Another giant step? Last man on moon calls for return | Fox News Another giant step? Last man on moon calls for return Facebook 0 Twitter 0 Email Print Dec. 11, 2012: Harrison "Jack" Schmitt (center), the Apollo 17 lunar module pilot and final man to set foot on the moon, speaks at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, AL, with moderator Steve Johnson and NASA astrogeologist Jim Rice (left). (Donnie Claxton/USSRC) Dec. 11, 2012: Apollo 17 lunar module pilot Harrison "Jack" Schmitt stands before an Apollo exhibit at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, AL. (Donnie Claxton/USSRC) Dec. 11, 2012: Apollo 17 lunar module pilot Harrison "Jack" Schmitt speaks at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, AL on the 40th anniversary of his trip to the moon.

(Donnie Claxton/USSRC) Previous Next If NASA wants to get to Mars, the fastest way to get there is by returning to the moon -- according to the last man to walk on the lunar surface. “The moon is going to be an extraordinary resource for future generations as they go deeper into space and as they begin to settle the moon and eventually Mars,” said Harrison “Jack” Schmitt, the Apollo 17 lunar module pilot. Apollo 17, the final mission to send men to the moon, launched on Dec. 7, 1972, carrying Schmitt, command module pilot Ronald Evans and Commander Gene Cernan. Schmitt was the 12th and final man on the moon; Cernan was 11th and last to depart the planet’s surface. Schmitt visited the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, AL Tuesday evening to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 17 moon landing, Dec. 11, 1972.

'The moon’s resources include a light isotope of helium that is an ideal fuel for fusion power reactors here on Earth.' - Apollo 17 lunar module pilot Harrison “Jack” Schmitt Speaking to FoxNews.com, Schmitt said he believes the moon holds many of the answers we need to safely travel to other planets such as Mars. More On This... Life after smartphones—what's next? “There are many aspects of the Mars mission that need the moon and the Earth’s upper atmosphere as places to train, and to simulate and test the equipment that’s going to be needed on Mars,” he said. The former astronaut -- a geologist and now an adjunct professor at the University of Wisconsin -- believes the moon could also help lead to the development of a fusion rocket capable of accelerating and decelerating in space on a continuous basis. Such a vehicle would be ideal for deep space journeys. “The moon’s resources include a light isotope of helium that is an ideal fuel for fusion power reactors here on Earth, as well as for interplanetary spacecraft,” Schmitt said. But even with rockets capable of reaching the Martian planet, research is needed before man can actually land on its surface.

“Right now all we know is that the Martian atmosphere is just enough to cause a lot of problems and not enough to be of much help. Those kind of issues have to be addressed and learned,” he told FoxNews.com. Apart from space travel, Schmitt believes the moon can also help us understand the origins of our own planet. But for any of this to be possible, a younger generation needs to be educated, prepared and inspired to carry out the future of space exploration. “Young people provide the patriotism, the imagination, the stamina and the courage that you just have to have when you undertake these kinds of efforts,” he said. “The education system in this country is fundamentally broken, and until we focus on that it’s not just space that’s going to suffer,” Schmitt told FoxNews.com. “It’s almost every national endeavor that you can imagine is going to suffer.” Much of the responsibility for inspiring the next generation of scientists and engineers lies with politicians in Washington, Schmitt believes. And the failure of the space program’s continual expansion since his trip to the moon 40 years ago also lies with those leaders.

“The main thing that’s missing right now is leadership in Washington that will activate the interest of the national media and therefore the interest of the American people and the taxpayer, because eventually for these kinds of...space initiatives the American taxpayer has to be part of the picture…unless they understand and feel that the national political leadership is on the right track, well that’s very difficult to see these types of programs go forward.” Garrett Tenney is a correspondent for Fox News Channel (FNC). He joined FNC in April 2013 and is based in the DC bureau. Who owns the moon? Home » did you know » Who owns the moon? Who owns the moon? The only place in the universe where a flag flies all day, never goes up or comes down, never flies half-mast and does not get saluted, is the moon. It is, of course, the American flag, the only country to have landed people on the moon even though British Interplanetary Society engineers had in 1939 designed a ship to carry people to the moon.

Since Apollo 11 landed on moon on July 20, 1969 until 1972, 12 American astronauts walked on the moon, spending 170 hours roaming over 60 miles (100 km), planting 6 flags in total. They brought home 880 pounds (400 kilograms) of soil and rock, and 30,000 photographs. The six American flags on the moon were planted during the missions of Apollo 11,12,14,15,16,and 17. The flags of the European Union, Russia, and India are also on the moon but they are displayed on equipment or probes. The first landing of the moon is celebrated in the festival of Evoloterra on July 20th. Last man on the moon The Apollo 17 crew were the last men on the moon. With Ronald Evans in the command module, Commander Eugene Cernan and scientist Harrison H. Schmitt drove 34 km (21 miles) in the lunar buggy.

