Harrison H. "Jack" Schmitt, the last man to walk on the moon, will speak next week at a luncheon sponsored by the Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy.
The event will be held at 11:30 a.m., Wed., Nov. 19, in the Toyota Auditorium of the Baker Center.
Cost for lunch is $15, payable by cash or check, and reservations are required by calling 974-0931. The lecture itself is free and open to the public; lecture attendees should arrive by noon.
Schmitt, who was also the only trained scientist to walk on the moon, will speak on the nation’s plans for a return to the moon and lunar space exploration. He currently serves as the chair of the NASA Advisory Council, which is in charge of overseeing plans for returning humans to space — first to the moon, then to Mars and then beyond into the solar system.
First selected as a scientist astronaut in June 1965, he trained a number of Apollo astronauts on geology to prepare them for their lunar missions. He traveled to the moon himself on the Apollo 17 mission, where he served as the lunar module pilot.
After serving with NASA, Schmitt was elected to the U.S. Senate from New Mexico in 1977, where he served one term.
Schmitt’s visit was arranged by UT Knoxville Distinguished Professor Larry Taylor. Taylor, the director of UT Knoxville’s Planetary Geosciences Institute, is a leader in research on lunar exploration.
Most recently, he has taken part in a project called the Moon Mineralogy Mapper, or M3, an instrument on the Chandraayan-1 satellite launched by India in October that is now orbiting the moon.
For more information about the Baker Center, see http://www.bakercenter.utk.edu.