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Descartes Highlands
8.97301° S latitude, 15.49812° E. longitude
The hilly region around Descartes crater
in the lunar highlands was the landing site chosen for Apollo 16.
The landing site had two basic terrains that
were explored and sampled: the Cayley Plains - a smooth or undulating
light plains unit, and the Descartes formation made up of hilly
furrowed highland plateau material. Analysis of the samples showed
that these geologic units were made up of debris generated by impact
events, perhaps from the formation of large lunar basins.
North and South Ray craters appeared to penetrate
deeply into the Cayley formation and revealed a sequence of layering,
perhaps through an overlap of both the Cayley and Descartes formations.
From Apollo 16 Press Kit.
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Apollo Landing Sites Map
99k jpeg
Apollo 16 Landing Site
113 k jpeg
NASA photograph
AS16-0161.
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