thumb|right|Oblique view of Fra Mauro taken from lunar orbit on the [[Apollo 12 mission.]]
The Fra Mauro formation (or Fra Mauro Highlands) is a formation on the near side of Earth's Moon that served as the landing site for the American Apollo 14 mission in 1971. It is named after the 80-kilometer-diameter crater Fra Mauro, located within it. The formation, as well as Fra Mauro crater, take their names from a 15th-century Italian monk and mapmaker of the same name. Apollo 13 was intended to land in the Fra Mauro highlands, but was unable due to an in-flight technical failure.
Fra Mauro is thought to have been formed from ejecta, or debris, from the impact which formed Mare Imbrium. During Apollo 14, the astronauts sampled ejecta from Cone crater, a feature close in proximity to the immediate landing site of the mission, which provided insight into the composition of material deep inside the formation. Data from the mission has helped to determine the approximate age of Mare Imbrium, suggesting that it is no more than about 4.25 billion years old.
Formation and geography
Fra Mauro is a widespread hilly geological area covering large portions of the lunar surface around Mare Imbrium, and is thought to be composed of ejecta from the impact which formed Imbrium. The area is primarily composed of relatively low ridges and hills, between which exist undulating valleys. Much of the ejecta blanket from the Imbrium impact is covered with debris from younger impacts and material churned up by possible moonquakes. Debris found in the formation may have originated from deep beneath the original crust, and samples collected there could give insight into the geologic history of the Moon.
A relatively recent impact created Cone crater, 1,000 feet across and 250 feet deep, near the landing site of Apollo 14. One of the main objectives of that mission was to sample the original Imbrium material located on its rim.
thumb|left|Geologic map of an area of the formation (Click to enlarge and see color key).
During Apollo 14, astronauts Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell recovered ejecta material from the Cone crater impact, which is believed to have excavated Imbrium impact material from a possible depth of about . Most of the samples returned from the Moon from Fra Mauro are classified as breccias from the vicinity of Cone crater.
Studies conducted upon samples from Apollo 14 have shown that the samples do not support the possibility that the landing site is floored by volcanic rocks, or basalts. Basalts are sparse in samples of Cone crater ejecta, but somewhat abundant in samples recovered farther west, on the opposite side of the immediate landing site. Two explanations have been presented for this: (1) the majority of basalt in the landing site lies below the depth of excavation of Cone crater or (2) the presence of a basalt flow beneath the landing area excavated by a nearby crater with a diameter of . It is believed After Apollo 12 demonstrated the ability to land with some degree of precision at a pre-specified landing site, mission planners considered landings in rough, but geologically interesting areas of the Moon.