 From 1969 to 1972 , NASA visited the real Moon through the Apollo program and found that its surface does not closely resemble this part of Idaho . NASA astronauts discovered that real Moon craters were almost all created by meteorites while their namesakes on Earth were created by volcanic eruptions . Apollo astronauts performed part of their training at Craters of the Moon Lava Field by learning to look for and collect good rock specimens in an unfamiliar and harsh environment . 
