Apollo 17 Preliminary Science Report

656 Pages·2002·46.09 MB·English

NASA SP-330
Preliminary
Science
Repo
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS
AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
APOLLO 17 PRELIMINARY SCIENCE REPORT
Apollo 17 command and service module over the Taurus-Littrow landing site.
NASA SP-330
Preliminary Science Report
PREPARED BY
LYNDOI\1 B. JOHNSON SPACE CENTER
Scientific and Technical Information Office
1973
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
Washington,
D.C.
EDITORIAL BOARD
The material submitted for the "Apollo 17 Preliminary
Science Report" was reviewed by a NASA Editorial Review
Board consisting of the following members: Robert A.
Parker (Chairman), Richard R. Baldwin, Robin Brett, Jerry
D. Fuller, Robert L. Giesecke, John B. Hanley, David N.
Holman, Robert M. Mercer, Susan N. Montgomery, Michael
J. Murphy, and Scott H. Simpkinson.
Cover Photographs: Clockwise from upper right: (I) The command and service module
scientific instrument module bay viewed from the lunar module. (2) Photomicrograph of a
thin section of the orange soil sample collected at Shorty Crater. (3) Orange soil on the
rim of Shorty Crater with the gnomon in the background. The soil consists of small orange
glass spheres as shown in the photomicrograph above. (4) Large breccia boulder sampled
near the base of the North Massif. The boulder appears to have rolled down the massif and
broken into five pieces. The lunar roving vehicle is parked to the right of the boulder.
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Foreword
The character of the Apollo 17 mission to Taurus-Littrow was such that it invited
superlatives. By almost all measures, it was an immensely successful voyage of
exploration: the greatest harvest of new scientific data, the most kilometers traveled on
the surface of the Moon, the largest number of scientific experiments performed-both in
real time, by a scientist on the surface, and by automatic instrumentation installed and
left behind-the longest time spent on and around the Moon, and the greatest amount of
lunar samples returned for study in laboratories all over the world. But numerical
measures like these, pleasing though they may be to the thousands of us who had some
connection with this mission, do not seem an adequate characterization of this sixth and
last of the Apollo series of manned lunar landings.
We cannot now be sure how history will assess this extraordinary enterprise. It may be
that, from the perspective of decades, the Apollo Program will stand out as the most
singular achievement to date in the history of man's scientific and engineering endeavor.
From this perspective, seen without hubris, it may be seen that all of us will be
remembered for having livt�d at the time of Apollo. It may be that, in days to come,
Apollo will be perceived as a threshold for mankind from the planet Earth.
Dr. James C. Fletcher
Administrator
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
v
Contents
Page
INTRODUCTION xiii
Anthony J. Calia
1. APOLLO 17 SITE SELECTION 1-1
W. Hinners
N.
2. MISSION DESCRIPTION 2-1
Richard R. Baldwin
3. SUMMARY Of SCIENTIFIC RESULTS 3-1
Robert A. Parker
4. PHOTOGRAPHIC SUMMARY 4-1
M. McEwen and Uel Clanton
C. S:.
APPENDIX. NEAR-TERMINATOR AND EARTHSHINE PHOTOGRAPHY 4-33
James W. Head and Douglas Lloyd
A GEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION OF THE TAURUS-LITTROW VALLEY
Harrison Schmitt and Eugene A. Cernan
5. H. 5-1
6. PRELIMINARY GEOLOGIC INVESTIGATION OF THE APOLLO LAND-
ING SITE 6-1
17
W. R. Muehlberger, R. M. Batson, E. A. Cernan, V. L. Freeman, M. H.
Hait, H. E. Holt, A. Howard, E. D. Jackson, K. Larson, S. Reed,
J. Rennilson, H. Sc;f!mitt, D. H. Scott, R. L. Sutton, D.
K.H. B. V.
Stuart-Alexander, G. A. Swann, J. Trask, G. E. Ulrich, G. Wilshire,
J. N. H.
and E. Wolfe
W.
7. PRELIMINARY EXAMINATION OF LUNAR SAMPLES 7-1
The Lunar Sample Preliminary Examination Team
8. SOIL MECHANICS 8-1
James K. Mitchell, W. David Carrier, Nicholas C. Castes, William
N.
