NASA plans to send people back to the Moon as part of its Artemis space programme, which was introduced in 2017. By 2025, a sustainable presence on Earth and other planets is to be established. The programme also aims to send a woman to the moon for the first time, and Jessica Meir may be that woman.
Even if you were not present for the historic first Moon landing on July 20, 1969, you have probably seen film of it. Buzz Aldrin assisted astronaut Neil Armstrong in erecting an American flag on the lunar surface, and Armstrong famously said, “That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.” Did they not also travel on a golf cart? Or did they make some golf shots? Actually, on the Apollo 14 mission, Alan Shepard was holding a golf club. It wasn’t a golf cart, either. A lunar rover was utilised for the first time by David Scott and James Irwin during the Apollo 15 mission; it was a later invention.
How Many people Have Visited the Moon?
You can be excused for not remembering all the details considering that Americans lost interest in Moon landings in the following decades. You might be curious about the total number of missions and visitors to the Moon. 24 astronauts (all Americans) visited the Moon during the nine Apollo missions, and 12 of them made it to the Moon’s surface. I’ll give you a brief history now.
John F. Kennedy declared in 1961 that the United States would send the first man to the Moon before the end of the decade, following the Soviet Union’s launch of Yuri Gagarin into orbit around the Earth. Following this, NASA launched a series of test missions, beginning with Mercury (six one-man spaceflights, 1961–1963) to understand how humans function in space, followed by Gemini (two unmanned and ten two-man spaceflights, 1964–66), which helped develop methods for later lunar landings, and concluding with the Apollo programme (196–1962). Apollo started off with several crewless orbital missions. The program’s first crewed trip, Apollo 7, orbited the planet 163 times in 1968 to test the hardware.
The first crewed mission to complete a lunar orbit and safely return to Earth was Apollo 8 (December 21–27, 1968). The first three persons to travel to the Moon were its three-person crew, William Anders, Frank Borman, and Jim Lovell, however they did not set foot on the lunar surface. They were followed by Thomas Stafford, John W. Young, and Eugene Cernan, the three astronauts who served on Apollo 10 (May 18–26, 1969), which was seen as a practise run for the lunar landing. Young stayed aboard the Command Module as Cernan and Stafford manoeuvred the Lunar Module close to the Moon’s surface, setting the precedent for most following Apollo missions.
How Many people Have Visited the Moon?
Neil Armstrong became the first person to set foot on the Moon during Apollo 11’s initial lunar landing. Buzz Aldrin, the second person to set foot on the Moon, immediately followed him, with Michael Collins staying in the Command Module orbiting the Moon. The eighth person to reach Earth’s nearest neighbour was Collins. Following Apollo 11, Pete Conrad and Alan Bean spent nearly 32 hours on the lunar surface while Richard F. Gordon commanded the Command Module in lunar orbit. Apollo 12 (November 14–24, 1969) followed shortly after.
Apollo 13 (April 11–17, 1970) was supposed to be a normal mission to the Moon, but preparations to land were quickly abandoned after an oxygen tank explosion two days after launch. However, the spacecraft required to orbit the Moon in order to return to Earth. Jim Lovell, Fred Haise, and Jack Swigert, the three crew members, shut down the Command Module to save energy and moved to the Lunar Module to act as a makeshift lifeboat. With minimal heat, lots of carbon dioxide, and insufficient food and water, they were in lunar orbit for over four days.
Persons to Walk on a Moon
It was a little less terrifying to watch Apollo 14. As the fifth person to walk on the Moon and an ardent golfer, Alan Shepard, who had been the first American astronaut to journey to space aboard Freedom 7 in 1961, took swings at a few golf balls. While Stuart A. Roosa orbited in the Command Module and became the 17th man to reach the Moon, Edgar Mitchell joined him as the sixth person to walk on the Moon. While Alfred Worden orbited the Moon in the Command Module during Apollo 15 (July 26–August 7, 1971), astronauts David Scott and James B. Irwin spent nearly three days on the Moon and were the first to operate the lunar rover, an electrically propelled wheeled vehicle.
Along with Charles M. Duke, Jr., John W. Young, who had already visited the Moon on Apollo 10, had the chance to walk on it during Apollo 16 (April 16–27, 1972). The two astronauts became the ninth and tenth to set foot on the moon. Thomas K. Mattingly piloted the Command Module and became the 21st person to visit the Moon after being pulled from Apollo 13 due to exposure to measles.
The final crewed mission to the Moon was Apollo 17 (December 7–19, 1972). Harrison Schmitt, the first lunar professional geologist, and Eugene Cernan, an Apollo 10 astronaut, spent more than 22 hours walking on the moon’s surface. They gathered rocks and other objects totaling more than 249 pounds (115 kg). Ron Evans, who piloted the Command Module, became the 24th man to reach the Moon, and they were the 11th and 12th astronauts to set foot on the Moon.
So this is all about How Many people Have Visited the Moon.
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