In the nineteenth century and for most of the twentieth century up to the 1950s, the exploration of the Moon was carried out by the use of 1telescopes. This research provided 2information about the visible side of the Moon but it was only in October 1959 that the unseen side of the Moon was revealed to the world. Photographs taken from the Soviet Lunik III spacecraft showed that the hidden side of the Moon was, in fact, not very different from the near side. The 3landing of unmanned spacecraft by the USA and the Russians in the 1960s and finally the landing of the first man on the Moon in 1969 made possible the direct 4of the Moon's surface. The Apollo astronauts collected rocks and sent thousands of photographs back to headquarters in Houston. They set up instruments which calculated the Moon's measurements and through the use of laser beams they discovered the exact 5between the Moon and the Earth.