Luna 24 was the third Soviet attempt to land at the site of a large mass concentration on the Moon, obtain a soil sample down to about 6.6 feet (2 meters) beneath the lunar surface, and return it to Earth.

Luna 23 was to drill 2.5 meters below the lunar surface (compared to the 0.3-m depth of the cores sampled by Luna 16 and 20) and return a sample of the soil to Earth.

In addition to its primary mission of surface photography, Luna 22 also performed investigations to determine the chemical composition of the lunar surface, recorded meteoroid activity, searched for a lunar magnetic field, measured solar and cosmic radiation flux, and continued studies of the irregular magnetic field.

Luna 21's mission was to deliver the rover Lunokhod 2 to the Moon. The lander carried a bas relief of Lenin and the Soviet coat-of-arms. Richard Garriott purchased both the Luna 21 lander and the Lunakhod 2 rover from the Soviet Union.

Luna 20 was to conduct the mission that Luna 18 was unable to complete: obtain a soil sample from the lunar highlands and bring it to Earth for comparison with Luna 16's sample from a site that was thought to be geologically different.

Luna 19 was to orbit the Moon, collecting data about the Moon and its environment.

The goals of Luna 18 was to collect lunar samples and bring them back to Earth.

Luna 17 was designed to deliver a robotic rover called "Lunokhod 1" to the lunar surface. The rover was to travel to various locations under the real-time control of operators on Earth and conduct tests on the lunar soil for 3 lunar days (about 3 Earth months).

The mission of Luna 16 was to drill out a sample core from the Moon's surface and return it to Earth. Luna 16 was the first robotic probe to land on the Moon and return a sample to Earth. It returned 101 grams.

Luna 15 was the second attempt by the Soviet Union to recover and return lunar soil back to Earth. Launched just three days before the Apollo 11 mission, Luna 15 raced to beat the crew to the Moon. In a race to reach the Moon and return to Earth, the