| MISSION_DESCRIPTION |
Mission Overview
================
Apollo 17 was launched on 7 December 1972 UT 5:33:00 on a Saturn V
rocket from Kennedy Space Center. Lunar orbit insertion took place on
10 December 1972 UT 19:47:23. The Lunar Module (LM) landed on the Moon
on 11 December 1972 UT 19:54:57, on the southeastern rim of Mare
Serenitatis in a valley at Taurus-Littrow (20.19 North latitude,
30.77 East longitude [DAVIES&COLVIN2000]), while the Command/Service
Module (CSM) orbited the Moon. The lunar ascent module launched from
the Moon on 14 December 1972 UT 22:54:37. The command module was
returned to Earth on 19 December 1972 UT 19:24:59. Apollo 17 was the
final lunar landing mission in NASA's Apollo program.
The astronauts on Apollo 17 were commander Eugene Cernan, command module
pilot Ronald Evans, and lunar module pilot Harrison Schmitt. Three
excursions, using the Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV), lasted a total of 22
hours, 4 minutes and traversed 35.7 km. The lunar surface stay-time was
75 hours. During the stay, the Apollo Lunar Surface Experiment Package
(ALSEP) was placed and activated, and 110.5 kg of rock and soil samples
were collected. The duration of the lunar orbit was 147.6 hours for a
total of 75 orbits.
Surface Operations
==================
Cernan and Schmitt made three moonwalk extra-vehicular activities
(EVAs). The LRV was used to explore regions within 7.5 km of the LM
landing site. The first moonwalk EVA started on 11 December at 23:54:49
UT and ended on 12 December at 07:06:42 UT, during which time the LRV
was unloaded, deployed, and driven. Photographs of the lunar surface
were taken and geologic samples were collected from the LM site and
during all three geological traverses. The ALSEP was deployed 185
meters West-Northwest of the LM landing site. The traverse on the
first EVA covered 3.3 km, out to Steno and Emory craters and back.
The surface electrical properties experiment was set up during this
traverse and a seismic explosives charge deployed.
The second EVA started on 12 December at 23:28:06 UT and ended on 13
December at 07:05:02 UT. The LRV was driven out to Nansen crater and
back by way of Lincoln scarp, Shorty crater, and Camelot crater. It
covered 20.3 km and included deployment of several seismic explosives
packages. The tape recorder from the surface electrical properties
experiment, the cosmic ray experiment, and the lunar neutron probe were
retrieved at the end of this EVA. The third EVA ran from 13 December
22:25:48 UT until 14 December 05:40:56 UT. This traverse went out to
the North massif and Sculptured Hills, and returned via Cochise,
Shakespeare, Van Serg, and Sherlock craters. The traverse covered a
distance of 12.1 km. The LM lifted off the Moon on 14 December at
22:54:37 UT after 75 hours on the lunar surface.
Surface Experiments
===================
The Apollo 17 astronauts performed and deployed many experiments on
the lunar surface along with the geologic studies, sample return,
and surface photography.
- The Lunar Traverse Gravimeter Experiment was designed to make a
high-accuracy survey of the gravitational field in the Apollo 17
landing area;
- The Soil Mechanics Experiment studied the physical properties of
the lunar regolith using observations recorded by video and audio;
- The Surface Electrical Properties Experiment obtained data about
the electromagnetic energy transmission, absorption, and reflection
characteristics of the lunar surface and subsurface.
- The Lunar Surface Cosmic Ray Experiment was a set of detectors hung
from the LM, designed to measure solar wind particles, low energy
cosmic rays, and radon;
- The Neutron Probe was designed to measure the rates of low-energy
neutron capture as a function of depth in the lunar regolith.
Other experiments were part of the Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments
Package (ALSEP) which was emplaced at the landing site by the
astronauts. The instruments, connected by cables to a central station
which controlled power and communications, ran autonomously. Data
collected was converted to a telemetry format and transmitted to Earth.
Many of these experiments returned data until September 1977, when the
ALSEP network was turned off due to budgetary constraints.
The Apollo 17 ALSEP instruments consisted of:
- A Lunar Ejecta and Meteorites Experiment, designed to measure the
frequency with which the Moon was impacted by primary cosmic dust
particles and lunar ejecta;
- A Lunar Atmospheric Composition Experiment, designed to study the
composition and variations in the tenuous lunar atmosphere;
- A Lunar Surface Gravimeter, designed to obtain highly accurate
measurements of the lunar gravity and its temporal variations at a
selected point on the surface;
- A Heat Flow Experiment, designed to measure the rate of heat loss
from the lunar interior and the thermal properties of lunar
material;
- A Lunar Seismic Profiling Experiment, designed to acquire data on
the physical properties of the lunar near-surface materials and to
monitor natural seismic activity.
Orbital Science Experiments
===========================
Investigations were also carried out from lunar orbit in the Apollo 17
Command and Service Module. Hand-held photography was performed from
the command module, and a suite of instruments operated from the
Scientific Instrument Module (SIM) in the Service Module, comprising:
- Metric and Panoramic cameras to take photographs of the lunar
surface from orbit;
- A Laser Altimeter using reflected laser pulses to profile the
topography of lunar surface;
- A Far Ultraviolet Spectrometer provided UV observations of the
lunar surface, lunar atmosphere, zodiacal light, solar atmosphere,
Earth, and galactic and stellar sources;
- An Infrared Scanning Radiometer designed to measure the thermal
emission from the lunar surface in order to obtain a surface
temperature map;
- A Lunar Sounder Experiment, a synthetic aperture radar, mapped
the topography and subsurface electrical conductivity structure
and measured galactic electromagnetic radiation in the lunar
environment;
- An S-Band Transponder Experiment designed to carefully track
the CSM orbit and measure the lunar gravity field.
Additional experiments were also performed in lunar orbit and during the
cruise between Earth and the Moon:
- The Mapping Camera Aspect Stellar Photography Experiment took
stellar photographs simultaneously with the metric photography to
provide more accurate spacecraft position reference data;
- The Biological Cosmic Ray Experiment (BIOCORE) consisted of a
group of pocket mice with implanted cosmic ray detectors to
determine the biological effects of cosmic rays;
- The Biostack Experiment was designed to study the effects of
cosmic radiation on various biological specimens;
- The Window Meteoroid experiment studied micrometeoroid impacts
on the Apollo 17 Command Module heat shield windows to obtain
information about the mass flux of micro-meteorites.
- The Heat Flow and Convection experiment was an engineering test
performed on board the Apollo 17 Command Module to measure and
observe the behavior of fluid flowing in the absence of gravity.
For more information about the experiments, see the 'Apollo 17
Preliminary Science Report' by Johnson Space Center, (1973)
[APOLLO17A1973].
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