 The moon, a satellite, or small body, rotates on its axis around the earth, and "shines" when the sun's light beams onto its surface, and is reflected back to earth. Unfortunately, only one side of the moon is visible to us on the earth, as it takes the moon the same length of time to orbit on its axis, as it takes for it to orbit the earth.
The lunar month is divided into halves. During the first half, lasting approximately 14 days, the sun's light unrelentingly strikes the moon, which has no atmosphere or air to protect it from these rays, and brings the temperature of the moon to above that of the boiling point. The second half of the lunar month plunges the moon into cold, dark nights.
Man has learned a great deal about the moon since the days when ancient man worshipped it as a goddess who ruled the night. Space flights made by the United States, theUSSR, now Russia, and our Apollo moon landings, unlocked some of the moon's secrets, by enabling astronauts to collect the moon's soil and rocks, and to photograph the side of the moon invisible to us for scientific analysis. The primary goal of scientific studies of the data collected is to determine if, someday, man can actually inhabit the moon.
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