Van Serg (crater)

Van Serg

Location of Van Serg crater in Taurus–Littrow valley. South Massif is at lower left, North Massif is at top center, and Sculptured Hills are at upper right. Scale bar is 5 km
Coordinates	20.23°N 30.83°E / 20.23; 30.83
Diameter	100 m[1]
Eponym	Nicholas Vanserg (pen name of Hugh McKinstry)

Van Serg is a feature on Earth's Moon, a crater in Taurus–Littrow valley. Astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt visited it in 1972, on the Apollo 17 mission, during EVA 3. Van Serg was designated Geology Station 9.

To the northwest is Shakespeare and to the northeast are Cochise and Geology Station 8 at the base of the Sculptured Hills. To the south is Sherlock, and to the southwest are the Apollo 17 landing site and the large crater Camelot.

View of Van Serg with Eugene Cernan at right. North Massif is on the horizon.

Planimetric map of Station 9 including the rim of Van Serg.

Apollo 17 panoramic camera image.

Dark matrix breccia from Van Serg cratering ejecta (sample 79135). Although this material is coherent enough to maintain fractures that produce small plates and wedges, the fragments are quite friable and break from the specimen during handling. Note the various light-gray clasts, some of which are feldspathic breccias. (NASA caption)

Name

The crater was named by the astronauts after Harvard University geology professor Hugh McKinstry, who, according to their explanation, sometimes wrote satire under the pseudonym "Nicholas Van Serg".[2] In fact, McKinstry's pseudonym was Nicholas Vanserg.[3][4]

Songwriter, humorist and academic Tom Lehrer, who attended and taught at Harvard, suggested that McKinstry's pseudonym was inspired by the name of the Vanserg Building at Harvard, which is an acronym of its original tenants: Veterans Administration, Naval Science, Electronic Research, and Graduate dining hall. Since it was a temporary building, it never got a "real" name. (This wooden building still exists.)[5] A slightly different list of tenants reported is "Veterans Administration, Naval Science, Electronic Research, and Graduate School".[6][7]

Samples

The following samples were collected from Van Serg crater (Station 9), as listed in Table 7-I of the Apollo 17 Preliminary Science Report.[8] The "Rock Type" is from the table, and the "Lithology" is from the Lunar Sample Compendium of the Lunar and Planetary Institute or NASA's Lunar Sample Catalog.

Sample	In Situ Photo	Rock Type	Lithology	Photo
79002/01 (Double drive tube)		Regolith	Regolith[9]	-
79035		Dark matrix breccia	Soil Breccia[10]	-
79115		Dark matrix breccia	Regolith Breccia[11]	-
79125		Dark matrix breccia	Microbreccia[12]	-
79135		Dark matrix breccia	Regolith Breccia[13]
79155	-	Coarse basalt	Shocked Basalt[14]	-
79175		Agglutinate	Regolith Breccia[15]	-
79195		Dark matrix breccia	Regolith Breccia[16]	-
79215		Brecciated troctolite	Feldspathic Granulitic Impactite[17]	-
79225		Friable dark matrix breccia	Friable Microbreccia[18]	-
79226		Friable dark matrix breccia	Friable Microbreccia[19]	-
79227 and 79228		Friable clods	Clod[20]	-
79245		Crystalline	High Grade Metaclastic[21]	-
79265		Fine basalt	High-Ti Mare Basalt[22]	-
79515		Medium basalt	Ilmenite Basalt[23]	-
79516		Fine basalt	Vitrophyric Ilmenite Basalt[24]	-
79517		Dark matrix breccia	Dark Matrix Breccia[25]	-
79518		Dark matrix breccia	Dark Matrix Breccia[26]	-
79519		Dark matrix breccia	Dark Matrix Breccia[27]	-
79525		Dark matrix breccia	Dark Matrix Breccia[28]	-
79526		Dark matrix breccia	Dark Matrix Breccia[29]	-
79527		Dark matrix breccia	Dark Matrix Breccia[30]	-
79528		Dark matrix breccia	Dark Matrix Breccia[31]	-
79529		Dark matrix breccia	Dark Matrix Breccia[32]	-
79535		Dark matrix breccia	Dark Matrix Breccia[33]	-
79536		Dark matrix breccia	Dark Matrix Breccia[34]	-
79537		Dark matrix breccia	Dark Matrix Breccia[35]	-

References

1. Van Serg, Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature, International Astronomical Union (IAU) Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature (WGPSN)
2. The Valley of Taurus–Littrow, Apollo 17 Lunar Surface Journal, Corrected Transcript and Commentary Copyright 1995 by Eric M. Jones
3. Vanserg, Nicholas. "Mathmanship." American Scientist, vol. 46, no. 2, 1958, pp. 94A–98A. JSTOR.
4. William A. S. Sarjeant (1980). Geologists and the history of geology: an international bibliography from the origins to 1978. Macmillan. p. 1689. ISBN 978-0-333-29393-5.
5. "The College Pump - Naming Names". Archived from the original on 2010-01-16.
6. p. 144
7. Note: The full name for VA was "Veterans' Administration Guidance Center", where "Veterans' Administration" refers to the United States Veterans' Administration now known as the United States Department of Veterans Affairs. These centers were established after WWII in all major educational institutions.[1]
8. Apollo 17 Preliminary Science Report (NASA Special Publication 330). Scientific and Technical Information Office, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Washington, D.C. 1973.
9. 79002/01
10. 79035
11. 79115/79135
12. 79125
13. 79115/79135
14. 79155
15. 79175
16. 79195
17. 79215
18. 79225
19. 79226
20. 79227/79228
21. 79245
22. 79265
23. 79515
24. 79516
25. 79517
26. 797518
27. 79519
28. 79525
29. 79526
30. 79527
31. 79528
32. 79529
33. 79535
34. 79536
35. 79537

External links

• 43D1S2(25) Apollo 17 Traverses at Lunar and Planetary Institute
• Geological Investigation of the Taurus-Littrow Valley: Apollo 17 Landing Site