Lunar surface. Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter LRO view of a close_ups of the Taurus_Littrow valley, the landing site of the Apollo 17 lunar lander, and the Moon磗 North Pole, before zooming out to reveal an entire hemisphere of the Moon. Apollo 17, the last mission to land on the Moon, touched down in the Taurus_Littrow valley on 11th December, 1972. Astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt spent a total of 22 hours on the lunar surface. The North Pole is first shown with topographic colour_coding and circles of latitude and lines of longitude white before a natural_colour view. The colour_coding shows the surface topography, using data gathered by the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter LOLA on the LRO spacecraft in orbit around the Moon. Surface height is colour_coded, with white areas being the highest elevation, through red, yellow, green and blue, with purple being the lowest elevation. The LRO was launched on 18th June 2009.