Traverse to Station 1

Return to the LM and SEP Deployment

 

Geology Station 1

Corrected Transcript and Commentary Copyright © 1995 by Eric M. Jones.
All rights reserved.
Scan credits in the Image Library.
Video credits in the Video Library.
Audio clips by Dave Shaffer.
Last revised 6 June 2016.

RealVideo Clip (25 min 35 sec)

[TV on.]

[The planned Station 1 activities - at Emory Crater - are shown on LMP-30 and 31. Gene has identical pages, numbered CDR-28 and CDR-29. Because they are running behind, they have stopped about 150 meters from Steno Crater and will do all their sampling in a fresh crater about 20 meters across and 3 to 4 meters deep.]

[Rather than take a pan at this point, Jack is off-camera examining the boulders at the crater rim. The crater can be seen in a portion of a pan he takes just before they leave the site. They will begin sampling with the large boulder on the left side of the near rim. Figure 6-102 from the Apollo 17 Preliminary Science Report is a planimetric map of Station 1.]

MP3 Audio Clip starting at 122:06:50 ( 15 min 40 sec )

122:07:06 Schmitt: The vesicle population varies from about a millimeter to one centimeter. It forms about 15 percent of the rock...10 to 15 (percent). And I've given you grain size for the rocks near the LM and that goes well for this one.

122:07:35 Parker: Okay, I copy that, Jack. Very good.

[Fendell pans counter-clockwise past Jack, who is leaning over a two-foot-high boulder west of the Rover.]

122:08:03 Cernan: (Working at Jack's side of the Rover) Hey, Bob, just as we stopped the Rover, I went on Aux(illiary) water. Do you want me to turn my primary water off? I don't have to, do I?

122:08:13 Parker: No, no; no need to.

[Water from the Aux tank flows through the Primary tank.]

122:08:28 Schmitt: Okay. Get your hammer. We're going to need it.

122:08:36 Cernan: I've been carrying it all day, it's about time I used it. Okay.

122:08:39 Schmitt: Bob, you're going to want a core at this site?

122:08:41 Parker: Roger. We'd like to get...Number 1 priority will be some block samples, including any dirt that was on the blocks, if there is such. And then the second priority is a rake soil sample; the third priority is a double core. Then, also in there, the pans, of course, and other documented samples. But the double core is there, although it is third priority.

122:09:04 Cernan: Okay.

[Gene and Jack are carrying two different varieties of drive tubes which they can push or hammer into the ground. The majority were "lower" sections which have a hardened bit to resist damage from buried rocks. The others were "upper" sections which can be threaded into lower sections to make double-length cores. When using either a lower section by itself or an upper/lower pair as a double core, they will attach an adapter at the top and then one of the extension handles. This way, they can hammer on the extension handle and then extract the core without having to bend over.]

[In the checklist, they have only generalized geology tasks listed, identically, on pages LMP-31 and CDR-29. On some of the early missions, the geology tasks were spelled out in considerable detail; but it was soon realized that such decisions were better made in real time by the geologists in the Backroom, with input from the crew. Even so, for this first Apollo 17 geology stop, the listed tasks were designed for a longer stop at Emory and many will be dropped to save time.]

122:09:10 Cernan: Yep, I've got my gnomon, and I've got to give them a TGE (reading). When you said "bring a hammer," I came (over without starting the Traverse Gravimeter reading, which is the last task on CDR-27)...

122:09:15 Schmitt: I'm sorry.

122:09:16 Cernan: No, no problem.

122:09:17 Schmitt: Well, I shouldn't have...

122:09:18 Cernan: The two go hand-in-hand.

122:09:20 Schmitt: Nothing disrupts your thought patterns more than somebody saying something.

122:09:23 Cernan: Well, listen, this is my first geology stop. I guess I'm entitled to do that; Bob, you ready for a mark?

[Gene is about to initiate the gravimeter measurement.]

122:09:33 Cernan: Okay. Mark it. The light's flashing.

122:09:40 Parker: Copy that.

Video Clip ( 3 min 30 sec 0.9 Mb RealVideo or 34 Mb MPEG )

122:09:43 Cernan: Okay, you got one (a boulder) picked out?

