America's space program provided technological spin-offs to mining industry interview with Apollo Astronaut Harrison Schmitt

摘要

Although Harrison Schmitt is best known as the last man to set foot on the moon, he was also an accomplished geologist long before he set his eyes on the stars. He worked with the Norwegian Geological Survey and the USGS before he started mapping the moon for the USGS Astrogeology Center in Flagstaff, AZ. It was while working there that he was selected to become one of the first scientist astronauts.Although he wasn't a pilot before being selected for the astronaut program, he became the Lunar Module Pilot for Apollo 17. He and Commander Gene Cernan landed the Apollo lunar lander Challenger in the mountain ringed valley of Taurus-Littrow. There the two astronauts conducted the most complete geological study of the moon ever done.