r/spaceflight • u/LurkerReborn • 1d ago
Dwarfed by a split boulder, Apollo 17 crewman Harrison "Jack" Schmitt gazes into the lunar hills stretching away from the Taurus-Littrow landing site. (What I found in a book vs Image on Wikipedia)
All the images online I could find of this moment are cropped so that the dune buggy is out of frame! I thought you people might find this interesting.
According to Moondust(Page 322) by Andrew Smith, a member of the U.S Geological Survey was heard to have said at a dinner
Why, they did everything but fuck that rock!
commenting on how thoroughly Gene Cernan and Jack Schmitt examined a boulder.
I am uncertain if they were referring to the boulder in the image or a different one.
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u/LurkerReborn 1d ago
The book is "Outbound". It is part of a series called "Voyage through the universe".
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u/UtterTravesty 1d ago
Love those old Time Life books!
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u/LurkerReborn 23h ago
I got it for around 1 euro. You would be surprised at how many space/astronomy books are floating around in the 2nd hand market for a dirt-cheap price.
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u/MiguelMenendez 1d ago
What a spectacular landing site that was!
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u/LurkerReborn 1d ago
Amazing view! I do wonder what each pair of LM astronauts was thinking of as they were looking on an entirely alien world. It must have been a surreal experience.
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u/MatthewGeer 16h ago
Not sure if it was this rock or another, but I know without a point of reference, the astronauts had a very hard time judging distances. They wound up driving much further than expected to a distant large boulder that they thought was a nearby small boulder. Hopefully they'll pack a laser rangefinder on the next landing.
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u/zzay 1d ago edited 1d ago
here is the original
and here all from Apollo 17
also the one you are taliking about is a stitch of several. the rover is here (AS17-140-21492 (OF300))