Apollo Landing Site

The dark-haloed craters along some of the rilles in the crater are thought to be volcanic vents, and during the Apollo program Alphonsus was considered as a possible landing site in order to possibly sample xenoliths of the lunar mantle from the vents. It was considered for Apollo 16 but the Descartes area was selected. It was one of the three final possible sites for Apollo 17, together with Gassendi crater and the Taurus-Littrow valley, but it was considered possibly "contaminated" with younger material from the nearby Imbrium basin.

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Further reading

  • Alphonsus at The Moon Wiki
  • Rimae Alphonsus at The Moon Wiki
  • Alphonsus crater mantled floor fracture, from LROC
  • Lunar Orbiter map and photo of Alphonsus
  • - one of three craters making up a Triad which includes Alphonsus