On December 11, 1972 they left behind a plaque that reads: “Here Man completed his first exploration of the Moon, December 1972 A.D. May the spirit of peace in which we came be reflected in the lives of all mankind.” Cernan was the last man to have set foot on another celestial body. Last words spoken on the moon The first words spoken on the moon, by Neil Armstrong, are well known, but what were the last words spoken from the moon? “America’s challenge of today has forged man’s destiny of tomorrow.” – Commander Eugene Cernan, Apollo 17 Mission, December 11, 1972. Just in case you forgot Neil Armstrong’s words (when he stepped onto the moon surface with his left foot first): “One small step for man. One giant leap for mankind.” On returning to Earth, he explained that he thought he had said “one small step for a man.” Who owns the moon? Planting a flag on the moon does not mean owning it or any part of it.

The United Nations Outer Space Treaty (long name: Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, Including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies) of January 27, 1967 states that “outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, is not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by means of occupation, or by any other means.” Video : Apollo 17 – Last men on the moon How Many People Have Walked on the Moon? - Universe Today Universe Today How Many People Have Walked on the Moon? Article Updated: 21 Dec , 2015 by Nancy Atkinson Ask someone if they know the names of the astronauts who have walked on the Moon, and most people would be able to list Neil Armstrong, and maybe even Buzz Aldrin. But can you name the rest of the Apollo astronauts who made it down to the lunar surface? How many people have walked on the Moon? In total twelve people have walked on the Moon.

Besides Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin – who were the first two astronauts to leave their bootprints on the Moon — there were also Pete Conrad, Alan Bean, Alan Shepard, Edgar Mitchell, David Scott, James Irwin, John Young, Charles Duke, Eugene Cernan, and Harrison Schmitt. Interestingly, out of the dozen people who walked on the Moon, no one ever did it more than once. Here’s some additional information about the men who walked on the Moon and their missions: Apollo 11 – 2 people The iconic photo of Buzz Aldrin on the Moon for Apollo 11. Credit: NASA On July 21, 1969, Neil Armstrong made history by becoming the first person to set foot on the Moon. He was soon followed by Buzz Aldrin. In a nail-biting landing, Armstrong had to manually fly the Lunar Module past the intended landing spot, which he could see was filled with boulders. He landed safely in Tranquility Base with Aldrin keeping an eye on the altitude and velocity, along with a dangerously low fuel tank.

In total, Neil and Buzz were on the lunar surface (both inside their Eagle lunar module and walking on the Moon) for only 21 hours, 36 minutes and 21 seconds and were outside walking in the Sea of Tranquility for just 2 hours, 31 minutes and 40 seconds. During their EVA, they collected rocks, planted the US flag, and deployed a seismograph and an experiment called the Lunar Ranging Retroreflector – a reflective device that measures the distance between the Earth and the Moon using lasers from Earth — which is still in use today. Apollo 12 – 2 people A bootprint in the lunar regolith, taken during Apollo 11 in 1969. Credit: NASA. Pete Conrad and Alan Bean were the Moon walkers on the Apollo 12 mission. The Apollo 12 crew experienced two lightning strikes just after their Saturn V rocket launched on November 14, 1969. The jolts knocked out the guidance system and power for a time, but thanks to quick thinking by Mission Control and Alan Bean, the systems were recovered.

The Apollo 12 crew proved they could make a pin-point landing, touching down just 185 meters (600 feet) from the Surveyor 3 unmanned spacecraft. During one of their EVAs, Conrad and Bean walked to the Surveyor 3 spacecraft and removed pieces of it bring back to Earth for analysis. Conrad and Bean were on the Moon for two days, November 19 and 20, 1969. Apollo 13 – 0 People The next mission to launch to the Moon was Apollo 13, but because an oxygen tank on the spacecraft’s Service Module exploded two days after launch, the crew was not able to land on the Moon – and a harrowing and spectacular recovery ensued. You can find out more about the Apollo 13 mission here. Apollo 14 – 2 people The launch of Apollo 14. Credit: NASA. The next two people to set foot on the Moon were Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell who were part of the Apollo 14 mission. They launched on January 31, 1971, and landed on February 5 in the Fra Mauro region of the Moon, the original destination for Apollo 13.

Shepard and Mitchell performed two EVAs, deploying seismic experiments to study potential Moon quakes, and used the Modular Equipment Transporter (MET), a pull cart for carrying equipment and samples. During the second moonwalk, they tried to reach the edge of a crater named Cone Crater, but with no obvious landmarks amid the rolling, repetitive terrain, they weren’t able to find it. Later analysis combining images the astronauts took with orbital images, it was determined the duo had come within just 20 meters (65 feet) of the crater’s rim. While on the Moon, Shepard fashioned a golf club and hit a couple of golf balls. Mitchell joined in by throwing a lunar scoop handle javelin-style. Apollo 15 – 2 people David Scott and James Irwin landed on the Moon on July 31, 1971 for the Apollo 15 mission, staying for three days, until August 2nd. Unlike the previous missions which landed on the flat lunar plains, the Apollo 15 landed between two mountains in an area called Hadley Rille.

