Why did the American "Apollo" manned landing on the moon get more valuable scientific information than the automated flight of the former Soviet Union?
Two astronauts of Apollo lunar module can survey the lunar surface, selectively collect lunar rocks and soil, and install long-life scientific experiments and observation instruments, such as seismographs, to measure lunar earthquakes. Some instruments also sent data to the earth in July 1989, and released small satellites to the moon to observe the moon sky. Therefore, the practice and achievements of Apollo landing on the moon are equivalent to the sum of the former Soviet Union 12 automatic probe flights. The cost of each automatic flight is 1/4 of manned flight, so the whole cost of lunar exploration in the former Soviet Union is several times that of manned flight, not to mention that half of the probes in the former Soviet Union failed to sample and return. The total amount of moon rocks retrieved by the United States and the Soviet Union is 385: 1.