On April 21, 1972, the Apollo 16 mission successfully landed on the moon, becoming the fifth manned mission to land on the moon. The spacecraft consisted of three parts: the Command Module, the Service Module, and the Lunar Module, with the Lunar Module being the part that actually landed on the moon’s surface.
The Lunar Module, piloted by astronauts John Young and Charles Duke, landed in the Descartes Highlands, an area that was believed to be rich in minerals. Young and Duke then began their three-day stay on the moon, during which they conducted several experiments and collected samples of rocks and soil.
During their time on the moon, the two astronauts drove a lunar rover, which allowed them to travel further from the landing site and collect more samples. The mission was considered a success and brought back over 200 pounds of lunar samples for scientific research.
The Apollo 16 mission was the second to last manned mission to the moon, with the final mission, Apollo 17, taking place in December of the same year. The success of the Apollo missions helped to further our understanding of the moon and its origins, and paved the way for future space exploration endeavors.