Houston, Ronald F. Scott, and John Hovlqnd
III,
H.
9. HEAT FLOW EXPERIMENT 9-1
Marcus G. Langseth, Jr., Stephen J. Keihm, and John L. Chute, Jr.
10. LUNAR SEISMIC PROFILING EXPERIMENT 10-1
Robert L. Kovach, Joel S. Watkins, and Pradeep Talwani
vii
viii APOLLO 17 PRELIMINARY SCIENCE REPORT
11. PASSIVE SEISMIC EXPERIMENT 11-1
Gary V. Latham, Maurice Ewing, Frank Press, James Dorman, Yosio
Nakamura, Nafi Toksoz, Davis Lammlein, Fred Duennebier, and Anton
Dainty
12. LUNAR SURFACE GRAVIMETER EXPERIMENT 12-1
John J. Giganti, J. V. Larson, J. P. Richard, and J. Weber
13. TRAVERSE GRAVIMETER EXPERIMENT 13-1
Manik Talwani, George Thompson, Brian Dent, Hans-Gert Kahle, and
Sheldon Buck
14. S-BAND TRANSPONDER EXPERIMENT 14-1
W. L. Sjogren, W. R. Wollenhaupt, and R. Wimberly
N.
15. SURFACE ELECTRICAL PROPERTIES EXPERIMENT 15-1
Gene Simmons, David Strangway, Peter Annan, Richard Baker, Lawrence
Bannister, Rayman Brown, William Cooper, Dean Cubley, Joseph deBet­
tencourt, Anthony W. England, John Groener, fin-Au Kong, Gerald
LaTorraca, James Meyer, Ved Nanda, David Redman, James Rossiter,
Leung Tsang, Joseph Urner, and Raymond Watts
16. LUNAR EJECTA AND METEORITES EXPERIMENT 16-1
E. Berg, F. F. Richardson, and H. Burton
0.
17. LUNAR ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION EXPERIMENT
J. Hoffman, R. R. Hodges, Jr., F. S. Johnson, and D. E. Evans
17-1
H.
18. LUNAR NEUTRON PROBE EXPERIMENT 18-1
Dorothy S. Woolum, D. S. Burnett, and C. A. Bauman
19. COSMIC RAY EXPERIMENT 19-1
PART A. MEASUREMENTS OF HEAVY SOLAR WIND AND HIGHER
ENERGY SOLAR PARTICLES DURING THE APOLLO 17 MISSION 19-2
R. M. Walker, E. Zinner, and M. Maurette
PART B. QUIET TIME ENERGY SPECTRA OF HEAVY NUCLEI FROM 20
TO 400keV/amu 19-11
R. T. Woods, R. Hart, Jr., and R. L. Fleischer
H.
PART C. THE NATURE OF INTERPLANETARY HEAVY IONS WITH 0.1 <
E<40 MeV/NUCLEON 19-15
P. B. Price and J. H. Chan
20. GAMMA RAY SPECTROMETER EXPERIMENT, Nai(Tl) DETECTOR
CRYSTALACTIVATION 20-1
J. Trombka, R. L. Schmadebeck, M. Bielefeld, G. D. O'Kelley, J. S.
Eldridge, J. Northcutt, A. E. Metzger, E. Schonfeld, L. E. Peterson, J.
I.
K.
R. Arnold, and R. Reedy
C.
CONTENTS ix
21. APOLLO WINDOW METEOROID EXPERIMENT 21-1
Burton G. Cour-Palais
22. APOLLO LUNAR SOUNDER EXPERIMENT 22-1
R. J. Phillips, G. F. Adams, W. E. Brown, Jr., R. E. Eggleton, P. Jackson,
R. Jordan, W. Lin/or, W. J. Peeples, L. J. Porcello, J. Ryu, G. Schaber,
I.
R. Sill, T. Thompson, S. Ward, and J. S. Zelenka
W. W. H.
23. ULTRA VIOLET SPECTROMETER EXPERIMENT 23-1
William G. Fastie, Paul D. Feldman, Richard Henry, Warren Moos,
C. H.
Charles A. Barth, Gary E. Thomas, Charles F. Lillie, and Thomas M.
Donahue
24. INFRARED SCANNING RADIOMETER 24-1
F. J. Low and W. Mendell
W.
