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Station 1 at Plum Crater

Corrected Transcript and Commentary Copyright © 1997 by Eric M. Jones.
All rights reserved.
Scan credits in the Image Library.
Video credits in the Video Library.
Except where noted, audio clips by Roland Speth.
Last revised 7 April 2018.

 

RealAudio clip ( 21 min 12 sec ) by Siegfried Kessler

MP3 Audio Clip ( 9 min 37 sec )

[Station 1 activities are detailed in Brian McInall's Station 1 planimetric map.]
123:24:08 Duke: (To Houston) Okay, your (console) readings are (heading) 180, (bearing to the LM) 088, (distance driven) 2.0, (range to the LM) 1.4, (Rover temperatures) 115, 115, 115. Amps are zero. Volts are 68, 68, 100, 100. Rear motor (temperature)s (both) off-scale low; forward motors (both) off-scale low.
[Jones - "I take it that you're getting the displays while John gets the TV."]

[Duke - "We practiced (with) me reading that off. That was my job."]

[Jones - "And I think John is aiming the high-gain."]

123:24:30 England: Okay, we copy. You should be about 40 meters from Plum. Is that right?

123:24:36 Duke: No, we're not. We're right on the rim, if that's okay with you.

123:24:41 England: That's okay.

123:24:42 Duke: You can...You can...

123:24:43 Young: You'll be able to see everything we do.

123:24:44 England: Okay.

123:24:46 Duke: Okay. For some reason, I'm not bouncing out of this thing like I thought I would.

123:24:49 England: Are you still in the ray material there at Plum?

123:24:55 Duke: No.

123:24:57 England: Good. We don't want to be.

123:25:00 Duke: The ray material is about 50 meters to the east of us, Tony.

123:25:06 England: Outstanding.

123:25:08 Duke: (Consulting LMP-23) Okay; we saw the boulders at Buster; we didn't see the northeast(-trending) scarp. Okay, I got the displays, I'm going to get the pan up on the rim of Flag Crater. (Pause) Wow!! Is that some crater, Tony! Whooo! It's a smooth crater, very subdued, but it's really steep, and there's some smaller craters 10 meters or so on the side. (Static)

123:25:49 Duke: I can't even see the bottom right where we are.

123:25:57 Young: That is spectacular.

123:26:00 Duke: Okay, Tony. The sides are steep enough to cast a shadow from the Sun, so you can estimate from what our Sun angle is what the walls of that are.

123:26:10 Young: Hey, is it okay if I turn you around to dust the snow out of your eyes (meaning the TV lens), there?

123:26:15 England: Okay.

[Charlie's Station 1 pan consists of frames AS16-109- 17775 to 17793.]

[Frame 17775 is a down-Sun with Flag Crater at the right.]

[Frame 17778 shows part of the shadow on the eastern wall of Flag Crater.]

[Frame 17781 gives us a view to the north of the east rim of Flag Crater.]

[Frame 17784 is an up-Sun view of a fairly shallow bowl-shaped crater with shadowing on its eastern wall. Note that this shadowing effect actually seems to be produced by overlapping shadows of small rocks on the rim and inner slope.]

[Frame 17788 shows John at the front of the Rover, leaning in to his right as he dusts.]

[By the time Charlie takes 17789, John has left the Rover and is coming over to join Charlie. The TV camera is pointed west. At the right side of the picture, we can see the east wall of Plum Crater with shadows from individual rocks.

[Frame 17790 also shows Plum Crater. Note the rounded crater on the far wall that has a deep shadow in it.]

[In the distance in 17791, we can see the raised rim of South Ray Crater. Note that the rim crest to rim crest distance is about one fiducial spacing. South Ray Crater is about 700 meters in diameter and is about 5.5 kilometers south of their present location at Flag Crater. On the far rim of Plum Crater, note the partially buried boulder, which John and Charlie will sample after they finish their work near the Rover. This is the boulder that Charlie mentions at 123:27:36.]

123:26:21 Duke: Okay, Tony. To the north side of Spook, right on the - I keep calling it Spook - on Flag is a crater right on the inner rim, that has some blocks in it that are not too big, cobble size (64 - 256 mm) , I'd say.

123:26:40 Young: That help any, Houston?

123:26:43 England: We don't have a picture yet.

123:26:46 Duke: And...

123:26:48 Young: (As per CDR-33) Mode switch is in 2.

123:26:51 England: Charlie, don't fall in that thing.

123:26:53 Duke: I'm not gonna fall in it.

123:27:05 Duke: Boy, anybody that judges Cayley Plains as a flatland (laughs) is crazy. (Pause) Tony, the sides of this thing get pretty steep. I'm not going to get down too far, I can't see the bottom of it. And it's getting so steep I don't want to go any farther. (Pause) Okay, Tony...

123:27:34 England: Sounds like a good idea, Charlie.

123:27:36 Duke: On the southwest flank of Plum, we have a buried boulder (see AS16-109- 17790), and it's about a meter across. And that's the only boulder we see of any consequence here at Plum. In Spook...(Correcting himself) In Flag, on the southwest rim about halfway down into the crater, we see a block that's sticking out, that's very angular, that's maybe 2 meters across, and it's in an area of whiter albedo. It's probably a buried block. I wouldn't call it bedrock. I see nothing that looks like bedrock.

[Jones - "I don't remember that you ever saw anything that looked like bedrock to you, except at North Ray."]

[Duke - "Yeah. North Ray was the only spot. I wouldn't say that anything else was. At North Ray, I think we had some on that far rim, on the west rim."]

123:28:15 England: Okay, how far down from the rim are you?

123:28:18 Duke: Hey, John (garbled)...(Answering Tony) Halfway.

123:28:23 England: Okay. (Comm improves)

123:28:28 Duke: Okay; (as per LMP-23) rake soil coming up.

123:28:30 Young: Okay.

[Charlie has completed his first pan at a spot indicated by the circled "1" on LMP-23. This is Pan 4, marked with an 'A' in the Station 1 plan map.]
123:28:32 Duke: And that's done up on Flag. (Pause) We can do some sampling and radial along Flag.
[The line of Xs north of Plum on LMP-23 indicate a series of samples along a radius extending from Plum. The box around the northernmost X may indicate the desired location for a rake sample. The numbers "3", "8", and "27" that start each of the three lines related to geology may indicate the numbers of minutes allotted to each task.]
123:28:44 Duke: Oh, there's a great place for the rake, see, right up there?

123:28:48 Young: Yeah, we don't even...

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123:28:50 Duke: 12 o'clock?

123:28:52 Young: Yup.

123:28:54 Duke: Okay, I got the rake. Let's see, that's all I need. I can shovel with this (rake).

[TV on. Fendell is looking at the western horizon. Because of the down-Sun washout, it is all but impossible to tell that we are looking across to the far wall of Flag Crater. Fendell starts panning clockwise.]
123:28:57 England: Our big eye is alive.

123:28:58 Young: Okay; let's go.

123:29:02 Duke: (Responding) Ah so, here we go! (Pause)

[As Fendell pans around to the left, we begin to see enough difference in the foreground lighting to see the interior of Plum and a large rock - now known as Big Muley - on the near rim. Big Muley and a similarly-sized, anonymous rock are shown in a labeled version of AS16-109-17789.]
123:29:11 Duke: Okay, we're going up (north of the Rover) to where it's more cobbly, Tony, to get the rake sample. It's pretty smooth right here.
[In the distance, we can see the white South Ray ejecta blanket.]
123:29:18 England: Okay, the rake sample should be one crater diameter away from Plum. And it doesn't have to be...

123:29:24 Young: From Plum?

123:29:25 England: Right. And it doesn't have to be too cobbly there.

123:29:29 Young: Okay, well...(Pause)

[The inbound Rover tracks come into view, with Stone Mountain in the background.]
123:29:34 Duke: This is about it then, John.

123:29:35 Young: Yeah, but I don't think any of...The rocks from here may have come from Plum, but they may be (from) some other place, too.

123:29:42 Duke: Well, let's do what they want us to do.

123:29:45 Young: All right.

123:29:47 England: Right; the intent was to get other things than Plum right there...

123:29:49 Duke: How about right out there, in my shadow? (Pause) There's some right there. That might be...

123:29:55 Young: Sure going to get them. (Pause)

123:29:59 Duke: Okay, down-Sun, 11-footer.

[Charlie may be referring to a decal on his camera which is reproduced in Figure 5.3-2 in the Lunar Surface Procedures volume. A down-Sun photo, taken toward 12 o'clock, is taken at f/11. Cross-Sun photos are taken at f/8 and up-Sun photos at f/5.6. Figure 3.3-1 shows that the standard sampling photo set consists of an f/11 down-Sun taken at an 11-foot focal distance, and a cross-Sun stereopair taken at f/8 from a 7-foot focal distance. The next frame in the set, which can be taken at any time, is the so-called "Locator" which is a picture of the Rover, the LM, or of a horizon feature so that the sample location can be determined in post-flight analysis. After the sample is collected, a final photo, called the 'after', is taken at f/8 from 7 feet cross-Sun.]
123:30:03 Young: Right here, Charlie?

123:30:05 Duke: Yeah, that's fine.

[Off-camera, John may be putting the gnomon on the rake site. Charlie will take a down-Sun photo from 11 feet away while John takes a cross-Sun stereopair.]

[Fendell reaches the counter-clockwise pan limit.]

123:30:08 England: And, John, when you get a chance...

123:30:09 Duke: Okay, an eleven footer at (f/)11.

123:30:10 England: ...could we get a frame count from you?

123:30:16 Duke: Hey, Tony, I'm at (frame) 50, magazine Bravo.

123:30:20 England: Okay.

[Charlie has mis-spoken. He is using magazine Golf, also known as AS16-109.]
123:30:22 Young: Okay, I'm at 10, magazine Bravo. (Pause) Charlie, you're standing in the shadow.
[What John means is that Charlie's shadow is falling on the sample area.]
123:30:32 Duke: Sorry, I'm moving. Man, it's so easy to get around up here.
[Fendell reverses direction. This clockwise pan gives a superb illustration of the character of the view changes with sun angle.]

