Fact sheet
68536 is a rake sample and consists of a collection of impact melt fragments cemented by a black glass. Our thin section is mainly crystalline rather than glassy and contains a patch of plagioclase feldspar fragments that are severely shocked (rotation 2). Rotation 1 shows a single plagioclase feldspar clast that is also shocked. Trails of metallic iron and troilite fragments are visible in reflected light.
The sample weighed 1.8 grams before analysis and has not been dated.
Further details of this and other Apollo samples are here: http://curator.jsc.nasa.gov/lunar/
The Apollo 16 landing site was in the hilly region around Descartes crater in the lunar highlands. The landing spot was chosen to allow the astronauts to gather geologically older lunar material (Descartes Formation and the Cayley Formation) than the samples obtained in the first four landings, which were in or near lunar maria.
The mission lasted 11.1 days, with a stay on the lunar surface of 71 hours. The crew were on the lunar surface for 20.2 hours during which they traversed approximately 27 kilometers and collected approximately 96 kilograms of samples.
Apollo 16 was launched on 16 April 1972.