Lunar surface. Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter LRO view of a close_ups of the Aristarchus Plateau and the Taurus_Littrow valley, the landing site of the Apollo 17 lunar lander. 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 Aristarchus Plateau is first shown in a natural_colour view before a view with topographic colour_coding. 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.