122:09:45 Schmitt: Yes, let's see if we can work on that one. It's at the edge (of the crater), but we can chip at the parting plane. And that's one of the things that's come up that I think is of interest; we've got to figure out why they have that foliation in them.

122:10:00 Cernan: Boy, that rock is one of the more vesicular ones I've seen around.

122:10:02 Schmitt: Well, they're all about that, Gene. They're either that or mixed with that variety. In the same boulder you'll (sometimes) see a non-vesicular....or, relatively non-vesicular (component). Okay, that's the...

122:10:18 Cernan: Watch your shadow.

[Jack is photographing the sunlit face of the rock that they are about to sample. Gene, who is about to take a cross-Sun stereopair from south of the boulder, is reminding Jack not to get his shadow on the rock. On the site map, this boulder is at about 7 o'clock on the crater rim, relative to a 12 o'clock north. Gene's cross-Sun stereopair is AS17-134- 20394 and 20395 and Jack's down-Sun is AS17-136- 20739. Gene's photos show the crater quite well.]

[A "locator" is a photograph which includes an object of known size - the Rover or the LM - and/or an identifiable horizon feature which can be used to locate the sample site. Jack's "locator" is AS17-136- 20740.]

122:10:37 Schmitt: Yeah. Let me get where I can maybe save the rock (fragment if it flies off). If you can hook your...

122:10:42 Cernan: That's what I'm going to do. I'm going to try and get it right...Right up on top is where I'd like to...

122:10:45 Schmitt: If you hit it on the right side, it'll go this way, maybe. (Pause) There you go. Good man.

122:10:51 Cernan: Piece right there. (Pause) I can get another one, too.

122:10:54 Schmitt: Try another one.

122:10:56 Cernan: Don't lose that one. (Pause) Let me get that one for you.

122:10:59 Schmitt: I can get it.

122:11:01 Cernan: Got it?

122:11:02 Schmitt: Whoops. (Pause)

122:11:09 Cernan: Can you keep it in sight here for a minute? Is that it?

122:11:13 Schmitt: Yeah. (Pause)

[At the end of his pan, Fendell finds them working at the boulder Jack was examining earlier. Jack collects the first fragment with his scoop while Gene hammers on the top, northeast corner of the rock. It appears that Gene is standing a little downhill just inside the lip of the crater to their north.]

[Cernan - "You just had to get yourself in a stable position to be able to swing the hammer. Because of the restriction of the suit, there was basically only one pendulum plane in which you could swing the hammer; so you had to find a way to stand so that you could swing in that plane and be close to your work. You had some freedom to reach out a little farther, and some ability to rotate your wrist and swing more to the right or left, but not a lot. Generally, it was important to position correctly in three dimensions so that you could hit the spot you wanted and hit it with authority. And even then, you'd swing and just hit in the general area; it would have been really hard to hit a nail on the head."]

[Schmitt - "Although I had a lot to do with the design of the hammer, the handle was too big around for me. I couldn't grip it, and that was one of the reasons why Gene was the one who carried and usually used it. I had convinced myself that I would generally do better with the scoop. Also, Gene could put a lot more force into the hammer. He could grip it, and he also had longer arms. The thing it took Gene a long time to learn was that you don't hit rocks in the middle to break them. You hit them on the edges and pieces break off much more quickly. By the time we got to the Moon, he was pretty good at it. But I remember that, early on in training, he would go after a rock right in the middle of it."]

122:11:30 Cernan: I'm (garbled).

122:11:32 Schmitt: Oh.

122:11:34 Cernan: It's coming. (Pause)

[Gene hits the boulder with three sets of five blows. He manages to knock off a small fragment. Apparently, the hammer is turning somewhat in his hand. Although he has his back to us, he does seem to re-adjust his grip after each set.]

122:11:44 Cernan: I'll get that one, wait a minute.

122:11:47 Schmitt: Be careful down in there.

122:11:49 Cernan: The whole thing is going to fracture off here, in a minute. Just want to...(Pause)

[Gene strikes the rock seven more times, a little below the first site. He then rests. He has been balancing on his right foot, with the edge of the crater just to the right of that foot and with his left leg stuck out to the side as he hammers on the north corner of the rock. It seems a very precarious stance, particularly so close to a rock-filled crater.]

122:12:02 Cernan: It's trying to fall.

[Gene hits the rock five more times. The strokes are audible through his suit.]

