Lunar Probes

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MAJOR NASA LUNAR PROBES HISTORY

Pioneer: Series of five lunar flights, only Pioneer 4 was successful, 1958-1959.
Ranger: Series of hardware and imaging flights to Moon.
More Ranger: Photos from the Lunar and Planetary Institute. and the Ranger history by R. Cargill Hall: Lunar Impact: A History of Project Ranger. NASA SP-4210, 1977.
Surveyor: Series of softlander flights to the Moon.
More Surveyor: "Surveyors to the Moon" site at JPL.
Lunar Orbiter: Series of imaging missions to Moon.
More Lunar Orbiter: Lunar and Planetary Institute site and the Lunar Orbiter history by Bruce Byers: Destination Moon: A History of the Lunar Orbiter Program. (NASA TM-3487,1977).
More Surveyor and Lunar Orbiter: Unmanned Space Project Management: Surveyor and Lunar Orbiter. (NASA SP-4901, 1972) by Erasmus H. Kloman.
Clementine : A cooperative DOD/NASA lunar mapping mission.
Galileo : Mapping mission to Jupiter, also imaged Moon and asteroids, 1989-present.
Lunar Prospector: Mapping of surface composition and possible polar ice deposits -- Lunar Prospector page at NSSDC
Lunar Prospector page at Ames Research Center
Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter: A mapping mission to determine future landing sites -- Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter page at NSSDC
Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter home page
The Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS): Designed to search for water on the Moon -- LCROSS page at NSSDC
LCROSS home page

LUNAR CHRONOLOGIES AND TIMELINES
Lunar Exploration Timeline

This chronology by Asif Siddiqi covers lunar as well as planetary probes: Deep Space Chronicle: A Chronology of Deep Space and Planetary Probes 1958-2000. Monograph in Aerospace History, No. 24, 2002 (NASA SP-2002-4524).

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