna 9.
Luna 12	Soviet Union	January 19, 1967	1,670	unknown	The repetition of the mission with Luna 11, started on October 22, 1966, was successful.
Surveyor 3	United States ( NASA )	April 20, 1967	281	2.99 °  S , 23.34 °  W Oceanus procellarum	Parts of the probe were dismantled by the astronauts on the Apollo 12 mission and brought back to Earth.
Surveyor 4	United States ( NASA )	17th July 1967	283	0.45 °  N , 1.39 °  W Sinus Medii	Hit hard three days after it started.
Surveyor 5	United States ( NASA )	September 11, 1967	281	1.42 °  N , 23.2 °  E Mare Tranquillitatis	Submitted 19,000 images, data and analyzed a soil sample by December 17, 1967.
Lunar Orbiter 3	United States ( NASA )	October 10, 1967	386	14.6 °  N , 97.7 °  W	Not considered successful due to some malfunctions.
Lunar Orbiter 2	United States ( NASA )	October 11, 1967	385	2.9 °  N , 119.1 °  E	Transmitted 817 images by October 11, 1967, impact.
Lunar Orbiter 4	United States ( NASA )	October 31, 1967	386	between 22 ° u. 30 ° W	The probe took 546 pictures. As a result, the front of the moon was almost completely covered and about 3/4 of the back was covered.
Surveyor 6	United States ( NASA )	November 10, 1967	282	0.53 °  N , 1.4 °  W Sinus Medii	The probe transmitted 15,000 images and a lot of data. On November 17, 1967, her engine was restarted and the probe then touched down 2.5 m away.
Surveyor 7	United States ( NASA )	January 10, 1968	290	40.86 °  S , 11.47 °  W Tycho crater	The probe had sent 21,000 images by February 21, 1968.
Lunar Orbiter 5	United States ( NASA )	January 31, 1968	386	2.8 °  S , 83.1 °  W	From August 6, 1967, 844 images were transmitted, including the back of the moon, which was not yet fully captured.
Luna 14	Soviet Union	1968	1,670	unknown	Among other things, the probe was used to test the communication system for the manned Soviet lunar program and to carry out other scientific experiments.
Apollo 10 LEM Descent Stage (Snoopy)	United States ( NASA )	unknown	2.211	unknown	Simulation of the moon landing planned for Apollo 11 up to 14 km above the lunar surface. The descent stage remained in lunar orbit on May 22, 1969 and crashed at an unknown time after the mission ended.
Apollo 11 LEM Descent Stage (Eagle)	United States ( NASA )	20th July 1969	2,034	0.67408 °  N , 23.47297 °  O Mare Tranquillitatis	The first manned landing on the moon. First transport of moon rocks to earth.
Luna 15	Soviet Union	July 21, 1969	2,718	17 °  N , 60 °  E Mare Crisium	The first return probes of the E-8-5 series were supposed to bring back lunar rocks before the Americans, but the probe hit the moon hard.
Apollo 11 LEM ascent stage (Eagle)	United States ( NASA )	1969	2.184	unknown	Swiveled into a lunar orbit and docked again with the command module. The stage remained in lunar orbit on July 21, 1969 and later crashed.
Apollo 12 LEM Descent Stage (Intrepid)	United States ( NASA )	19th November 1969	2.211	2.99 °  S , 23.34 °  W Oceanus procellarum	Second manned moon landing. The landing site was chosen so that Surveyor 3 could collect the results of the experiments.
Apollo 12 LEM Ascent Stage (Intrepid)	United States ( NASA )	20th November 1969	2.164	3.94 °  S , 21.2 °  W Mare Insularum	Intrepid hit about 45 miles from the seismometer at about 1.5 km / s. The data of the following moonquake were transmitted directly to the earth by the ALSEP.
Apollo 13 S-IVB (S-IVB-508)	United States ( NASA )	April 14, 1970	13,454	2.75 °  S , 27.86 °  W Oceanus procellarum	The impact corresponded to the explosive effect of a good 10 t TNT. After about 30 seconds, the seismometer set up by Apollo 12 registered the impact. Image of the impact point of the LRO : [1]
Luna 16	Soviet Union	20th September 1970	<5,727	0.68 °  S , 56.3 °  E Mare Fecunditatis	The first Soviet mission to bring moon rocks to earth.
Luna 17	Soviet Union	17th November 1970	4,844	38.2378 °  N , 35.0017 °  W Mare Imbrium	Dropped Lunochod 1, the first remote-controlled rover on another celestial body.
Lunochod 1	Soviet Union	17th November 1970	757	38.3152 °  N , 35.008 °  W	The rover covered 10,540 m, transmitted more than 20,000 images, over 200 panoramas and examined over 500 soil samples. Lunochod 1 was rediscovered by LRO in March 2010 .