The two astronauts spent 18½ hours outside the spacecraft on lunar extra-vehicular activity (EVA), and this time the Apollo crew brought along the first lunar rover, which allowed them to travel much farther from the Lunar Module than previous missions. During three moonwalks, Scott and Irwin deployed several science experiments and collected 77 kg (170 lb) of lunar rock samples. Apollo 16 – 2 people John Young – caught mid-leap – salutes the American flag on the lunar surface. Credit: NASA. John Young and Charles Duke were the next men to walk on the Moon with the Apollo 16 mission. When the crew reached lunar orbit, the mission almost had to be aborted because of a problem with Command/Service Module’s main engine. They landed though, and it was the first mission to land in the lunar highlands. They were on the lunar surface for three days, from April 21 to 23, 1972. John Young and Charles Duke spent 71 hours — just under three days — on the lunar surface, during which they conducted three moonwalks, totaling 20 hours and 14 minutes.

The pair drove the lunar rover a total of 26.7 kilometres (16.6 miles). Apollo 17 – 2 people Eugene Cernan on the lunar surface, December 13, 1972. Credit: NASA. The final people to walk on the Moon were Eugene (Gene) Cernan and Harrison (Jack) Schmitt. They launched of the first night-time liftoff of the Saturn V rocket, and the astronauts of Apollo 17 landed on the Moon on December 11, 1972. Their three-day stay on the Moon lunar surface included three moonwalks,where they collected lunar samples and deployed scientific instruments. The Apollo 17 crew returned to Earth on December 19 after a 12-day mission. Before he left the Moon, Cernan scratched the initials of his daughter Tracy into the lunar regolith. Since the Moon does not experience weather conditions like wind or rain to erode anything away, her initials should stay there for a very long time. And since 1972, no person has been either on the Moon or in lunar orbit.

How Many People Have Walked on the Moon?: 12 And even though no one has landed on the Moon more than once, three different astronauts have actually traveled to the Moon more than once. Jim Lovell orbited the Moon on Apollo 8 and flew around the Moon on the aborted Apollo 13 mission. John Young and Gene Cernan were both on Apollo 10 which orbited the Moon, and then later Young walked on the moon on Apollo 16, and Cernan walked on the Moon during Apollo 17. Apollo mission. Earth's Moon Moon Walks Health and Science > Space Exploration Moon Walks Twelve astronauts have walked on the moon, the last in 1972. Here are the names of those astronauts listed chronologically by the date of their walk. July 20, 1969—Apollo 11 Neil Armstrong Nov. 19, 1969—Apollo 12 Charles (Pete) Conrad Feb. 5, 1971—Apollo 14 Alan Shepard July 30, 1971—Apollo 15 James Irwin Apr.

21-23, 1972—Apollo 16 Charles Duke Dec. 11-13, 1972—Apollo 17 Eugene Cernan Harrison Schmitt Eugene Cernan was the last man to set foot on the moon. He and Schmitt left behind a plaque that reads: “Here Man completed his first exploration of the Moon, December 1972 A.D. May the spirit of peace in which we came be reflected in the lives of all mankind.” This was a companion to the plaque left by Armstrong and Aldrin on the first visit to the lunar surface: “Here Men From Planet Earth First Set Foot Upon the Moon. July 1969 A.D. We Came in Peace For All Mankind.” Men Were Last on Moon 40 Years Ago Today Men Were Last on Moon 40 Years Ago Today By Robert Z. Pearlman, collectSPACE.com Editor | December 14, 2012 11:45am ET MORE "We're on our way, Houston!" Forty years go, the Apollo 17 lunar module "Challenger" lifted off the moon for the final time.

Credit: NASA The last men to walk on the moon blasted off its surface for a final time 40 years ago today. After three days exploring the Taurus-Littrow lunar valley, Apollo 17 astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt lit the engine on the upper (ascent) stage of their lunar module "Challenger" and launched off the surface at 5:55 p.m. EST (2255 GMT) on Dec. 14, 1972. The last word spoken by a man on the moon (to date) — "Ignition" — was voiced by Schmitt, the first geologist and professional scientist to fly on a NASA mission. Cernan, as Apollo 17 commander, delivered the order to leave — "Let's get off" — just moments before.

(In the four decades since he left the moon, Cernan came to believe his remark was something slightly longer and a whole lot more colorful, "Let's get this mother out of here," although the transcripts and audio recordings disagree.) Footage of that last lunar liftoff was broadcast live back to Earth via a color television camera mounted on the lunar roving vehicle, or lunar rover, which the astronauts parked on the moon a short distance from their landing site. The video, which was timed and directed by Mission Control from a quarter of a million miles away on Earth, captured the small spacecraft as it soared away into the blackness of space. And so ended humankind's first "small steps" on another celestial body. [ Moon: Space Programs' Dumping Ground (Infographic) ] The Apollo 17 mission crowned six lunar landings for the United States and brought back the final 244 pounds (111 kilograms) of lunar material (including 741 individual moon rock and soil samples and a deep drill core with material from 10 feet, or 3 meters, below the lunar surface) out of the total 842 pounds (382 kilograms) collected by the astronauts who walked on the moon.

