Harrison Schmitt cancelled in September 1970, the community of lunar geologists supporting Apollo felt so strongly about the need to land a professional geologist on the Moon, that they pressured NASA to reassign Schmitt to a remaining flight. As a result, Schmitt was assigned in August 1971 to fly on the last mission, Apollo 17, replacing Joe Engle as Lunar Module Pilot. Schmitt landed on the Moon with commander Gene Cernan in December 1972. Schmitt claims to have taken the photograph of the Earth known as "The Blue Marble", possibly one of the most widely distributed photographic images in existence. NASA officially
Apollo 17 the second Apollo 17 EVA. The orange soil then becomes the major driver of the plot of the rest of the story. The 2005 novel "Tyrannosaur Canyon" by Douglas Preston opens with a depiction of the Apollo 17 moonwalks using quotes taken from the official mission transcript. Additionally, there have been fictional astronauts in film, literature and television who have been described as "the last man to walk on the Moon," implying they were crew members on Apollo 17. One such character was Steve Austin in the television series "The Six Million Dollar Man". In the 1972 novel "Cyborg", upon