Searching for evidence: Berlin’s PTScientists aim to pay a visit to our Earth’s companion in the year 2020
Searching for evidence: Berlin’s PTScientists aim to pay a visit to our Earth’s companion in the year 2020
Once arrived, they intend to explore the Apollo 17 landing site in the Taurus Littrow Valley in the south east of the Mare Serenitatis, using two light-weight, 30-kilogramme rovers. It is the place where the last two humans so far, Eugene Cernan and Harrison H. Schmitt, landed on the Moon in the year 1972. They took home a number of very important rock samples, which have given scientists an insight into the geology and history of the Moon. The basin came into being some 3.8 billion years ago. About 100 million years later, lava from the Moon’s interior began to well up, flooding low-lying areas. These lava flows were often accompanied by eruptions of volcanic material which covered the area with small glass beads. Cernen and Schmitt brought some of these glass beads, also known as 'orange soil', back to Earth.
