Lastyear,wemarked50yearssincehumansfirstwalkedonthe moon. Thatwasalongtimeago.Yet,we’restillexploringspacetoday.What’soutthere?We’vesentlotsofunmannedspacecrafttofind out. 


Arecentmissionwenttoadifferentpartofthemoon.AsthemoongoesaroundEarth,thesamesidealwaysfacesEarth.Thisnearsideisthepartwehavealways visited.


Then,in2019.Chinalandedacraftonthefarsideofthemoon.Itlandedinahugecrater.Aroundthecraterwererocksfrombelowthemoon’ssurface.Chinawillstudy them.

AviewofEarthfromthesurfaceofthe moon

Alllandings—mannedorunmanned—happenedonthenearsideofthemoon.AnunmannedspacecraftfromChinajustlandedonthefar side.

formerUSSR
UnitedStates
mannedApollomissions
China

Measuring'Marsquakes'

Themoonislarge,butit’snotaplanet. Planetsarelarge,round,andorbit,orgoaround,thesun.Ourmoondoesn’torbitthesun.ItorbitsEarth.Earthisaplanet.Marsis, too.

In2018,theUnitedStates’NationalAeronauticsandSpaceAdministration(NASA)landedaspacecraftonMars.Itdetectedthefirst“earthquakes,”or“marsquakes,”everobservedonthe planet.

Thisartist’srenderingshowsaspacecrafttestingfor Marsquakes.

AssessingAsteroids

BeyondMarsarelotsofsmall,irregularobjectsthatgoaroundthesun.Theseare asteroids.Longago,objectslikeasteroidscametogethertobuildrockyplanetslikeEarthandMars.Asteroidsmaycontainvaluable minerals.


SomeasteroidscomeclosetoEarth.AJapanesespacecraftisexploringonenamedRyugu.Lastyear,thecraftshotalarge"bullet"attheasteroid.Thiskickedupmaterialforthespacecrafttocatchfor study.

AnotherspacecraftlaunchedfromtheUnitedStates(U.S.).ItisexploringanasteroidnamedBennu.Later,itwillbringbacksamplesto Earth.

ThisimageshowstheBennuasteroidnexttotheEiffelTower,for scale.