Notably, among the Apollo 17 lunar samples was a small but unique cache of orange soil, which was confirmed later as microscopic glass beads and fragments formed during volcanic activity on the moon. Return to Earth "As the Challenger leaves the surface of the moon, we are conscious not of what we leave behind, but of what lies before us," read the statement from the White House, as was radioed by Mission Control in Houston to the Apollo 17 astronauts. "This may be the last time in this century that men will walk on the moon, but space exploration will continue, the benefits of space exploration will continue, and there will be new dreams to pursue, based upon what we have learned." "Few events have ever marked so clearly the passage of history from one epoch to another," the statement, which was signed by President Richard Nixon, concluded. "If we understand this about the last flight of Apollo, then truly we shall have touched a 'many splendored thing.'" The presidential message was radioed soon after the two moonwalkers met up with Ronald Evans, Apollo 17's third member, who had been circling the moon on the command module "America" as Cernan and Schmitt explored below.

The trip back to Earth included a spacewalk by Evans to retrieve exposed film from an exterior equipment bay on the America module. Before leaving lunar orbit, the crew jettisoned Challenger's ascent stage, sending it crashing back into the moon. The resulting impact was recorded by seismometers that were deployed by Cernan and Schmitt while on the surface. Twelve days and 14 hours after launching for the moon , Cernan, Schmitt and Evans splashed down in the South Pacific Ocean at 2:25 p.m. EST (1925 GMT) on Dec. 19, 1972. The USS Ticonderoga aircraft carrier recovered the command module and the astronauts from the sea. Return to the moon For 40 years, Apollo 17 has retained the distinction as the last human voyage to the moon. Schmitt is still the 12th out of only 12 men to step foot on the moon and Cernan, as the last to climb up the ladder into Challenger, is still the final man to leave his footprints on the lunar surface.

Before he took his final step off the moon, Cernan said, "America's challenge of today has forged man's destiny of tomorrow. And, as we leave the moon at Taurus-Littrow, we leave as we came and, God willing, as we shall return, with peace and hope for all mankind." Momentum is now building to return humans to the moon, both through government and commercial efforts. Schmitt says that if he had the opportunity today to revisit Taurus-Littrow , he would return to the site where he found the orange soil and then venture to an area where he and Cernan didn't explore. "I would want to go back to Shorty Crater and spend more time really trying to define the geological context of the orange soil that we found and sampled," the moonwalker told collectSPACE.com in an recent interview.

"The other thing though, would be to go to the area that was northeast of the landing site, an area we called the 'Sculptured Hills' and really try to traverse across those hills and gather as many different kinds of rock samples as we could possibly do," Schmitt said, explaining that the insight gained over the past 40 years now suggests the Hills may be "a very large, relatively coherent piece of deep crust" that was thrown from an impact basin. Ultimately though, Schmitt said he would look beyond his old landing site for the next steps on the surface. "Given the chance to go back to Taurus Littrow, I would probably argue that there are more important places to go right now, as we do have samples and observations from [there]," Schmitt said. "The thing I'd like to see us sample is the older [impact] basins. We know they are older but we do not know how much older they are." Follow collectSPACE on Facebook and Twitter @ collectSPACE and editor Robert Pearlman @ robertpearlman . Copyright 2012 collectSPACE.com. All rights reserved.

The 12 Men Who Walked on the Moon | Mental Floss The 12 Men Who Walked on the Moon NASA / Harrison H. Schmitt Like us on Facebook If you were born after the Apollo program, and maybe even if you remember those days, it seems almost unbelievable that NASA sent manned missions to the moon 239,000 miles away. People continue to express sadness at the fact that the Apollo lunar missions were so long ago, and that soon there will be no one left alive who actually went to the moon. Randall Munroe of xkcd addressed that concept some time ago, although we are ahead of that game in that no lunar astronaut has died since Neil Armstrong passed away in 2012. It's time we remembered -or got to know- the only twelve people who ever walked on a body other than planet Earth. 1. Neil Alden Armstrong Navy test pilot, engineer, and Korean War veteran Neil Armstrong left the Navy in 1952, but continued in the Naval Reserve. He worked as an experimental test pilot for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) beginning in 1955, which evolved into NASA.

Armstrong was assigned as an astronaut in 1962, and flew on the Gemini 8 mission in 1966, where he performed the first successful space docking procedure. Armstrong was selected to be the first man to walk on the moon, as the Apollo 11 mission was planned, for several reasons : he was the commander of the mission, he didn't have a big ego, and the door of the lunar lander was on his side. Although the first steps on the moon are what he will always be known for, Armstrong considered the mission's biggest accomplishment was landing the lunar module . He later said , Pilots take no special joy in walking: pilots like flying. Pilots generally take pride in a good landing, not in getting out of the vehicle. Armstrong along with his crew were honored with parades, awards, and acclaim after their return to Earth, but Armstrong always gave credit to the entire NASA team for the Apollo moon missions. He resigned from NASA in 1971 and became a professor of of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Cincinnati for eight years. Armstrong served on the boards of many corporations and foundations, but gradually withdrew from publicity tours and autograph signings.

