This story appears in the July 2019 issue of National Geographic magazine.
National Geographic has always been at the forefront of lunar mapping. As the Apollo program closed in on its goal, cartographers relied on photos from 1966 and 1967 orbiter missions to create the February 1969 hand-painted map—considered the best reference at the time. Our newest version uses a mosaic of some 15,000 images and detailed height measurements from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, which has surveyed the entire surface. The moon is peppered with probes and landers, the legacy of human efforts to explore it.
Read more about past—and future—travels to the moon in our July cover story “50 years after Apollo 11, a new moon race is on.”
The prize of the space race—landing humans on the moon and returning them home safely—fueled the rivalry between the U.S. and Soviet Union in the 1960s. Now robotic missions are determining whether the moon could be a stepping-stone for human ventures deeper into the solar system.
1960
1965
Apollo 8
Apollo 10, 11, 12
1970
Apollo 13
Apollo 14, 15
Apollo 16, 17
1975
Mission type
1980
1985
1990
Country or agency
United States (U.S.)
Soviet Union (U.S.S.R.)/Russia
China
Japan
European Space Agency (ESA)
India
Israel
South Korea
1995
2000
2005
2010
2015
Planned missions
2020
Near side
United States Exploration
North Pole
60°
60°
30°
30°
0°
0°
30°
30°
60°
60°
800 mi
800 km
South Pole
Surveyor 7
1/10/1968
Ranger 6
2/2/1964
Ranger 7
7/31/1964
Apollo 11
Tranquility Base
7/20/1969
Ranger 8
2/20/1965
Apollo 12
11/19/1969
Ranger 9
3/24/1965
Apollo 14
2/5/1971
Surveyor 1
6/2/1966
Apollo 15
7/30/1971
Surveyor 2
9/23/1966
Apollo 16
4/21/1972
Apollo 17
12/11/1972
Surveyor 3
4/20/1967
Lunar Prospector
7/31/1999
Surveyor 4
7/17/1967
LCROSS, Centaur
Impactor
10/9/2009
Surveyor 5
9/11/1967
GRAIL A (Ebb)
GRAIL B (Flow)
12/17/2012
Surveyor 6
11/10/1967
Soviet Union (U.S.S.R.)/Russia Exploration
North Pole
60°
60°
30°
30°
0°
0°
30°
30°
60°
60°
800 mi
South Pole
800 km
Luna 2
9/14/1959
Luna 16
9/20/1970
Luna 5
5/12/1965
Luna 17
11/17/1970
Luna 7
10/7/1965
Luna 18
9/11/1971
Luna 8
12/6/1965
Luna 20
2/21/1972
Luna 21
1/15/1973
Luna 9
2/3/1966
Luna 13
12/24/1966
Luna 23
11/6/1974
Luna 24
8/18/1976
Luna 15
7/21/1969
Other Exploration
North Pole
60°
60°
30°
30°
0°
0°
30°
30°
60°
60°
800 mi
South Pole
800 km
China
Japan
Hiten
4/10/1993
Chang’e 3
12/14/2013
European Space
Agency (ESA)
SELENE/Kaguya
6/10/2009
SMART-1
9/3/2006
India
Chandrayaan-1
Moon Impact
Probe
11/14/2008
Israel
Beresheet
4/11/2019
Far side
North Pole
60°
60°
30°
30°
0°
0°
30°
30°
60°
60°
800 mi
South Pole
800 km
United States
Ranger 4
4/26/1962
Lunar Orbiter 3
10/9/1967
Lunar Orbiter 1
10/29/1966
Lunar Orbiter 5
1/31/1968
LADEE
4/18/2014
Lunar Orbiter 2
10/11/1967
Japan
China
Chang’e 4
1/3/2019
SELENE/Okina
2/12/2009
Familiar Face
With the moon gravitationally locked, the near side always faces the Earth. Its circular plains—called maria, from Latin for seas—formed when lava filled impact basins.
Lunar topography (in feet)
30,000
*As the moon has no sea level, zero is set where a sphere with a 1,079-mile radius would intersect the surface.
15,000
0*
-15,000
-30,000
Highest point
35,387 ft
10,786 m
Highest point
35,387 ft
10,786 m
Lowest point
-30,112 ft
-9,178 m
Lowest point
-30,112 ft
-9,178 m
Rugged Reverse
The far side is more varied and pocked with craters than the flatter near side. The moon’s features are named for astronauts, scientists, and scholars.
10
11
14
16
12
13
15
17
Apollo missions
8
Mission type
Landing or
impactor
Flyby, orbiter,
or test vehicle
Mission failure
Planned missions
The prize of the space race—landing humans on the moon and returning them home safely—fueled the rivalry between the U.S. and Soviet Union in the 1960s. Now robotic missions are determining whether the moon could be a stepping-stone for human ventures deeper into the solar system.
Country or agency
Lunar missions
Near side
North Pole
Pascal
60°
60°
30°
30°
Cassini
MARE
TRANQUILLITATIS
MARE
VAPORUM
0°
0°
Ptolemaeus
Arzachel
Purbach
30°
30°
Cuvier
400 mi
400 km
60°
60°
South Pole
GLOSSARY (Singular, plural)
Catena, catenae: chain of craters | Dorsum, dorsa: ridge | Lacus, lacūs: small plain
Mare, maria: broad, flat plain | Mons, montes: mountain | Palus, paludes: small plain
Rupes, rupēs: steep slope | Sinus, sinūs: small plain | Vallis, valles: valley
All other named features are craters.
Far side
Rozhdestvenskiy
Plaskett
Shayn
Larmor
Dante
Anderson
Sharonov
Zhukovskiy
Krasovskiy
Hertzsprung
Abul Wáfa
Coriolis
Vavilov
Vening
Meinesz
Bečvář
Korolev
Pannekoek
Daedalus
Amici
Racah
Nassau
Orlov
Birkeland
Leibnitz
Finsen
400 mi
400 km
Rugged Reverse
Familiar Face
With the moon gravitationally locked, the near side always faces the Earth. Its circular plains—called maria, from Latin for seas—formed when lava filled impact basins.
The far side is more varied and pocked with craters than the flatter near side. The moon’s features are named for astronauts, scientists, and scholars.
Lunar topography (in feet)
Highest point
35,387 ft
10,786 m
30,000
15,000
0*
-15,000
Lowest point
-30,112 ft
-9,178 m
-30,000
*As the moon has no sea level, zero is set where a sphere with a 1,079-mile radius would intersect the surface.
Matthew W. Chwastyk, NGM Staff
Sources: NASA; Gazetteer of planetary nomenclature, Planetary Geomatics Group, USGS; NASA/JPL; University of Arizona; Johns Hopkins university applied physics laboratory; Carnegie institution of Washington; LISA GADDIS, USGS Astrogeology Science Center