The Ongoing Hunt for a Capsule That Landed on the Moon 50 Years Ago Today
On this daytime 50 year ago , the Soviet spacecraftLuna 9achieved the first soft landing place on the lunar Earth’s surface and send back the first photographs from there . Today , a major digital archeology effort is underway . TheLunar Reconnaissance Orbiterhas mapped every square inch of the Moon in astonishing resolution , and a race is afoot to find Luna 9 . The problem ? The lander is really , really diminutive — less than 2 feet across ....