[Charlie's down-Sun is AS16-109- 17794, which he took after he moved. Flag Crater is in the background. John took three cross-Suns from the south: AS16-114- 18389, 18390, and 18391. He stepped to his right after 18389 and back to his left after 18390.]

123:30:38 Young: Okay, let's do it.

123:30:40 Duke: There's the locator.

[Charlie's "locator" is AS16-109- 17795 and shows John taking the cross-Suns. In the background, we can see the Rover, Plum Crater, South Ray Crater, and Stone Mountain.]
123:30:43 Duke: And we'll start the old rake, for the first time! Get that beauty right there. Look at it come through that regolith, would you?
[The dialog over the next several minutes suggest that Charlie is the one using the rake.]
123:30:56 England: Charlie, Houston. We'd like for you to check your primary water valve...

123:31:00 Duke: (Not having heard Tony's second sentence) Go ahead.

123:31:02 England: Make sure it's open. (Pause)

[This is not the cooling control but, rather, is the on/off valve for the primary water supply. The Primary tank holds about 8.5 pounds of water and the Auxiliary tank holds about 3.5 pounds.]
123:31:08 Duke: Okay, I'll let John check it. I'm feeling good. Nice and cool. Can you check it?

123:31:15 Young: Yeah. Wait a minute.

123:31:18 Duke: I'm not sure it was all the way open. (Pause)

123:31:28 Young: Yeah, it's open, Charlie; it's all the way open.

123:31:33 England: Okay, we copy that.

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123:31:35 Young: Houston; it's open all the way.

123:31:38 Duke: Yeah, I feel good cooling, Tony. (To John) Move out and let's get around out of the way there. Another rake. Okay, Tony, we got about...(Pause)

123:31:50 England: Okay, Charlie. We think you're about to run out of primary feedwater; stand by for the tone. Just press on there.

123:31:58 Young: Okay.

123:31:59 Duke: Already?! Is that right?

123:32:04 England: That's affirmative.

123:32:06 Duke: Go to Min cooling. Okay, if y'all been expecting it.

123:32:19 Young: All the way up is Min, isn't it, Houston?

[According to the Apollo 16 Mission Report, Charlie is using feedwater at a much higher rate than John. See, also, the dialog at 124:14:38. During this first EVA, Charlie will use 11.62 pounds of water while John will use only 9.08 pounds. Pre-flight estimates indicated they would both use 9.04 pounds. Charlie will have about 0.42 pounds of water remaining at the end of the EVA. The EVA started at 118:53:33 and, consequently, they are about 279 minutes into what will be a 431-minute EVA. John will switch to Aux water at some point after 125:00:15, which is 367 minutes into the EVA. The Primary Water tank holds about 8 pounds. During the 444 minutes of EVA-2, John will use 9.48 pound and Charlie will use 10.28; and during the 341 minutes of EVA-3, John will use 8.21 pounds and Charlie will use 8.38 pounds.]

[Fendell is looking across Plum Crater with Big Muley on the left side of the TV pictures and, near the center on the far rim, a flat, white rock that John and Charlie will sample later in their Station 1 activities. Photos AS16-114- 18420, 18421, and 18422 are part of a pan Charlie took near that rock. These frames show the rock and, on the far side of Plum, the Rover. A portion of Flag Crater is at the upper left in 18420.]

123:32:21 Duke: Yeah. Wait a minute; I'm losing all of those (rocks).

123:32:26 Young: Yeah.

[From the evidence of rake samples taken later in this mission and on other missions, after each swath Charlie raises the rake and shakes the loose soil out. Rocks larger than about 1 cm will stay in the rake and, apparently, most of the rocks Charlie is sweeping up are smaller than that.]
123:32:27 Duke: There's three little ones.

123:32:30 Young: Two little ones, now. (Pause)

123:32:36 Young: Okay, we better get another one.

123:32:38 Duke: Yup. (Pause)

[Charlie will rake a few more swaths.]

[As Fendell pans through northwest, we begin to see features on the far wall of Flag Crater.]

[Duke - "Flag Crater is almost washed away, here. It's hard to see when you look at zero-phase. And that's a big crater, you know, a couple hundred meters across and, until you get up towards the north, you really can't even see it."]

123:32:54 Duke: There's a pretty good...

123:32:55 Young: (Lost under Charlie)

123:32:57 Duke: John, there's a glassy one right there. I can't tell what the other ones are.

123:33:02 Young: I can't either. They're all dust coated. Do you want me to go low or high or what?

[John is probably asking if Charlie wants him to hold the individual sample bag at waist height or at knee height while Charlie pours in the collected rocks.]
123:33:07 Duke: No, that's fine.

123:33:10 Young: Okay.

123:33:12 Duke: Okay, Tony, we got about a half a sackful going in bag...(To John) What is it?

123:33:16 Young: 373.

123:33:18 Duke: (Correcting John) 372.

123:33:20 Young: 372.

123:33:22 Duke: 372 with three rakes (meaning three swaths). Over.

123:33:24 England: Okay, we copy that. 372. (Pause)

[Fendell has reached the clockwise pan limit and John and Charlie are just barely visible over the Rover console.]
MP3 Audio Clip ( 9 min 05 sec )

123:33:30 Duke: And there were more smaller ones but they fell through the tines.

123:33:38 England: Okay, we copy. I take it the soil isn't too cohesive here.

[Tony is asking if Charlie was encountering any soil clods which would have fallen apart when Charlie shook the rake.]

[While Charlie rakes, John takes AS16-114- 18392, 18393, and 18394.]

123:33:46 Young: Charlie, hold the bag for a second.

123:33:50 Duke: (Answering Tony) No, they're just small (rocks)!.

123:33:51 England: Rog.

123:33:55 Duke: If we'd picked another place...(Laughing) I can't get the top off.

123:34:01 Young: That's right.

123:34:02 LM Crew: (Garbled)

123:34:03 Duke: Did you get it?

123:34:05 Young: Yeah, I got it.

123:34:06 Duke: Okay. (Pause)

[John was probably putting the individual sample bag in the Sample Collection Bag mounted on the right side of Charlie's PLSS.]

[Fendell zooms in to get as good a view of John and Charlie as is possible in the circumstances. Charlie is standing to John's right. They have their backs to the TV camera.]

Video Clip ( 4 min 24 sec 1.1 Mb RealVideo or 39 Mb MPEG )

123:34:16 Duke: Okay, John, if you'll step aside, I'll get a soil sample. (Pause)

[Charlie will use the side of the rake to scoop up a bagful of soil. AS16-116- 18690 is a good close-up of the rake.]
123:34:23 Duke: Okay, there's the tone, Tony.

123:34:27 England: Okay.

123:34:29 Young: Want me to get your Aux(ilary) water On? Want me to get it, Charlie?

123:34:33 Duke: Aux. I got it. (To Houston) Aux water is On.

123:34:36 England: Okay. (Pause)

[Charlie turns 90 degrees to his left.]
123:34:43 Duke: Hey, how much soil, Tony?

123:34:45 Young: Kilo(gram).

123:34:46 Duke: Kilo, huh. That's what I thought.

[Charlie raises the rake and pours some soil into the bag John is holding.]
123:34:48 England: That's right. One kilo. (Pause)

123:34:54 Duke: That's about a kilo. One more scoopful?

123:34:56 Young: Yeah. A little one.

123:34:59 Duke: Okay. Ahh. (The rake has caught on a) rock.

[Charlie raises the scoop again.]
123:35:06 Young: (Garbled) Almost looks like (garbled).

123:35:09 Duke: (Garbled) soil. Okay. Man, it's really soft here, Tony, on the rims (of craters). You don't sink far, but when you walk on it, it gets very...(Pause)

[John tries the trick of spinning the bag shut while holding onto the tabs with both hands.]
123:35:23 Young: That's the last time I do that with soil.

123:35:25 Duke: When you rake it...(Laughing) Did it come out? The Z-ing, you mean? Look at that gnomon already, would you? Look at the color chart.

123:35:35 Young: Dropped the dirt all over it. (Laughing) We'll just have to be more careful.

[John goes over to Charlie, who presents his SCB so John can put in the sample bag.]
123:35:39 Young: Okay, this is 354. Going in bag 354, Houston.

123:35:44 England: Okay, 354.

[John turns and takes an 'after' of the rake site, AS16-114- 18395.]
123:35:49 Duke: Hey, Tony, is the feedwater pressure coming back up again?

123:35:53 England: That's affirmative.

123:35:58 Duke: Okay; I don't feel it.

[John reaches down with his left hand to get the gnomon.]
123:36:00 Duke: We ought to start from here, John, and do a radial sampling in towards Plum.

123:36:04 Young: Okay.

123:36:05 Duke: Okay, why don't you go ahead and get started and I go get the shovel. Okay?

123:36:08 Young: All right. (Pause)

[Charlie takes the rake to the back of the Rover.]
123:36:17 Duke: Tony, I went to Minimum on my cooling.

123:36:19 England: Okay, we copy that.

123:36:23 Duke: Hey, was that about what time you expected or am I using it faster than normal?

123:36:30 England: Ah, you're using it just a hair faster. We'll probably take a couple minutes off the EVA, but it's nothing real bad.

[Charlie puts the rake in its stowage bracket. John has picked a site for their first rock sample. Figure 6-21 from the Preliminary Science Report is a sketch map showing where John and Charlie took samples near the Rover.]
123:36:39 Duke: Okay, I feel like what happened is that I've been on a little bit more than minimum cooling. (Pause)
[Charlie pushes hard on the base of the rake and the Rover moves in response.]
123:36:52 Duke: About pushed the Rover over, (when I) do this. (Long Pause)
[With the rake now secure, Charlie grabs the scoop and goes out NNE of the Rover to join John. Fendell pans to the clockwise limit to find them.]
123:37:12 Young: (Garbled)

123:37:14 England: Charlie, Houston. (Relaying a comment from the Flight Director) We don't want you to stay in Min cooling if you need more cooling than that. You don't really buy anything, you just stow it and have to pay it off later.

