Word: cratered
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Stark. Emerging from Challenger after its almost perfect landing only about 300 ft. from target near the Crater Camelot,* Geologist Schmitt made it clear that he regarded the stark, rock-littered valley as his special turf. "A geologist's paradise, if I've ever seen one," said the Harvard-trained scientist as he and Cernan began their preliminary chores: familiarizing themselves with the terrain, photographing the area and, finally, maneuvering the rover out of its berth in the side of the lunar module. Then, after a fast test spin by Cernan ("Hallelujah, Houston, Challenger's baby...
...While strolling on the moon one day . . . in the merry month of December." Mission Control soon interjected a sobering note by notifying them that they were already 40 minutes behind their timetable and that the original objective of their first moon ride had to be scrubbed. But a nearer crater provided an intriguing find: vesicular rocks, containing pockets formed by gas. That was one of several clues that the area had once been the scene of volcanic activity...
...shielded the astronauts from dust even when Cernan opened the rover's throttle to more than 7 m.p.h. on the way to South Massif, about four miles away. "Whoooaa, let's slow the speed up," Schmitt pleaded as the car narrowly missed dipping into one steep little crater. Cernan, however, showed a sure hand at the controls. "You can uncurl your toes now," he told Schmitt as they approached their destination, still intact...
Schmitt seemed none too steady as he began his sampling, tumbling twice and muttering "Dadgummit" as he struggled to rise. But his chagrin turned to excitement near a crater named Shorty (after a character in Richard Brautigan's novel Trout Fishing in America). Suddenly, as his space boots scuffed some of the gray topsoil from the crater's rim, he exclaimed: "Hey, there is orange soil. It's all over." Chugging toward him, Cernan shouted: "Well, don't move until I see it!" The astronauts' enthusiasm on the moon was shared by scientists watching...
...huge landslide from the upper slopes of that mountain billions of years ago. Scientists hope that the rocks consist largely of highland material far older than the relatively young rock of the valley floor. En route back to the LM, the astronauts will stop at a 300-ft.-wide crater called Shorty, which may yield entirely different material: deep-lying rock that was either ejected by a meteor impact or a volcanic eruption that occurred after the landslide covered the area...