For example, America’s space program began in earnest after Russia put its Sputnik into orbit. Thus the writers of the book Journey to Tranquility say about the American space exploits:

“The project was born of calamity. It was begun as a hasty response to an immediate crisis: the crisis thought to have been brought about by Soviet space triumphs. . . . The decisive aspect of the threat, however, was its bearing on American prestige. This was the fear which impelled President Kennedy. . . . Prestige . . . added up to a belief that America could not afford to be beaten by the Russians. Prestige, in other words, was equated with power in the world, and the moon was seen as a medium through which worldly power might be increased.”

That prestige was a key motivating factor is evident from a memorandum of President John F. Kennedy dated April 20, 1961, to the United States vice-president, who was then chairman of the Space Council. President Kennedy asked:

“Do we have a chance of beating the Soviets by putting a laboratory in space, or by a trip around the moon, or by a rocket to land on the moon, or by a rocket to go to the moon and back with a man? Is there any other space program which promises dramatic results in which we could win?”

So the space race began, and thus far there have been over a thousand space exploits by the Soviet Union and the United States combined.

As for the moon’s composition, the Apollo 16 mission found that the moon material is rich in aluminum and calcium. Metallic iron was present in the moon rocks. The Apollo 11 rock samples disclosed sixty-eight of the known elements. Moon rocks are composed of essentially the same raw materials as are earth rocks. However, there is a difference​—in proportion.

For instance, in moon rocks the ratio of uranium to potassium was found to be four times as high as in typical earth rocks. Titanium was found to be more than twice as common in moon rocks as in the most titanium-rich earth rocks. Not the elements themselves but the combinations of elements found in the moon rocks were indeed “unearthly.” As one lunar scientist put it: “It’s the same alphabet but a different grammar.”

A discovery made by Apollo 12 in 1969 was that a lunar magnetic field exists. Early unmanned spacecraft had not detected any lunar magnetism.

Have you wondered about the moon’s age? Rocks taken from the early Apollo missions were estimated at from 3.3 to 3.7 billion years in age. However, one lemon-size rock was estimated to have an age of 4.6 billion years. The moon’s soil was estimated at being from 4.2 to 4.9 billion years in age. Thus Science World of February 16, 1970, commented: “Several researchers confirmed that the moon is about 4.6 billion years old. The Earth and meteorites are about the same age.”