Lost In Space
The crew of Apollo 14 hoped to reach the rim of Cone crater, a more recent impact crater about 1,000 feet wide a little over a mile from the Antares lander.
However, the terrain was hillier than expected, and the crew lost sight of the crater rim among the ridges of the hills. Eventually, they had to turn back because they needed to save enough oxygen and other supplies to return safely to the lander.
High-resolution photos of the area taken with LRO’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) reveal that they had come within about 30 yards of the rim, just a minuscule distance considering they had travelled over 250,000 miles to get there. (NASA)
Photo: Ed Mitchell consults a map on his way to Cone crater during the Apollo 14 mission.
