Exploring the Moon: astronaut Duke stands next to Crater Plum during the first excursion of the Apollo 16 mission. Duke is seen holding a bore sampling implement, used to take vertical profile samples of the lunar soil. On the far side of the 30 metre wide crater is the Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV). Astronauts Duke and Young landed in the Descartes region of the Moon on 21 April 1972. During their 71 hour visit, they made three excursions on the surface totalling 20 hours 14 minutes, covering 26 kilometres in the LRV. After blasting off from the Moon, they rejoined astronaut Mattingly in the Command and Service Module, returning to Earth on 27 April 1972.