Apollo 14 S-IVB (S-IVB-509)	United States ( NASA )	4th February 1971	14,016	8.09 °  S , 26.02 °  W Mare Cognitum	Impact on the lunar surface for seismic experiments.
Apollo 14 LEM Descent Stage (Antares)	United States ( NASA )	5th February 1971	2.144	3.6453 °  S , 17.47136 °  W Fra Mauro crater	Third manned moon landing, the target was the Fra Mauro highlands, which should actually be visited by Apollo 13.
Apollo 14 LEM ascent stage (Antares)	United States ( NASA )	7th February 1971	2.132	3.42 °  S , 19.67 °  W Oceanus procellarum	At the end of his last spacecraft mission , Alan Shepard became the first golfer on the moon.
Apollo 15 S-IVB (S-IVB-510)	United States ( NASA )	July 29, 1971	14,036	1.51 °  S , 17.48 °  W Fra Mauro crater	Impact on the lunar surface for seismic experiments.
Apollo 15 LEM Descent Stage (Falcon)	United States ( NASA )	July 31, 1971	2,809	26.13222 °  N , 3.63386 °  O Hadley Groove	Fourth manned moon landing.
Apollo 15 Lunar Roving Vehicle	United States ( NASA )	2nd August 1971	262	26.08 °  N , 3.66 °  O Hadley Groove	First moon car. When the crew assembled the moon car, David Scott discovered that the front steering was defective.
Apollo 15 LEM ascent stage (Falcon)	United States ( NASA )	3rd August 1971	2.132	26.36 °  N , 0.25 °  E Palus Putredinis	Impact on the lunar surface.
Luna 18	Soviet Union	11th September 1971	5,600	3.57 °  N , 56.5 °  E Mare Fecunditatis	It fell silent on landing and may have tipped over in inaccessible terrain or damaged on landing.
Luna 20	Soviet Union	February 21, 1972	<5,727	3.53 °  N , 56.55 °  E Apollonius highlands	Landed about 1800 m from Luna 18 and collected 55 g soil samples as the drill could only penetrate 15 cm.
Apollo 16 S-IVB (S-IVB-511)	United States ( NASA )	April 19, 1972	14.002	1.921 °  N , 24.623 °  W Mare Insularum	Impact on the lunar surface for seismic experiments.
Apollo 16 LEM Descent Stage (Orion)	United States ( NASA )	April 20, 1972	2,765	8.97301 °  S , 15.50019 °  O Descartes high plateau	Fifth manned landing on the moon. The goal was the Cayley highlands, near the Descartes crater.
Apollo 16 Lunar Roving Vehicle	United States ( NASA )	April 24, 1972	462	8.97 °  S , 15.51 °  E Descartes high plateau	Second moon car, covered 26.6 kilometers.
Apollo 16 LEM ascent stage (Orion)	United States ( NASA )	April 24, 1972	2.138	unknown	Impact on the lunar surface.
Apollo 16 subsatellite	United States ( NASA )	May 29, 1972	42	unknown
Explorer 49 ( RAE-B )	United States ( NASA )	May 29, 1972	328	unknown	Was placed in orbit around the moon and examined radio emissions in a frequency range from 25 kHz to 13.1 MHz.
Luna 19	Soviet Union	September 30, 1972	5,600	unknown	Was a moon orbiter. A lunochod without wheels was brought into lunar orbit and this was equipped with further experiments.
Apollo 17 S-IVB (S-IVB-512)	United States ( NASA )	December 10, 1972	13,960	4.21 °  S , 22.31 °  W	Impact on the lunar surface for seismic experiments.
Apollo 17 LEM Descent Stage (Challenger)	United States ( NASA )	December 11, 1972	2,798	20.1908 °  N , 30.77168 °  O Taurus-Littrow	Sixth and so far last manned moon landing.
Apollo 17 Lunar Roving Vehicle	United States ( NASA )	December 14, 1972	462	20.17 °  N , 30.77 °  W Taurus-Littrow	Third moon car, in contrast to the earlier missions, no defects in the steering.
Apollo 17 LEM ascent stage (Challenger)	United States ( NASA )	December 15, 1972	2,150	19.96 °  N , 30.5 °  E Taurus-Littrow	Impact on the lunar surface.
Luna 21	Soviet Union	15th January 1973	4,727	25.85 °  N , 30.45 °  O Le Monnier crater	Was the lander of Lunochod 2
Lunochod 2	Soviet Union	15th January 1973	840	25.47 °  N , 30.54 °  O Le Monnier crater	Although this mission lasted only five months, the rover covered over 39 km, the record for the longest distance traveled by a vehicle on the moon.
Apollo 15 subsatellite	United States ( NASA )	22nd January 1973	36	unknown
Explorer 35 (IMP-E)	United States ( NASA )	June 24, 1973	104	unknown	A spin stabilized satellite for researching the magnetic field in lunar orbit.
Luna 23	Soviet Union	November 6, 1974	5,600	13 °  N , 62 °  E	Landed successfully, but the drill was damaged on landing, so no soil samples were obtained.