[Cernan - "You had to hold onto the hammer and that meant you had to squeeze your finger against the pressure in the gloves. After you did that for a while, your hand and your forearm muscle would get sore. So you'd have to take a rest; not because your shoulder was sore or you were out of breath, but because of your hand and forearm. We were in pretty good shape at the time; we did a lot of training that exercised our forearms before we started; but gripping was still very tiring."]

[In response to a question, Gene said that, while driving the Rover, he did not have to grip the handcontroller so much as curl his fingers, slightly, over the top of it. This took relatively little effort and, on the whole, he had a chance to rest his forearm muscles during the drives.]

122:12:10 Cernan: Wait a minute. Let me give one more whack. The whole thing is...(Pause)

[He hits the rock three more times.]

122:12:21 Schmitt: (Tipping the first sample out of the scoop into a bag) Okay. Bag 476 is the rock sample with a little bit of the soil near it. Of a chip...A chip off the rock, and it's the...Watch it, Gene.

[Gene has been standing inside the crater, north of Jack and a meter below him, picking up a chip.]

122:12:49 Schmitt: Right. (Pause) Got it.

[Gene puts the chip in the bag Jack is holding.]

122:13:01 Cernan: Yep. Yep.

[Gene climbs easily out of the crater, then stumbles slightly on a fist-sized rock.]

[Cernan - "Because of all of the stuff in front of you - your PLSS controls, your camera, your sample bags - it took a concerted effort to see exactly what you were stepping on. Like everything else you did on the Moon, you had to plan ahead a little bit. Here, it was just difficult to get up that little incline and I had to take a lot of little choppy steps. That gave me better balance than trying to take a big leap."]

Video Clip ( 3 min 33 sec 0.9 Mb RealVideo or 35 Mb MPEG )

122:13:09 Cernan: Let me tell you, my hands from that drill...

122:13:11 Schmitt: Yes, I'm sure they are.

122:13:12 Cernan: ...really know I've been out here today. (Pause)

122:13:19 Schmitt: (Sample bag) 476, Bob.

122:13:20 Parker: Copy that, Jack.

[Gene hits the south-top corner six times and knocks off a sizable sample.]

122:13:28 Cernan: There it is, a whole big slab, right there.

[It's a flat, hand-sized piece.]

122:13:30 Cernan: Oh, look at those dark minerals in there. Are those dark black?

122:13:33 Schmitt: Yeah, they may be ilmenite or fresh pyroxene. (Pause) We'll look at it.

122:13:36 Cernan: Gives the impression of pyroxene.

[Schmitt - "Both pyroxene and ilmenite are dark minerals because of their iron and magnesium content."]

[Jack has retrieved the sample with the scoop and is now trying to stick the scoop in the ground so that he can have both hands free.]

[Jack opens Gene's SCB and puts the sample bag in it.]

[Cernan - "Early in training, we learned from working together that when the other guy is wrapping up a sample, you should turn your back and lean over so that he can drop the sample in the SCB. If you just walk away to do something else, he's left standing there with his hands full. The reason you have to lean over is mostly because the suit makes it difficult to reach up very high. Now, Jack isn't the tallest guy in the world, but the suit made it even harder for him. You just can't get your hand much above your shoulder unless you rotate your body to the side."]

[Schmitt - "Once we got into operational training, we'd wear backpacks with SCBs even when we weren't wearing suits; and it quickly became second nature, a part of the routine, to turn and bend over so the guy wrapping the sample could put it in your bag."]

122:14:02 Cernan: Okay.

122:14:03 Schmitt: While we get that one. I'm going to have to...You're going to have to use your tongs on that one, I think.

122:14:08 Cernan: Okay.

122:14:10 Schmitt: I got it.

[Gene has handed Jack an empty sample bag. They are facing west, away from the Rover and the TV camera.]

[Gene uses his tongs to grab the sample.]

122:14:24 Cernan: Here's a big one. Get him (meaning Bob) the bag number, too.

122:14:27 Schmitt: Bag 454. Okay, and the flashes are from inside of vugs and re-crystallized vesicles. They look like pyroxene flashes; they could be ilmenite.

122:14:45 Cernan: I'll get my "after" picture.

[Fendell pans away from them.]

122:14:51 Cernan: Okay, let's get it first.

