+ 1970 News Releases (7.6 Mb PDF file) - NASA

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N_rlONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
MANNEDSPACECRAFT
_).._,_Houston
CENTER '"__l, Texa s
483-5111 October 1_ 1970
MSC 70-111
HOUSTON_ TEXAS--In 1969_ follcwing the Apollo 11 mission_ nine
and possibly ten additional lunar landings were planned.
Since then one mission_ Apolle 12_ has been completed successfully_
another_ Apollo 13, has been aborted without landing_ and three other
missions have been dropped from the lunar program.
The determination of scientific objectives and landing locations
for each flight has taken on added significance with only four lunar
missions remaining and only two landing sites still to be selected.
From the original lists of a dozen or more candidate landing sites_
five locations have been discussed most actively as potential sites for
Apollo 16 and 17 by _SA site selection groups and at scientific meetings
such as the September con£erence in Houston on The Structure_ Composition
and History of the Lunar _urface.
These potential sites are the very ancient volcanic terrain of
Descartes in the central lunar highlands; the very bright crater
Tycho in the southern lunar highlands; the crater-rille chain at Davy
in the northeastern corner of Mare Nubium; the Marius Hills_ which sit
astride the MoonTs largest continuous ridge system_ radiating out from
the Fra Mauro formation --,an area similar to volcanic structures in
Iceland or at Flagstaff_ Arizona; and the three-thousand-foot-high central
peaks of the crater Copernicus.
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