Luna 22	Soviet Union	2nd November 1975	4,000	unknown	Worked in lunar orbit until September 2, 1975.
Luna 24	Soviet Union	18th August 1976	<5,800	12.75 °  N , 62.2 °  E Mare Crisium	The last Luna probe brought 170 g of lunar rock to earth.
Hiten Orbiter (Hagoromo)	Japan ( ISAS )	March 19, 1990	12	unknown	Daughter probe from Hiten.
Hit	Japan ( ISAS )	April 10, 1993	143	34.3 °  S , 55.6 °  E	It was a technology experiment. The probe's scientific mission was limited to measuring the cosmic dust between the earth and the moon using the Munich Dust Counter.
Lunar Prospector	United States ( NASA )	July 31, 1999	126	87.7 °  S , 42.1 °  E Shoemaker crater	The orbiter was equipped with six scientific experiments.
SMART-1	ESA	September 3, 2006	307	34.24 °  S , 46.12 °  W Lacus excellentiae	One of the main objectives of the mission was to test a novel, solar-electric powered ion drive and new navigation and communication technologies.
Chandrayaan-1 Moon Impact Probe	India ( ISRO )	November 14, 2008	29	89.9 °  S , 0 °  E Shackleton crater	A mass spectrometer, video camera and radar altimeter were installed on the MIP. The exterior of the impact probe was painted on the sides with the Indian national colors.
Kaguya Subsatellite (Okina)	Japan ( JAXA )	February 12, 2009	53	28.2 °  N , 159 °  W near miner crater	The relay satellite was used to relay the signal between the orbiter and Earth.
Chang'e-1	People's Republic of China ( CNSA )	March 1, 2009	2,350	1.5 °  S , 52.36 °  E Mare Fecunditatis	Technologies for future missions will be tested and the condition of the lunar surface and the rock will be studied.
Kaguya	Japan ( JAXA )	June 10, 2009	1,720	80.4 °  N , 65.5 °  W Gill crater	Made the first HDTV pictures of the moon, successful mission.
Centaur high school	United States ( NASA )	October 9, 2009 11:31 UTC	1,930	84.675 °  S , 48.725 °  W Cabeus crater	The Centaur fell with a speed of 2.5 km / s unbraked at an angle of about 70 ° on the moon.
LCROSS	United States ( NASA )	October 9, 2009 11:35 UTC	585	84.729 °  S , 49.36 °  W Cabeus crater	Serve about four minutes after the Centaur high school, was able to gain scientific data on its composition while crossing the cloud and transmit it to earth in real time.
GRAIL A ("Ebb")	United States ( NASA )	December 17, 2012 10:28:51 PM UTC	133	75.62 °  N , 26.63 °  W Lunar North Pole Region, between the Philolaus and Mouchez craters	At the scheduled end of the mission, the space probe collided with an unnamed mountain. The site of the impact was named by NASA after the late astronaut Sally Ride .
GRAIL B ("Flow")	United States ( NASA )	December 17, 2012 10:29:21 PM UTC	133	75.62 °  N , 26.63 °  W Lunar North Pole Region, between the Philolaus and Mouchez craters	At the scheduled end of the mission, the space probe collided with an unnamed mountain. The site of the impact was named by NASA after the late astronaut Sally Ride.
Chang'e-3	People's Republic of China ( CNSA )	December 14, 2013 13:11:18 UTC	1,200	44.115 °  N , 19.515 °  W Mare Imbrium	The Chang'e-3 lander had the Yutu rover on board. The first rover on the moon since Lunochod 2 in 1973. The mass of the rover is 140 kg.
LADEE	United States ( NASA )	April 18, 2014 04:30 - 05:22 UTC	383	11.97 °  N , 93.56 °  W Sundman V crater	The mission ended with a planned impact on the eastern edge of Sundman V Crater.
Chang'e-4	People's Republic of China (CNSA)	January 3, 2019 2:26 UTC	1,340	45.5 °  S , 178 °  E From Kármán Crater in the South Pole Aitken Basin	First landing on the back of the moon . The Chang'e-4 lander had the rover Jadehase 2 on board. The mass of the rover is 140 kg.
Beresheet	Israel (SpaceIL)	April 11, 2019 19:23 UTC	585	Mare Serenitatis	First Israeli and first privately financed lunar lander. Crashed during landing.
Longjiang-2 (DSLWP B)	People's Republic of China (CNSA)	July 31, 2019 14:20 UTC	47	facing away from the moon	Test satellite for low-frequency radio astronomy and amateur radio satellite , as expected, crashed after the end of the mission.
Vikram with Pragyan by Chandrayaan-2	India (ISRO)	September 6, 2019 approx. 20:20 UTC	1471	South Pole Region	Moon lander with rover, failed landing
62 missions	Total takeoff mass:		approx. 190 t