122:14:53 Schmitt: From the north side. Whoops. Okay, the bag tore around that; it's pretty jagged rock, but I think it'll hold.

122:14:59 Cernan: Pretty good slab.

122:14:59 Parker: Okay. Copy that.

122:15:02 Schmitt: (Having put the sample in Gene's SCB) It's in yours.

122:15:03 Cernan: Okay.

[Fendell has pointed the camera at them again.]

[Because of the stiff suits, holding a bag with one hand and pouring samples into it with the scoop held in the other hand is a bit difficult. Here, Gene and Jack are working as a team, Gene holding the bag while Jack works the scoop. At Station 3 on EVA-2, a revision of the station activities leaves Jack sampling on his own, at a noticeable cost of efficiency. Later in the mission, Jack devises a reasonably effective method of solo sampling. Jack moves west and a little below the rock. He bends his knee and gets a fillet sample with the scoop.]

122:15:26 Schmitt: (Finishing the thought) In a shadow, anyway.

[To receive the sample, Gene flexes his knees slightly; however he doesn't hold the sample bag very low, as Dave Scott often did on Apollo 15.]

[Schmitt - "There was a long-standing interest in the possibility of getting samples of permanently-shadowed soil so that the solar-wind chemists could look at material that hadn't been directly exposed for some period of time. I don't know if anything ever came of it, but we talked about it a lot over the years."]

[As of 1991, very little has ever been published with regard to the shadowed soil samples. As it turns out, lunar soil saturates with solar wind products in a matter of decades and then is thrown around and mixed. Analysis of the relative abundances of solar wind constituents in soils taken at the bottom of the deep cores showed little difference with relative abundances in soils collected at the surface or, presumably, in the shadowed samples. Had there been noticeable differences, the results would have been published and the lack of publications indicates an unremarkable result.]

[Jack uses a one-handed scooping motion.]

122:15:55 Parker: Copy that.

[Jack stumbles and spills some of the sample.]

122:16:10 Cernan: Yeah, I know. I know.

122:16:15 Schmitt: (Moving out of the field-of-view) Oh, shoot. (Pause)

122:16:21 Cernan: Hey! 1.2 kilometers is a long way from the LM. Look at the Challenger down there. Makes you get a feel for how big this valley really is.

122:16:29 Schmitt: I'd rather not. (Pause)

122:16:34 Cernan: Okay. I'll help you.

122:16:35 Schmitt: I got it.

122:16:36 Cernan: Turn around and let me help you get these in your bag.

122:16:38 Schmitt: I learned how.

[Jack has probably dropped the scoop and may, at this point, have devised the trick of stepping on the head to raise the handle to an easy-grabbing height.]

122:16:41 Cernan: You learn of necessity out here.

[Cernan - "You learned how to maneuver; you learned how to walk; you learned how to bend over to help each other; you eventually learned how to swing the hammer better; you learned how to pick up soil samples. You learned how to make your movements more efficient and productive."]

122:16:52 Schmitt: Okay, let's...You happy there?

122:16:54 Cernan: Yeah,.

122:16:54 Schmitt: Let's get your "after"...

122:16:55 Cernan: Okay.

[The "after" is AS17-134- 20396.]

[The sample is 71055, a 670 gram piece of vesicular ilmenite basalt. Journal contributor Yuri Krasilnikov has created a before/after animation ( 352k ) from 20394 and 96. See, also, a side-by-side comparison with the second "before" photo AS17-134- 20395.]

[What Jack is suggesting is that, rather than pounding on the rock to break off another sample, they pick up a manageable piece off the surface. Gene retrieves the gnomon; Jack moves around to the east rim of the crater.]

[Schmitt - "A block is a rock of almost any size, as long as its big enough that it clearly doesn't fall into the general size range of particles in the underlying regolith"]

122:17:09 Schmitt: Yeah, but the rake's next, as you might imagine. Geno, now this stuff here looks a little less vesicular. Why don't we try that one?

[Jack is standing at the east rim, gesturing at the rock around him.]

[Jack goes toward Gene, who is out of the TV picture. AS17-134-20403 is a close-up Gene will take at 122:23:13, after he and Jack get two chip samples. The approximate location of the contact between the two parts of the rock is labeled in a detail.]

