Completed 2021 (study for oil painting) Private Collection
12 December 1972. Station 5 - Apollo 17 Extravehicular activity (EVA) no. 2. Southerly view across the moon's Taurus-Littrow valley standing among rim boulders at Camelot, the largest crater explored by the Apollo 17 crew. Lunar Module Pilot Jack Schmitt scurries back to the Lunar Rover carrying his long-handled sample bag holder at the close of the nearly 8-hour traverse which covered over 20 kilometers as they visited a number of carefully pre-planned sites west and southwest of their landing spot just east of Camelot. Once on the rover, Schmitt and mission commander Gene Cernan made the short trip back to the Lunar Module Challenger.
Station 5 had the astronauts observe and sample the 650 meter-wide Camelot's floor, rim, and walls, including large basalt blocks - some of which are seen in the painting - that were grouped together on the southwest edge of the low-rimmed crater. These rocks were determined to be subfloor basalt ejected an estimated almost 100 million years ago when the impact crater was formed. Mission control had awakened them prior to this second EVA with Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries, a nod to the 7am wake-up tradition during finals week at Caltech, Schmitt’s alma mater.
US Navy Captain Eugene A. “Gene” Cernan and NASA geologist Dr. Harrison H. “Jack” Schmitt were on the lunar surface for three days. They spent 22 total hours exploring the rich geologic treasure of the Taurus-Littrow Valley while their crewmate, Command Module Pilot US Navy Captain Ronald E. “Ron” Evans, orbited solo overhead conducting scientific experiments and taking photographs of surface features. It’s interesting to note that Evans was one of the few Apollo Vietnam combat veterans, having previously completed a seven-month carrier tour flying over 100 missions in F-8 Crusaders with VF-51 in the mid-1960s before selection as a NASA astronaut.
The highly successful mission closed out the amazing Apollo program, and remains the most recent time man has ventured beyond low earth orbit. The entire mission, from their epic night launch to splashdown in the South Pacific Ocean, lasted 12 days, 13 hours, 51 minutes, and 59 seconds. Cernan and Evans have since passed away, but Dr. Schmitt still maintains a busy schedule writing, lecturing and interacting with young people at various events.
For further reading I highly recommend, among other equally great books too numerous to mention here, The Last Man On the Moon, by Eugene Cernan (a bonus is the audiobook version is narrated by Gene himself!), Moon Shot: The Inside Story of America's Apollo Moon Landings, by Alan Shepard, Deke Slayton, and Jay Barbree, and the excellent A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts, by Andrew Chaikin. A Long Voyage to the Moon: The Life of Naval Aviator and Apollo 17 Astronaut Ron Evans, by Geoffrey Bowman, was released in November 2021.
Jack Schmitt, Gene Cernan (seated), and Ron Evans prior to the mission.
Completed 2021
(study for oil painting)
Private Collection
12 December 1972. Station 5 - Apollo 17 Extravehicular activity (EVA) no. 2. Southerly view across the moon's Taurus-Littrow valley standing among rim boulders at Camelot, the largest crater explored by the Apollo 17 crew. Lunar Module Pilot Jack Schmitt scurries back to the Lunar Rover carrying his long-handled sample bag holder at the close of the nearly 8-hour traverse which covered over 20 kilometers as they visited a number of carefully pre-planned sites west and southwest of their landing spot just east of Camelot. Once on the rover, Schmitt and mission commander Gene Cernan made the short trip back to the Lunar Module Challenger.
Station 5 had the astronauts observe and sample the 650 meter-wide Camelot's floor, rim, and walls, including large basalt blocks - some of which are seen in the painting - that were grouped together on the southwest edge of the low-rimmed crater. These rocks were determined to be subfloor basalt ejected an estimated almost 100 million years ago when the impact crater was formed. Mission control had awakened them prior to this second EVA with Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries, a nod to the 7am wake-up tradition during finals week at Caltech, Schmitt’s alma mater.
US Navy Captain Eugene A. “Gene” Cernan and NASA geologist Dr. Harrison H. “Jack” Schmitt were on the lunar surface for three days. They spent 22 total hours exploring the rich geologic treasure of the Taurus-Littrow Valley while their crewmate, Command Module Pilot US Navy Captain Ronald E. “Ron” Evans, orbited solo overhead conducting scientific experiments and taking photographs of surface features. It’s interesting to note that Evans was one of the few Apollo Vietnam combat veterans, having previously completed a seven-month carrier tour flying over 100 missions in F-8 Crusaders with VF-51 in the mid-1960s before selection as a NASA astronaut.
The highly successful mission closed out the amazing Apollo program, and remains the most recent time man has ventured beyond low earth orbit. The entire mission, from their epic night launch to splashdown in the South Pacific Ocean, lasted 12 days, 13 hours, 51 minutes, and 59 seconds. Cernan and Evans have since passed away, but Dr. Schmitt still maintains a busy schedule writing, lecturing and interacting with young people at various events.
For further reading I highly recommend, among other equally great books too numerous to mention here, The Last Man On the Moon, by Eugene Cernan (a bonus is the audiobook version is narrated by Gene himself!), Moon Shot: The Inside Story of America's Apollo Moon Landings, by Alan Shepard, Deke Slayton, and Jay Barbree, and the excellent A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts, by Andrew Chaikin. A Long Voyage to the Moon: The Life of Naval Aviator and Apollo 17 Astronaut Ron Evans, by Geoffrey Bowman, was released in November 2021.
Jack Schmitt, Gene Cernan (seated), and Ron Evans prior to the mission.