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Announcer: “Ten, nine, eight, seven - 

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Ignition sequence started.

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All engines are started.

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We have ignition.

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Two, one, zero. We have a liftoff.

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We have a lift off
and it's lighting up the area -

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it’s just like daylight here
at Kennedy Space Center.

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The Saturn five is moving off

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the pad. It is now clear of the tower.”

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NASA's now celebrating the 50 year
anniversary of Apollo 17.

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This was the final mission
of the Apollo program and most notably,

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the last time
humans set foot on the Moon's surface.

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The landing site in the Taurus-Littrow
Valley was selected so that astronauts

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could collect samples of the lunar

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highlands and investigate
the volcanic history of the area.

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So - what was it
like to actually be there, and

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how does this mission connect with NASA's
current exploration of the Moon

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and our future plans
to return humans to the surface?

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These questions are best answered
by the Lunar Module pilot for Apollo 17,

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Jack Schmitt,
whose background as a geologist offers

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unique insight
about studying the lunar terrain.

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For Jack, being on
the Moon was an unparalleled experience,

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and future astronauts
should expect the same.

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The experience is going to be more
than you ever anticipated,

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and it was that way
for me to get onto the Moon.

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Seeing this valley of Taurus-Littrow,

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which is deeper than the Grand Canyon,
as a matter of fact, mountains

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to six and seven thousand feet above you
on either side of the valley,

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all silhouetted against a

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black sky with brilliantly illuminated
mountain slopes.

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And the Earth, of course, in one spot
above the southern part of the Massifs -

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that all was a new experience, of course.

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And you can’t . . .

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you can hear people talk about it, but
you can't absorb it until you're there.

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Being there is the essential human ingredient

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in any kind of experience of that kind.

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Schmitt: “As I step off at the surface at Taurus-Littrow,

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I'd like to dedicate the first steps

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of Apollo 17

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to all those who made it possible.”

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Schmitt and Commander Gene Cernan
completed three moonwalks on the surface,

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taking rock samples
and deploying scientific instruments.

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Difficult work considering the surface
gravity is only about one-sixth

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that of Earth's.

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Cernan: “What are you working on, Jack?” 
Schmitt: “I'm taking a pan.”

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Cernan: “Very good. I'm coming right now . . .

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I bet you a dollar to doughnuts that you don’t
get a TGE reading.”

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Mission Control: “Yeah, Gene. If it’s easy enough to take it off,

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why don't you take it off the Rover

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and we’ll try and and level it in the stuff.”

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Schmitt: “Ah, come on . . . ”[Laughter]

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Cernan: “I'm not sure there's any place to put it on the ground level.”

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Schmitt: “No. You have to dig a place.”
Cernan: “Yes, I’ll do it. Okay it’s coming off.”

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Cernan: “Well, I'll set it right up here.”

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Schmitt: “It's gonna fall down the hill . . .” 

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Schmitt: “You’d better stomp off a good place.”
Cernan: “Yeah.”

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The conditions on the Moon,
however, were also ripe

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for the astronauts to have a little fun
on the surface as well.

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Schmitt [Singing]: “I was strolling on the Moon one day . . .”

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Cernan and Schmitt [Singing]: 
“in the marry marry month of . . .”

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Schmitt: “December!”

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Cernan: “No, May.”    -    Schmitt: “May. “ 
Cernan: ”May’s the month this year.”

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Schmitt: “May - That's right.”
Cernan: “May is the year of the Month” 

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Schmitt: “Go ahead. Oh,  there . . . there.

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Schmitt: “Let me throw the hammer.”

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Cernan: “Okay.”
Schmitt: “Let me throw the hammer, please.”

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Cernan: “It’s all yours.”  
Schmitt: “You got the gravimeter.”

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Cernan: “You deserve it. A hammer thrower . . .”

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Cernan: “You’re a geologist. You ought to be able to throw it.”

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Schmitt: “You ready?”
Cernan: “Go ahead.”

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Schmitt: “You ready for this? Ready for this?”

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Cernan: “Yeah”

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Cernan: “Don't hit the LM . . . or the ALSEP”

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Schmitt: “Look at that! Look at that! Look at that!”

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Cernan: “Beautiful.”

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Cernan: “Looked like it was going a million miles,
but it really didn’t.”

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Schmitt: “Didn’t it?”

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The crew managed to gather around 245 pounds

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of moon rocks and dust samples
during their EVAs.

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It was an impressive collection
for scientific analysis back on Earth.

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Cernan: “Let's see if I can’t crack the corner and get that contact.”

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The quality and diversity of the Apollo
sample collection is just remarkable.

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Absolutely remarkable.

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And it's a gift that keeps on giving.

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The researchers continue
to go back to these samples.