122:17:33 Schmitt: Yeah, that's what I'm after; that's it.

122:17:36 Cernan: Let's see if I can't crack...

122:17:37 Schmitt: That's it. That's what I saw in that other boulder.

122:17:39 Cernan: Let's see if I can't crack the corner and get that contact.

122:17:41 Schmitt: Yeah. Or get a piece of both. I think you can get...if you can reach down there.

122:17:46 Cernan: See if I can't get a...(Pause)

122:17:54 Cernan: That's a contact in a rock.

122:17:56 Schmitt: Yep.

[They are between the Rover and the first boulder that they sampled. Gene has set the gnomon on the ground south of the knee-high boulder and is taking "before" pictures from the south. In general, a contact is a surface defining a change in rock character within a single rock mass. Here, there is a change in vesicularity across the contact. They are not as close to the rim as they were before. Gene has taken a cross-Sun stereopair of the rock, and Jack has taken a down-Sun. Gene's "befores" are AS17-134- 20397 and 20398 and Jack's "before" is AS17-136- 20741).]

122:18:06 Schmitt: We just sampled one.

[Houston is puzzled that the TV hasn't shown any of the large boulders (large enough to have been seen in the Apollo 15 pictures) at the place where Houston thinks they are. Jack is saying that they just sampled a boulder, albeit, one less than a meter high.]

122:18:09 Parker: Well, if that one showed up in the photos, I wonder why those down near the ALSEP didn't show up.

122:18:17 Schmitt: No, we're not where you think we are. We're not sure where we are.

[Journal Contributor David Harland notes that, as Jack implied at 122:02:14, it is more important that they are collecting samples near Steno than it is to know exactly where they are. The Station location can be determined in post-flight analysis of the pans.]

[Gene kneels east of the boulder and tries to get positioned so he can use the hammer effectively]

122:18:27 Cernan: Yeah, just give me the shovel to hold myself with. Give me a shovel. (Pause)

[Takes the scoop in his left hand, moves his knees back a foot or so and leans forward on the scoop while wielding the hammer with his right. We can't see his right hand, but he evidently breaks off a piece with just a blow or two.]

[Cernan - "Without the suit, I probably would have reached out with my left hand to brace myself on the rock, but that would have put me too close to the rock to hit it properly in the suit. So I used the scoop for support."]

122:18:44 Cernan: Get that little piece.

122:18:45 Schmitt: Okay, I see it.

[Gene rises, apparently by pushing back against the scoop handle.]

122:18:56 Schmitt: How about coming around from this side?

122:18:59 Cernan: Well, I got the gnomon in the wrong place really.

122:19:01 Schmitt: Let me see your...

122:19:02 Cernan: Can you reach it?

[Jack takes the hammer.]

[Jack leans on the rock from the southwest.]

[Jack gives the rock two sharp hammer blow and a sample breaks loose.]

[Schmitt - "Note the value of geological field experience!"]

122:19:18 Schmitt: Get them both with your...

122:19:19 Cernan: Let me get them both right now.

[Gene uses the scoop to collect the fragment he broke off.]

[Still leaning on the rock, Jack examines the fresh face and then looks over at Gene. He does so mostly by turning his head inside the helmet; there is some slight rotation of Jack's body in that direction.]

[Gene has raised the sccop to his left hand so he can grab the sample.

122:19:36 Cernan: I got them both (in sight). I think, actually, we got a sample of both sides; but I wouldn't bet on it.

[Jack delivers one sharp blow on the east face and knocks off a piece.]

[After hitting the east face twice more, without dislodging anything, Jack tries to change his grip by tossing the hammer but misses and almost drops it.]

[Gene collects the first fragment Jack knocked off. Because Gene is holding the top of the scoop handle in his left hand, he rests the scoop head on his left hand and then moves his right hand down the handle toward the head to shorten the distance he'll have to raise his right arm to tip the fragment into his left hand.]

122:20:01 Schmitt: (Using the hammer to point to the fragment he dislodged from the east face) See that rock right over there on the little mound, just projecting out of the edge of it?

122:20:04 Cernan: Where are you looking?

122:20:05 Schmitt: Right over there.

122:20:06 Cernan: Here?

122:20:06 Schmitt: No.

122:20:07 Cernan: Here?

122:20:08 Schmitt: Where I'm pointing.

