Latest Apollo 17 Stories
NASA -- Now this is a ski report: Clear skies, no wind, sweet slopes and deep powder -- not expected to melt for at least five billion years. Grab your poles and pack your bags. Just don't forget your spacesuit, because you're going to the moon.The moon's dust-covered mountains reminded more than one Apollo astronaut of a winter wonderland: "My snowsuit's ready," joked Apollo 14 pilot Ed Mitchell after donning his spacesuit for a walk around Fra Mauro. Commander Al Shepard agreed,...
An old Apollo experiment is telling researchers something new and surprising about the moon.Every lunar morning, when the sun first peeks over the dusty soil of the moon after two weeks of frigid lunar night, a strange storm stirs the surface.The next time you see the moon, trace your finger along the terminator, the dividing line between lunar night and day. That's where the storm is. It's a long and skinny dust storm, stretching all the way from the north pole to the south pole, swirling...
Using laser beams and electric fields, NASA researchers are probing the curious behavior of moondust.Each morning, Mian Abbas enters his laboratory and sits down to examine -- a single mote of dust. Zen-like, he studies the same speck suspended inside a basketball-sized vacuum chamber for as long as 10 to 12 days.The microscopic object of his rapt attention is not just any old dust particle. It's moondust. One by one, Abbas is measuring properties of individual dust grains returned by Apollo...
For the first time since the 1970s, a NASA spacecraft will get clear pictures of Apollo relics on the Moon.Inside the lunar lander Challenger, a radio loudspeaker crackled.Houston: "We've got you on television now. We have a good picture."Gene Cernan, Apollo 17 commander: "Glad to see old Rover's still working.""Rover," the moon buggy, sat outside with no one in the driver's seat, its side-mounted TV camera fixed on Challenger. Back in Houston and around the...
When astronauts return to the Moon in the years ahead, they might encounter electrified fountains and other strange things.Science@NASA -- It's astonishing how prophetic some science fiction has been. Back in 1956, two years before NASA was even created, Hal Clement wrote a short story called "Dust Rag" published in Astounding Science Fiction, about two astronauts descending into a crater on the Moon to investigate a mysterious haze dimming stars near the lunar horizon. After...
Latest Apollo 17 Reference Libraries
Ronald Ellwin Evans, Jr. was an astronaut that worked with NASA on the Apollo missions and served as a Captain in the United States Navy. Evans is one of the twenty-four astronauts to fly to the moon. . Evans was born on November 10, 1933 in St. Francis, Kansas. He graduated from Highland Park High School in Topeka, Kansas. Boy Scouts of America played a huge role in Evans youth as he attained the highest level of Life Scout. Evans then went on to study at the University of Kansas...
John Young was a NASA astronaut and engineer. He was born as John Watts Young on September 24, 1930 in San Francisco, California but was raised in Orlando, Florida. After high school, Young went to the Georgia Institute of Technology and graduated in 1952 with a Bachelor of Science degree in aeronautical engineering. After his graduation, he entered the United States Navy and served as a Fire Control Officer on the USS Laws. He also completed a tour in the Korean Seas. About ten years...
Harrison Schmitt was a NASA astronaut, and is also an American geologist. He was born Harrison Hagan "Jack" Schmitt on July 3, 1935 in Santa Rita, New Mexico. After high school, he went to the California Institute of Technology and received a B.S. degree in science in 1957. He then went to Norway to study geology at the University of Oslo. In 1964, Schmitt earned a Ph.D. in geology from Harvard University. After receiving his doctorate, he worked at the U.S. Geological Survey's...
Edgar Mitchell was an American pilot, engineer, and astronaut. He was also the sixth person to have walked on the moon. He was born Edgar Dean Mitchell, D.Sc. on born September 17, 1930 in Hereford, Texas. During his childhood, he was active in the Boy Scouts of America where he achieved its second highest rank, Life Scout. He attended Carnegie Institute of Technology and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in industrial management in 1952. The following year he joined the US Navy and trained...
Charles Duke was a United States astronaut and engineer for NASA, as well as a retired USAF Brigadier General. He is also the youngest of twelve people who have walked on the moon. He was born Charles Moss Duke, Jr. on October 3, 1935 in Charlotte, North Carolina. He attended Lancaster High School and graduated as valedictorian from the Admiral Farragut Academy in St. Petersburg, Florida in 1953. He then went on to earn a Bachelor of Science degree in Naval Sciences from the United States...
