On December 7, 1972, the astronauts of the Apollo 17 mission lit the fires under their Saturn V rocket and became the last men to depart Earth on their way to the moon. Their mission was the last in a series of seven planned to land on the moon, the most famous of which, Apollo 11, had an audience estimated at around the one fifth of the global population when Neil Armstrong took his first steps onto the lunar surface. We successfully visited our nearest neighbor another five times after Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins returned safely to Earth on that first flight, and despite the fact that these subsequent missions didn’t get easier and actually accomplished more in the name of research and understanding, they have fallen out of the public memory.
.jpg)
Apollo 11 was, in some ways, a proof of concept. There were an incredible number of moving pieces and things that had to work just so in order for landing on the moon to be a success. The crew from Apollo 11 made it to the moon, performed and moonwalk (or EVA), collected some moon rocks, and then returned home safely. While they were breaking monumental barriers, they were really just laying the groundwork for the missions that would get the bulk of the research done. All in all, the crew of Apollo 11 spent about two and a half hours walking the surface and brought home about fifty pounds of moon rock samples. You’ll find this isn’t that much at all.
C. Peter Conrad and Alan Bean of Apollo 12, who landed on the lunar surface nearly four months to the day after Armstrong and Aldrin, would spend nearly eight hours exploring the landscape and return over 75 pounds of samples. Apollo 15 and her crew David Scott, Alfred Worden, and James Irwin were part of a new sub-series of the Apollo missions dubbed the “J type” which meant they would have a much longer stay on the surface and have the ability to bring home a great deal more cargo. Irwin and Scott stayed on the surface from July 30 to August 2, spending over 19 hours exploring the surface and returning 169 pounds of samples, all of which was made easier by their new piece of equipment, the lunar rover.
By late 1972, we’d been to the moon and back without injury five times. The program was set to expire due to budgetary restriction and the fact that NASA had only ordered so many Saturn V rockets. The emphasis was switching from moon exploration to the idea of increasing our abilities at Space Travel. NASA’s budget, which was shrinking overall at this time, was directed more and more towards the creation of the Space Shuttle and away from the Apollo program. Apollo 17 was the last Apollo flight, and successfully touched down on and returned from the moon in December 1972, making her crew the last humans to travel beyond low Earth orbit. And while our extra-terrestrial focus has recently been on living in space with the International Space Station and the Shuttle, there is good news for those interested in seeing humans go places in this universe. NASA recently conducted the first test flight of the engines and technology that will one day take the human race to Mars.