On December 11, 1972 (GMT), Apollo 17 landed on the Moon at the Taurus-Littrow Valley, which was located on the southeastern rim of Mare Serenitatis. This flat valley is surrounded by mountains (Massif), which were made of ejecta rocks from the deep crust excavated when Mare Serenitatis was formed by collision of a small asteroidal body.
Dr. Harrison H. Schmitt was the first and only scientist-astronaut for geology (astro-geologist) to the Moon. He investigated the big boulders fell down from these mountains, and brought back some pieces of these rocks to Earth. Only a few samples (among 110 kg rocks) brought back by them were found to be formed in the deep primitive crust and had crystallization age of approximately 4.5 billion years ago, just after the birth of the Moon. The Apollo 17 crew also sampled "orange soil", which was composed almost entirely of glass spherules about 3.5 billion years ago. The spherules might have formed by quenching lava fountains, after the eruption of mare basalts in Mare Serenitatis 3.7 billion years ago.
Since Apollo 17 was in a low latitude inclination orbit and KAGUYA is in a polar orbit, KAGUYA flies over the Apollo 17 landing site from/to north to/from south and KAGUYA can observe the landscape by prospecting the Valley from the south to north. The photograph looks down at the Apollo landing site on the north side above the East Massif.
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