| Post-EVA-2 Activities | Preparations for EVA-3 |
| Post-EVA-2 Activities | Preparations for EVA-3 |
[Astronaut Donald "Pete" Peterson is the Wake-up CapCom. Procedures for this part of the mission start on Surface 5-7.]MP3 Audio Clip ( 9 min 37 sec )[Because of the six-hour delay in landing, energy use is being kept to a minimum. At 154:21:26, just before they started the rest period, they switched to Low Bit Rate and Down Voice Backup, which is why the comm from the LM is weak. They will switch to High Bit Rate and Normal Voice at 162:42:29, below.
162:38:32 Peterson: Orion, Houston. (Pause)
162:38:40 Duke: (Sounding very sleepy) Who speaks?
162:38:42 Peterson: Roger. How are you doing this morning?
162:38:49 Duke: Super. Is it time to get up?
162:38:52 Peterson: Yes, sir. (Pause)
162:39:01 Duke: Okay, reveille, reveille. (Long Pause) Okay, Pete, we're stirring; we'll be up in a minute.
162:39:41 Peterson: Roger. (Long Pause) Okay, Orion. You're Stay for EVA-3.
162:40:05 Duke: Hey, that's mighty nice of you. And we were looking for reveille for about 7 o'clock, but we'll get going right now.
162:40:15 Peterson: Roger. (Pause) These flight directors are slave drivers.
[Comm Break]162:42:29 Peterson: And, Orion, would you give us Voice, Normal, and Hi Bit Rate, please?
[Long Comm Break]162:46:29 Peterson: Orion, Houston. Let's go back to Lo Bit Rate, please.[After getting out of the hammocks, John and Charlie are stowing hammocks and the sleep restraints in the jettison bag, as per the handwritten note on Surface 5-7. Originally, John and Charlie had planned to have three sleep periods while they were on the Moon, one after each of the EVAs. However, because of the six-hour landing delay, they had their first sleep period before EVA-1, the second before EVA-2, and have just completed the third. They will return to lunar orbit after EVA-3 and will not have another rest period until they are back in the Command Module.]
[Comm Break]MP3 Audio Clip ( 10 min 43 sec )
162:48:00 Duke: Houston, Orion. We have a crew status report for you.
162:48:08 Peterson: Okay, Orion. Go ahead. (Long Pause)
162:48:23 Duke: Okay. For John, yesterday he had Day 7, Meal A; and Day 7 - Stand by - and Day 7, Meal B. On day 7 Meal A, he ate everything but the beef steak. On Meal B, he ate everything but the romaine soup and the butterscotch pudding. He had no medication, and he'd like for the docs to guess how much sleep he had to start with, and then we'll give you our estimate. For me, we had Day...(the) same two meals; I ate everything on meal A except the bacon squares and on meal B everything but the romaine soup and the butterscotch pudding. I had no medication, and I slept for 7 hours. Over.
[Details for the meals can be found in the LM Menu given in the Apollo 16 Press Kit ( 5.6 Mb PDF ).]162:49:34 Peterson: Roger. And we estimate John slept 6 and a half to 7 hours.[Journal Contributor Brian Lawrence comments "I must admit I didn't know what 'romaine soup' was - neither did Gill - but a bit of research revealed that romaine is a variety of lettuce. If that's what the soup was made from, I'm not surprised that neither John nor Charlie ate it!"]
162:49:44 Duke: Okay. He was going to say 7. That's great.
162:49:49 Peterson: Roger. (Pause) Okay. And, Orion, I've got block data and a note from the Surgeon and a battery-management procedure at about 164 hours any time you're ready to copy. (Pause)
162:50:24 Duke: Okay. You can go with the block data.
[These are launch times for upcoming Command Module passes over the landing site. Each of the launch times is followed by the TPI, Terminal Phase Initiation, time at which they will start the final rendezvous maneuvers. T46 is the launch time for the 46th Command Module pass.]162:50:27 Peterson: Okay. The block data starts at T46, 163:54:55; TPI, 166:44:00; T47, 165:53:25, 168:42:30; T48, 167:51:55, 170:41:30; T49. 169:50:26, 172:40:00; T50, 171:48:57, 174:39:00; T51, 173:47:29, 176:38:00.