[By using less than adequate cooling, the body overheats and has to be cooled later.]
123:37:25 Duke: Understand. Understand. I was just telling you what the circumstances were.

123:37:30 England: Okay. (Pause)

123:37:36 Duke: Thank you for the reminder. (Pause)

[John has the gnomon down and has already taken a cross-Sun stereopair of 'before' photos. These are AS16-114- 18396 and 18397. He is getting a sample bag ready.]
123:37:42 Duke: (To John) What are you picking up? That little old thing?

123:37:45 Young: Charlie, that's as good as any of them.

[Charlie is in position to take the down-Sun before, AS16-109-17796. Note the small rock two fiducials to the right of center.]
123:37:47 Duke: (Laughing) It looks like it is gonna come apart, though, to me.

123:37:52 Young: It might. There's three or four samples right there we can get.

123:37:57 Duke: I'm just trying to turn my feedwater on a little bit. (Moving in) I'll get these in the shovel.

123:38:02 Young: Okay.

123:38:04 Duke: If you don't get out of that...If you don't get that thing in the...(Pause)

[Because our view is mostly blocked by the console and a cable, it is not clear who is wielding the scoop.]
123:38:16 England: Okay, are all of these rocks looking pretty much the same?

123:38:21 Duke: They're all covered, Tony.

123:38:22 Young: All dust covered.

123:38:25 England: Okay.

123:38:27 Duke: Dust.

123:38:31 Young: What do you need, Charlie?

123:38:32 Duke: Bag.

123:38:34 Young: Okay.

123:38:35 Duke: (That's) one. (Pause)

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123:38:41 Young: They're angular.

123:38:43 Duke: All angular, though, I'll tell you that. Here's one with a white streak, looks like a caliche streak through it. (I don't) believe it. It's that white rock. (Pause)

[Duke - "We were expecting to find some rounded rocks, but there weren't any."]
123:39:05 Duke: Okay, there are four samples, John. That's good enough.

123:39:08 Young: Yeah. That's in bag 371, Houston.

123:39:11 England: Okay; 371.

[According to Bailey and Ulrich, these samples are 61150 and 61155 to 58. 61155 is a 48-gram of "partial molten breccia", meaning a rock which had partly melted during formation; and 61156 is a 59-gram igneous rock. Even in this small area, they are getting good variety, even if the dust coatings are making identification difficult on samples this small.]
123:39:15 Duke: (Going around to the north side of the gnomon) Get the locator. (Pause)
[Charlie's locator is AS16-109- 17797. The small rock noted in 17796 is two fiducials right and two down in this photo.]
123:39:24 Duke: Hey, wait a minute; we need a soil from there.

123:39:28 Young: Okay. (Pause) (I need to) put this (individual sample bag) in your bag.

123:39:34 Duke: Okay; come on over. (Pause)

[Charlie has moved back to the east side of the gnomon. Because Charlie's SCB is on the left side of his PLSS, John goes around the gnomon clockwise to get to it. After John puts the sample bag in Charlie's SCB, he gets another bag ready so that Charlie can fill it with soil. Charlie does that while he talks to Tony.]
123:39:46 Duke: Man, that crater...That is really something. Tony, on the west side of Flag, there is a small crater maybe 2 to 3 meters across; it's real fresh, has some real bright rays, and you can see a blocky interior. Wait a minute, John, just let me shoot...I can...There you go.

123:40:07 England: We copy that, Charlie.

123:40:10 Duke: Okay. And that's about a third of the way down from the rim. Wish we could see the bottom (of Flag).

123:40:17 Young: That (soil sample)'s going in bag 363, Houston. 363.

123:40:21 England: Okay, 363.

[John puts bag 363 in Charlie's SCB.]
123:40:26 Young: Let me get an "after" of that, Charlie.

123:40:29 Duke: Okay, I'll move.

[Charlie gets out of the way, hopping sideways to his left and circling the gnomon counter-clockwise.]
123:40:31 Young: I'll have to get it from the other side. (Pause)
[John took the before from the south side and, so, moves back around to the south side so the before and the after are taken from about the same place. Following in Charlie's wake, he hops sideways to his left. Once he gets into position, he takes a stereopair from the south, AS16-114- 18398 and 18399.]
123:40:41 Young: (Finished with the "afters") Okay.
[John grabs the gnomon while Charlie moves from our right to our left behind the Rover.]
123:40:45 Duke: Okay. Here's one right here, John, that'll make a good one. See that one right there by that footprint? That's a good sample size. About 5 centimeters across?
[Jones - "Why are you saying 5 cm is a good sample size? Small enough that it would go in the bag? And big enough so that they'd have something to work with?"]

[Duke - "Yeah, and it's characteristic of the rocks (that help determine the desired size). You know, if you get it too small, you wouldn't have the clasts and all. But 5 cm - a couple of inches - gave you some clasts and breccia fragments and stuff like that."]

[Jones - "So, basically, you wanted to get the biggest thing that would fit in the bag."]

[Duke - "Well, that's what we tried to do. Yeah. Except for the rake sample. The rake would trap things that were, I think, above a half-inch. I don't now what the spacing between the tines were (1 cm = 0.4 in), but anything smaller than that spacing would fall out. So it basically graded itself. And the shovel, you basically just picked up what was there. But the samples we tried to take were bigger."]

[Houston decides that they won't see much of what John and Charlie and doing; so Fendell begins a counter-clockwise pan.]

123:41:02 Young: That one right?

123:41:04 Duke: No, that one right here to the right of my shadow. See, right there. Let me show you.

123:41:10 Young: Okay. (Pause) Right there.

123:41:12 Duke: Right here. See?

123:41:14 Young: Okay.

[Fendell stops and examines the large, fresh craters on the north wall of Flag.]

[Charlie's down-Sun before of this third sample site is AS16-109- 17798. John's cross-Sun stereopair is AS16-114- 18400 and 18401.]

123:41:16 Duke: Okay. (To Houston) It's an angular subangular rock, Houston, 5 centimeters (across). I can see some white clast shining through it. (Pause)

123:41:30 Young: Bet it's dust covered again.

123:41:32 Duke: Everything here is dust covered, yeah. (Pause) Got that beauty.

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123:41:45 Young: Wait a minute (Pause, possibly while John gets a bag out) Okay, Charlie.

[Fendell resumes the counter-clockwise pan.]
123:41:59 Duke: Okay, Tony, it's a white matrix; it's a breccia, it looks like. (It has) white clasts with some greenish-looking, very small millimeter-sized phenocryst in a black matrix.

123:42:15 England: Okay, we copy that.

123:42:16 Young: Okay; it's going in bag 364, Houston.

123:42:18 England: Okay, 364. (Long Pause)

[This is sample 61175, a 0.5 kg breccia.]
MP3 Audio Clip ( 12 min 29 sec )

RealAudio clip (20 min 48 sec) by Siegfried Kessler

123:42:31 Young: Okay. Let me (take the after). (Are) you going to get soil sample?

123:42:34 Duke: Yeah, wait a minute. Let me bounce out of the way here. Uh-oh, John. Fell out.

[A sample bag may have just bounced out of Charlie's SCB. John's cross-Sun after is AS16-114- 18402.]
123:42:42 Young: You're bouncing too high.

123:42:43 Duke: Oh. Did you close it (meaning the SCB lid)

123:42:44 Young: I'll get it. No. I didn't close the top.

123:42:46 Duke: Oh.

123:42:48 Young: And I didn't stuff it down in there. (Pause)

123:42:57 Duke: (Garbled) That's how I fell down. (Pause)

[John has probably tried to bob down to one knee to get the sample bag and has fallen.]

[Fendell stops and zooms in on Big Muley. There appears to be at least one large, white patch - possibly a clast - near the top.]

123:43:06 Duke: I gotcha. Got it. Two-man job.

123:43:11 Young: (Laughing) Yeah. (Garbled) step, huh?

123:43:15 Duke: Yeah. Man it...Tony, it's really spongy here. The regolith is just real loose and non-compacted if that's the (right word)..."Unconsolidated" is the word I'm searching for.

123:43:29 England: All right; we copy.

[Fendell resume the counter-clockwise pan.]
123:43:30 England: Can you see where the TV is pointed?

123:43:35 Duke: Yes. It's pointed down towards South Ray.

123:43:38 England: Right. Over to the right on the edge of Plum there, looks like there might be rock with some phenocrysts in it. If you're over that way, you might look around and see if you see something like that. It may have just been dust on it.

123:43:52 Duke: Okay, there's a big rock that I've already described. Did you get the "after" there, John.

[The only large rock Charlie has described so far is the boulder on the southwest rim of Plum opposite their present location. Charlie mentioned it at 123:27:36. Tony's question was poorly stated and did not indicate that the rock of interest (Big Muley) is near the front of the Rover.]
123:43:59 Young: Yeah, I got the after. You want to...Let's get a soil sample.

123:44:02 Duke: Okay, coming up. (Long Pause) Bags are a pain, aren't they? (Pause) Okay.

[Fendell reaches the counter-clockwise limit. John and Charlie are off-camera to the left.]
123:44:24 Young: It's going in bag 356, Houston. Soil sample.

123:44:31 England: Okay, 356. (Pause)

[Fendell starts panning clockwise. John is probably putting the soil sample in Charlie's SCB.]
123:44:41 Young: Okay. Get an "after" this...

123:44:45 Duke: Okay. (Pause)

[John's after of the soil sample is AS16-114- 18403.]
123:44:52 Young: Okay, Houston. I'm on frame count now (pause) 24. (Pause)

123:45:02 Duke: Okay, there's one right on the (northeast) rim (of Plum) we can get.

123:45:06 Young: Okay.

