And No One Has Returned

Where were you the better part of 40 years ago? Well... some of us have better memories to look back upon then others. NASA has been celebrating the 40th Anniversary of the Apollo moon landings since last year as Apollo 11's efforts turned to a ripe old age.

In the case of the crew of Apollo 17 just 38 years ago, today, they were exploring the moon, the last men from Earth to do so. Apollo 17 carried the only trained geologist to walk on the surface of the moon, lunar module pilot Harrison Schmitt. Over the course of scant hours, the crew of Apollo 17 covered the greatest distance of all the crews, using the Lunar Roving Vehicle, while also coming home with the largest treasure trove of lunar rock and soil samples. Eugene Cernan, much to his regret, holds the unfortunate distinction of being the last man to walk on the Moon, as NASA's future lunar exploration plans were gutted by budget cuts thereafter.

According to NASA resources, the lunar landing site was the Taurus-Littrow highlands and valley area. This site was picked for Apollo 17 as a location where rocks both older and younger than those previously returned from other Apollo missions and from the Luna 16 and 20 missions might be found.

The mission was the final in a series of three 'J-type' missions planned for the Apollo program. These J-type missions can be distinguished from previous G and H-series missions by extended hardware capability, larger scientific payload capacity and by the use of the battery powered Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV).

Scientific objectives of the Apollo 17 mission included geological surveying and sampling of materials and surface features in a preselected area of the Taurus-Littrow region, deploying and activating surface experiments, and conducting inflight experiments and photographic tasks during lunar orbit and transearth coast (TEC). These objectives included: Deployed experiments such as the Apollo lunar surface experiment package (ALSEP) with a Heat Flow experiment, Lunar seismic profiling (LSP), Lunar surface gravimeter (LSG), Lunar atmospheric composition experiment (LACE) and Lunar ejecta and meteorites (LEAM). The mission also included Lunar Sampling and Lunar orbital experiments. Biomedical experiments included the Biostack II Experiment and the BIOCORE experiment. 

Cernan and Schmitt spent 75 hours on the surface of the moon. There are, at present, no concrete plans to return to earth's only natural satellite.

FMI: www.nasa.gov