Apollo and America's Moon Landing Program: Apollo 17 Technical Crew Debriefing with Unique Observations about the Final Lunar Mission - Astronauts Cernan, Schmitt, and Evans

Eugene A. Cernan

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This official NASA document - converted for accurate flowing-text ebook format reproduction - provides the complete transcription of the Apollo 17 post-flight debriefing given by astronauts, with their first-hand description of the sixth and final lunar landing, and the only mission to feature a scientist-astronaut, Jack Schmitt. This ebook is an invaluable addition to the library of anyone interested in the Apollo moon landings.

Contents include: SUITING AND INGRESS * STATUS CHECKS AND COUNTDOWN * POWERED FLIGHT * EARTH ORBIT AND SYSTEMS CHECKOUT * TLI THROUGH S-IVB CLOSEOUT * TRANSLUNAR COAST * LOI, DPI, LUNAR MODULE CHECKOUT * LUNAR MODULE CHECKOUT THROUGH SEPARATION * SEPARATION THROUGH LM TOUCHDOWN * LUNAR SURFACE * CSM CIRCUMLUNAR OPERATIONS * LIFTOFF, RENDEZVOUS, AND DOCKING * LUNAR MODULE JETTISON THROUGH TEI * TRANSEARTH COAST * ENTRY * LANDING AND RECOVERY * TRAINING * CSM SYSTEMS OPERATIONS * LUNAR MODULE SYSTEMS OPERATIONS * LRV OPERATIONS * EMU SYSTEMS * FLIGHT EQUIPMENT * FLIGHT DATA FILE * VISUAL SIGHTINGS * PREMISSION PLANNING * MISSION CONTROL * HUMAN FACTORS

The lunar landing site was the Taurus-Littrow highlands and valley area. This site was picked for Apollo 17 as a location where rocks both older and younger than those previously returned from other Apollo missions, as well as from Luna 16 and 20 missions, might be found.

The mission was the final in a series of three J-type missions planned for the Apollo Program. These J-type missions can be distinguished from previous G- and H-series missions by extended hardware capability, larger scientific payload capacity and by the use of the battery-powered Lunar Roving Vehicle, or LRV.

Scientific objectives of the Apollo 17 mission included, geological surveying and sampling of materials and surface features in a preselected area of the Taurus-Littrow region; deploying and activating surface experiments; and conducting in-flight experiments and photographic tasks during lunar orbit and transearth coast. These objectives included deployed experiments, such as the Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Package, or ALSEP, with a heat flow experiment; lunar seismic profiling, or LSP; lunar surface gravimeter, or LSG; lunar atmospheric composition experiment, or LACE; and lunar ejecta and meteorites, or LEAM. The mission also included lunar sampling and lunar orbital experiments. Biomedical experiments included the Biostack II experiment and the BIOCORE experiment.