@uhoh - The mortar launcher set up by Apollo 16 astronauts in 1972. The launcher is in the foreground an other experiments can be seen in the background. (NASA). A mortar was brought to the Moon by both Apollo 14 and 16 to fire rocket-propelled grenades over a kilometers from a seismic station set up by the astronauts. Three of these mortars that ranged between 775-1024 g explosives were launched during the Apollo 16 mission.