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Some of my favourite historical cartographers are Fra Mauro, who created a map of the world in the 13th century; Abraham Ortelius, who created the first modern atlas in 1570; and Joan Blaeu, a Dutchman who published the first heliocentric world map in 1648.

Haise’s first view of Fra Mauro should have been a moment of excitement: under normal circumstances, it would have been a glimpse of things to come.

“Looking down at the moon, we could view Fra Mauro, our site where we planned to land.”

Unlike the sites chosen for the Apollo 11 and Apollo 12 landings, which had both been on the flat basaltic plains of the moon’s maria, or “seas,” the Fra Mauro highlands were characterized by low ridges and large hills, offering brand-new varieties of lunar terrain to explore.

Without the opportunity to survey the Fra Mauro region and deploy the lunar-surface experiments, NASA’s program director recommended the Apollo 13 mission be considered “unsuccessful.”