nasa facts apollo 17 preflight summary

7/30/2019 NASA Facts Apollo 17 Preflight Summary

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A NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE A D M I N I S T R ~ , " T IMA NED SPACECRAfT CENTERPUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICE

Houston, Texas

p L 17 R Fli T S RYA combination mountain highland an d valley low-

land region designated Taurus-Littrow is the landingsite for Apollo 17, the sixth an d final Apollo lunarlanding mission. The flight currently is planned forDecember 1972.

Taurus-Littrow is about 20 degrees north and30 degrees east of the center of the Moon as viewedfrom Earth. The site is named for the Taurus Moun-tains and the crater Littrow. Both lie to th e northof the landing point.

Exploration of the site is expected to answerquestions about (1) the early crust of the Moon,(2) large early impacts, an d (3) young volcanic rock.

Th e current model shows a complex Moon about4-V2 billion years old which was subjected to intensecratering. Apollo 14 and 15 data show that one ofthe last large basins, Imbrium, was formed by animpact 3.9 billion years ago.

I t was not nntil the period from 3.2 to 3.7 bil-lion years ago, however, that the great basins, formedduring the intense cratering phase, became floodedby molten lavas originating in the lunar interior.

On e of the key questions remaining is to under-stand what happened in the period between 3.7 and4.5 billion years. Similarly, it is important to under-stand whether or not the Moon has been thermallyinactive for the last 3.2 billion years.

Gene CerncmApollo 17 Commander

Harrison SchmiHlunar f o J ~ g d u l e PHo!'

Ron EvansCommand Module Pi/o;


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The Apollo 17 landing site is located in the northeast as viewed fromEarth an d is about equidistant from the Apollo 11 and 15 sites.

Taurus-Littrow is situated just beyond th e southeast edge of Mare Serenitatis, one of the largest lunarmascons. Steepsided mountains of light-colored highlands dominate the terrain and are expected toprovide samples older in age and different in composition from those returned from the Mare Imbriumbasin on Apollo flights 14 and 15.

Nature has already helped in the sampling, asone of the sample sites is a rock slide which contains the debris which has falleri into the valleyfrom high up on a 7000-foot mountain.

The targeted landing point itself will be on theother prime sampling objective, which is th e verydark non-mare material filling the valleys betweenthe mountains.

On occasion, the dark material is found in smalltroughs on the mountainsides, indicating that it oncethinly covered the mountains bu t has eroded off thesteep slopes. This observation, plus the presence ofvolcanic-looking cinder cones, first reported by Apollo15 Command Module Pilot Al Worden, indicates tolunar scientists that the dark material is an explosivelyproduced volcanic ash.

The apparently low crater density in the areacovered by th e dark material also leads geologiststo believe i t to be among the youngest lunar volcanics. The explosive nature of the volcanism indicates a relatively high content of volatiles or gases,both of which have been exceedingly rare in alllunar samples seen thus far.

I f the Moon, as the preferred models indicate,has indeed cooled from the outside in, these youngestlunar volcanics should be derived from the greatestdepths and may give the first good samples of thedeep lunar interior.

The astronauts will use the Lunar Roving Vehicleto transport them to locations determined prior tothe mission an d to other points they might selectduring their exploration. Contingency walking traversesalso will be planned to accomplish as many of thescientific objectives as possible.

The astronauts will deploy an advanced ApolloLunar Surface Experiments Package (ALSEP) containing a Heat Flow Experiment similar to thatdeployed on Apollo 14 an d planned for Apollo 17,as well as four new experiments.

In addition, two new surface traverse experiments,no t powered by the ALSEP Central Station, will bedeployed. These ne w experiments represent secondgeneration scientific approaches to difficult lunarproblems.

Three of the six new experiments represent new orimproved geophysical techniques of exploring thehidden subsurface properties of the Moon:

(1) The Traverse Gravimeter will measure variations in subsurface structure and furnish data onsuch problems as whether the mountains have deeproots or are merely deposits on a uniform subsurface;

(2) The Seismic Profiling; and(3) Surface Electrical Properties. Investigations

will measure the physical properties of the lunarinterior down to about a kilometer in depth, an dwill indicate subsurface Plectrical an d mechanicalproperties, the extent of subsurface layering and thedegree of energy scattering at th e landing site. Underground water, should it exist, also will be detectable.

A new ALSEP experiment, the Tidal GraVimeter,to study both the response of the Moon to the Earth'stidal pull an d its response to gravity waves, shouldthey exist in space, will be a fundamental contribution to astrophysics.

Two other new experiments- also "Yill be part ofthe ALSEP. A mass spectrometer will measure theconstituents of the lunar atmosphere - the findingsofwhich may be correlated with the mass spectrometers carried previously in lunar orbit; a lunar ejectaand meteorites experiment will determine th e frequency and energy of the small meteorites and theirejecta which constantly impact and modify the Moon.

Three new experiments are added to the Apollo 17orbital science payload. These replace the geochemical


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As the Apollo 17 spacecraft approaches the target, it will pass betweenseveral noteworthy craters - Vitruvius at the. upper right carner, and

investigations and th e mass spectrometer. Apollo 17will be the third mission to carry a large set oforbital sensors in the Service Module. However, threenew experiments are under development an d production to replace th e mass spectrometer, Alpha,x-ray an d gamma experiments, as well as the subsatellite carried on Apollo 15 and planned forApollo 16.

The first of these, a Lunar Sounder, is a pulsed

Liftrow and Littrow A at extreme left center.

radar sounder an d has the potential for identifyingelectrical properties and layering of the lunar crustoverflown by the spacecrafLThe Lunar Sounder will provide the opportunity

to study detailed physical properties of the Moonup to depths of 1-V2 kilometers, and if it exists, toaid in th e location of subsurface water.

The second, th e Infrared Scanning Radiometer,


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will provide, for the first time, a high resolutionthermal map of portions of the Moon.

Thirdly, a Far Ultraviolet Spectrometer will measure the compositional and density variation of thelunar atmosphere. Since this experiment has the capability of measuring these variations as a functionof atmosphere height, it will greatly extend the knowledge of th e lunar atmosphere that was gained throughthe use of the original mass spectrometers on Apolloflights 15 and 16.

The Scientific Instrument Module (SIM) camerasystem flown successfully on Apollo 15, and plannedfor Apollo 16, will be carried on Apollo 17. Thissystem contains the 24-inch Panoramic Camera, a

Apollo 17 lunar astronauts Schmitt, lefl, an d Cernan Irain 01 a site nearBoulder City, Nevada, that approximates what they will encounter on

3-inch Mapping Camera, and a Laser Altimeter. TheApollo 17 ground track will permit some new areasof the Moon to be investigated and photographed.

In addition, where Apollo 17 overflies areas coveredby previous missions, the difference in Sun anglewill provide the photo-geolOgists with photographsof lunar features at new illuminations.

Apollo 17 will be commanded by Navy Capt.Eugene A. Cernan with Navy Cmdr. Ronald E.Evans, Command Module Pilot, and Dr. HarrisonH. Schmitt, civilian scientist-astronaut, Lunar Module Pilot.

th e Moon. All lunar landing crews underwent similar field excursions10 prepare themselves for their moonwalks.

-{:{ U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1972-779-264/1148

nasa facts apollo 17 preflight summary

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