Lunar Mission Database (moonDB)

The MoonDB is a database of past and present spacecraft in cislunar space, compiled through publicly available sources. It was designed to better understand the rationale behind missions, focusing on their final results, current status, funding agencies and nations. Particular attention has also been given to the surface of the Moon, where landing sites have been identified. The database is mainly based on data collected by NASA in the Master Catalogue of the NASA Space Science Data Coordinated Archive (NSSDCA) [1]. Other sources are also considered, such as the Satellite Catalog (SATCAT) from the Space-Track project [2], created by the US Combined Force Space Component Command (CFSCC). The work by McDowell (2020) [3] has also been considered an inspiration for this work, although the primary source of information has remained the NASA catalogue.

Some structural and logical changes have been introduced to follow the needs of this research project. Following a list provided by the NSSDCA, a certain number of tentative USSR missions were added to the statistics [4]. Most spacecraft were destroyed due to a launch failure and were not disclosed to the public: the available information results from an investigation.

Additional information and a version changelog are provided in the readme file.