Posted on by Elizabeth Howell

Humans Last Landed On The Moon 42 Years Ago Today

Apollo 17 commander Eugene Cernan with the lunar rover in December 1972, in the moon's Taurus-Littrow valley. Credit: NASA

For a brief period in the 1960s and 1970s, 12 people ventured all the way to the surface of the Moon. The accomplishment at the time was hailed as a political victory over the Soviet Union, but as decades have passed the landings have taken on more symbolic meaning with NASA — a time of optimism, of science and of the American spirit.

The last lunar landing was Apollo 17, which took place on Dec. 11, 1972. Commander Eugene Cernan and lunar module pilot Harrison Schmitt did three moonwalks in the Taurus-Littrow valley, scoping out the highlands to try to get a geologic sense of the area. Among their more memorable findings are orange soil. You can see some pictures from their sojourn below.

Apollo 17's Saturn V rocket poised on the launch pad before its Dec. 7, 1972 takeoff. Credit:
Apollo 17’s Saturn V rocket poised on the launch pad before its Dec. 7, 1972 takeoff. Credit:
Apollo 17's lunar rover, flag and part of the lunar module in this view taken out the module's window. Credit: NASA
Apollo 17’s lunar rover, flag and part of the lunar module in this view taken out the module’s window. Credit: NASA
Apollo 17 commander Gene Cernan with a gravimeter experiment. The lunar rover is at right. Credit; NASA
Apollo 17 commander Gene Cernan with a gravimeter experiment. The lunar rover is at right. Credit; NASA
Orange soil (from volcanic glass beads) is clearly visible in this image from Apollo 17. Credit: NASA
Orange soil (from volcanic glass beads) is clearly visible in this image from Apollo 17. Credit: NASA
The Apollo 17 command module America and its service module, as photographed by the returning lunar module Challenger. Credit: NASA
The Apollo 17 command module America and its service module, as photographed by the returning lunar module Challenger. Credit: NASA
Posted on by Elizabeth Howell

Chasing Gene Cernan’s Childhood — and Apollo Years

A wonderful travel moment of serendipity: While sitting near a convention centre in Chicago, I punched in nearby points of interest in my GPS and found something called the Cernan Earth and Space Center.

Suspecting it had something to do with Eugene Cernan, one of the last two men to walk on the moon, I drove to a small building on the Triton College campus, walked inside the front door, and was astounded at what was visible from the entrance.

An Apollo spacesuit. A helmet. A spacecraft gimbal. A diorama of lunar and Martian vehicles. Various pictures, tokens and artifacts showing Eugene Cernan’s aerospace life — all for free.

While I gaped at these artifacts, center director Bart Benjamin approached me and explained Cernan had grown up in the neighbourhood — in fact, his high school is just a few miles away, Benjamin explained. The artifacts are mostly loans from the Smithsonian (the spacesuit was briefly returned there for cleaning and restoration recently); revenues for the center come from its gift shop and laser/planetarium shows, which run several evenings a week.

I unfortunately was not able to stay for a laser show, but I did ask Benjamin for directions to Cernan’s school. Cernan went to Proviso Township High School, now known as Proviso East.

According to Cernan’s biography Last Man on the Moon, at high school he played varsity basketball, baseball and football and was courted by a couple of schools offering football scholarships.

But influenced by the Korean War, he instead applied for a Naval scholarship and did not get his first choice, receiving only partial financing to head to Purdue, as he recalls:

I didn’t want it, because I knew my entire family would have to work hard to pay for me to attend Purdue as an out-of-state student. But at Dad’s insistence, I reluctantly agreed, knowing that not only would I get a degree, but I could still get a commission in the Navy, albeit in the reserves, and maybe somehow could spin that into my dream of flying.

Cernan graduated in 1952 and he flew, all right — including walking on the Moon just 20 years later.

All pictures by Elizabeth Howell.

Elizabeth Howell (M.Sc. Space Studies ’12) is a contributing editor for SpaceRef and award-winning space freelance journalist living in Ottawa, Canada. Her work has appeared in publications such as SPACE.com, Air & Space Smithsonian, Physics Today, the Globe and Mail, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.,  CTV and the Ottawa Business Journal.