Apollo 17: Die letzte Mondmission im Detail
Video from the channel World Wonders about Apollo 17, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 14:58. Language: English. Video type: Documentary.
What it's about
A short documentary on Apollo 17, the last mission of the Apollo program to the Moon, launched on 7 December 1972 aboard a Saturn V. It covers the crew, the choice of landing site, the journey, the work on the surface and the mission's scientific legacy.
Historical context
Commander Eugene Cernan, a veteran of Gemini 9A and Apollo 10, and lunar module pilot Harrison Schmitt, a geologist and the first scientist-astronaut to walk on the Moon, landed the module Challenger in the Taurus-Littrow valley. The valley lies on the southeastern edge of the Sea of Serenity. Meanwhile, Ronald Evans stayed in lunar orbit in the command module. The site was chosen for signs of ancient volcanic activity. According to the video, the program ended due to budget constraints and waning public interest.
Key facts
On the surface, the crew deployed instruments such as the gravimeter, the heat flow experiment and the lunar atmospheric composition experiment (LACE). They drove across the valley in the LRV lunar rover and collected rocks and soil. The most striking find was orange soil at the edge of a crater; when analyzed on Earth, it turned out to contain volcanic glass beads. After three days of exploration, Cernan and Schmitt lifted off to rejoin Evans and return to Earth.