Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera

Apollo 17

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United States

Astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt landed the Apollo 17 Lunar Excursion Module (LEM) within the Taurus-Littrow Valley [20.1911° N, 30.7723° E]. Cernan and Schmitt landed at 19:45:57 UTC on 11 December 1972, and stayed on the lunar surface for 3 days and 2 hours, during which they performed three Extra-Vehicular Activities (EVA) totaling 22 hours and collecting 110.52 kg of lunar samples. Apollo 17 was the last manned mission to the lunar surface.


This spatiotemporal map would not be possible without contributions from other scientists, including the Apollo Lunar Surface Journal, Apollo 17 in Real Time, March to the Moon, Chaikin (1994), the Apollo 17 Press Kit, and the Apollo 17 Final Lunar Surface Procedures.

In addition to these resources, mapping of the LRV traverses relied on previous mapping of the rover tracks, including the Apollo 17 Preliminary Science Report (1973), Defense Mapping Agency map 43D1S2(25) (1975), USGS Professional Paper 1080 (1981), and Stooke (2018).  Astronaut mapping relied on Haase et al. (2012), Haase et al (2018), and the astronaut cuff checklists.

All mapping was done on the 60 cm orthomosaic for the 2m Apollo 17 landing site DTM, supplemented by the 120 cm orthomosaic (for the 5m DTM) in the gores.  You can also access Apollo 17 landing site controlled mosaics here: high-Sun A, B, C, D; low-Sun A, B, C, D.


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