122:20:08 Cernan: (Moving the scoop a foot eastward) There?

122:20:09 Schmitt: There you go; you just about touched it. Right there, that piece.

Video Clip ( 3 min 33 sec 0.9 Mb RealVideo or 35 Mb MPEG )

122:20:11 Cernan: Okay, let me get these in a bag here. (Long Pause)

[Gene hasn't yet collected the east-face fragment. He plants the scoop so he can get a sample bag off his camera. Jack hammers the rock four times without success. Even an experienced field geologist doesn't always dislodge the piece he wants.]

122:20:26 Cernan: I'll get that piece.

122:20:28 Schmitt: (Pushing himself upright) And that's the samples from either side of the contact anyway.

122:20:30 Cernan: Can you get a bag...

[Evidently, Gene was unable to get a bag, perhaps because he is holding the samle in his left hand.]

122:20:34 Cernan: Give me the hammer, and get a bag and I'll...

122:20:36 Schmitt: You take the hammer.

122:20:37 Cernan: I got these in my hand I want to put there.

122:20:39 Schmitt: Okay. Bag 477 is the coarsely vesicular rock.

122:20:43 Cernan: Are two of them there? I hope two of them fell in.

122:20:47 Schmitt: No, I only got one.

122:20:49 Cernan: Okay, here's that other one. It had to fall right here.

122:20:57 Schmitt: I don't think it ever...There it is; get your tongs.

122:21:02 Cernan: Right here?

122:21:03 Schmitt: Now you're full of dirt in the scoop; you just covered it up.

122:21:07 Cernan: (Using the scoop) Got it; I got it.

122:21:08 Schmitt: Here, put it in here with the dirt. That's good. A little dirt never hurt anybody. (Holding the sample bag low) Got it.

122:21:15 Cernan: There it is.

122:21:16 Schmitt: Got it.

122:21:17 Cernan: Okay.

122:21:19 Schmitt: 477 are two chips. They're small, but I think they'll (tell you) if there's any compositional difference.

122:21:25 Cernan: (Preparing to collect the east-face fragment, pointing with the scoop) Are these two are the ones you saw? That right there? (Pause) That's what you pointed at.

[Gene uses the scoop to pick the fragment off the surface, trying to get as little soil as possible.]

122:21:34 Cernan: Okay. I'm going to take a close-up stereo on that contact.

122:21:37 Schmitt: Yeah. Definitely.

[Jack puts the sample bags in Gene's SCB, then gets another bag for the last sample. Before taking his close-ups, Gene takes a cross-Sun "after", AS17-134- 20399, and a "locator", AS17-134- 20400, toward the Rover.]

[That is, they will use the rake to collect about a kilogram of soil, about enough to fill one sample bag.]

[Jack puts this sample bag in Gene's SCB.]

122:22:11 Cernan: Dust, dust, dust, dust. (Giving Jack the scoop) Here you are. I'll go ahead and get a close-up (garbled)...

122:22:14 Schmitt: Get a close-up, and I'll get the rake. I'll get started on the rake.

122:22:18 Cernan: Okay.

[Gene goes to the Rover; Jack goes to the Rover, out of the picture.]

122:22:30 Cernan: I'll get it.

122:22:33 Schmitt: As you come back.

[Schmitt - "I was just telling Gene to bootleg another sample. If he picked one up out of the area he'd just photographed, then Houston could probably identify it."]

122:22:40 Cernan: Sure wish I could read this (camera setting).

122:22:41 Parker: ...driving in 10 minutes, please.

122:22:45 Schmitt: Nag, nag, nag.

122:22:49 Parker: That's right, that's right, that's right.

122:22:50 Cernan: Boy, I can't see my camera (f-stop) setting, it's so full of dust.

122:22:56 Schmitt: (To Bob) Okay. I guess you want to sort of (get the rake sample)...out in nothing's land here, huh? (No answer from Houston) I can bag it for you, Geno.

122:23:12 Parker: Roger.

122:23:13 Cernan: That's all right. I want to get this close-up here.

[Fendell finds Gene again; he is taking pictures. His close-up photos of the second boulder are AS17-134- 20401 to 20404.]

