Mission to the Moon. MAY 25, 1961 First, I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing.

Mission to the Moon

MAY 25, 1961

First, I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of

landing a man on the Moon and returning him

safely to the Earth.

APOLLO LANDING SITES

Houston, we've had a problem.

Moon Rocks

840 pounds (382 kilograms) of rock and other surface material.

REGOLITH• (Greek: "blanket rock")

is a layer of loose, heterogeneous material covering solid rock. It includes dust, soil, broken rock, and other related materials and is present on Earth, the Moon, some asteroids, and other planets.

Lunar regolith, apollo 17

Apollo 17 astronauts found a soil composed of black and orangish balls they named orange soil. This soil was created 3.5 billion years ago from lava spray ejected by gasses from a volcano. The spray formed liquid droplets that hardened.

Impact Breccias - rocks made from the debris of the many meteor impacts which have

occurred in the Moon's history. These rocks form when fragments

of shattered rock either are smashed together by the

collision, or melted together by the heat of collision.

Lunar Breccia

Basalt

• a hard gray or black, igneous volcanic rock that is usually fine-grained due to rapid cooling of lava,

Microscopic section of lunar basalt, Apollo 17

• Apollo 17 astronaut Gene Cernan was the last man on the Moon. He left a plaque which read, "Here Man completed his first exploration of the Moon December 1972 A.D. May the spirit of peace in which we came be reflected in the lives of all mankind."

Moon Tree at BookerElementary SchoolHampton, VA