162:51:55 Duke: Give me number 50 again, please.
162:52:00 Peterson: T50 was 171:48:57; the TPI was 174:39:00.
162:52:16 Duke: Okay. I'll just read you back the lift-off times, starting with 46, (reading quickly) 163 plus 54 plus 55; 165 plus 53 plus 25; 167 plus 51 plus 55; 169 plus 56 (sic) plus 26; 171 plus 48 plus 57; and 173 plus 47 plus 29. Over.
162:52:40 Peterson: Let's verify T49 as 169:50:26.
162:52:51 Duke: That's a "Charlie". (Pause)
[Journal Contributor Larry Turoski writes, " When I was in the Air Force, the phrase 'That's Charlie' or 'That's a Charlie' was synonymous with 'Affirmative' or 'That's correct.' Most of us didn't use it, though, because it was too cumbersome a phrase, especially when "Roger" would do. I don't recall ever using it myself. It was used enough, though, to remain in my memory. I believe Pete Conrad uses it somewhere in the Apollo 12 transcript. "]162:53:02 Peterson: Okay. And the battery management (listed on Surface 5-10) is at 164:45.[Among other places, Pete used 'That's Charlie' at 109:45:05 during the Apollo 12 landing.
162:53:16 Duke: Okay, Pete. What time is it now?
162:53:19 Peterson: It's 163:05. (Long Pause)
[The difference between the Journal time and the Mission Time being kept in Houston represents an 11 minute 48 seconds clock update that was done at about 118 hours to simplify operations at the new lift-off time. See the discussion at 115:55:23.]162:53:55 Duke: Okay, Pete. On that battery management, when we get to that time, just give me a call, if you will. Over.
[To conserve power, John and Charlie turned off the Mission Timer and their only time pieces are their watches, which are set to Houston time.]162:54:00 Peterson: Will do. (Pause) Okay, and the note from the Flight Surgeon requests that you have the crew check the Biomed harness prior to suit-up for EVA-3. And if you have the PRD readouts handy, we'd like them; otherwise, we'll skip them.
[Although both John and Charlie are wearing biomed sensors, only one is transmitted to Houston while they are in the cabin. Houston is asking Charlie to change a switch setting so the Flight Surgeon can look at the data from Charlie's sensors to make sure they are still functioning properly.]162:54:28 Duke: Okay. I'll give you (my) Biomed in just a second, and John's was on all night, so I guess his is okay. And we'll give you the PRDs like we always do when we get suited up.
162:54:41 Peterson: Rog. That's fine, Charlie. And John's Biomed data did look good all night.
162:54:51 Duke: Okay. (Pause) Okay. You're looking at my Biomed now, Pete.
162:55:08 Peterson: Okay. Stand by a minute. (Pause) Looks good, Charlie.
162:55:19 Duke: Okay. (Switching) back to John.
162:55:24 Peterson: Okay. (Long Pause) Okay. Both the Biomeds look real good.
[Comm Break]162:57:01 Young: Okay, Houston. How do you read? Over.[After checking their Liquid Cooled Garments (LCGs) as per Surface 5-7, John and Charlie will have breakfast.]
162:57:03 Peterson: Okay, you're loud and clear.
162:57:08 Young: Okay. And we're going on with the PLSS top-off right now (as per the third item under "Eat Period" on Surface 5-8).
162:57:13 Peterson: Say again, John. (Pause) Okay. Copy PLSS top-off.
162:57:19 Young: (Not having heard Peterson) Topping off the PLSSs right now.
162:57:21 Peterson: Roger. (Long Pause) And, Orion, we just want to remind you again that we want to put the Commander's OPS on the LMP PLSS.
162:58:07 Young: Okay. The EVC(S)'s not in the OPS?
[The EVCS is the Extravehicular Communications System.]162:58:14 Peterson: We didn't copy the question, John.
162:58:19 Young: I say I thought there was something about a radio transmitter that had to be...Is the radio transmitter located out on the PLSS? Is that the answer to that?
