How similar or dissimilar were salient characteristics of earlier expeditions to remote locations on Earth to Apollo lunar surface exploration? How comparable were major resource investments? How advanced for the time were transportation and equipment utilized by these expeditions? What were the selection criteria for expedition members? What characteristics did successful expeditions have in common? What criteria should be considered in defining ‘success’? There are obvious differences between the Apollo missions and earlier expeditions. One striking difference with earlier high impact expeditions was the number of people involved. In terms of total numbers of individuals and organizations involved in providing all manner of support, the Apollo program was larger by orders of magnitude: hundreds of thousands all over the world as opposed to hundreds for earlier expeditions. On the other hand, in terms of the number actually on site, Apollo had three as opposed to tens or hundreds, though for the polar expeditions, the team that actually went to the pole was a very small group, certainly less than ten. Another difference was contact with the outside world. Though at orders of magnitude greater distance, the Apollo astronauts were often in communication with mission control and heard by the entire world. Generally speaking, earlier expeditions were incommunicado and had contact with the outside world only by prearrangement. Finally, all of the earlier expeditions relied on and were successful based on the use of traditional practices or use of materials. That included deliberate embracing of ‘living off the land’ practices of indigenous people. The Apollo program relied on the development of at least ten entirely new technologies rapidly developed from relatively loosely defined concepts, including orbital flight.