The Moon against black space, lit from one side, with the line between day and night crossing its face.
SpaceMiningData
Sites and sources

The live 3D view needs JavaScript and WebGL 2. Sites and mission records are listed below; Sun estimates need the interactive view.

The 3D Moon: its sites and sources

The view above draws the Moon with sunlight from the Sun's computed direction for the time shown, NASA's terrain around the south pole, and a marker at each place a space resource mission record names. Sites and mission records are listed here as ordinary links. Sun estimates need the interactive view.

Has there been a commercial delivery of a resource from the Moon, an asteroid, or Mars? No commercial delivery in this dataset.

The Moon map gives the same sites as a flat map, and Lunar south pole missions has the measuring tool.

How far has anyone got?

40 lunar records

Each number counts lunar mission records naming that resource, at the furthest step the record reached for it. A record naming two resources counts in both rows, so the rows do not add up to All resources. Records with no marker are counted too: they name a region and no site, orbit the Moon or have no map point. 1 lunar record names no resource and is not counted: Moon Express MX-1E first lunar mission (Google Lunar XPRIZE attempt).

Lunar mission records by resource and by the furthest step each reached for it
ResourceClaimedTargetedDetectedProspectedSampledProcessing demoCommercial deliveryRecordsNo markerMarkers
All resources03420300392110 of 10
Water ice0241000025135 of 10
Volatiles0192020023126 of 10
Regolith09003001246 of 10
Helium-30500000550 of 10
Oxygen0400000421 of 10
Metals (general)0200000220 of 10
Rare earths0100000110 of 10

Marker colours, from the lowest step

A marker's colour is the furthest step any record there reached, or with a resource chosen the furthest step for that resource. Its shape is always about every record there. A step says how far a record got, not that the resource is known to be at that spot or how much of it there is. A marker is a named feature's centre or printed coordinates, not a landing point. A ring means a record at that site, for any resource, is not yet launched.

Sites and their mission records

18 of 40 lunar records placed at 10 sites

Northernmost first. A marker is a named feature's centre or coordinates printed in a record, not a landing point. A ring means at least one record there is not yet launched.

South pole

13 records

10 records are placed at Mons Mouton, Cabeus crater and Haworth crater. These others name the region or orbit it, so they have no marker. 20 of the 23 records for this region name water ice or volatiles as a resource. Permanently shadowed ground can contain cold traps where water ice could survive.

Records naming only the region

Orbiters aimed at the south pole

Next scheduled in these records: METAL multispectral camera (Interlune / NASA Ames) on Griffin-1 (Interlune), launch: Planned 2026 H2 (target) · All upcoming

Next up

Next scheduled in these records: METAL multispectral camera (Interlune / NASA Ames) on Griffin-1 (Interlune), launch: Planned 2026 H2 (target) · All upcoming

About this view

Sun and Earth: Computed for the time shown with a standard low-precision method (Meeus, Astronomical Algorithms), good to a few tenths of a degree. This is a picture, not a tool for planning a landing.

Light: Terrain shading comes from the Sun's direction on NASA's height grid, so small features and very long shadows are approximate. A faint fixed fill light keeps shadows from going fully black; it is not computed earthshine. Exposure changes between views.

Globe: Colour and relief from NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio CGI Moon Kit, public domain, optimised for appearance. Relief is shading only.

South pole: Heights from the LOLA grid LDEM_75S_240M (LRO LOLA team, NASA Planetary Data System), averaged to 960 m a cell and placed on the sphere at true size, with native 240 m cells around a chosen site. Heights are true to scale unless you pick Heights ×2, and shadows at ×2 are illustrative. The lighter view draws every second cell of these grids.

Cyan: Ground in permanent shadow, from NASA's LOLA map (Barker et al. 2023), in 960 m cells and in 240 m cells around a chosen site. It shows darkness, not ice. Shadowed ground can hold cold traps; this layer does not detect anything in them. Shadow data covers 80°S to the pole.

Markers: The centre of the named feature or coordinates printed in the record, not landing points. For a failed or off-target landing, the marker is the intended site. A marker's colour and its words are the furthest step on the evidence ladder by any record there; How far has anyone got? explains them.

Decorative: The stars and Earth's surface. Earth's position, size and phase are computed; its clouds are not real.

Rendered with three.js 0.184.0 (MIT licence).

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