Page 110 - The Appollo Story

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Apollo 17 (AS-512) Last Man On The Moon
Their destination was the southeastem rim of the Mare Serenitatis, with a landing between three high
massifs in a deep valley known as Taurus-Littrow. The site was selected because it featured boulders
along the bases of the mountain, which could provide bedrock samples, as well as dark craters that might
contain evidence of lava flow. Following a nominal descent sequence, the LM, Challenger landed at
19:54:57 GMT on December 11 in a valley at Taurus-Littrow, less than 200m from the preferred landing
point.

APOLLO 17 - SEVE'.'JTH LUNAR LAi~DING M ISSIO ~
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SPACE ~ ITY COVER SOCIETY - HOUSTON, TEXAS

This sheet of NASA Local Post stamps depicts the Lunar Module

Did You Know?
Throughout the Apollo lunar missions, the crew members observed light flashes that penetrated closed
eyelids. These flashes, described as "streaks" or "specks" of light, were usually observed by astronauts
while the spacecraft was darkened during a sleep period. These flashes, while not observed on the lunar
surface, would average about two per minute and were observed by the crew members during the trip out
to the Moon, back to Earth, and in lunar orbit.
The Apollo 17 crew conducted an experiment, also conducted on Apollo 16, with the objective of linking
these light flashes with cosmic rays. As part of an experiment conducted by NASA and the University of
Houston, one astronaut wore a device that recorded the time, strength, and path of high-energy atomic
particles that penetrated the device. Analysis of the results concluded that the evidence supported the hy-
pothesis that the flashes occurred when charged particles travelled through the retina in the eye.