To not much fanfare, all things considered, a car-sized spacecraft called Blue Ghost touched down on the moon on Saturday.

It was launched aboard a SpaceX rocket and built by a commercial space firm but is funded by Nasa to carry out ten experiments designed by Nasa.

These include pointing a reflective plate back at Earth so lasers can measure the distance between Earth and moon to "sub-millimetre precision"; and poking electrodes into the surface of the moon to measure electric and magnetic currents up to 1000 kilometers beneath it.

The moon hasn't inspired much of this sort of research since Gene Cernan became the last astronaut to set foot on it in 1972.

Even now - especially now - Nasa seeks to justify its presence there with reference to national pride, not science. "I think the way we keep America first is by dominating in all the domains of space," the agency's acting administrator said as Blue Ghost landed 240,000 miles away.