He didn't particularly care for fame. Neil Armstrong died on August 25, 2012, at age 82. His family released a statement that concluded: “For those who may ask what they can do to honor Neil, we have a simple request. Honor his example of service, accomplishment and modesty, and the next time you walk outside on a clear night and see the moon smiling down at you, think of Neil Armstrong and give him a wink.” 2. Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin After graduating third in his class at West Point in 1951 with a degree in science, Buzz Aldrin flew 66 combat missions as an Air Force pilot in the Korean War. Then he earned a PhD at MIT. Aldrin joined NASA as an astronaut in 1963. In 1966 he flew in the Gemini 12 spacecraft on the final Gemini mission. Aldrin accompanied Neil Armstrong on the first moon landing in the Apollo 11 mission, becoming the second person, and now the first of the living astronauts, to set foot on the moon.

Aldrin had taken a home Communion kit with him, and took Communion on the lunar surface , but did not broadcast the fact. Aldrin retired from NASA in 1971 and from the Air Force in 1972. He later suffered from clinical depression and wrote about the experience, but recovered with treatment. Aldrin has co-authored five books about his experiences and the space program, plus two novels. Aldrin continues to work to promote space exploration. Buzz Aldrin is 85 years old. 3. Charles "Pete" Conrad Pete Conrad was a Princeton graduate and Navy test pilot before entering the astronaut corps in 1962. He flew on the Gemini V mission and was commander of Gemini XI. Conrad was commander of the Apollo 12 mission, launched during a lightning storm which temporarily knocked out the command module's power shortly after liftoff. When Conrad stepped onto the moon, he said, Whoopee! Man, that may have been a small one for Neil, but that's a long one for me. Conrad later flew on the Skylab 2 mission as commander with the first crew to board the space station.

He retired from NASA and the Navy in 1973, after which he worked for American Television and Communications Company and then for McDonnell Douglas. Pete Conrad died on July 8, 1999 in a motorcycle accident. He was 69. 4. Alan L. Bean Apollo astronaut Alan Bean was the fourth man to walk on the moon, during the Apollo 12 mission in 1969. He was the lunar module pilot. Bean was also the commander of the Skylab Mission II in 1973, which spent 59 days in flight. Altogether, Bean logged 1,671 hours and 45 minutes in space. Bean is the only artist to have visited another world, so his paintings of the lunar environment have the authenticity of an eyewitness. He retired from the Navy with the rank of Captain, but continued to train astronauts at NASA until 1981, when he retired to devote time to his art. See those paintings at Bean's online gallery , and stories that accompany each one. Alan Bean is now 83 years old. 5.

Alan Shepard Alan Shepard was a bona-fide space pioneer who cemented his spot in history long before the Apollo program. A U.S. Navy test pilot, he was selected as one of the original Mercury astronauts in 1959. Shepard was the first American launched into space aboard the Freedom 7 spacecraft on May 5, 1961. His suborbital flight reached an altitude of 116 miles. Barred from flight during the Gemini program because of an inner ear problem, Shepard had the problem fixed surgically and was assigned as commander of the Apollo 14 mission to the moon. He was responsible for the most accurate lunar module landing ever, and spent 9 hours and 17 minutes exploring the moon's surface outside the module. During that time, he famously knocked a couple of golf balls with a six-iron attached to his sample-collecting tool. With one arm (due to the space suit), he managed to drive further than professional golfers on Earth could ever hope to, thanks to the moon's lower gravity. Before and after his Apollo mission, Shepard served as Chief of the Astronaut Office.

He retired from NASA and the Navy in 1974, having achieved the rank of Rear Admiral. Shepard went into private business, serving on the board of several corporations and foundations. He founded Seven Fourteen Enterprises, an umbrella corporation named after his two space missions. Shepard wrote a book with Deke Slayton, Moon Shot: The Inside Story of America's Race to the Moon . Shepard compared his book to The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe, saying , "'We wanted to call ours 'The Real Stuff,' since his was just fiction.'' Alan Shepard died on July 21, 1998 at the age of 74. 6. Edgar D. Mitchell Ed Mitchell joined the Navy in 1952 and became a test pilot. Then he earned a PhD in Aeronautics and Astronautics from MIT. NASA selected him for the astronaut corps in 1966. In January of 1971, Mitchell flew on Apollo 14 as lunar module pilot, becoming the sixth man to walk on the lunar surface. He retired in 1972 and founded the Institute of Noetic Sciences , which explores psychic and paranormal events.

Mitchell gained some notoriety after NASA for his views on UFOs , as he has asserted that the government is covering up evidence at Roswell. His information, he admits, comes secondhand from various sources. Ed Mitchell is 84 years old. 7. David Randolph Scott David Scott joined the Air Force after graduating from West Point. Selected as an astronaut in 1963, he flew with Neil Armstrong on the Gemini 8 mission and was command module pilot on Apollo 9. Scott then went to the moon on Apollo 15, which landed on the lunar surface on July 30, 1971. It was the first mission to land near mountains. Scott and Jim Irwin spent 18 hours exploring the lunar landscape in the Lunar Roving Vehicle in the first mission to use such a vehicle to travel on the moon. Scott became famous for the "postage stamp incident," in which he took unauthorized postage stamp covers to the moon with the intent to sell them afterwards. NASA had turned a blind eye to such activities before, but publicity over the matter caused them to discipline Scott and he never flew again.