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New analytical technology comes along
where you can apply new techniques,

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get more higher resolution information,
and that'll be going on indefinitely.

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I don't think the lunar sample collection
from Apollo will ever be out of date.

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Over three decades after Apollo 17,

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NASA launched the Lunar Reconnaissance
Orbiter in 2009.

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The scientific instruments
aboard this robotic spacecraft

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collect a wide variety of scientific data
on the Moon's environment,

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including surface and subsurface
properties.

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And since LRO has now been in operation
for over 13 years,

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it has provided a treasure
trove of new information about the Moon,

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as well as the capacity to help scientists
re-interpret older data

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and answer scientific questions that had
been lingering from the days of Apollo 17.

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One such case involved the debate
over the origins of a light colored mantle

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seen at the base of the South Massif
in Taurus-Littrow.

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LRO imagery provided a key discovery

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that enabled scientists to put together
the many pieces of the puzzle.

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One of the highest sun angle
LRO photographs

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made it very clear
that there was an older, slightly darker

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avalanche underlying - partially underlying-
the light colored light mantle avalanche.

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And that immediately brought into question
whether or not the light mantle

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avalanche, as people had thought,
was triggered by secondary material

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thrown from the crater Tycho, some 2000

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kilometers to the southwest.

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It would seem not impossible,
but it would seem to be very coincidental

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to have two avalanches, one of which
was triggered by those impacts.

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And that, in turn, took us to looking at
what might be an alternative

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triggering mechanism.

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And the more we began to understand
the Lee Lincoln scarp, and that it was

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indeed as a result of other LRO analyses
elsewhere on the Moon,

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that it was indeed a thrust fault scarp -

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Then you start to think, well,
maybe these are being triggered

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by seismic activity, moonquakes.

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And so it sort of snowballs.

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You see one thing,
and then you start to explain that

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and it leads you to a number of other
analyses.

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Clearly, LRO imagery and other sensor data

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has made a great difference in our ability
to augment

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the interpretation of the geology
of the valley of Taurus-Littrow.

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As the LRO mission continues
enhancing our ability to interpret

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Apollo era data while also collecting
new information about the lunar terrain,

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Jack sees a clear roadmap
for the future exploration of the Moon

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and where we should go next.

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It's apparent to me that based on

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just general considerations

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as well as the magnificent imagery

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coming from the Lunar Reconnaissance
Orbiter Camera,

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that South Pole Aiken is clearly

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the place you'd like to have an extended human

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presence for exploration.

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With this all this new knowledge,
I think South Pole Aiken becomes

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a much higher priority
for the next human mission to the Moon.

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Sure enough, NASA has recently announced that the Artemis missions

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which will eventually have humans

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returning to the lunar surface,
will focus on the Moon's South Pole.

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In fact, the 13 landing sites
currently under consideration

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sit within the South Pole Aiken Basin,
or on its rim.

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Data shows the presence of water ice
in some of the permanently shadowed

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regions, a discovery
that is crucial for understanding

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the geologic history of the Moon,
as well as helping establish

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a sustained human presence
there in the future.

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Overall, the 50th anniversary of Apollo
17 reminds us

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that this mission was a crucial stepping
stone in the history of lunar science,

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laying the groundwork for missions
like LRO,

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which in turn help open the door
on a new era of human exploration

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with Artemis.

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And while these missions may be separated
by decades of time,

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they all interconnect
with the central premise and understanding

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of how the Moon is the cornerstone
to understanding our universe.

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The main reason
the Moon is important in the general

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understanding of the solar system
is that it has no atmosphere.

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It's never had any water erosion,
it has no dynamic plates being formed

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and eaten up as the Earth does.

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And it tells us
what the early solar system was like up

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to about three
and a half billion years ago.

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And that's information we can't really get
from any other accessible planet.

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The Apollo 17 anniversary
allows us to reflect on all the moments,

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big and small, that led to the success
of that historic mission.

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For Jack, it's a time to reflect
on those days, months and years

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spent out in the field
preparing for the duties of an astronaut.

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And it was during this time training
that Jack learned the invaluable

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scientific lesson that not everything goes
exactly as planned.

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Well, those excursions had all of their

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their interesting aspects.

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One time, I believe it was in Nevada,
we’re getting off the rover, even

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without a suit, I had slipped on something
and fell onto this . . . surface.

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And my good friend, the late

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Gordon Swan, said over the communication
system, “Well, Schmitt just hit the fan!”

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[Laughing] . . . 

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It was, by the way, an alluvial fan.

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[Laughing]

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I don't think you can use that! [Laughing]

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Interviewer: “I’ll use that someday.”

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[Laughter]

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Interviewer: “That’s Great. Thank you very much Jack.”

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Yeah, thank you.