It has now been 50 years since astronauts final launched to the moon.
NASA’s Apollo 17 mission lifted off on Dec. 7, 1972, sending Gene Cernan, Harrison Schmitt and Ronald Evans towards Earth’s nearest neighbor. The trio arrived in orbit across the moon three days later.
Evans remained in lunar orbit aboard the mission’s command module, named America. Cernan and Schmitt took the lunar module Challenger to the floor, touching down on the southeastern rim of the moon‘s Mare Serenitatis (“Sea of Serenity”) on Dec. 11.
Associated: Facts about NASA’s Apollo program
Schmitt, a geologist, turned the primary scientist ever to stroll on the moon. He and Cernan spent a record-setting 75 hours on the lunar floor. Throughout that point, the duo arrange or carried out 10 totally different scientific experiments, snapped greater than 2,000 photographs and picked up 243 kilos (110 kilograms) of soil and rock to deliver residence to Earth, in keeping with a NASA mission description (opens in new tab). That pattern haul included a 4.2 billion-year-old stone whose traits recommend that the moon as soon as had a worldwide magnetic area, as Earth nonetheless does.
Cernan and Schmitt knew they’d be the last-ever Apollo moonwalkers, as NASA was starting to shift its focus towards long-term crewed stays in Earth orbit. So, earlier than Challenger lifted off from the lunar floor on Dec. 14, the 2 astronauts revealed a plaque affixed to the module. It learn: “Right here man accomplished his first exploration of the moon, December 1972 A.D. Could the spirit of peace during which he got here be mirrored within the lives of all mankind.”
We can’t have to attend for much longer for the subsequent crewed moon touchdown, if all goes in keeping with NASA’s plan. The company goals to place boots down close to the lunar south pole in 2025 or 2026, on the third mission of its Artemis program, which is known as after the sister of Apollo in Greek mythology.
That timeline depends on the primary two Artemis missions going properly. Artemis 2 is scheduled to launch astronauts across the moon in 2024. Artemis 1 is presently underway; it launched an uncrewed Orion capsule atop a Space Launch System (SLS) rocket on Nov. 16.
The SLS performed well that day, and Orion has been notching milestones like clockwork. The capsule arrived in lunar orbit on Nov. 25, departed on Dec. 1 and started heading back toward Earth by way of an engine burn throughout an in depth flyby of the moon on Monday (Dec. 5).
Orion is scheduled to splash down within the Pacific Ocean off the California coast on Dec. 11 — the identical day that Cernan and Schmitt landed within the Mare Serenitatis. The Apollo 17 mission’s splashdown got here eight days after that lunar touchdown; Cernan, Schmitt and Evans returned to Earth on Dec. 19, 1972.
Mike Wall is the writer of “Out There (opens in new tab)” (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a guide concerning the seek for alien life. Observe him on Twitter @michaeldwall (opens in new tab). Observe us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) or on Facebook (opens in new tab).