Scott retired from NASA in 1977 and served as a consultant for several movies and TV shows about the space program. He also wrote a book with former cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, Two Sides of the Moon: Our Story of the Cold War Space Race . David Scott is 82 years old. 8. James B. Irwin Air Force test pilot James Irwin became an astronaut in 1966. He was the lunar module pilot for Apollo 15 in 1971. His 18.5 hours of lunar surface exploration included gathering many samples of rocks. The astronauts' medical conditions were being monitored from Earth, and they noticed Irwin developing symptoms of heart trouble . As he was breathing 100% oxygen and under lower gravity than on Earth, mission control decided he was in the best environment possible for such irregularity -under the circumstances. Irwin's heart rhythm was normal by the time Apollo 15 returned to Earth, but he had a heart attack a few months later.

Irwin retired from NASA and the Air Force (with the rank of Colonel) in 1972 and founded the High Flight Foundation in order to spread the Christian gospel during the last twenty years of his life. He notably took several groups on expeditions to Mt. Ararat to search for Noah's Ark. James Irwin died on August 8, 1991, of a heart attack. He was 61 years old. 9. John Watts Young John Young is so far the longest serving astronaut in NASA history. He was selected as an astronaut in 1962 and his first space flight was in 1965 aboard Gemini 3 with Gus Grissom. He achieved some notoriety at that time by smuggling a corned beef sandwich onto the flight, angering NASA. But Young went on to complete a total of six space missions in the Gemini, Apollo, and the space shuttle programs. He orbited the moon on the Apollo 10 mission, then was commander of the Apollo 16 mission and became the ninth person to walk on the moon.

Young was also commander of the first space shuttle flight in 1981 and returned for shuttle flight 9 in 1983, which deployed the first Spacelab module. Young was also scheduled for another space shuttle flight in 1986, which was delayed after the Challenger disaster, so the veteran astronaut never made his seventh flight. Young finally retired from NASA after 42 years of service in 2004. John Young is 84 years old. 10. Charles M. Duke Jr. Astronaut Charles Duke was capcom during the Apollo 11 mission. His is the voice you recall saying , "Roger, Twank... Tranquility, we copy you on the ground. You got a bunch of guys about to turn blue. We're breathing again. Thanks a lot!" when the lunar module landed on the moon. Duke also made history by catching German measles while training in the backup crew for the Apollo 13 mission , exposing the crew to the disease and causing Ken Mattingly to be replaced by Jack Swigart on that terrifying spaceflight.

Duke went to the moon (with Mattingly as command module pilot) on the Apollo 16 mission in April of 1972. He retired from NASA in 1975 having reached the rank of Brigadier General in the U.S. Air Force, and founded Duke Investments. Duke also became a Christian and a lay minister to prison inmates. Charles Duke is 79 years old. 11. Harrison "Jack" Schmitt Jack Schmitt was a geologist first, and trained as a pilot only after becoming a NASA astronaut. In fact, he was only the second civilian to fly into space, after Neil Armstrong, who was a veteran at the time of his flights. Schmitt was assigned to fly to the moon on the Apollo 18 mission, but when the Apollo 18 and 19 missions were cancelled in September of 1970, the scientific community lobbied to have Schmitt reassigned to Apollo 17 (replacing Joe Engle) as lunar module pilot. He was the first scientist in outer space .

On the Apollo 17 mission, he and Gene Cernan spent three days on the lunar surface (a record) and drove their Lunar Roving Vehicle around collecting samples, conducting experiments, and leaving measuring instruments behind. Schmitt and Cernan gathered 250 pounds of lunar material to take back. After resigning from NASA in 1975, Schmitt, a Republican, was elected Senator for New Mexico and served from 1977 to 1983. He became an adjunct professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and lives in Silver City, New Mexico. In recent years, Dr. Schmitt's scientific background and political leanings have kept him in the spotlight as he has said that the concept of climate change is "a red herring," and that environmentalism is linked with communism . Schmitt is 79 years old. 12. Eugene A. Cernan As a Navy pilot, Gene Cernan logged over 5,000 hours flying time. He was accepted into the astronaut program in 1963.

Cernan's first space flight was on Gemini IX in 1966, in which he conducted extravehicular activities (a space walk), followed by the Apollo 10 mission in May of 1969, which orbited the moon. Cernan was assigned commander of the Apollo 17 mission before anyone knew it would be the last Apollo mission. Even after the Apollo program was cut, no one knew for sure that travel to the moon would be abandoned for decades. When Schmitt and Cernan boarded their lunar module for the last time on December 13th, 1972, Cernan said , "I'm on the surface; and, as I take man's last step from the surface, back home for some time to come — but we believe not too long into the future — I'd like to just [say] what I believe history will record. That America's challenge of today has forged man's destiny of tomorrow. And, as we leave the Moon at Taurus-Littrow, we leave as we came and, God willing, as we shall return: with peace and hope for all mankind.

