Geological Chronicle
Located in the Fra Mauro highlands north of Fra Mauro crater, Cone crater spans 0.33 kilometers in diameter. The name of the crater was formally adopted by the International Astronomical Union in 1973. Formation of the crater penetrated surface regolith into the underlying Fra Mauro Formation, composed of ejecta from the Imbrium impact event.
On February 5, 1971, Apollo 14 astronauts Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell landed Lunar Module Antares southwest of Cone crater. On their second EVA, the astronauts attempted to reach the crater to sample its ejecta. However, due to confusing topography, they never reached the rim of the crater, though they sampled ejecta nearby.
Geologic station C1 was situated at a cluster of boulders called White Rocks, including Saddle Rock, close to the south rim. Additional sampling stations C2, B2, B3, and Dg lay within the continuous ejecta blanket southwest of Cone. Lunar geologist Don Wilhelms called the ejecta of Cone the most important single point reached by astronauts on the Moon.