123:45:07 Duke: There's a good size one right over here by my footprint. Actually, I took pan 1 where pan 2 should have been. Okay, looking down into Plum, Tony, there is some cobbles and things on the inner rim. But they aren't very large, maybe 30 centimeters or so is the biggest.

[Formally, a 'cobble' is a piece of rock between about 6.4 cm and 25.6 cm in size. Larger pieces are boulders; smaller pieces are pebbles. Charlie has learned to use the term correctly.]
123:45:28 Young: Want to get some of these here, Charlie?

123:45:30 Duke: Yeah, that's great. That definitely's a breccia right there, John.

123:45:34 Young: Yeah, you can see the clasts in it.

123:45:35 Duke: Yeah. (Pause) I forgot...I even forgot the locator on that last one.

[Charlie has probably taken a down-Sun before, AS16-109- 17799.]
123:45:41 Young: Now, wait a minute, I...I didn't get that thing...(Pause) (That's) right.
[Evidently, John didn't position the gnomon with the color chart facing the Sun. He has probably re-oriented it.]
123:45:47 Duke: That's the way that thing...That color chart is so covered with dust, it won't matter anyway.

123:45:52 Young: I know. I'll have it...I'll clean it off.

123:45:58 Duke: Gonna go out and get this one (meaning a locator for this sample). (Pause)

[Fendell finds John and Charlie working on the northeast rim of Plum. Charlie is in the background and takes a picture past John toward the Rover. This picture is AS16-109- 17800 and it shows John taking cross-Suns AS16-114- 18404 and 18405. John has the hammer in his right shin pocket and an SCB on the left side of his PLSS. The relatively large rock on the right side of the picture near the Rover is Big Muley. After taking the cross-Suns, John gets a sample bag ready.]
Video Clip ( 3 min 30 sec 0.9 Mb RealVideo or 31 Mb MPEG )

123:46:09 Young: How we doing on time, Tony?

123:46:10 England: Okay, you've got about 23 minutes left, here.

123:46:15 Duke: Twenty-three! Hum.

123:46:19 England: Rog.

123:46:21 Duke: By golly. We can pick up a lot of rocks in 23...Hey, I'd like to go to the other side, John, of Plum because those rocks over there aren't dust covered, if you can see them.

123:46:32 Young: That's a good idea, Charlie.

123:46:34 Duke: See right out there towards South Ray?

123:46:36 Young: Yeah.

123:46:37 Duke: Those rocks don't look as dust covered as these. (Pause)

[Charlie gets into position with his back to us and slides the scoop under a fist-sized rock next to the up-Sun gnomon leg. As he raises the rock, it starts to fall out of the scoop.]
123:46:48 Duke: Uh-oh. Agh. I missed. Wait a minute.
[Because things fall so slowly on the Moon, Charlie is able to bat the rock upward repeatedly as he chases it to his right. It finally falls to the ground.]
123:46:53 England: Nice juggling!

123:46:56 Duke: Well, it wasn't dust covered. (Responding to Tony) Well, we missed it. But things really fly up here. I'm amazed.

[Charlie gets the rock in the scoop and raises it high enough that John can grab it. John shakes his hand to try to get some of the dust off. This is sample 61135, a 0.25 kg breccia.]
123:47:07 England: You guys sure have dirty hands.
[While John describes the rock to Houston, Charlie returns to the gnomon and uses the scoop to collect a second rock. He raises it to chest height. He has the extension handle hilt in his left hand and maneuvers the scoop so that he can take hold of the handle near the scoop head with his right hand. He then moves his left hand down the handle and, finally, is able to grab the rock with his right hand.]
123:47:09 Young: Well, my first guess is it is a breccia with white clast in it. And I see lineations all along it...in the breccia. (Pause) It's a white-clast breccia is what it is. I see no other clasts in it. Of course, once you get the dirt off of it might all be white. At first cut, it would be a white-clast breccia. Going into 362.
[John has put the rock in the bag he was holding, rolls the top closed - rather than spinning it shut - and then folds the tabs over. Then John appears to take a picture, probably AS16-114- 18406.]
123:47:44 Duke: Okay, Tony. This one - same spot - is a breccia with a white matrix that's glass coated on one side. And (it's a) thin, typical lunar-surface glass coating.
[This sample, 61195, is actually a 0.59 kg anorthosite. Charlie joins John and presents his SCB so that John can put bag 362 in.]

[Jones - "Did a lot of the rocks have glass coatings?"]

[Duke - "Yeah. In our area they did. I don't remember whether it was the rocks had melted themselves or whether there was a hot rock that just splashed on it and coated it with glass. It was a little of both, I think. This one probably had a glass coating; it looked like something had splashed over it, a lot of times, and solidified. That big House Rock on the last EVA (at North Ray Crater), I remember distinctly, it was glass. The rock itself was glass, which is almost like obsidian, which indicates that the rock got real hot and it was vitrified."]

[Jones - "What Jack describes sometimes on 17 is places where you get a small meteorite come in and hit the surface of a rock and you get a little splash around the sides of the crater."]

[Duke - "That could have been one of the processes. They had a special name for that, and I forget the name for these micrometeorites that hit the rock."]

[Jones - "Zap-pits"]

[Duke - "Zap-pits. Yeah, that was it. And we saw some of that. Yeah. I think we describe it later on."]

[Jones - "And then there were ones with more of a complete (coating)..."]

[Duke - "It had splashed, yeah. We'd seen that out in Hawaii - you know, liquid lava come out and splash around. That's what it looked like to me."]

123:47:59 England: Okay, we copy that. And when you're through with this site, you can press on around Plum if you like.

123:48:08 Duke: Okay, we'd like to. There is a big boulder over there, and there are some blocks that are sitting out and aren't filleted. We'd like to try over there. See what's there.

123:48:19 England: Okay, use your discretion. You've got some time.

123:48:20 Duke: Here, John, why don't you grab one of mine. That crummy thing...(Stops to listen)

[Charlie turns to face the Sun while John reaches in and gets a bag off Charlie's camera. They will have repeated troubles with the sample bag holders.]
123:48:33 Young: Okay, those are big clasts, aren't they?
[Charlie holds the rock out so John can see it more clearly. John is getting the bag ready.]
123:48:36 Duke: Yeah. See. See that glass right there, on the top?

123:48:39 Young: Yeah. (Pause)

[Charlie puts the rock in the bag and, while John seals the bag, Charlie turns to take a good look at Flag Crater.]
123:48:45 Duke: Okay; Tony, the general terrain here is sloping off to the southwest...Correction...Yeah, southwest at about 1 to 2 degrees. And Plum...(Correcting himself) Excuse me. Flag Crater is about to the top of this big ridge that slopes off generally to the southwest to the west of South Ray. Over.

123:49:15 England: Okay...

123:49:16 Young: (Lost under Tony) rock bag...

123:49:16 England: ...on the boulders you see around there, do they have fillets and, if so, are they built up on any particular side?

Video Clip ( 2 min 44 sec 0.7 Mb RealVideo or 24 Mb MPEG )

123:49:26 Young: That's rock bag 352, Houston.

123:49:29 England: Okay, 352. (Pause)

123:49:36 Young: I take it back; that's rock bag number 2. (Chuckles)

123:49:42 England: Okay; number 2.

[John has taken a very long time to seal the bag.]
123:49:44 Duke: Come on. Stick her in; let's go. (Pause)
[John finally puts bag 2 in Charlie's SCB.]
123:49:50 Young: Okay.

123:49:51 Duke: Man, are we...

123:49:52 Young: Want some soil?

123:49:53 Duke: ...Is it dark in those shadows. Want to get an "after" there, John? And I'll get a (soil sample next)...(Pause) Get it?

123:50:00 Young: Yeah.

[John's second after is probably AS16-114- 18407. Charlie takes up a position south of the gnomon. John gets a bag ready.]
123:50:01 Duke: Okay, soil sample coming up. (Pause) Ah! Bend, suit. Okay. (Pause)
[It takes a moment for John to get the bag open. Charlie goes over to him and then pours the soil in the bag.]
123:50:17 Duke: There you go. (Pause)
[Charlie presents his SCB.]
123:50:23 Young: Okay, that soil sample's in bag 369. Houston. (Lost under Tony)

123:50:27 England: Okay, 369.

123:50:29 Young: 369.

123:50:30 England: Rog.

123:50:33 Young: Charlie, you're gonna fall down here with all these rocks (in your SCB).

123:50:37 Duke: (Giggling) No. I'll give you the shovel in just a minute when I fill up, and we'll swap.

123:50:42 Young: Okay.

123:50:44 Duke: This shovel is a great tool, I'll tell you.

123:50:47 Young: Okay, I got it.

[John is hidden from view but is probably taking an after, AS16-114- 18408. Charlie turns and heads south to go around the rim of Plum to the large, buried boulder on the far side.]
Movie Clip (1.1Mb; mov)

123:50:49 Duke: Ah, boy. And here comes the Bobbsey Twins.

123:50:53 England: You guys look like you're having a ball.

123:50:54 Young: (Lost under Tony)

123:50:57 Duke: (Responding to Tony) We are.

123:50:58 Young: It really is fun.

[While John grabs the gnomon, Charlie stops to look at a footprint one of them made on the soft rim of Plum just west of the Rover.]
123:50:59 Duke: (Pointing) Now, John, look at that footprint. Look underneath that regolith. When you kicked that up, a centimeter or so under it's white. Absolutely white, right here.
[The bright, white color of the sunlit wall of the footprint can be seen in the TV picture]
123:51:10 Young: Well, take your old thing (meaning the scoop) and do an exploratory (trench) there for a while.

123:51:16 Duke: (Garbled) suggest that.

123:51:18 Young: Oh, if it's...

[The local surface rises from the area of the Rover west to the Plum rim. The footprint is near the rim and Charlie positions himself slightly downhill of the footprint. He sticks the scoop head in the ground, with the flat, bottom surface of the scoop rimward, and pulls the scoop toward the Rover to create a vertical, sunlit face. The soil he removes with the scoop is noticeably brighter than the normal regolith it falls on. Note that Charlie has to use both hands on the scoop to do the trenching.]

