Exploration of the Moon robot lunar rover to land on the Moon was the Soviet vessel Lunokhod 1 on November 17, 1970, as part of the Lunokhod programme. To date, the last human to stand on the Moon was Eugene Cernan, who as part of the mission Apollo 17, walked on the Moon in December 1972. "See also:" A full list of lunar Apollo astronauts. Moon rock samples were brought back to Earth by three Luna missions (Luna 16, 20, and 24) and the Apollo missions 11 through 17 (except Apollo 13, which aborted its planned lunar landing). From the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s
Back to the Moon Katrina Suttner, the young daughter of one of von Braun's colleagues, is in on a secret involving the mission, and is certain that humans will soon return to the Moon. The novel then skips ahead 30 years. Jack Medaris, the protagonist, is preparing the launch of a privately funded, unmanned mission to the Moon to gather more of the orange soil, which appears to have enormous potential as a source of clean nuclear energy on Earth. Shortly before launch, Medaris' probe is destroyed by unknown terrorists or saboteurs. It also becomes clear that Medaris is driven to go to the