00:00See these lines? They are trails astronauts left on the moon leading up to this crater.
00:05But they turned back just 20 meters from their destination. What happened?
00:10February 6, 1971. Apollo 14. Astronauts Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell were on their way to Cone Crater, the mission's
00:19main target.
00:19They were supposed to collect samples from its rim, rocks that had been ejected from the moon's deeper layers when
00:25the crater was hammered into its surface.
00:27The crater was only around 1,500 meters away from the lander, but hiking uphill in a bulky spacesuit, carrying
00:34heavy backpacks and dragging a handcart,
00:37always on the edge of tipping over because of low gravity and the rocky surface, didn't make for an easy
00:43stroll.
00:44Plus, they couldn't see the crater from their perspective, and their map was too vague to provide much guidance.
00:50So with oxygen running low, they turned back at this rock, unaware that the crater's rim was just meters away.
00:57Only years later, thanks to high-risk images from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, did anyone realize just how close they
01:04got.
Comments