¹This is not the mass of the objects on the surface of the moon, but their take-off weight , i.e. the mass including the fuel carried when they take off from Earth.

Picture gallery

• 

  The grid shows the position of man-made objects on the moon. The lines correspond to the longitude and latitude.

• 

  Moon map with some landing sites

• 

  Retroreflector from Apollo 11

• 

  Surveyor 3 on the moon, photographed by Alan Bean

• 

  Eugene Cernan
  on December 11, 1972 with the Lunar Roving Vehicle

See also

• List of artificial objects on other celestial bodies
• List of man-made objects on Mars
• List of man-made objects on Venus
• List of man-made objects on Mercury
• Chronology of the moon missions

swell

• NASA (all English):
  • Lunar Orbiter
  • Surveyor
  • Apollo By The Numbers
• Bernd Leitenberger's website

Individual evidence

1. ^ NASA: Catalog of Manmade Material on the Moon. (PDF) May 7, 2012
2. ^ Spiegel online (boj / dpa): Our astro trash on the moon. 3rd January 2019
3. ↑ http://www.google.com/moon/#lat=0.655754&lon=23.471664&zoom=18&apollo=a11
4. ↑ http://www.google.com/moon/#lat=-3.009785&lon=-23.424206&zoom=15&apollo=a12
5. ↑ http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LRO/multimedia/lroimages/lroc_20090929_apollo14sivb.html
6. ↑ http://www.google.com/moon/#lat=-3.594285&lon=-17.486782&zoom=14&apollo=a14
7. ↑ http://www.google.com/moon/#lat=26.036942&lon=3.633596&zoom=11&apollo=a15
8. ↑ LRO Finds Apollo 16 Booster Rocket Impact Site. NASA, December 3, 2015, accessed December 6, 2015 . 
9. ↑ http://www.google.com/moon/#lat=-8.959269&lon=15.471300&zoom=11&apollo=a16
10. ↑ http://www.google.com/moon/#lat=20.183683&lon=30.727787&zoom=11&apollo=a17
11. ^ Out-of-This-World Records. (JPG) NASA, July 28, 2014, accessed September 30, 2014 . 
12. ↑ JAXA: Hiten Muses-A. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on May 11, 2013 ; accessed on September 30, 2014 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
13. ↑ Gunter's Space Page: Chandrayaan 1
14. ↑ Stephen Clark: Israeli probe crashes in attempt to become first privately-funded moon lander. In: Spaceflight Now. April 11, 2019, accessed April 11, 2019 . 

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