Godspeed the crew of Apollo 17." Cernan retired from the Navy and from NASA in 1976. He went on to found an aerospace technology firm, and wrote a book about his experiences as an astronaut. He also contributed his talents to ABC-TV as a commentator during shuttle flights and has made appearances on various space specials. In September of 2011, Cernan testified before Congress on the future of the space program. The space program has never been an entitlement, it's an investment in the future - an investment in technology, jobs, international respect and geo-political leadership, and perhaps most importantly in the inspiration and education of our youth. Those best and brightest minds at NASA and throughout the multitudes of private contractors, large and small, did not join the team to design windmills or redesign gas pedals, but to live their dreams of once again taking us where no man has gone before. Gene Cernan is now 81 years old. More from mental_floss...

The man who fell to earth: Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon | Science | The Guardian Share on Messenger Close Buzz Aldrin has been on many journeys in his remarkable life, and in some respects the one to the moon was the least challenging. Being the second man to walk on the moon in July 1969, stepping down from the landing craft 20 minutes after Neil Armstrong, gave him eternal name recognition, but it also brought a heap of problems in the decade that followed - alcoholism, depression, two divorces. He was on the moon for two and a half hours; his post-Nasa breakdown lasted for a decade as he looked for something to fill the space left by ... space. But now, praise the Lord and Alcoholics Anonymous, 79-year-old Buzz is sitting in front of me, tanned, alert, as sharp as the Apollo 11 badge pinned to his colourful tie, chiding me for waving the mic around carelessly, telling a fan who is showing him his grandfather's 60s space scrapbook that he doesn't sign autographs, treading the careful divide between ego and generosity, self-regard and fellowship that is essence-of-Buzz.

Armstrong lives in near-seclusion at his Ohio farm, so Buzz - off the booze for 30 years - has come to represent the crazy glory of manned space travel, and is in London as part of a global mission to get us interested in space again. He's also flogging a book, Magnificent Desolation, which charts his rise, fall and return to equilibrium. Major Tom eventually made it back to Earth, and has quite a tale to tell. The key thing when interviewing Aldrin is not to get too technical. He is a man who would happily fill the entire hour with a discussion of docking manoeuvres. I also make the mistake of mentioning God - he secretly took communion moments after the module landed on the moon ("My soul didn't belong to Nasa," he says) - and he gives me an impenetrable 10-minute explanation of the evolution of his faith. He is nothing if not systematic, which is great for the meticulous planning of moon landings, less good for quick life surveys. But get him off technicalities and AA-style moral lessons, and he is far more articulate and engaging than most interviewers would have you believe.

He has always had problems putting into words the grandeur of that moment 40 years ago. "People want to know what it felt like," he says. "They want us in a few words to generate the enthusiasm that the world had as they contemplated what we were about to do. Well, what it felt like is something that we trained for. We were trying to treat it as calmly as we could and perform to the best of our ability. We tried to repress feelings of exuberance, of disappointment, and be proud and responsible people accomplishing the task that was given to us. That sounds kind of boring. Except that what we did was kind of earth-shaking." I ask him whether he was disappointed to be the second person to set foot on the moon. He tries to have it both ways. "We're dealing with very competitive people who always want to get the most out of the opportunities that come along, even though I did not relish the idea of speeches, celebrations and being on a pedestal as a hero. I didn't enter the space programme to want to do that.

Being first outside the spacecraft would bring much more responsibility, and I really wasn't looking for that." I press a little, and you can sense the 40 years of frustration at being labelled second. "I was continually being asked, 'Didn't it bother you?', and always being introduced as the second man on the moon. That is a degrading title right off the bat, instead of being a member of the first landing mission to reach the moon." What comes across most strongly in his description of the mission in the book is its black comedy - and the way that he, Armstrong and Michael Collins, who was orbiting the moon in the command module, really were flying on a wing and a prayer. Aldrin worries that he will close the hatch to the landing craft, locking out him and Armstrong and condemning them to a slow, oxygen-starved death; he frets when he finds it difficult to plant the American flag in the dusty lunar soil and imagines half a billion viewers laughing at his public humiliation; and he has to use a felt-tip pen as a circuit breaker when a switch breaks in the module. "We were human beings carrying out a very demanding task," he says.

"We had to improvise." That was the appeal of the Apollo missions: these crop-haired thirty-somethings dicing with death going somewhere no one else had been. Aldrin sees his role now as reactivating that spirit. He reckons we should go back to the moon, this time to develop it, and look to get to Mars in a couple of decades. "We have to take the new generation with us, so they can say that their generation participated." He'll try anything to reach that new generation: he writes children's books, is using Twitter (or Tweeter, as he calls it), and recently recorded a rap record called Rocket Experience with Snoop Dogg - one huge step for a man of a certain age. Aldrin holds nothing back when talking about how bad things were when he fell to earth in the early 70s.

He rejoined the US air force - he had been a fighter pilot - but his role as commander of a test pilot school didn't work out, he quit the armed services at 42, started drinking, had an affair, suffered depression, his marriage broke up, he went through another brief marriage, and eventually found himself selling Cadillacs (or, rather, not selling - he was a terrible salesman) in Beverly Hills and becoming dependent on drink. He outlines the reasons for his collapse in his somewhat convoluted Buzz-ese, but it's a perceptive self-analysis: "I inherited tendencies in different directions [depression and an addictive personality] and those directions, if you feed them with a life of perfection and discipline and then remove that all of a sudden, it's probably going to go back to some of the more deep-seated concerns about self-worth and achievement. You did that as part of a team; what are you doing now? You get a job as a car salesman and you're a horrible car salesman. What does that do to a person's ego." What he did was to get sober, marry again - this time for keeps - and re-engage with space.

