Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Apollo 17 crew consisted of Commander Gene Cernan, Command Module Pilot Ronald Evans, and Lunar Module Pilot Harrison Schmitt. Schmitt was the only professional geologist to land on the Moon, holding a doctorate in geology from Harvard University. Both Evans and Schmitt were making their first spaceflights.
The Apollo 17 lunar module Challenger touched down at 2:55 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on the 11th of December 1972, landing approximately 656 feet east of the planned landing point in the Taurus-Littrow valley.
Taurus-Littrow was selected because planners believed the crew could obtain highland material older than samples from Mare Imbrium and investigate evidence of younger volcanic activity. Apollo 15 Command Module Pilot Al Worden had overflown the valley and described formations he thought were volcanic in nature. The Apollo Site Selection Board voted unanimously for the site in February 1972.
Apollo 17 set multiple records, including the longest crewed lunar landing mission at 12 days and 14 hours, the greatest distance traveled from a spacecraft during any extravehicular activity at 7.6 kilometers, the longest total lunar surface EVA duration at 22 hours and 4 minutes, and the largest lunar sample return at approximately 115 kilograms. Ronald Evans also set a record for the most time spent orbiting the Moon, approximately 148 hours.
Cernan and Schmitt discovered orange soil at Shorty crater during the second moonwalk. Post-mission analysis revealed it was composed of tiny beads of volcanic glass formed about 3.5 billion years ago from a lava fountain that sprayed molten material into the lunar sky. The impact that created Shorty crater exposed the buried beads less than 20 million years ago.
Apollo 17 launched at 12:33 a.m. Eastern Standard Time on the 7th of December 1972. It was the only crewed Saturn V launch to occur at night and the final one in the Apollo program. The launch was delayed two hours and forty minutes by the only hardware-caused launchpad delay in the entire Apollo program, the result of a sequencer failure to automatically pressurize the liquid oxygen tank in the rocket's third stage.