Apollo 16Apollo 16
A malfunction in the main propulsion system of the Lunar Module "Orion" almost scrubbed the landing, but after its success Young and Duke spent three days exploring the geologically interesting Descartes Highlands region while Mattingly circled overhead in the Command Module "Casper."
It was thought that Descartes may be an area of active volcanism, but this proved not to be the case. Among other specimens, the astronauts returned the largest moon rock ever, a 23-pound chunk that turned out to contain not even a single gram of green cheese.
During this flight the moon racers also had a bit of fun testing out the capabilities
of the Lunar Rover, at one point getting it up to almost 11 miles per hour!