[Duke - "It was easy for me that way. I didn't have the strength to do it one-handed."]

123:51:21 Duke: Look! Look at that. Come over here.

123:51:24 Young: Yeah.

123:51:26 Duke: Look at that.

123:51:27 Young: Give me the shovel.

123:51:28 England: How about doing a skim right here?

[John moves in, takes the scoop in his right hand and digs in another area a couple of feet away. He uses the same type of motion Charlie used. Below a two or three inch depth, he starts bringing up very white material.]
123:51:29 Duke: I just want you to look here. (Hearing Tony) Okay, the top...John, I had a perfect view (for Houston).
[Charlie had made a wall facing the TV camera and John's is oriented at an angle.]
123:51:39 England: Okay, I guess we'd just like a scoop here and no skim.

123:51:40 Young: You know, Charlie's right. Everywhere...(Stops to listen) Okay...

123:51:45 Duke: Okay, Tony, let me describe what it is. The top centimeter of the regolith is gray, and you get down under that, and it's white.

123:51:58 England: Roger; we copy that.

[John gives the scoop to Charlie and goes to the Rover, carrying the gnomon with him.]
123:51:59 Duke: It's a lot different albedo (than the normal surface); three shades different (on the gray scale attached to the gnomon).

Video Clip ( 2 min 55 sec 0.7 Mb RealVideo or 26 Mb MPEG )

123:52:04 Young: You ought to be able to see that in the TV right there, Houston.

123:52:06 England: Right, we can.

123:52:09 Duke: I'll dig you a little trench here.

[Charlie starts a trench slightly south of the place where he first dug. He positions the scoop with each stroke so that he can create a vertical wall facing the Sun. On his third stroke, he manages to pull himself forward and off balance, but avoids the trench by taking a step forward and then hopping onward to regain his balance. He ends up northwest of the trench.]

[Jones - "As you dug trench, two-handed again, it looked like you actually pulled yourself forward slightly."]

[Duke - "Yeah, I did. I got it down and it jerked me forward."]

[Jones - "You rotated forward over your feet real slow. And eventually got over your toes and had to walk forward two or three steps. That's amazing how much time you had to react to things like that."]

[Duke - "Yeah. It was sort of a slow motion, everything felt like."]

123:52:13 Duke: Boy, that's going to be a hard job, John. (Pause) Can you see that, Houston? We'll sample right there and get you a scoopful of this underlying regolith.

123:52:28 England: Okay, I guess...

[Charlie hops sideways and stops north of the trench.]
123:52:30 Duke: It really is a different albedo; it's amazing.

123:52:33 England: Right; we can see that here.

[Duke, from the 1972 Technical Debrief - "There was about 3 cm of gray regolith and, right under that, it was just white ash. It was white when we put it in the bag. I don't know what it looks like right now; but it was white when we put it in the bag. Just ash white."]

[Mattingly, from the 1972 Technical Debrief - "Some of the other things that looked white, when we got them inside (the CM), (they) were pretty black."]

[Young, from the 1972 Technical Debrief - "If it doesn't look white, I'll eat every bit."]

[Unidentified speaker, from the 1972 Technical Debrief - "It was sure marshmellowy (meaning 'very white') when we got it."]

[The unidentified speaker is probably saying that the sample looked bright white when inspected in the Lunar Receiving Lab in Houston.]

[The following discussion of the possible origin on the white soil and the covering layer comes from the Apollo 16 Preliminary Science Report: "The median grain size of most soil samples ranges from 76 to 112/am. However, the two samples from North Ray Crater (67480 and 67600) and one whitish soil from station 1 (Sample 61220) are much coarser; the median grain size ranges from 250 to 300 microns."]

["It is noteworthy that the three coarser soils all have relatively low abundances of agglutinates as well as relatively low nickel contents. The concurrence of these three parameters suggests that these soils have been subject to gardening for a much shorter time than the typical soft. The occurrence of an immature soil in the bottom of the trench at station 1 (sample 61220) suggests that remnants of relatively young rays from North Ray Crater may be overlain by mature soils ejected from small shallow craters. If this interpretation of the North Ray Crater soils is accepted, it is clearly distinguishable from soil interpreted as South Ray Crater ejecta, which contains dark brown to black vesicular glass droplets and dark gray breccias."]

[On page 78 of the USGS Professional Paper, exposure ages of North Ray samples - and, presumably the age of the crater itself - are said to be in the range of 30 - 60 million years.]

123:52:34 England: Why don't you go ahead and get a bag of the dark and a bag of the light, and then we'll press on to that block on the northwest side (of Plum).

123:52:42 Duke: All right. (Pause)

[John reappears and sets the gnomon just west of the trench. The color scale on the sunward leg is clearly visible. He backs off-camera to the left to take cross-Sun pictures and Charlie backs off-camera to the right to get the down-Sun.]
123:52:47 England: Boy, my kids don't get as dirty as you are.

123:52:52 Duke: (Laughing) Well, I bet they don't have as much fun, either.

123:52:58 England: I bet you're right!

123:53:00 Young: It sure is neat here. (Pause)

[Charlie's down-Sun is AS16-109-17801. Big Muley is in the background. John's cross-Sun "befores" are AS16-114- 18409 and 18410.]
123:53:05 Duke: Okay; let me get a shovelful of this, right off the top here.

123:53:10 Young: Okay.

123:53:11 Duke: There we go.

[Charlie skims the top centimeter or two off the surface west of the trench, pushing the scoop forward with his left hand. He raises the scoop without touching it at all with his right hand until the scoop handle is horizontal.]
123:53:14 Duke: Ah, look at that finger. Picked that up with one finger!

123:53:18 England: Ah, the delicate touch.

[Now using his right hand to keep the scoop handle steady, Charlie turns to his left.]
123:53:19 Young: Wait a minute, Charlie. I've got to get the bag out.

123:53:22 Duke: John, we're going to have to change that bag dispenser. That is terrible.

123:53:25 Young: Is there another one? Do we have another one?

123:53:27 Duke: Yeah, we have another one under my seat. (Pause)

[Duke - "The bags kept breaking. They hook on your camera; and they had a little ring. And you try to pull one off and you'd get a couple. And then, sometimes you'd be running along and they'd just flip off! And then sometimes, the ring would pull out and all the bags would fall away. They'd still be together, but they'd just be loose and I remember one time (during EVA-3) we ended up carrying them on the end of our little finger and using it that way. The same thing had been reported on all the other missions: that the bags are just crappy and they fall off. The mechanism that holds them together would break, so it was a lousy design, I thought. Or, at least, lousy manufacture. It got worse and worse, actually; this is just the beginning."]

[The following comes from the Apollo 16 Mission Report. "The three screws which fasten the bag ring to the bracket plate had come out on one of the documented sample bag dispensers and consequently came apart when unstowed. The three flat-headed stainless steel screws mate with threads in the aluminum rings (Fig 14-61). The heads are staked to the aluminum bracket plate. Thread sealant materials are not permitted because of the possibility of lunar sample contamination. The Apollo 17 dispensers will be re-inspected to assure proper staking of the screws and tightness of the threads in the aluminum ring."]

[The Apollo 17 crew did not experience a repeat of this problem.]

[See also, the discussion at 120:12:39 covering the mechanism by which the dispensers were attached to the cameras.]

[John finally gets a bag ready and Charlie tilts the scoop up and shakes it a couple of times to get the soil to slide into the bag.]

123:53:39 Duke: Okay?

123:53:40 Young: Okay. That top scoop is going in bag 352, Houston.

123:53:44 England: Okay, 352. (Pause)

[While John "Z"s the bag, Charlie takes a big jump backwards to get in position to take a sample of the white soil. However, he then realizes that John has to get rid of bag 352 before they can bag another sample and steps over to John and presents his SCB.]
123:53:57 Duke: Y'all know how good that water...that orange...that water stuff tastes. Ah! (Pause)
[Charlie turns and hops back into his sampling position. John works to get another bag off the dispenser.]

[Duke - "We wasted a lot of time, here. John got this sample; then I had to walk over and turn sideways to him and he had to drop it in my bag and then I had to go back and get another sample. Our idea in training - and they never would approve - was the old shopping bag."]

[See the discussion at they have at Shadow Rock at 168:33:52.]

[Jones - "So you'd talked about that ahead of time."]

[Duke - "You know, with the straps. And when you pick it up it closes up. They didn't buy that idea; and we ended up taking the sample bags (meaning the SCBs) and running around the Moon and just putting them on the ground. And we could open it up and put our own bags in, and that was really helpful when we sampled by ourselves."]

[Jones - "There's a discussion of that at Shadow Rock. I thought that was a spur of the moment discussion of yours about the grocery bag but you actually had talked about it before the flight?"]

[Duke - "Yeah, we talked about it."]

123:54:08 Duke: Try to get way down there, John, and get a...(Pause)
[While Charlie gets a one-handed sample from the bottom of the trench, John heads for the Rover with the bag dispenser. As Charlie tries to raise the scoop, it apparently slips in his hand and the sample falls out.]
123:54:19 Duke: Uh-oh.

123:54:20 Young: Uh-oh, what?

123:54:21 Duke: I just...I had a good scoopful, and I lost it. Let me dig out another little (trench)...(Long Pause)

[With his back to the TV, Charlie digs a second trench just east of the first one. It is a small trench, only about two scoop widths long. John takes up a position to the right of Charlie.]
123:54:41 Duke: There. (Pause)
[This time, Charlie uses both hands to get the sample. To get his right hand a foot or so down the scoop handle, Charlie has to lean relatively far to his right.]
MP3 Audio Clip ( 10 min 08 sec )

123:54:54 Duke: There she be. Coming up all white. (Pause)

[As Charlie gets the scoop in position for the pour, he jars it slightly and looses some of the sample. He then gets the remainder in the bag.]
Video Clip ( 2 min 50 sec 0.7 Mb RealVideo or 25 Mb MPEG )

123:55:06 Duke: That's all that's in there, John.

