Taurus-Littrow Valley

Apollo 17 was the only mission to carry a geologist, Harrison Schmitt, and the valley was chosen because a single traverse could reach both highland massif material older than the Serenitatis basin and mare basalt younger than it.

At Shorty crater Schmitt found orange soil - beads of volcanic glass, later dated to 3.64 billion years, erupted in a fire fountain and preserved because the crater had dug them back up from under the regolith. They are among the most volatile-rich material returned from the Moon, and the reason the site is still being reanalysed fifty years on.