162:58:32 Peterson: That's affirmative, John.
[Long Comm Break]MP3 Audio Clip ( 9 min 58 sec )[The tip of John's OPS antenna broke off when he climbed into the LM at the end of EVA-2. His PLSS is the one which contains the EVCS radio gear capable of transmitting both his and Charlie's voice and data to the LM or the Rover and Houston wants him to have the good OPS antenna. See Figure 1-3 in the LCRU Operations Manual.]
[EVA CapCom Tony England takes over from Peterson.]
163:04:12 Young: Okay, Houston. I'm going off Biomed for about 10 minutes. Over.
163:04:18 England: Okay, John.
[Very Long Comm Break while they have breakfast, adjust the Biomed harnesses, and do other prep work before donning the suits.]MP3 Audio Clip ( 10 min 50 sec )
163:45:19 Young: Okay, Houston. How does that Biomed look to you now?
163:45:24 England: Okay. It looks good here, John.
163:45:32 Young: Okay. Fine. (Pause)
[As per checklist pages Surface 5-7 and 5-9, John and Charlie are supposed to start suit donning 1 hour 25 minutes after wake-up. Wake-up was at 162:38:32, so only 1 hour 7 minutes have elapsed. Tony's next transmission may be just a "hello", but may also be a subtle inquiry as to where John and Charlie are in the checklist.]163:45:37 England: How are you doing up there?
163:45:43 Duke: Oh, just fine. We finished eating, and we're ready to don suits now (as per Surface 5-9).
163:45:52 England: Okay. Fine. Do you want a quick briefing on the traverse today (as per Surface 5-8)?
163:46:00 Duke: Okay. One comment, Tony, that we were talking about last night that we didn't pass on, that the feeling we got from all the crystalline rocks was that they had a sugary texture to them.
[This observation suggests that the crystalline rocks they found - and there weren't very many - were all highly shocked, probably in the South Ray impact.]163:46:18 England: Okay. We copy that. The changes for the traverse today are pretty simple. We've got changes to your Cuff Checklist if you want them, or I can real-time them (during the traverse). I think we can real-time them if that's okay with you. But I'll outline them now. The only change on egress...
163:46:44 Young: Yeah, summarize it for us, please.
163:46:46 England: Okay. Fine. The only change right after egress (on cuff checklist page LMP-28), Charlie, (on cuff checklist page LMP-28) instead of putting on mag L, I'll ask you to put mag M on the 500 millimeter. That will give you a full mag, and that would be all you need. That will save a change up at Station 11. And at the LM site there, we'd like you to shoot off a pan of Stone Mountain, but I'll call you on that when you get out; otherwise, the LM area is nominal. And you go up to Station 11 slash 12 (meaning "11/12"), which will be just one station for about an hour and 5 minutes.
[As indicated in the "Descartes EVA-I, III 2 of 2" map, they had planned to make two stops on the rim of North Ray Crater, at the locations marked "11" and "12". In good reproductions of the figure, there is a black dot between the bottom of the "1" and the "2" in the Station 12 label. This is House Rock, which shows up much more clearly in the "Descartes EVA-III 3 of 3" map at CZ.2/80.6. They will actually park the Rover about 130 meters southwest of House Rock at about CY.7/79.9.]163:47:15 England: We're going to drop the near-field polarimetry up there (which is listed on CDR-32 and CDR-33), and we'll concentrate on big boulder samples, a permanently-shadowed sample, and the padded bag sample on the special samples area. We'll still like a stereo pan...a far-field polarimetry of the crater interior; we'll try to get about an 80-meter base on that; and, when you get up there, Charlie, I'll brief you on what looks like the best way to do that. And we'll return along the same route you went up, and about one-half to one kilometer off the rim when you still feel you're on the continuous ejecta blanket; we'll call that Station 13. We'll do a Station 13 with the TV (contrary to the instructions on CDR-36), and we'll lengthen it to 15 to 20 minutes. I've got a fixed time here, but I don't see it right in front of me right now. And that, instead of a rock/soil (sample), will be a rake soil plus a couple of documented samples. And then the rest of the time will be spent back in the LM area.
