Descartes Highlands
Apollo 16 · April 1972 · on the Moon, 8.97° S, 15.50° E
The only Apollo landing in the bright, old highlands, nearly 8 km higher than the lava seas.
What is there
Apollo 16 descent stage (Lunar Module, NASA)
The bottom half of the Apollo 16 Lunar Module, still standing where it landed: it served as the launch pad for the top half, which carried the crew back up to the Command Module in orbit.
Apollo 16 flag (Flag, NASA)
Still standing: Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter photos show its shadow moving as the Sun moves. A horizontal rod along the top holds it out, since there is no wind. Its colours have most likely bleached white in the sunlight.
Apollo 16 Lunar Roving Vehicle (Lunar Roving Vehicle, NASA)
Parked about 90 m east of the Lunar Module, facing it, so its TV camera could be steered from Earth to film the lift-off. It is still there, and Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has photographed it.
Apollo 16 far-ultraviolet camera (Telescope, NASA)
The first telescope on another world: a gold-plated camera John Young set in the Lunar Module's shadow, aimed at the sky in ultraviolet light Earth's air blocks — the Earth's glowing upper atmosphere, nebulae and the Large Magellanic Cloud.
Apollo 16 ALSEP central station (Experiment, NASA)
The hub of the Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Package: it gathered every experiment's data and radioed it to Earth, under its sunshield, through the antenna on its mast. The stations sent data for up to eight years, until NASA switched them all off in September 1977.
Apollo 16 nuclear power generator (Experiment, NASA)
A SNAP-27 radioisotope generator: plutonium-238 heats it and its fins (around 400 °C) turn the heat into about 70 watts of electricity, day and night, for the experiments. Its fuel has been decaying since; it still gives off a little heat.
Apollo 16 passive seismometer (Experiment, NASA)
It listened for moonquakes, meteorite impacts and the crashes of spent rocket stages, under a silver blanket spread out to keep its temperature steady. Together the Apollo seismometers found the Moon rings like a bell for an hour after a hit, and revealed its crust, mantle and small core.
Apollo 16 surface magnetometer (Experiment, NASA)
Three sensors on arms a metre long, measuring the magnetic field in every direction. The Moon has no global field now, but its rocks are magnetised in patches: it once had one, made by a molten core.
Apollo 16 heat flow experiment (Experiment, NASA)
Probes lowered into two holes drilled about 2 m down measured how much heat flows up out of the Moon — a clue to how much radioactive material is inside, and so to how it formed.
Apollo 16 active seismic experiment (Experiment, NASA)
Geophones on a line, and a mortar box that fired grenades out to 1.5 km once the crew had left: the echoes showed the layers of rock under the site.
Stand at Descartes Highlands in Stellingo: the ground is shaped from orbiter elevation maps and photos, the hardware is placed where it really is, and the sky above — the Sun, the Earth, the stars — is the real one, at any date you choose.