123:55:11 Young: Okay. And it's going into bag 357.

123:55:13 England: Okay, 357. You fellows are really packing them away there. (Long Pause)

[John finishes sealing the bag and puts it in Charlie's SCB.]
123:55:31 Duke: Okay.

123:55:32 Young: How do you feel, Charlie?

123:55:34 Duke: Fine! Great.

[John starts around the north side of the trench to get the gnomon.]
123:55:36 Duke: Tony, I can't get a "locator". You know, we're right on the rim of...
[To get a locator with the Rover in the background, Charlie would have to go over the rim of Plum and down the crater wall a short way.]

[John decides to get an "after" before he moves the gnomon, stops, and then goes around the east side to get in position. His "after" is AS16-114- 18411.]

123:55:41 England: We've located it on TV, so we have it.

123:55:41 Duke: ...Plum (lost under Tony) (Stops to listen) All right. (Pause) Okay; we're going over to the big boulder.

123:55:57 England: Good show. (Long Pause)

[Charlie heads south along the rim of Plum while John grabs the gnomon. Once John starts south, Fendell follows. John walks past Big Muley but then stops for a moment to adjust his cooling. Charlie is well ahead of John, doing the foot-to-foot, loping stride.]
123:56:26 Duke: Man, you can't see anything down-Sun, down (zero) phase, John. Tony, looking...

123:56:31 Young: (Laughing) That's what I was trying to tell you (during the drive to Station 1), Charlie.

123:56:33 Duke: (Having stopped for a moment) Looking down-Sun here, down-phase, at this area downslope, you get a definite feeling of lineations that run southwest/northeast from Stone Mountain. They're sort of little furrowed ridges, and pits, and things.

123:56:53 England: Okay, you don't see any sharp scarps or anything like that, though?

123:57:00 Duke: No, sir.

123:57:01 Young: No, no; nothing like on that map (Descartes EVA-I, III; 2 of 2).

123:57:03 England: All right.

[Making an adjustment for the brief stop Charlie made to describe the lineations, the trip from the trench to the boulder took about 51 seconds. The circumferential distance is about 70 meters and Charlie's average speed was a leisurely 4.9 km/hr.]
123:57:04 Young: Although, it's worse. Boy, I'll tell you. There's holes that (you can't see)...Especially in zero phase. (Pause)

123:57:19 Duke: Well, I'm out of water. Drinking water, that is.

123:57:23 Young: Well, okay.

[Charlie actually had potassium-fortified orange drink is his drink bag and is using "water" in a generic sense.]

[The boulder is about a meter across and sits on a high spot on the southwest rim. While John examines the boulder from the south, Charlie hops around to the northeast side.]

123:57:26 Duke: Hey, John, you want to try just a piece of that?

123:57:29 Young: Look at that, Charlie!

123:57:31 Duke: What's that?

123:57:32 Young: That thing has (Pause) greenish-black clasts in it. Right there in that boulder, there?

Video Clip ( 3 min 13 sec 0.8 Mb RealVideo or 28 Mb MPEG )

123:57:40 Duke: Looks like it to me, too, yeah. Let's see if we can get a piece of that.

[John moves in to put the gnomon on top of the boulder and Charlie gets in position to take the down-Sun.]
123:57:44 Duke: Okay, Tony, this is a subrounded boulder that's a meter to a meter and a half across. It has a predominant fracture set of 20 centimeters on the side that run, here, southeast - correction - southwest/northeast. Is the predominant fracture set.

123:58:05 England: Okay.

123:58:06 Duke: And it's partially buried.

[Charlie's down-Sun is AS16-109- 17802. John's cross-Sun stereopair is AS16-114- 18412 and 18413.]

[Duke - "You know, it was really buried and covered. Looking at 17802 and 18413, you can see it was covered with dust. And it had fillets around it. The regolith looks real deep here; you can see a couple of footprints - on one side any way - that's a couple of inches. You know, we thought that rock had come in from somewhere and it had either come out of Flag and then was covered with dust from a more recent cratering event, perhaps even South Ray. Or it was sort of a bedrock; it looks like it's a sort of bigger rock that's been there for a while. So we don't really know."]

123:58:11 Young: (Garbled)

123:58:12 Duke: Okay. And over here also, as we move around, that very white material is right under John's feet. I'll take a picture of that. And he's really changed the albedo by kicking into this little crater by this big rock. (Pause)

[Charlie's picture of the white material John kicked up is AS16-109- 17803.]

[John sticks his right foot out in front of him and leans down to get the hammer from his shin pocket. Charlie runs off-camera to the right, going around the rock so he can get a picture of John with the Rover in the background.]

123:58:35 Duke: Ah, here he comes, folks! He's got the hammer out. I knew he couldn't resist.

123:58:46 Young: (Snickering like a would-be ax-murderer; Charlie joins in) I don't know if this will work or not, Charlie, but I couldn't pick a better spot.

[Jones - "I take it John was looking forward to using the hammer."]

[Duke - "Oh, yeah. In training, every time we got to a rock he'd whack it. He was really excited about using the hammer when we got to the Moon, 'cause he'd used it a lot in training, whacking off chunks of rock."]

[NASA photo S71-59355 shows John (right) and Charlie during a November 17/18, 1971 field exercise in the Coho Range at the U.S. Naval Ordnance Test Station in California. While Charlie examines a boulder, John waits to step in with the geology hammer.]

[Jones - "And he got pretty good at it?"]

[Duke - "Pretty good, yeah. Actually, it was pretty hard to hammer. The core tubes, I ended up doing a lot hammering; and I ended up having to go two hands because it got real tired as you held that hammer and tried to hit; you'd get cramps and weaker in the forearm. At least I would. So I'd end up, a lot of times, hammering - at least core tubes - with two hands."]

[As John walks to the rock, Charlie takes AS16-109- 17804. Note that John has both his upper visor and his side visors extended. When he gets in position, he sticks his left leg out to the side, and bends his right knee so that he can get low enough to hit the rock.]

123:58:56 England: Here we go.

123:58:58 Duke: Going to do it.

[John delivers a firm blow to a corner of the boulder and appears to break a piece loose. He then taps the area of the break a couple of times, apparently to dislodge the fragment. He stands for a moment and changes his grip. He was down in the bent-knee position for about 5 seconds. ]
123:58:59 Duke: There's a piece. Let me hold you down a little bit.
[Charlie takes a couple of steps toward the boulder and puts his hand on John's left shoulder to help him get his knees bent. John appears to press the hammer blade in the fracture and then pulls the fragment loose.]
123:59:05 Duke: Hot dog! He did it. It's a very friable rock, apparently, Houston.

123:59:15 England: Okay; outstanding. (Pause)

[John backs away and puts the hammer in his shin pocket. Close examination of the TV suggests that John doesn't get the head as far into the pocket as it was originally, probably because the RCU and camera block his view.]

[Jones - "In this sequence, you guys look fairly confident in backing up and going sideways."]

[Duke - "The only time you didn't want to back up too much was when you were unsure where you were and you could back into a crater. You know, it was real easy to move - forward, backward, sideways."]

[Charlie reaches forward, plants the scoop head about 1.5 meters ahead of his feet, and then sinks to his knees. Initially, he has his back aligned vertically but is unable to reach the fragment. He moves himself about 30 cm to his right, leans forward until his back is about 30 degrees off vertical, and grabs the fragment with his right hand without trouble.]

123:59:20 Young: Charlie, don't do that, let me do it.

123:59:22 Duke: I got it (by) leaning on the shovel. (Pause)

[Charlie grabs the fragment and rises without difficulty, not having moved the scoop head at all. The sample is 61295, a 0.2 kg breccia.]
123:59:29 Duke: (Examining the fragment) Okay, Houston, it's got some green clasts, some white clasts, a grayish matrix. The clasts are millimeter size and make up 5 percent of the rock. (Pause) One big crystal, 5 millimeters across, but I can't tell what it is. But it's a beauty.
[John steps forward with a sample bag and examines the fragment that Charlie is still holding.]
123:59:58 England: Okay; you think they're still breccia?

124:00:59 Young: (Lost under Tony) think its a breccia, Charlie?

124:00:05 Duke: I'm not sure, John, I think it might be...Yeah, I think it's a breccia, really. Very friable.

[John takes the fragment for closer examination and turns it.]
124:00:13 Young: Yeah, it's a breccia, Houston.

124:00:15 Duke: Yeah, uh-huh.

124:00:17 Young: Or a welded...(Pause) No, that's not right. It's a breccia, and I can see at least...Like Charlie said, there are two or three different type clasts in it. It's just a one-stage breccia, though, it looks like. It's going into bag 353.

[John puts the fragment in the bag and then, holding one of the tabs in either hand, spins the bag to close it.]
124:00:36 England: Okay, 353; and you've got about...

124:00:37 Duke: Hey, Tony, here's a ...(Stops to listen)

124:00:39 England: ...9 minutes until you have to leave.

Video Clip ( 3 min 24 sec 0.9 Mb RealVideo or 30 Mb MPEG )

124:00:45 Duke: All right. We'd like to go out and get one of those sharp rocks and a soil sample here.

[John puts bag 353 in Charlie's SCB.]

[In Houston, Experiments and the Flight Director are trying to decide if there will be time to do an LPM (Lunar Portable Magnetometer) measurement before John and Charlie have to leave for Station 2.]

124:00:51 England: Okay, sounds good. And while you're taking pictures there, can you take some pictures of the lineations on the ground you talked about?

124:01:00 Duke: Yeah, I'll do that when I get to the right spot.

124:01:02 England: Okay.

[John hops to his left to take an "after", AS16-114- 18414. The fragment came off the front face, between us and the gray/color scale leg on the gnomon.]
124:01:05 Duke: Okay, I'm taking a soil sample of the fillet around this rock.