163:48:13 England: We'll make a Station 10 Prime which is about 50 meters west of your Station 10. So it makes a triangle with the deep core, which would be south of it, and the Station 10 which would be northeast of it, and then Station 10 Prime which makes that northwest corner of the triangle, and we'll ask for a rake soil at Station 10 Prime, a double core at that station, a rake soil at Station 10; and then whatever time is left to 35 minutes (prior to repress) will be documented samples.
163:48:48 England: Now, the end of the EVA is pretty much nominal except, John, when you go out to the permanent parking location of the Rover (as per CDR-48 and 49), we'd like you to make sure you take a camera along, and we'll do an LPM measurement there after you've parked it, and we'll also ask you to try to find us a dense crystalline rock if you can find it. If you can't find a crystalline one, then at least a dense breccia, and we'll do the rock-on-top-of-the-LPM measurement (which is indicated on CDR-42 and CDR-45). And that's pretty much it. I'm going to try to keep you to the timeline as much as possible because we've really got a hard time for getting back in. I know they won't allow us to go over at all.
163:49:31 Young: Okay. Well, let me tell you this, Tony. Believe it or not, the (UV) camera is out in the Sun right now, part of it.
163:49:41 England: Is that right? Did the Sun come down...(Stops to listen)
163:49:43 Young: The cassette handle is out in the Sun.
163:49:48 England: Okay. I guess we'll probably have to slide that back into the shade again.
163:49:57 Young: Yeah.
163:50:01 England: Where do you think it should go? Why don't you just pick a place? I think you're better positioned than the Backroom. I'm sure you'll have better luck at it.
163:50:15 Young: Okay. Well, it only needs to be moved about 3 or 4 inches.
163:50:20 England: Okay. Fine. (Pause) And, on the LRV, we're going to ask you to go back to the normal configuration on the PWM. If you experience any difficulty, then, we'll go back to the PWM configuration you're in now. And the attitude indicator - or that pitchup problem - won't cause us any serious problem. Just when you do the Nav update, try to park in a level area. And the Backroom is hoping that the Nav problem was a temporary one; that'll be okay for your EVA-3. Either way, you shouldn't really have any problem because you can probably see the area you're going to, and you're going to go right back along your tracks so we're not too worried about it if you don't have distance (readouts).
163:51:06 England: And we're projecting (a) hot battery again on EVA-3, and we may have some changes during the EVA on that. Your mobility rates during EVA-2 were very near those predicted; and we have a large margin of battery power, so we're in good shape there. Also, they mentioned that if you have a dust problem from that missing fender - (right) rear fender - there is a way of putting one of the front fenders on the back; but, golly, I don't know whether you really want to do that.
163:51:45 Young: Yeah, I don't either, Tony. We'd get the dust from the front fender, then, probably.
163:51:50 England: Yeah, you're probably right. There was a comment from the Apollo 15 crew that the (dust raised by the) front wheel didn't seem to bother them when they lost a (left-front) fender (extension) up there, but the back wheels seemed to do more. I don't understand it, but that's what they said. (Pause) And that's all I've got if you want to go ahead and get dressed.
[Ron Creel has provided a summary ( 1.3 Mb PDF ) of the fender extension losses that occurred on all three Rover missions.]163:52:15 Young: Okay. (Long Pause)
163:52:44 England: Incidentally, it's a bright, sunny, beautiful Sunday morning here in Houston. (Long Pause)
163:53:03 Young: At like 13 minutes to 8, huh? (Pause)
163:53:12 England: Right.
[Comm Break. It is just before 8 a.m., Houston time, April 23, 1972.]163:55:46 England: (Under increased background noise) Orion, we'd like you to go Down Voice, Backup.
[Very Long Comm Break. During this Comm Break, Charlie dons his suit.]MP3 Audio Clip at 164:09 ( 1 min 50 sec )
[The difference between Journal time and the Mission Time being kept in Houston represents an 11 minute 48 seconds clock update that was done at about 118 hours to simplify operations at the new lift-off time. See the discussion at 115:55:23.]
| Post-EVA-2 Activities | Apollo 16 Journal | Preparations for EVA-3 |