Again I shall bring us a little closer to home again for todays picture, for those of you who are old enough it should evoke some memories of the great days of "the space race", for the younger people viewing it, it should hopefully provoke thoughts about how much mankind has managed to achieve, and for all it may even provoke thoughts that maybe one day we shall see similar scenes again, except next time it might even be with red soil underfoot rather than grey regolith.
In December of 1972, Apollo 17 astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt spent about 75 hours on the Moon, in the Taurus-Littrow valley, while colleague Ronald Evans orbited overhead. Near the beginning of their third and final excursion across the lunar surface, Schmitt took this picture of Cernan flanked by an American flag and their lunar rover's umbrella-shaped high-gain antenna. The prominent Sculptured Hills lie in the background while Schmitt's reflection can just be made out in Cernan's helmet. The Apollo 17 crew returned with 110 kilograms of rock and soil samples, more than from any of the other lunar landing sites. And after thirty years, Cernan and Schmitt are still the last to walk on the Moon.
Again a larger version of this pic is available here,this is a jpeg file aprox 200K.
IMO another great desktop background.
Previous Pic Of The Day posts
18th Dec 02
17th Dec 02
16th Dec 02
15th Dec 02
14th Dec 02
23rd Nov 02
22nd Nov 02
In December of 1972, Apollo 17 astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt spent about 75 hours on the Moon, in the Taurus-Littrow valley, while colleague Ronald Evans orbited overhead. Near the beginning of their third and final excursion across the lunar surface, Schmitt took this picture of Cernan flanked by an American flag and their lunar rover's umbrella-shaped high-gain antenna. The prominent Sculptured Hills lie in the background while Schmitt's reflection can just be made out in Cernan's helmet. The Apollo 17 crew returned with 110 kilograms of rock and soil samples, more than from any of the other lunar landing sites. And after thirty years, Cernan and Schmitt are still the last to walk on the Moon.
Again a larger version of this pic is available here,this is a jpeg file aprox 200K.
IMO another great desktop background.
Previous Pic Of The Day posts
18th Dec 02
17th Dec 02
16th Dec 02
15th Dec 02
14th Dec 02
23rd Nov 02
22nd Nov 02