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The speaker is Eugene "Gene" Cernan an American astronaut who was the last person to walk on the Moon during NASA's Apollo 17 mission in December 1972. My team recorded this interview in 1994. Cernan's first spaceflight was as the pilot of the Gemini 9A mission in June 1966. He served as the lunar module pilot for Apollo 10 in May 1969, a mission that served as a dress rehearsal for the Apollo 11 lunar landing. Cernan and his fellow crew members flew to within 9.7 miles of the lunar surface but did not land. Cernan's most significant achievement came...

"Samples were intentionally saved for a time when technology and instrumentation had advanced to the point that we could maximize the scientific return on these unique samples," said NASA's Ryan Zeigler, Apollo sample curator and manager of the Astromaterials Acquisition and Curation Office in Houston. But such investigations require careful planning and execution by a consortium of experts with experience in handling and analyzing lunar samples... "Given the recent renewed interest in the moon, and specifically about the volatile budget of lunar regolith, these sealed samples likely contain information that would be important in the design of future lunar missions," Zeigler...

Explanation: On the Moon, it is easy to remember where you parked. 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. 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. The Apollo 17 crew returned with 110 kilograms of rock and soil samples, more than was returned...

Explanation: Get out your red/blue glasses and check out this awesome stereo view of another world. The scene was recorded by Apollo 17 mission commander Eugene Cernan on December 11, 1972, one orbit before descending to land on the Moon. The stereo anaglyph was assembled from two photographs (AS17-147-22465, AS17-147-22466) captured from his vantage point on board the Lunar Module Challenger as he and Dr. Harrison Schmitt flew over Apollo 17's landing site in the Taurus-Littrow Valley. The broad, sunlit face of the mountain dubbed South Massif rises near the center of the frame, above the dark floor of Taurus-Littrow...

Explanation: Get out your red/blue glasses and check out this stereo scene from Taurus-Littrow valley on the Moon! The color anaglyph features a detailed 3D view of Apollo 17's Lunar Rover in the foreground -- behind it lies the Lunar Module and distant lunar hills. Because the world was going to be able to watch the Lunar Module's ascent stage liftoff via the rover's TV camera, this parking place was also known as the VIP Site. In December of 1972, Apollo 17 astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt spent about 75 hours on the Moon, while colleague Ronald Evans orbited...

Harrison Schmitt, a former NASA astronaut who was chosen by Gov. Susana Martinez to head up the state's Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department, has withdrawn his nomination after a squabble with the Senate Rules Committee over background checks.

Mark Boslough's Jan. 24 My View, "Climate-change deniers ignore science," reached a new depth of vitriol and dishonesty in the debate over climate change. He should apologize to Harrison Schmitt, the staff and supporters of The Heartland Institute, and readers of The New Mexican and formally retract his false factual statements. While there is little disagreement among scientists that the Earth's climate warmed in the second half of the 20th century, there is no broad agreement as to the causes of the warming, its impacts on human health or animal habitat, whether the warming trend will continue in the 21st...

Harrison "Jack" Schmitt, one of the last men to walk on the moon and a former U.S. senator from New Mexico, doesn't buy the idea that humans are causing global warming. "I don't think the human effect is significant compared to the natural effect," he said. Schmitt, who is among 70 skeptics scheduled speak at an international conference next month [sponsored by the Heartland Institute], admitted his beliefs fly in the face of the political consensus that burning fossil fuels has increased carbon-dioxide levels, temperatures and sea levels. Scientists who disagree with this scenario "are being intimidated," Schmitt said. "They've...

<p>Eugene Cernan expressed a wistful regret at being the "last man on the Moon."</p> <p>He didn't, and probably couldn't, have imagined at the time that his title would stand for three decades, but as of Saturday, Dec. 14, that will be the case. No human being has trod on lunar regolith since that date in 1972.</p>

In yet another move to cleanse New Mexico of any and all environmental regulations, green, clean, renewable energy initiatives and efforts to mitigate the growing impact of damaging climate change, GOP Gov. Susana Martinez today named a climate change denier to head New Mexico's Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department. She's cleansing so her big donors can dirty things up with abandon in the state, as never before. Martinez has chosen former astronaut and senator from New Mexico, Harrison "Jack" Schmitt, aged 75, as a prominent partner in her planned environmental retreat back to the 1950s. Schmitt said as much,...

Words matter. If they didn't, I wouldn't be writing this and you wouldn't be reading it. So, today, let's visit the words of former astronaut and U.S. Sen. Harrison "Jack" Schmitt, who is Gov. Susana Martinez's pick to head the state Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department. For more than a year, Schmitt has been posting his views on national and international issues on www.AmericasUncommonSense.com. I suspect most of you will agree with some of what he has to say and disagree with other things. The man does have credentials: a doctorate in geology from Harvard and a bachelor's in...

Former astronaut Harrison Schmitt, who walked on the moon and served in the U.S. Senate, was nominated Thursday by Gov. Susana Martinez to run a state agency that oversees energy production in New Mexico. Schmitt was selected as cabinet secretary of the Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department. Schmitt, 75, was one of the last men to walk on the moon as part of the Apollo 17 mission in 1972. He won election to the Senate in 1976, but lost his re-election bid in 1982 to Democrat Jeff Bingaman, who remains in the Senate.Martinez said the Schmitt's task is to...

Former U.S. Sen. Harrison "Jack" Schmitt, a geologist and Apollo astronaut who bucks conventional theory on human-caused global warming, was named Thursday by Gov. Susana Martinez to head the state's Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department. Schmitt, a Silver City native who was elected to the Senate in 1976 and defeated after one term by current officeholder Jeff Bingaman, is one of the last people to walk on the moon. His appointment drew immediate fire from environmentalists. "We are disheartened to see the selection of a climate change denier," said Sandy Buffett, executive director of the Santa Fe-based Conservation Voters...

The chasm between Apollo and the Gulf President Obama’s Administration and its supportive media repeatedly say our 1970 Apollo 13 experience is analogous to the effort to contain and cap the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Not hardly! The rescue of Astronauts Jim Lovell, Fred Haise and Jack Swigert, after an oxygen tank explosion on their spacecraft, illustrates how complex technical accidents should be handled, in contrast to the Gulf fiasco. Nothing in the government’s response to the blowout and explosion on the Deepwater Horizon and its aftermath bears any resemblance to the response to the...

SANTA FE, N.M. - Former astronaut Harrison Schmitt, who walked on the moon and once served New Mexico in the U.S. Senate, doesn’t believe that humans are causing global warming. "I don’t think the human effect is significant compared to the natural effect," said Schmitt, who is among 70 skeptics scheduled to speak next month at the International Conference on Climate Change in New York. Schmitt contends that scientists "are being intimidated" if they disagree with the idea that burning fossil fuels has increased carbon dioxide levels, temperatures and sea levels.