Apollo 17

Launch, orbit & landing data: Designation  06300 / 72096A Launch date - time  07 Dec 1972 - 05:33:06 UT Launch site  KSC, LC39A Launch vehicle  Saturn V (SA-512) Payload  Apollo CSM 114 Size (m)  11.15 long - 3.91 dia Mass at launch(kg)  46847 (CM/SM/LM) Flight Crew  Cernan, Eugene (CDR) Evans, Ronald (CMP) Schmitt, Harrison (LMP) Call Sign  America / Challenger Backup crew  Duke, Roosa, Young Earth orbit on Dec 7 (07:12 UT):    - Perigee / Apogee  169 / 178 km    - Inclination  32.56°    - Period  87.82 min Orbital parameters on 7 Dec (12:00 UT):    - Perigee / Apogee  200 / 572080 km    - Inclination  33.2°    - Period  26320 min Selenocentric orbit on 10 Dec (19:55 UT): Landing date - time  19 Dec 1972 - 19:25:05 UT Landing location  15° S, 165° W 560 km west of Samoa-Islands in Pacific Flight Duration (d:hr:min)  12:13:52 Nbr Earth orbits  1,5 Nbr lunar orbits

Crew

Flight

Apollo 17 landing site - Credit: NASA.

Astronaut Jack Schmitt on the moon. Credit: NASA

Official NASA Account of the Mission from Where No Man Has Gone Before: A History of Apollo Lunar Exploration Missions, by W. David Compton, published as NASA SP-4214 in the NASA History Series, 1989.

America and Challenger entered lunar orbit on schedule and all preparations for landing went smoothly. After the two spacecraft separated, Cernan and Schmitt took a spectacular photograph of their landing site. Three hours later Cernan powered up Challenger for its descent. It touched down within 200 meters (650 feet) of its targeted landing point amid a field of craters at 3: 15 p.m. EST on December 11.

For the next 75 hours Cernan and Schmitt conducted the longest, and in many ways the most productive, lunar exploration of the Apollo program. During three trips from their base they laid out the surface experiments, drove the lunar rover about 36 kilometers (22 miles) in all, ranging as far as 7.37 kilometers (4.5 miles) from Challenger , and collected roughly 243 pounds (110 kilograms, of soil and rock samples along with more than 2,000 documentation photographs.

Like their predecessors, Cernan and Schmitt were somewhat constrained by the preplanned sequence of activity. Still, before they left the lunar module and while unloading the Rover and the surface experiments, Schmitt found time to give Houston's back-room scientists both large- and small-scale descriptions of the landing area and the surface under his feet. Schmitt found the environment in the landing area "superb" for observation: the lighting was excellent and the rock surfaces generally clean, and he found little difficulty in distinguishing mineralogical and textural differences. For the most part he based his decisions on taking samples on visually detectable differences or similarities.

Besides collecting and documenting samples, on their traverses the explorers laid out explosive charges for a seismic profiling experiment (the charges would be set off after they left), took readings on a portable gravity meter at various points along the route, and set up an instrument to measure electrical properties of the lunar surface. At the site for the surface experiments package they drilled two 2.54-meter (8.3-foot) holes for heat-flow sensors, took a deep core sample, and set up the geophones (detectors) for the seismic profiling experiment. The first excursion was largely taken up by these chores.

After an overnight rest and a discussion with Houston concerning plans for sampling, Cernan and Schmitt set out on their second trip to collect specimens from boulders along the lower slopes of the South Massif and to sample the lighter-colored soil that overlay the western part of the valley. It was a long trip - an hour by rover to the first major sampling stop - and would stretch their life-support systems almost to the limit. The last couple of kilometers up the slope taxed the rover, too, but it brought them to their objective in fine style. Schmitt took samples from three boulders which, as best he could tell, had come from layers visible farther up the South Massif.

The obviously interesting features of their first site prompted Houston to lengthen their stay there and cut some time from later stops. On their way back they stopped to take an unscheduled reading on the traverse gravimeter and sampled soil at a couple of crater rims, one of which drew considerable attention. During routine examination of the surface around the crater called "Shorty," Schmitt suddenly called out, "Oh, hey - wait a minute - . . . There is orange soil!" Cernan confirmed it. "He's not going out of his mind. It really is." While looking for the limits of the orange deposit, Schmitt remarked, "if there ever was something that looked like fumarole alteration, this is it." He was excited because orange soil (characteristic of oxidized iron, at least on earth) indicated volcanic activity, probably recent, a feature not previously discovered on the moon. While Houston kept reminding them they were almost at the limits of their walk-back capability - time was running out - they dug a trench, took a core sample and several scoop samples, and took photographs. Then they mounted the rover to head back to Challenger . Schmitt talked about his discovery all the way back.

The last sampling trip of the Apollo program was a traverse to the foot of the North Massif, where they found two large boulders that had obviously rolled down from outcrops higher on the mountain; their tracks were visible in the soft soil. After covering 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) and picking up 63 samples (137 pounds, 62 kilograms), Cernan and Schmitt returned to the lunar module. Schmitt picked up a symbolic rock sample in honor of a group of foreign students touring the United States; it would be divided up to provide samples for each country represented. Then Ceman unveiled a plaque on Challenger's landing strut, which commemorated the completion of the first exploration of the moon by humans. Then he made some final dedicatory remarks:

"This is our commemoration that will be here until someone like us, until some of you who are out there, who are the promise of the future, come back to read it again and to further the exploration and the meaning of Apollo. "

He then parked the rover at a spot where its television camera could watch their takeoff, and Apollo's last two explorers finished their last tasks on the moon. Cernan closed out the surface activity with the comment that "I believe history will record that America's challenge of today has forged man's destiny of tomorrow." Then they packed up their samples, discarded the tools they would no longer need, and climbed back into Challenger .

Next day, December 14, they blasted off to join America in lunar orbit. As television audiences on earth watched, the rover TV camera, directed from Houston, followed their ascent stage until it was out of sight, then slowly scanned the now-deserted lunar surface. The awareness that no living person was around made the scene all the more impressive. It was almost possible to hear the silence.

After hooking up with the moon-circling command module, Schmitt and Cernan transferred their samples and data. America still had a day's work to do, completing the photographic and remote-sensing work that Ron Evans had been doing while his crewmates were on the surface. Their work completed, the crew of Apollo 17 left the moon with a blast from their service propulsion engine at 8:42 p.m. EST on December 16. A routine transearth coast brought them back to a landing about 300 kilometers (200 miles) east of Pago Pago at 2:25 p.m. EST on December 19, 1972. Apollo's exploration of the moon, "one of the most ambitious and successful endeavors of man," was over.

External links:

• AmericaSpace: Remembering Apollo 17 Mission

Astrophilately covers:

Apollo 17 Splasdown cancel Houston