25. BIOSTACK EXPERIMENT 25-1
H. Bucker, G. Horneck, E. Reinholz, Ruther, E. H. Graul, Planet, J.
W. H.
P. Soleilhavoup, P. Cuer, R. Kaiser, J. P. Massue, R. Pfohl, W. Enge, K. P.
Bartholomii, R. Beaujean, K. Fukui, Allkofer, W. Heinrich, E. V.
0. C.
Benton, E. Schopper, G. Henig, J. Schott, H. Fran(:ois, G. Portal,
U. H.
Kuhn, D. Harder, H. Wollenhaupt, and G. Bowman
26. BIOCORE EXPERIMENT 26-1
Bailey, E. V. Benton, M. R. Cruty, G. A. Harrison, Haymaker, G.
0. T. W.
Humason, A. Leon, R. L. Lindberg, B. Look, C. Lushbaugh, D. E.
H. C. C.
Philpott, T. Samorajski, R. Simmonds, K. P. Suri, J. Tremor, C. E.
C. W.
Turnbill, F. S. Vogel, D. L. Winter, and Zeman
W.
27. VISUAL LIGHT FLASH PHENOMENON 27-1
L. S. Pinsky, Z. Osborne, and J. V. Bailey
W.
28. GEOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS FROM LUNAR ORBIT 28-1
R. E. Evans and Farouk El-Baz
29. STRATIGRAPHIC STUDIES 29-I
PART A. BASALT STRATIGRAPHY OF SOUTHERN MARE SERENITATIS 29-1
K. A. Howard, M. Carr, and R. Muehlberger
W.
H.
PART B. GEOLOGIC SETTING OF THE DARK MANTLING MATERIAL IN
THE TAURUS-LITTROW REGION OF THE MOON 29-13
B. Lucchitta
K.
PART C. RELATIVE AGES OF SOME NEAR-SIDE MARE UNITS BASED
ON APOLLO 17 METRIC PHOTOGRAPHS 29-26
Joseph M. Boyce and Arthur L. Dial, Jr.
PART D. GEOLOGIC MAP OF THE NORTHERN CRISIUM REGION 29-29
Don E. Wilhelms
APOLLO 17 PRELIMINARY SCIENCE REPORT
X
30. VOLCANIC STUDIES 30-1
PART A. COMPARATIVE GEOLOGY OF CRATER ARATUS CA (MARE
SERENITATIS) AND BEAR CRATER (IDAHO) 30-1
Ronald Greeley
PART B. MARE SERENITATIS CINDER CONES AND TERRESTRIAL
ANALOGS 30-7
David Scott
H.
PART SOME VOLCANIC AND STRUCTURAL FEATURES OF MARE
SERENITATIS 30-9
C.
W. B. Bryan and Mary-Linda Adams
PART D. "D-CALDERA": NEW PHOTOGRAPHS OF A UNIQUE FEATURE 30-13
Farouk El-Baz
PART E. ERATOSTHENIAN VOLCANISM IN MARE IMBRIUM: SOURCE
OF YOUNGEST LAVA FLOWS 30-17
,
Gerald G. Schilber
31. MARE RIDGES AND RELATED STUDIES 31-1
PART A. VOLCANISM IN THE LUNAR MARIA 31-1
RichilrdA. Young, .Wfl!iam J. Brennan, Robert W. Wolfe, and Douglas J.
Nichols
PART B. MARE RIDGES AND LAVA LAKES 31-12
Carroll Ann Hodges
PART C. LUNAR THRUST FAULTS INT HE TAURUS-UTTROW REGION 31-22
A. Howard and W. R. Muehlberger
K.
PART D. SMALL STRUCTURES OF THE TAURUS-LITTROW REGION 31-25
David Scott
H.
32. CRATER STUDIES 32-1
PART A. LUNAR CRATER MORPiiOMETRY 32-1
Richilrd J. Pike
PART B. AITKEN CRATER AND ITS ENVIRONS 32-8
Farouk El-Baz
PART C. VOLCANIC FEATURES OF FAR-SIDE,CRATERAITKEN 32-13
W. B. Bryan and Mary-Linda Adams
PART D. THE LUNAR HERRINGBONE PATTERN 32-15
VerneR. Oberbeck and Robert Morrison
H.