It's no accident that Buzz Lightyear, the space ranger in animated film Toy Story, is named after Aldrin, who shares his limitless enthusiasm for exploration. Lucky, though, that Aldrin abandoned his real name, Edwin, preferring the nickname given by one of his two sisters, who said "buzzer" instead of "brother". Edwin Aldrin would just have been the second guy on the moon; Buzz Aldrin is the ur-spaceman, if not quite declaring, "To infinity and beyond", convinced that eventually we can get pretty close. • Magnificent Desolation: The Long Journey Home from the Moon (Bloomsbury, £16.99). Buzz Aldrin will be speaking tonight, 7.30pm, at the London Literature Festival, Royal Festival Hall, London SE1 Whatever happened to Neil Armstrong? Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon, is intensely private and, in the eyes of the media, unforgivably normal. He is the JD Salinger of space exploration: the super-celebrity who shuns publicity. Having uttered the immortal line, "That's one small step for man; one giant leap for mankind," he hasn't felt the need to say anything significant since.

It was thought that Buzz Aldrin, as pilot of the lunar module, would be first out, but according to James Hansen's biography of Armstrong, existing practice was overturned because Nasa chiefs realised the first man on the moon would have to bear the burden of fame for a lifetime and preferred the undemonstrative, ego-free Armstrong. He retired from Nasa in 1971 to become professor of aerospace engineering at the University of Cincinnati, where he remained until 1979. Since then he has held numerous corporate directorships and, uncharacteristically, appeared in an ad campaign for Chrysler (reportedly to help the ailing firm, rather than for the cash). He lives with his second wife on a farm in southern Ohio, suspicious of fans and autograph hunters since discovering in 2005 that his barber had sold some of his hair to a collector for $3,000.

In a speech to Congress on 25 May 1961, President Kennedy sets the goal of landing a man on the moon by the end of the decade Published: 1 Jul 2009 Forty years on from the first moon landing, we take you on a tour of the technical achievements, the cultural impact and the future of lunar exploration with our guest, Apollo 11's biggest fan, Christopher Riley Published: 5 Jul 2009 Footage shot just weeks before the moon landing shows Armstrong and Aldrin training in their cumbersome spacesuits Published: 2 Jul 2009 John Harris talks to Edgar Mitchell, Gene Cernan, and other alumni of the Apollo space missions Published: 1 Jul 2009 Moon Exploration Photos -- National Geographic Buzz Aldrin on the Moon Photograph courtesy NASA Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin became the second person to set foot on the moon on July 20, 1969. Commander Neil Armstrong, the first on the moon, captured this image—one of the most famous photographs of the 20th century—soon after the lunar lander Eagle touched down in the Sea of Tranquility.

Moon Buggy Photograph courtesy NASA Apollo 17 mission Commander Eugene Cernan checks out the lunar roving vehicle (LRV) at the Taurus-Littrow landing site in December 1972. LRVs, also called moon buggies, are electric vehicles designed to expand astronauts' range of exploration on the low-gravity surface of the moon. The east end of the moon's South Massif rises in the background at right. Eagle Pilot Buzz Aldrin Photograph courtesy NASA Apollo 11 Lunar Module Pilot Edwin E. "Buzz" Aldrin poses for a portrait in July 1969. The landing and subsequent emergence from the Eagle lander of astronaut Neil Armstrong drew the largest television audience for any live event up until that time and inspired Armstrong to utter the famous words: "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." Lunar Salute Photograph courtesy NASA With lunar module Falcon gleaming in the background, Apollo 15 Commander Dave Scott salutes the American flag at the Hadley-Apennine landing site on July 30, 1971.

Apollo 15 was the fourth mission to land men on the moon and the first flight carrying a lunar roving vehicle (LRV). Astronauts used the LRV to explore the geology of the Hadley-Apennine region. Apollo 12 Photograph courtesy NASA Apollo 12 astronaut Alan Bean descends from the lunar module Intrepid. When it reached the Ocean of Storms on November 19, 1969, Apollo 12 became the second manned mission to land on the moon. As he walked on the moon for the first time, Commander Pete Conrad famously said, "Whoopie! Man, that may have been a small one for Neil, but that's a long one for me." Lunar Module Challenger Photograph courtesy NASA Apollo 17's clumsy-looking Challenger lunar module returns to its command module, America, after its trip to the moon in December 1972. The mission was the sixth and last lunar landing in the Apollo program, and Commander Eugene Cernan remains the last person to leave a footprint on the moon.

Tranquility Base Photograph courtesy NASA Astronaut Buzz Aldrin inspects equipment at Tranquility Base during Apollo 11's July 20, 1969, mission. The Passive Seismic Experiment Package sits in the foreground, and the Laser Ranging Retro-Reflector (LR-3) is in back. The instruments were designed to perform long-term lunar studies autonomously, long after astronauts left, and the LR-3 still returns data to Earth.

Question: Who was the last man to have set foot on the moon?
Answer: Eugene Cernan