Cool Moon Facts by Whip

Real astronomy and dated history, with sources. Documented traditions and folklore. Modern lunar astrology · symbolic, not predictive.

24 September 1970 Waning Crescent, 33% lit

A hundred grams, brought back by a robot

Luna 16 drilled thirty-five centimetres into the Sea of Fertility, sealed the core in a capsule, and flew it home — the first sample return from another world without anyone aboard.

It came back with about 101 grams, against Apollo's hundreds of kilograms, but it came back thirteen months after Apollo 11 and cost a fraction as much. A gram of it was swapped with NASA for Apollo material, and some was auctioned in 1993 for close to half a million dollars.

Date
24 September 1970
Moon computed for
05:00 local time, UTC
Phase
Waning Crescent
Illuminated
33%

Source: NASA Space Science Data Coordinated Archive, Luna 16

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