Van Serg (crater)

To the northwest is Shakespeare and to the northeast are Cochise and Geology Station 8 at the base of the Sculptured Hills.

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".

[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.

)[5] A slightly different list of tenants reported is "Veterans Administration, Naval Science, Electronic Research, and Graduate School".

[6][7] The following samples were collected from Van Serg crater (Station 9), as listed in Table 7-I of the Apollo 17 Preliminary Science Report.

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)