Van Serg
{{Short description|Crater on the Moon}}
{{Infobox Lunar crater
| image = Van Serg crater location AS17-151-23251.jpg
| caption = 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 = {{coord|20.23|N|30.83|E|globe:moon_type:landmark|display=inline,title}}
| diameter = 100 m[http://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Feature/6315 Van Serg], Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature, International Astronomical Union (IAU) Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature (WGPSN)
| depth =
| colong =
| 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.
File:Van Serg crater AS17-142-21800-03-05-07-09-11.jpg at right. North Massif is on the horizon.]]
File:A17 PSR Figure 6-123 Station 9.gif
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".[https://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a17/a17.site.html The Valley of Taurus–Littrow], Apollo 17 Lunar Surface Journal, Corrected Transcript and Commentary Copyright 1995 by Eric M. Jones In fact, McKinstry's pseudonym was Nicholas Vanserg.Vanserg, Nicholas. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/27827101?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents "Mathmanship."] American Scientist, vol. 46, no. 2, 1958, pp. 94A–98A. JSTOR.{{cite book|author=William A. S. Sarjeant|title=Geologists and the history of geology: an international bibliography from the origins to 1978|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lbZFAAAAYAAJ|year=1980|publisher=Macmillan|isbn=978-0-333-29393-5|page=1689}}
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.{{cite web| url = http://harvardmagazine.com/1997/03/pump.html| url-status = dead| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100116035744/http://harvardmagazine.com/1997/03/pump.html| archive-date = 2010-01-16| title = The College Pump - Naming Names}} ({{As of|2025}}, his wooden building still exists.[https://harvardplanning.emuseum.com/sites/334/vanserg-building Vanserg building]) A slightly different list of tenants reported is "Veterans Administration, Naval Science, Electronic Research, and Graduate School".[https://books.google.com/books?id=hxpvsfxjfMAC&pg=PA144&lpg=PA144 p. 144]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.[https://books.google.com/books?id=ehCoRf6JRlkC&pg=RA51-PA1]
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.Apollo 17 Preliminary Science Report (NASA Special Publication 330). Scientific and Technical Information Office, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Washington, D.C. 1973. 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.
{{Clear}}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- [https://www.lpi.usra.edu/resources/mapcatalog/LPST/43d1s2/ 43D1S2(25) Apollo 17 Traverses] at Lunar and Planetary Institute
- [http://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a17/a17pp-geosynth.pdf Geological Investigation of the Taurus-Littrow Valley: Apollo 17 Landing Site]