In July 1969, Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin achieved US President John F. Kennedy’s goal of putting a man on the moon and returning him safely to Earth. The Apollo programme had succeeded, and the US won the space race against the USSR.

Originally there were plans to fly further missions to the moon, up to Apollo 20, but there were problems along the way. There was a fire during a rehearsal of Apollo 1 and three astronauts died on the launchpad.

Apollo 13 had an explosion on the way to the moon and, even though all three astronauts survived, it was close to disaster. NASA was concerned about the risk of losing an astronaut in space and the national budget had begun to dry up, not least because of expenditure on the Vietnam war. The public was also beginning to lose interest in moon landings which were not very different from each other.

Astronaut Harrison Schmitt exploring a rock with the lunar rover in the foreground.

Around the time of the first landing, NASA decided to use a Saturn V rocket to launch a space station which would be called Skylab. This meant that Apollo 20 was cancelled. By 1971, the decision was made to cancel Apollos 18 and 19. President Richard Nixon also suggested cancelling Apollos 16 and 17 but he was persuaded to allow them to fly.

Apollo 17 was the last manned flight to the moon. And the most successful one. This was the first Apollo/Saturn V manned flight that launched at night, and it was very spectacular, lighting up the sky on December 7, 1972. The flight was commanded by naval aviator Captain Gene Cernan. He had flown twice before, including as lunar module pilot of Apollo 10 which was a ’dress rehearsal’ for the moon landing. He died in 2017.

The command module pilot was naval aviator Captain Ron Evans. He would orbit the moon on Apollo 17 without landing. Evans died in 1990. The lunar module pilot was Harrison (Jack) Schmitt. He is a geologist and the only professional scientist to walk on the moon. Schmitt was originally slated to fly on Apollo 18, but he was replaced by astronaut Joe Engle who was slated for Apollo 17.

There was a slight delay at launch because one of the fuel tanks was not pressurised. Apart from that, the rocket worked flawlessly. Building on the success of previous Apollo flights, Apollo 17 was the most accomplished one. It was the longest manned flight to the moon at 12 days and 14 hours. Two astronauts spent just over 22 hours walking on the surface of the moon and they collected 115kg of moon rocks, both records. They also broke the record of travelling the longest distance from the lunar module (7.6km) and they drove 35.7km on the lunar rover.

The Apollo 17 lunar module Challenger landed on the moon in an area called Taurus-Littrow on December 11, 1972. Cernan and Schmitt went on three spacewalks. They used an electrical lunar rover to drive around the moon and to reach designated areas to study the geology of the moon.

The blue marble – photo of a complete Earth taken by Jack Schmitt.

The Taurus-Littrow valley is a small area and it demanded a pinpoint landing. It allowed exploration of the old highlands of the moon and also an area from young volcanic activity. The astronauts sampled moon rocks showing interesting geological features and also placed various instruments on the surface of the moon which studied the internal structure of the moon and the electrical properties of the lunar regolith (dust).

I think the next generation ought to accept this as a challenge. Let’s see them leave footsteps like these one day- Harrison (Jack) Schmitt

This experiment revealed that there is almost no water in the area where Apollo 17 landed. A lunar ‘neutron probe’ measured how much the lunar regolith turns over with time. While astronauts were on the lunar surface, Evans conducted experiments in the orbiting command module America. Live mice had implanted radiation monitors and no damage was found due to cosmic rays.

Challenger also carried seeds and eggs of simple animals. The eggs displayed abnormalities and many failed to hatch but the seeds were unaffected by cosmic rays. A scientific instrument module was carried on the spacecraft which included experiments to determine a geological model of the moon, a temperature map of the lunar surface and the composition of the very scant lunar atmosphere. There were also panoramic mapping cameras and the film was retrieved by a spacewalking Evans.

The astronauts made many important discoveries, especially as Schmitt is a geologist. He discovered an area of orange dust which caused a great deal of excitement that the area was a volcanic vent. However, later analysis of the rocks showed that they were very small beads of volcanic glass that had erupted from a fire fountain that sprayed molten lava into the lunar sky some 3.5 billion years ago.

Towards the end of the third spacewalk, Schmitt collected a breccia rock and dedicated it to the nations of the Earth. At the time, there were students from 70 nations of the Earth, including Robert M. Borg (later professor of chemistry) from Malta, who visited NASA at the time of Apollo 17. Portions of the ‘Friendship Rock’ were donated to the countries represented by these students. Unfortunately, Malta’s rock was stolen from the National Museum of Natural History in 2004.

Harrison Schmitt and US flag on the surface of the Moon with the Earth in the background. https://moon.nasa.gov/resources/135/a-flag-points-home/

In 2009, Schmitt was invited to Malta on the occasion of the International Year of Astronomy. He delivered two very interesting talks at the University of Malta and also appeared on television. The author accompanied Schmitt and his wife Teresa Fitzgibbons and Ray Bonnici on a tour of Valletta and Mdina. Schmitt and his wife thoroughly enjoyed the trip and he was fascinated by the Cathedral of St John and by Palazzo Falson and Fontanella in Mdina.

While on the moon, Schmitt told Cernan: “I think the next generation ought to accept this as a challenge. Let’s see them leave footsteps like these one day.”

Just before he stepped into the lunar module, Cernan said: “As we leave the moon at Taurus–Littrow, we leave as we came and, God willing, as we shall return, with peace and hope for all mankind. Godspeed the crew of Apollo 17.”

Now, 50 years later, a new generation of moonship, Artemis 1, has reached the moon. This flight is an unmanned test flight. Artemis 2 will carry astronauts around the moon and astronauts on Artemis 3 will land on the moon. Schmitt will be proud.

Gordon Caruana Dingli is a surgeon. He recently authored We Went to the Moon published by Kite Group.