124:01:09 England: Okay.

[Charlie holds the scoop horizontally at waist height while he waits for John to get a sample bag out.]
124:01:11 Duke: Boulder. John, you just whacked that beauty right off of there!

124:01:19 Young: Like you say, it's friable. Ha, ha. I hit it on a fracture set, too.

[Jones - "Did any of the geologists spend time with you on how to hit rocks?"]

[Duke - "No. Not that I remember. You just sort of...Being in engineering, you just knew it was going to break along the fracture pattern."]

[John holds the bag low and Charlie starts the pour. John would have had a much more difficult time getting the sample in the bag had Charlie held it up at waist height. Training photo 72-H-100 show John and Charlie bagging a practice sample at the Cape. In that case, John is using the tongs and Charlie is holding a sample bag at knee height.]

124:01:24 Duke: Yeah. (To himself) Can't turn the shovel that way.

124:01:28 Young: 368 this stuff is going into, Houston.

124:01:31 England: Okay, 368 (is) the soil.

124:01:35 Duke: Okay, I'll get the "after" on that, John. Okay?

124:01:39 Young: Charlie's getting the "after" on that soil in 368.

[Charlie hops backwards a short way and takes a cross-Sun "after", AS16-109- 17805.]
124:01:44 Duke: Got it.

124:01:45 England: If you have time, can we do a second pan from here?

124:01:50 Young: Yeah, I'm supposed to do that, ain't I?

[The proposed location of the second pan is indicated by the circled "2" on CDR-32. John puts bag 368 in Charlie's SCB.]
124:01:53 Duke: Yeah, I was just thinking about that. That'd be a good idea. We're right on the rim of...(To England) We're really right on the rim...This rock's right on the rim of both Plum and Flag.

124:02:08 Young: My guess is that the rock - the way it's laid in here - is probably from the bottom of Plum somewhere, or down there somewhere.

[John takes up a position to Charlie's left, up on the rim just south of the boulder. Charlie hops just off-screen to our left.]
124:02:17 Duke: Okay, John, I'm going to go over here and get (photos of) some of these lineations...

124:02:21 Young: Okay.

124:02:22 Duke: ...Close-ups. (Pause)

[John turns to face west and starts the pan. This is Pan 5, marked with an 'A' in the Station 1 plan map.]
John's Station 1 Pan ( frames AS16-114- 18415 to 18432 )

[Fendell shifts his aim to the left and gets both John and Charlie in the TV picture.]
124:02:29 Duke: Get something out there for scale.
[Charlie puts his left foot out in front and leans over it to plant the scoop in the ground without otherwise disturbing the area he intends to photograph.]
124:02:31 Duke: Tony, the lineations might be...Might be just...I think really what it is is the shadows cast by the Sun, because the regolith is so unconsolidated and loosely packed.
[Charlie takes AS16-109- 17806. Note that there are three rocks south of the scoop that can be seen in John's picture AS16-114- 18424.]
124:02:46 England: Rog. I think you're probably right, but it makes a good study.
[Charlie hops to his right and takes 17807 to complete the stereopair.]
124:02:52 Duke: Okay. In fact, I'm convinced of that. And, okay that's two stereo (photos) from 7 feet.

124:03:00 England: Okay.

[Charlie looks over at John, who is above him, taking a pan frame toward the north.]
124:03:01 Duke: John, you are just beautiful. That is the most beautiful sight.

124:03:07 Young: What's that?

124:03:08 Duke: You standing there on the rim of that crater.

[Unfortunately, Charlie did not take a picture.]
124:03:09 England: Doggone. I've never heard John described as beautiful.

124:03:11 Young: (Lost under Tony)

124:03:12 Duke: (To John) No. (To Tony) Well, he's not really...Well, actually, he is on this thing; I'll tell you.

[John continues the pan and, as he turns in Charlie's direction, Charlie raises his right hand to waist height in greeting. This is frame AS16-18423.]
124:03:21 Duke: (As he waves) Hi, there. (Pause)
[Charlie grabs the scoop and runs south. Fendell follows. As we lose sight of John, the hammer is still in his shin pocket but seems to be sticking out farther and handing somewhat precariously.]

[Charlie probably starts moving at about the time John takes AS16-18426. Apparently, John turned for the next shot and then waited until Charlie was in the field-of-view before taking 18427.]

[Ken Glover notes that, in 18427, Charlie's SCB seems to be "bulging with samples". Up to this time, they have put thirteen sample bags in Charlie's SCB. During EVA-2, at Station 6 after they put eleven sample bags in Charlie's SCB, John comments that it's "almost full"]

124:03:24 Duke: Hey, John, I'm going to run on out and look at some of these angular ones out here.

124:03:28 Young: Okay. (Pause)

124:03:36 Duke: Tony, those lineations are definitely (pause) due to the shadows on this loose regolith.

124:03:50 England: Okay...

124:03:51 Young: (Lost under Tony)

[Charlie stops and turns to face back toward the boulder.]
124:03:51 England: ...We're going to have to hustle you on pretty soon, so you better grab those angular rocks.

124:03:59 Duke: Okay.

RealAudio clip (22 min 14 sec) by Siegfried Kessler

Video Clip ( 2 min 29 sec 0.6 Mb RealVideo or 22 Mb MPEG )

124:04:00 Young: That pan takes me through frame 53.

124:04:03 England: Okay; 53.

124:04:08 Duke: Tony, I'll document this one - while John's coming over - with the scoop, in place, is the gnomon.

[Charlie means that the scoop, which he plants, will serve as a gnomon.]
124:04:15 England: Okay, fine. (Pause)
[Charlie backs away to the south to take AS16-109- 17808 and 17809, stepping to his right between frames.]
124:04:24 England: Boy, that TV sure makes this fun.

124:04:26 Young: And we really make good time around here.

124:04:29 Duke: Yeah. (Pause)

[Charlie moves to his left and takes a locator across the top of the scoop toward the Rover. This is AS16-109- 17810.]

[Jones - "One of the interesting things about this picture is that you probably don't have more than a couple of inches of the blade stuck in."]

[Duke - "That's right. I didn't stick it in too much, because that's all it'd take to stand it up; you didn't have to pound it all the way in."]

124:04:36 Young: Did you get that biggie, Charlie?

124:04:38 Duke: That one right there is what I'm gonna get. Think it will go in the bag?

124:04:41 Young: No.

124:04:44 Duke: Try it. (Pause)

[John comes into view as Charlie goes to his knees, once again using the scoop to keep his balance.]

[The hammer has fallen out of John's shin pocket by this time.]

MP3 Audio Clip ( 9 min 24 sec )

124:04:48 Duke: This is a great way to do it, leaning on this shovel. Ahhh. (Pause)

[Charlie rises, balancing the sample on his right hand.]
124:04:53 Duke: It might go in the bag, John.

124:04:55 Young: Nah, Charlie.

124:04:56 Duke: Huh?

124:04:57 Young: Let's not even try it.

[John presents his SCB.]
124:04:59 Duke: Don't want to try it? (To Houston) Okay; this angular rock is too big for a bag, and it's got some glass on it and I think it's a breccia also, Tony. It's going in John's SRC. I mean his SCB.
[This sample is 61015, a 1.8 kilogram "partially molten breccia". Charlie struggles for a moment to open the top of John's SCB with his left hand.]
124:05:11 England: Okay, and it's time to go back and pack up.

124:05:16 Duke: Okay. (Still struggling) Argh! I see what you mean, babe.

124:05:21 Young: Hey, you can't get the top off.

124:05:23 Duke: Can't get the top off. Now I just pull it off of your thing, there. (Pause)

[Charlie has pulled John's SCB loose.]
124:05:33 Duke: Okay, I figured I was going to do that. (Long Pause)
[Duke - "The top of the SCB had a metal frame around it (as shown in Figure 99 - NASA photo S88-52671 - in Judy Allton's Apollo Tool Book). And the top had a metal frame that just wedged over. And it was tough to break the friction fit. You just had to pull it off; and it was difficult."]

[Jones - "Sort of like a lid on a plastic food container."]

[Duke - "Exactly."]

[Charlie takes the SCB completely off John's PLSS and puts the sample in. He then examines the bag and tries to re-attach it.]

124:06:05 Young: Can't believe that terrain, Houston.

124:06:09 Duke: (Giving up) Here you go, John. Why don't you carry it back?...

124:06:12 England: You're right. That's pretty spectacular.

[John takes the SCB from Charlie.]
124:06:13 Duke: (Lost under Tony)

124:06:14 Young: Let's just lay it in the seat. (Pause)

[John bends sideways to pick up the gnomon and Charlie grabs the scoop. They head for the Rover.]
Video Clip ( 3 min 03 sec 0.8 Mb RealVideo or 27 Mb MPEG )

124:06:23 Duke: Here we come!

124:06:24 England: Okay, we see you.

124:06:26 Duke: Ready or not.

[John's veers to his left, headed toward the boulder.]
124:06:26 Young: Uh-oh, here's (lost under Tony)

124:06:27 England: We're ready.

124:06:29 Young: Here's my hammer (lying on the ground), Charlie.

124:06:31 Duke: Boy! How did that come out?

124:06:32 Young: I don't know.

[John stops part way back to the boulder.]
124:06:34 Duke: I'll get it, John. I can do it with the shovel easy. I'm glad you saw that. (Pause)
[Once again, Charlie uses the scoop to get down on his knees.]
124:06:51 Duke: Ah! (Pause)
[Charlie rises and gives the hammer to John. John has trouble getting the hammer in his pocket.]

[In Houston, the Backroom tells the Flight Director that they want John and Charlie to collect Big Muley.]

124:06:56 Duke: Have you got everything?

124:06:57 Young: Yeah.

124:06:58 Duke: Give me some. I can carry something. Okay, it's in there. It's not in your pocket. There it goes. (Pause)

[Once John gets the hammer in his shin pocket, Charlie turns and heads around the rim of Plum. After a few seconds, John follows.]
124:07:11 Duke: Times flies. (Pause)

124:07:20 Duke: Man, I can't wait to get back to Buster, Tony.

