NASA Facts Apollo 17 Preflight Summary

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NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE

MA NED SPACECRAfT CENTER
PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICE
Houston, Texas
p
L 17 R Fli T S RY
A combination mountain highland and valley low-
land region designated Taurus-Littrow is the landing
site for Apollo 17, the sixth and final Apollo lunar
landing mission. The flight currently is planned for
December 1972.
Taurus-Littrow is about 20 degrees north and
30 degrees east of the center of the Moon as viewed
from Earth. The site is named for the Taurus Moun-
tains and the crater Littrow. Both lie to the north
of the landing point.
Exploration of the site is expected to answer
questions about (1) the early crust of the Moon,
(2) large early impacts, and (3) young volcanic rock.
The current model shows a complex Moon about
4-V2 billion years old which was subjected to intense
cratering. Apollo 14 and 15 data show that one of
the last large basins, Imbrium, was formed by an
impact 3.9 billion years ago.
It was not nntil the period from 3.2 to 3.7 bil-
lion years ago, however, that the great basins, formed
during the intense cratering phase, became flooded
by molten lavas originating in the lunar interior.
One of the key questions remaining is to under-
stand what happened in the period between 3.7 and
4.5 billion years. Similarly, it is important to under-
stand whether or not the Moon has been thermally
inactive for the last 3.2 billion years.
Gene Cerncm
Apollo 17 Commander
Harrison SchmiH
lunar PHo!'
Ron Evans
Command Module Pi/o;
The Apollo 17 landing site is located in the northeast as viewed from
Earth and is about equidistant from the Apollo 11 and 15 sites.
Taurus-Littrow is situated just beyond the south-
east edge of Mare Serenitatis, one of the largest lunar
mascons. Steepsided mountains of light-colored high-
lands dominate the terrain and are expected to
provide samples older in age and different in composi-
tion from those returned from the Mare Imbrium
basin on Apollo flights 14 and 15.
Nature has already helped in the sampling, as
one of the sample sites is a rock slide which con-
tains the debris which has falleri into the valley
from high up on a 7000-foot mountain.
The targeted landing point itself will be on the
other prime sampling objective, which is the very
dark non-mare material filling the valleys between
the mountains.
On occasion, the dark material is found in small
troughs on the mountainsides, indicating that it once
thinly covered the mountains but has eroded off the
steep slopes. This observation, plus the presence of
volcanic-looking cinder cones, first reported by Apollo
15 Command Module Pilot Al Worden, indicates to
lunar scientists that the dark material is an explosively
produced volcanic ash.
The apparently low crater density in the area
covered by the dark material also leads geologists
to believe it to be among the youngest lunar vol-
canics. The explosive nature of the volcanism indi-
cates a relatively high content of volatiles or gases,
both of which have been exceedingly rare in all
lunar samples seen thus far.
If the Moon, as the preferred models indicate,
has indeed cooled from the outside in, these youngest
lunar volcanics should be derived from the greatest
depths and may give the first good samples of the
deep lunar interior.
The astronauts will use the Lunar Roving Vehicle
to transport them to locations determined prior to
the mission and to other points they might select
during their exploration. Contingency walking traverses
also will be planned to accomplish as many of the
scientific objectives as possible.
The astronauts will deploy an advanced Apollo
Lunar Surface Experiments Package (ALSEP) con-
taining a Heat Flow Experiment similar to that
deployed on Apollo 14 and planned for Apollo 17,
as well as four new experiments.
In addition, two new surface traverse experiments,
not powered by the ALSEP Central Station, will be
deployed. These new experiments represent second
generation scientific approaches to difficult lunar
problems.
Three of the six new experiments represent new or
improved geophysical techniques of exploring the
hidden subsurface properties of the Moon:
(1) The Traverse Gravimeter will measure varia-
tions in subsurface structure and furnish data on
such problems as whether the mountains have deep
roots 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 lunar
interior down to about a kilometer in depth, and
will indicate subsurface Plectrical and mechanical
properties, the extent of subsurface layering and the
degree of energy scattering at the landing site. Under-
ground 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's
tidal pull and its response to gravity waves, should
they exist in space, will be a fundamental contribu-
tion to astrophysics.
Two other new experiments- also "Yill be part of
the ALSEP. A mass spectrometer will measure the
constituents of the lunar atmosphere - the findings
of which may be correlated with the mass spectrom-
eters carried previously in lunar orbit; a lunar ejecta
and meteorites experiment will determine the fre-
quency and energy of the small meteorites and their
ejecta which constantly impact and modify the Moon.
Three new experiments are added to the Apollo 17
orbital science payload. These replace the geochemical
As the Apollo 17 spacecraft approaches the target, it will pass between
several noteworthy craters - Vitruvius at the. upper right carner, and
investigations and the mass spectrometer. Apollo 17
will be the third mission to carry a large set of
orbital sensors in the Service Module. However, three
new experiments are under development and pro-
duction to replace the mass spectrometer, Alpha,
x-ray and gamma experiments, as well as the sub-
satellite carried on Apollo 15 and planned for
Apollo 16.
The first of these, a Lunar Sounder, is a pulsed
Liftrow and Littrow A at extreme left center.
radar sounder and has the potential for identifying
electrical properties and layering of the lunar crust
overflown by the spacecrafL
The Lunar Sounder will provide the opportunity
to study detailed physical properties of the Moon
up to depths of 1-V2 kilometers, and if it exists, to
aid in the location of subsurface water.
The second, the Infrared Scanning Radiometer,
will provide, for the first time, a high resolution
thermal map of portions of the Moon.
Thirdly, a Far Ultraviolet Spectrometer will meas-
ure the compositional and density variation of the
lunar atmosphere. Since this experiment has the capa-
bility of measuring these variations as a function
of atmosphere height, it will greatly extend the knowl-
edge of the lunar atmosphere that was gained through
the use of the original mass spectrometers on Apollo
flights 15 and 16.
The Scientific Instrument Module (SIM) camera
system flown successfully on Apollo 15, and planned
for Apollo 16, will be carried on Apollo 17. This
system contains the 24-inch Panoramic Camera, a
Apollo 17 lunar astronauts Schmitt, lefl, and Cernan Irain 01 a site near
Boulder City, Nevada, that approximates what they will encounter on
3-inch Mapping Camera, and a Laser Altimeter. The
Apollo 17 ground track will permit some new areas
of the Moon to be investigated and photographed.
In addition, where Apollo 17 overflies areas covered
by previous missions, the difference in Sun angle
will provide the photo-geolOgists with photographs
of 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. Harrison
H. Schmitt, civilian scientist-astronaut, Lunar Mod-
ule Pilot.
the Moon. All lunar landing crews underwent similar field excursions
10 prepare themselves for their moonwalks.
-{:{ U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1972-779-264/1148

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