The Misteries of the Moon. Part 3

In December 1972, Apollo 17 soars into the valley of Taurus-Littrow. Here is that same view today from the Kaguya satellite’s terrain camera. Crew member Dr. Harrison Jack Schmitt, the only geologist to visit the Moon, chose the landing site.

Dr. Harrison Schmitt said: “Well, what we were trying to do was to get as broad a spectrum of samples in different ages as we possibly can from the different units. And that’s what the valley of Taurus-Littow offered us the opportunity to do. I grabbed the railings of the ladder and slid down. Remember, we’re in one-sixth gravity, so you don’t weigh as much, your mass is the same, but you don’t weigh as much, so things are a lot easier in that respect, even when encumbered by that pressure suit that we had to wear. The spacesuit is the primary constraint on efficiently conducting field science. A large problem is that the dust gets all over radiator surfaces, solar cells and things like that. You keep having to brush it off. We did occasionally try to use duct tape outside. It was impossible to keep dust off the tape with your fingers and things like that”.

Schmitt and Cernan set out in the lunar rover to collect samples of rock and Moon dust. And Jack Schmitt is approaching a crater when he sees a flash of color in the sea of gray.

Dr. Harrison Schmitt said: “I was looking down at the surface, and I detected an orange hue to the debris that was covering the rim of the crater. And I had been fooled once by reflection, an orange reflection off the lunar rover. And, so, I was very cautious initially about what it might be. And as I dug down, I immediately penetrated into this bright orange material”.

The orange soil, as it came to be known, has scientists intrigued, but its true significance would remain a secret for decades to come. And then, it was time to leave.

Cernan said: “This is Gene and I’m on the surface and as I take man’s last steps from the surface, as we leave the Moon and Taurus-Littrow, we leave as we came, and God willing as we shall return”.

Those words were spoken on December 14, 1972. No human have set foot on the Moon since.