Apollo Program

The Apollo program demonstrated effective human geological exploration in the hostile environment of another planet. During the initial Apollo 11 lunar landing mission, the crew remained on the Moon for less than one day and conducted a single excursion of less than three hours, during which they ventured only 50 m (160 ft) from the LM. By the sixth and final lunar exploration mission, the distance traveled on the lunar surface had greatly increased. By the last mission to the Moon, Apollo crews had traversed a total distance of more than 97 km (60 mi) on the lunar surface and spent over 160 man-hours outside the LM.

A broad range of over 60 scientific experiments were performed on the lunar surface, and 30 experiments were conducted from lunar orbit. Six long-term scientific stations were manually placed and activated on the Moon by the astronauts. The last four operating stations (set up by Apollos 12 and 15 through 17) were finally turned off by NASA in 1977.

The experiments carried out on the Apollo missions provided important information about the Moon as well as the solar system. A total of 381.7 kg (841 lb) of lunar material was returned from six unique and scientifically significant lunar locations. Additionally, almost 30,000 high-resolution photographs were taken on the surface and from orbit during Apollo missions, recording the characteristics and features of the Moon in great detail.

In 2004 President George W. Bush called for returning astronauts to the Moon for the purpose of establishing a lunar base. The base would be used as a launching site for a manned mission to Mars by the middle of the 21st century. Under the Bush mandate, NASA would phase out the use of the space shuttle and develop a new vehicle for sending people into space by 2014.