Public Invited to Free Lecture on Apollo 17 Anniversary: It's a New Moon 40 Years After Apollo
The public is invited to a free event in December to experience "Asking What Was Once Unthinkable," by Dr. Noah Petro, research scientist and team member for the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) mission at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Centre in Greenbelt, Md. The talk is part of the Gerald Soffen Lecture Series and will be held at the Visitor Centre at NASA Goddard on Wed., Dec. 12, 2012 at 7 p.m. EDT (doors will open at 6:45 p.m.). The presentation is about one hour and will end with a question and answer session. Registration is requested online. Pre-registration will be open until Dec. 7, 2012. Read more
Apollo 17 was the eleventh and final manned mission in the American Apollo space program. Launched at 12:33 a.m. EST on December 7, 1972. The LM touched down on the lunar surface at 2:55 PM EST on December 11. Read more
Apollo 17 was the eleventh and final manned mission in the American Apollo space program. Launched at 12:33 a.m. EST on December 7, 1972, with a three-member crew consisting of Commander Eugene Cernan, Command Module Pilot Ronald Evans, and Lunar Module Pilot Harrison Schmitt, Apollo 17 remains the most recent manned Moon landing and the most recent manned flight beyond low Earth orbit. Read more
Remarkable new images of the Apollo landing sites on the Moon have just been released by Nasa. The pictures clearly show the hardware left on the lunar surface by American astronauts in the 1960s and 70s, including Apollo 17's "moon buggy".
Credit NASA The parallel tracks made by the Lunar Roving Vehicle ("Moon buggy") can be seen at centre-right
The images were acquired by the robotic Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), which has been circling Earth's satellite since 2009. Such shots have been returned before, but these are the best yet.
Lunar lift-off film for Apollo 17. The television camera was mounted on the rover which Gene parked about 145 meters east of (behind) the lunar module. The ascent stage ignites and climbs, spacecraft foil and dust flying in all directions. Ed Fendell in Houston anticipates exactly the timing of ignition, lift-off, and the rate of climb, and the camera tilts to follows the ascent. At pitchover, the throat of the ascent engine points down at the camera and its combustion is visible as a small bright light. The clip ends as Challenger reaches an altitude of 1,500 feet.
Jack Schmitt throws his geology hammer in the 1/6 lunar gravity before they get back inside the lunar lander.
Hammer can be seen going nearly strait up above Jack and then falls off to the left and descends behind the LM.
The rover is parked at the VIP site behind the lunar module. Jack emerges as a small figure, 145 meters away, to the right of the lunar module. He pleads with Gene to let him throw his geology hammer. The commander concedes his permission and warns him not to hit the lunar module or the ALSEP. Jack flings it into the air and careful observation of the clip reveals the spinning hammer in flight, barely visible against the mountain in the background, and then against the black sky. Jack is thrilled with the long flight of the hammer and walks back to the lunar module.