Word: lunar
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...moon. The Taurus-Littrow landing site contains what may be small, volcanically created cinder cones; they seem to be miniature versions of earthly features like Honolulu's Diamond Head. The cones may well be remnants of what NASA Geochemist Robin Brett calls "some of the last belches of lunar activity before the moon turned off." Finally, Apollo 17 planners have scheduled a program of experiments and observation far more sophisticated than any of the earlier scientific efforts on the moon...
...array of four listening devices-geo-phones-that can pick up shock waves from explosive charges that will be detonated after the astronauts leave and should tell much about the substructure of the landing site; an extremely sensitive gravimeter that is designed to pick up minuscule variations in lunar surface gravity...
...moon's gravitational field in hopes of learning something about the density and structure of the material under the site. With data from a device called a "neutron probe," scientists will be able to calculate how long a particular sample has been lying on or near the lunar surface. The astronauts will also send penetrating microwaves into the lunar surface with a new radio transmitting-receiving system. The pattern of the reflected signals could indicate, among other things, whether water is present up to a mile under the surface...
White-Hot Gas. The Mars expedition would make a twelve-day lunar-landing mission look like a Sunday excursion. If all could be in readiness by 1985, for example, the Mars astronauts would be blasted out of orbit on April 5, when the earth, Venus and Mars will be in ideal positions for the mission. Their craft would swing by Venus on Sept. 10, 1985, getting a valuable gravitational boost that would speed it to Mars by April 10, 1986. The expedition would depart from Mars on May 20 and arrive back in earth orbit...
...ambitious mission, as planned, will require two command ships, each carrying a crew of six. If one craft becomes disabled, the other can safely return all of the astronauts to earth. Unlike lunar missions, the journey will not begin directly from earth; that would require boosters too huge to be practical. Instead, the two cylindrical ships will be lofted piecemeal into earth orbit by Saturn-type boosters. There, the separate parts will be latched together. Finally, a space shuttle will bring up the astronauts as well as their fuel and supplies...