circumlunar

Were such efforts to spawn crewed circumlunar habitats or surface outposts, the number of humans around or on the moon at any given time could reach into the hundreds.

Two months earlier, U.S. businessman and first "space tourist" Dennis Tito revealed his and his wife's intentions to fly on SpaceX's second circumlunar mission.

“We can conduct sampling through circumlunar and moon- landing exploration, but it is more intuitive to obtain samples to conduct scientific research - the method is more direct,” Pei added.

“We can conduct sampling through circumlunar and moon-landing exploration, but it is more intuitive to obtain samples to conduct scientific research – the method is more direct,” Pei added.

The Soviet Union was the earliest to send a spacecraft to the moon, perform a flyby of its far side, make a soft landing on its surface, send an orbiter around it and return a circumlunar probe back to Earth, as well as to robotically return lunar samples.