157 objects sit on the Moon's surface
Apollo astronauts left behind backpacks, tools, flags, and 96 bags of human waste. Soviet probes crashed into it. Two golf balls are up there. So are 12 pairs of boots.
Every object humanity has sent past Earth's orbit.
1,137 objects. ~2,000 tonnes. 65 years.
In 1959, a Soviet spacecraft called Luna 1 became the first human-made object to escape Earth's gravity. It missed the Moon by 6,000 kilometers and drifted into orbit around the Sun. We've been sending objects into deep space ever since.
Over the next 65 years, 19 space programs sent 1,137 objects beyond Earth orbit - spacecraft, rocket stages, lens caps, a car, and cremated human remains.
Ten objects leave Earth orbit for the first time. All launched by the USSR and the USA. Luna 1 drifts past the Moon and into heliocentric orbit.
317 objects flood beyond Earth orbit in a single decade. The Moon, Mars, Venus - every target within reach gets a visitor. Almost all of them are American blue or Soviet red.
81 objects launched in a single year. Apollo 11 lands on the Moon. The Lunar Module descent stage is still there.
328 more objects. Pioneer 10 becomes the first to cross the asteroid belt. Voyager 1 and 2 launch in 1977 on a grand tour of the outer planets.
The 1980s. Only 63 objects. The Cold War winds down. Budgets shrink. Space goes quiet.
The 1990s and 2000s. New players arrive: Japan, ESA, India. Mars rovers land. Cassini reaches Saturn. Humanity's reach extends.
2010s and 2020s. China rises rapidly. Private companies enter the picture. A car gets launched into solar orbit. 19 space programs have now sent objects beyond Earth.
Every object humanity has sent beyond Earth orbit. Nearly 2,000 tonnes of human-made material, floating past our planet.
Apollo astronauts left behind backpacks, tools, flags, and 96 bags of human waste. Soviet probes crashed into it. Two golf balls are up there. So are 12 pairs of boots.
Most crashed. Some made it. Curiosity has been rolling since 2012. Ingenuity, a 1.8 kg helicopter, became the lightest powered aircraft on another world.
A cherry-red car in solar orbit since 2018. A mannequin named Starman sits in the driver's seat, playing David Bowie on loop.
Cremated human remains launched toward the Moon. The spacecraft crashed. The ashes are still up there.
A Japanese art sculpture. Spiral-shaped, 3D-printed. Orbiting the Sun as a work of deep space art.
A 250-gram transformable robot. Shaped like a ball, it rolls open on the lunar surface. The size of a tennis ball.
Gold-plated copper discs carrying sounds and images of Earth. Music, greetings in 55 languages, whale songs. Heading for interstellar space.
12 astronaut backpacks. Portable Life Support Systems, discarded on the lunar surface to save weight for the trip home.
Voyager 1 is 24 billion km from Earth. Its signal takes 22 hours to reach us. It will drift through interstellar space for millions of years.
Since 1959, humanity has sent nearly 2,000 tonnes of material beyond Earth. Spacecraft, rocket stages, lens caps, a car, cremated remains, and art.
Some of it is on the Moon. Some on Mars. Five objects will outlast every civilization on Earth.
Long after every language is forgotten and every city is dust, the Voyagers will still be drifting. Carrying the sounds of a world that once looked up and wondered what was out there.