Apollo 17
December 12, 1972
Harrison Schmitt was on his second EVA when he looked down and said "There's orange soil!" It was a startling discovery — color on the Moon, in a landscape of gray. Volcanic activity? Recent geology? The scientists are excited. Even after twelve missions, the Moon is still surprising us.
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Apollo 16
April 21, 1972
John Young and Charles Duke are on the surface of the Descartes Highlands, and the science is already surprising. The region was supposed to be volcanic, different from the mare sites. The first samples suggest it isn't. The Moon keeps teaching us by being different from what we expected.
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Apollo 15
August 1, 1971
Dave Scott and Jim Irwin may have found the most important rock ever collected — an anorthosite fragment they're calling the Genesis Rock, estimated to be 4 billion years old. It's a piece of the original lunar crust, from when the Moon was still forming. I've been a space program…
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November 20, 1970
The Fra Mauro samples from Apollo 14 are being analyzed. The formation turns out to be exactly what the geologists hoped: Imbrium basin ejecta, telling us about the giant impact.
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August 1, 1969
The Apollo 11 moon rocks are in the Lunar Receiving Laboratory at the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston. Scientists are beginning to analyze them.
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