The last men on the moon: Nasa releases 1972 shot of Apollo 17's crew exploring lunar valleys in search of rocks




The 1972 Apollo mission 17 brought back 110 kilos of moon rock - but it's more famous as the last mission where astronauts walked on the moon.

Nasa released the image via its Astronomy Picture of the Day website - 40 years after the astronauts harvested 100 kilos of moon rock, by far the biggest haul of any mission.



In December of 1972, Apollo 17 astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt spent about 75 hours on the Moon in the Taurus-Littrow valley, while colleague Ronald Evans orbited overhead.



Nasa released the image via its Astronomy Picture of the Day website - 40 years after the astronauts harvested 100 kilos of moon rock, by far the biggest haul of any mission

The three astronauts (from left to right - Eugene Cernan, Ronald Evans and Harrison Schmitt) get the red-carpet welcome back as they splashdown on December 19, 1972

Apollo 17 was the sixth and last Apollo mission and the last time that humans walked on the surface.

The mission returned to earth on December 19, 1972.

The team carried out a series of experiments including seismic profiling, atmospheric composition analysis and lunar sampling, orbital and biomedical experiments.

The crew spent 22 hours on the lunar surface in total.



This sharp image was taken by Cernan as he and Schmitt roamed the valley floor.



The image shows Schmitt on the left with the lunar rover at the edge of Shorty Crater, near the spot where geologist Schmitt discovered orange lunar soil.

