WORLD OF SCIENCE
Final few
DR. T. V. PADMA
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Apollo 17 was the last of the Apollo missions.
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Apollo 16’s crew consisted of John Young, Ken Mattingley, and Charlie Duke. It was launched on April 16, 1972. Its goal was to find out more about a place in the Moon called Descartes. The astronauts’ mission accomplished the first observations from a celestial body other than the Earth.
Apollo17 was the last of the Apollo missions but it was the first one to have an astronaut who was also a geologist. Its crew consisted of Eugene Cernan, Evans and Harrison Schmitt, the geologist.
There was a big crowd as the crew rode to the launch pad. Saturn V sparkled against the night sky and the crew got into the craft. This time, there occurred the only last minute halt in Apollo history. As the countdown was progressing with just 30 seconds for blast off, when the calling stopped: “We have a cut off” said the voice. But, there was no danger. A launch computer had failed to give the command for pressuring the Saturn’s third stage. The problem was solved and countdown was soon resumed.
Important find
The landing site chosen was the valley of Taurus-Littrow. It had been chosen because its floor was covered by the darkest material seen on the Moon and the scientists wanted to know more about it. Schmitt said it was “a geologist’s paradise if I ever saw one”.
Cernan and Schmitt loaded the Lunar Rover with supplies. One small white fragment collected by Schmitt, was later proven to be the oldest rock on the Moon — it was nearly 4.5 billion years old! They found a fractured boulder and underneath it the soil was orange in colour. This was the result of an eruption where, instead of lava, volcanic gases form the intensely spray from beneath the crust. This was an important find.
The astronauts travelled 19 miles over the Moon’s surface and collected more than 220 pounds of samples. A plaque was placed on the Moon with the words: “Here man completed his first explorations of the Moon... May the spirit of peace in which we came be reflected in the lives of all mankind.”
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