124:07:23 England: Right.

124:07:28 Duke: It's really some crater.

[Charlie is making good speed using the loping, foot-to-foot stride.]
124:07:30 England: As you come around there, there is a rock in the near field on this rim (near the Rover) that has some white on the top of it. We'd like you to pick it up as a grab sample.

Movie Clip (0.8 Mb; mov)

124:07:39 Duke: (Pointing) This one right here?

124:07:41 England: That's it.

124:07:44 Duke: (Pointing with the scoop) This one right here?

124:07:45 England: That's it. (As Charlie touches the top of Big Muley with the scoop) You got it, right there.

124:07:49 Duke: Okay, that's a...

124:07:50 Young: That's a football-size rock.

124:07:52 Duke: It's a "Great Scott" size.

[Great Scott is a 9.6 kg basalt that Dave Scott collected at the edge of Hadley Rille. At the time, it was the largest Apollo sample, having surpassed a 9.0 kg Apollo 14 breccia known as Big Bertha. Big Muley, sample 61016 ( 172k ), is an 11.7 kg breccia with a dark matrix and light-colored clasts. The largest Apollo 17 sample was 70215, an 8.1 kg basalt, so Big Muley retained the record. NASA photos S72-41841 and S72-41550 are post-mission portraits of Big Muley.]
124:07:56 Young: Are you sure you want a rock that big, Houston? (Pause)
[Charlie stands at rest, leaning slightly forward on the scoop while he waits for an answer.]
124:08:01 England: Yeah, let's go ahead and get it.

124:08:03 Young: That's 20 (9.1 kg) pounds of rock right there.

124:08:05 Duke: Okay. (Pause)

[With his left hand on the top of the scoop, Charlie drops to his knees and rolls Big Muley over against the front of his right leg.]
124:08:09 Duke: It's got some big clasts in it, John.

124:08:13 Young: It sure has. (Pause)

[Charlie can't get his hand low enough to get under the rock, so he uses the tips of his fingers to try to roll it up onto his thigh. It falls off. He then strains forward until he can get his hand curved around the rock far enough that he can, at least, press it against his leg and, finally, he stands (video still by Ken Glover). Dave Scott used a similar technique when he collected Great Scott]
124:08:27 Duke: Agh! (Pause)
[Charlie plants the scoop, gets his left hand under the camera and does a little jump so that the rock floats upward far enough that he can get a solid grip with both hands. The Hasselblad is clearly getting in the way.]
124:08:29 Duke: If I fall into Plum Crater getting this rock, Muehlberger has had it.

124:08:37 England: We agree.

[Bill Muehlberger is the Principal Investigator for Apollo 16 geology. As is discussed at 127:16:10, Big Muley is named for him.]

[Muehlberger, from a 1996 letter and a 1997 e-mail message - "Big Muley was a problem from the moment we saw it on TV. The crew had been told to pick up nothing larger than their fist - the lab types could analyze remarkably small pieces and get reproducible results. So, when we spotted Big Muley with the television camera and saw what looked like a large rectangle flashing at us, we jumped to the conclusion that it was a crystal - or cleavage - face of plagioclase feldspar. That made the rock an anorthosite which, according to our pre-mission interpretations, should not be present at this landing site. Further, there was a small crater on our side (between the Rover and Big Muley) that we thought could be a bounce crater caused by this rock on landing. The direction suggested that this could have been from Theophilus, a large, relatively young crater that had been proposed as a source for some material that might be scattered across the landing area. So, I put in a request for the crew to pick it up as they returned to the LRV. We had no idea of size - it was the first sampling stop on the mission - but, once the crew got close, we realized that it was bigger than the max size suggested for return from the Moon And then Charlie started complaining about it(s size) and about his struggle to pick it up. It turned out to be the largest rock returned from the Moon! And it turned out to be a useful rock for the researchers."]

[Charlie is now able to cradle the rock against his side with his right hand. He grabs the scoop and heads for the Rover.]

124:08:39 Duke: Okay; I've got it! That's 20 pounds of rock! (Pause)
[Jones - "That's a nice sequence there of you picking up Big Muley. It didn't look like you had stability problems at all."]

[Duke - "No, I was a little over the rim, down inside and so I was a little bit below the rock, which really helped. When you could get below something, it really helped. And then, of course, I was leaning on the shovel with my left hand. And I was trying to roll it up my leg; but I never could get it up past the stuff down in here, which I think was part of the camera and stuff. But I was able to hold it against myself. You know, we really didn't particularly want to carry it, but they said bring it back. 'Cause it was a big rock; you know, we only had 200 pounds or so we needed to collect and it turned out, when we got back (in the LM) there was a big debate: maybe we'll have to throw something out. But then they changed their mind. But we weighed everything, you know, and we were over our limit."]

[Fendell pulls back on the zoom and starts panning counter-clockwise.]

124:08:48 Young: You want to put it in here, Charlie? I'd just as soon you didn't. Look at the size of that moose!

124:08:53 Duke: I know it. (Pause) Oh, Tony! It's got some beautiful crystals in it though. That was a good guess.

124:09:02 England: Good show.

124:09:07 Duke: Okay, put it in there, John.

124:09:10 Young: Put it in where?

124:09:11 Duke: In your SCB.

124:09:13 Young: I don't think it'll fit. (Pause) Don't think it will fit. (Pause)

[The TV jiggles slightly as they work around the Rover.]
Video Clip ( 2 min 32 sec 0.6 Mb RealVideo or 22 Mb MPEG )

124:09:23 Duke: It ain't gonna fit.

124:09:27 Young: Put it under your seat.

124:09:30 Duke: Yeah. Kind of dusty. Whew! Hey, do you want some more (individual sample) bags here?

124:09:38 Young: Yeah.

124:09:40 Duke: Okay, here's your a good one.

[Fendell finds John at the CDR seat, collapsing the gnomon legs into a slender bundle so he can stow it in the sleeve behind his seat. We get a good close-up of John's sample bags.]
124:09:43 Duke: Okay, Tony, I'm gonna put that little glass ball that I haven't sacked yet...Look at that, John.

124:09:52 Young: Yeah, it is a good piece of glass.

124:09:53 Duke: Solid glass.

124:09:55 Young: Black glass.

124:09:57 Duke: Going into bag 4. (Long Pause)

[This sample is 60095, a 47-gram piece of glass that Charlie collected at the drill site at 121:53:10 and showed to Houston at 122:25:42.]

[John stows the gnomon.]

124:10:15 England: Okay; and we'll need an EMU check before you drive off. (Pause)

124:10:25 Duke: Stand by.

[John puts his left hand on the RCU and tilts it so he can get a clear look at the oxygen gauge on the top. As is shown in the accompanying figure, the gauge is recessed and is difficult to see.]
124:10:27 Young: Okay, I'm running at 48 percent (oxygen remaining); (looking at his cuff gauge) 3.87 (psi suit pressure). I'm on halfway between Intermediate and Minimum (cooling) and I didn't have any (warning) flags. (To Charlie) We got to do something with this bag (meaning his SCB) before we can leave, Charlie.

124:10:43 Duke: Put it under your seat. Or under my seat.

124:10:47 Duke: Okay, Tony, I'm clear on the flags. My frame count (pause) is 65. I've got...Hmm. (Pause)

[John puts his SCB under the CDR seat. He then stands, flexes his shoulder back, possibly to change the position of the cables in the suit, and then rests for a moment and watches Charlie, who is off-camera at the LMP seat.]
124:11:14 Young: What you got, Charlie?

124:11:17 Duke: Looks like I'm at about 35 percent, and I'm between Intermediate and Min; and I'm at 3.85.

124:11:29 England: Okay.

[John moves his right hand back, then forward, and then back again to reach his cooling control. This "double wave" is necessary to overcome the resistance of the suit cables.]
124:11:30 Young: Yeah, make sure you're in Min I guess, before we get in and start driving.

124:11:35 Duke: Yeah. Going to Min. That's a good point. Thanks.

124:11:40 Young: Okay.

124:11:42 Duke: (Getting on the Rover) Leaps. Single bound.

[John goes to the front of the Rover to turn the TV off.]
124:11:46 Young: MODE switch is going to 1, Houston.

124:11:49 England: Okay.

[TV off.]
124:11:53 Young: I'm going to position your TV horizontal and CCW (counter-clockwise), which it almost is. (Pause) It is. You (meaning Ed Fendell) saved me a lot of work there. (Pause)

124:12:21 Duke: Uh-oh.

124:12:23 Young: What's the matter, Charlie?

124:12:24 Duke: Oh, my seatbelt came off my ring. Can you get it for me, John?

124:12:26 Young: Yeah.

124:12:28 Duke: Will you get in...

124:12:30 Young: I couldn't see it...Oh, there it is. Let me get it for you.

124:12:33 Duke: I'll do it. I think.

124:12:38 Young: Yeah, you got it.

124:12:41 Duke: Okay. (Pause) Boy, this is a nice belt.

[Duke - "It really cinched you in there. It had a good over center position and it was easy to operate. And it had a big hook on it so you could just reach over and hook on the outside handle of your seat, which was real easy to do. You really couldn't see it; you were working blind. And, then, that big handle would give an over center lock and it really cinched you in there firm."]
124:12:54 Young: Okay, we're in Mode switch 1; and the TV off (and) stowed. (Pause) Can you see my (purge valve) pin over there, Charlie?

124:13:11 Duke: Can I see what?

124:13:15 Young: Can you see whether I'm about to pull out my pin or not? (Pause)

124:13:24 Duke: Pull up your (garbled)?

124:13:26 Young: Pull out my pin.

124:13:27 Duke: Oh, I can't see. No, it doesn't look like it. (Long Pause) Man, are we filthy! (Long Pause)

124:14:05 Young: Okay.

124:14:07 Duke: Okay.

124:14:08 Young: (Garbled)

 

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