Video Clip ( 3 min 18 sec 0.8 Mb RealVideo or 33 Mb MPEG )

122:23:40 Cernan: Coming, coming. (Pause)

[Gene gets a sample with his tongs. The operation of his yo-yo is clearly visible. Gene goes to Jack northeast of the Rover, out of the TV picture. Fendell pans to follow Gene.]

122:24:08 Schmitt: I think we probably disturbed that one. It'll probably show up in the "befores".

122:24:13 Parker: Okay. Copy that.

122:24:13 Cernan: Okay, where do you want a rake. (Pause)

122:24:21 Schmitt: And that (meaning the extra rock sample)'s in bag 479.

122:24:25 Parker: Okay.

122:24:28 Schmitt: Gene, let's rake right out there.

122:24:31 Cernan: Look, let's go ahead and bag that one (that is, put it in Gene's SCB); and I'll get the gnomon out there.

122:24:36 Schmitt: Okay.

122:24:37 Cernan: Bob, as you might have seen from the camera, up towards where we think Emory is you get a pretty high concentration of boulders up there.

122:24:47 Parker: Okay. And I think that that's where we thought we were, a little bit closer to Emory than you are.

122:24:55 Cernan: Well, we thought about going on up there; although we're in a pretty good area here, too, from the standpoint of boulders.

122:25:02 Parker: Yeah.

122:25:03 Cernan: Again, I think...(To Jack) Facing the Sun.

[Jack is just in view; Gene is reminding him to position the gnomon color chart so that it is fully sunlit. A photograph of Jack positioning the SEP transmitter, AS17-134- 20438, is a good illustration of Jack's posture at this point.]

[Cernan - "It was even awkward to get the gnomon down on a level piece of ground. You didn't want to drop it from a foot or two up, so you had to bend one knee, get the other leg out to the side, and lean sideways, very much like you sometimes had to in order to use the hammer. It was another one of ways you learned how to do things easily and with stability. You didn't really think about it; you knew when you were unstable and when you weren't, and you learned how to react. It's a normal reaction to a new environment."]

[Schmitt - "Filleting is a natural consequence of the continual gardening of the upper regolith layers by the impacts of small meteors. Any boulder that's exposed will have material thrown against it that will collect at the base. The original thoughts about the 'dark mantle' material was that it had been put down very late, that it was very young; and that it might have been filleting the boulders. Of course, the truth is that the regolith and the dark material were intimately mixed. The dark mantling proved to be the result of pyroclastic materials - which had been laid down on top of the valley-filling lavas - being mixed with the regolith as the regolith formed. At Shorty Crater (EVA-2), we found black and orange pyroclastics which had been protected by a late lava flow until the Shorty impact dug it up; but, in most places, the pyroclastics probably had been deposited after the lavas had ceased to invade the valley. What we saw at Shorty may have been the result of the sort of thing that happens on Earth when, after the gas that has been powering the pyroclastic eruption is depleted, you have a lava flow. At Sunset Crater near Flagstaff, the last thing that happened, except for a little bit of ash, was the Bonito (Lava) Flow. At Taurus-Littrow, the last of the lava flows may well have been the one that covered the pyroclastic deposit that the Shorty impact uncovered."]

122:25:21 Cernan: Boy, I've got to clean my camera; I can't even see. (To Jack) What area are you going to rake?

122:25:25 Schmitt: To your left of the...Well, ahead of the gnomon and to your left, there.

[Schmitt - "As with any of the other sampling procedures, you took a set of pre-sampling documentation photographs and then drug the rake basket through the regolith until you had a reasonable number of small fragments. Studies of samples from some of the early missions has suggested that, in the walnut-sized fragment population, you got more fragments from outside the immediate area than in any other size range. So the rake was designed to maximize the yield of these 'exotics'."]

[Fendell pulls back on the TV zoom, bringing both of the astronauts into the frame. Gene and Jack are both taking "before" photos of the rake area. Gene's pictures are AS17-134- 20405 to 20407 and Jack's are AS17-136- 20742 and 20743.]

122:25:41 Schmitt: That's what I said.

122:25:42 Cernan: Yeah, except a change in vesicularity...

122:25:48 Parker: Roger.

122:25:49 Cernan: ...in terms of the size of vesicles, where I described one as being a more hummocky vesicular-type rock. The first time I've noticed any of the dark minerals was when we took that one big, flat chip off that boulder.

122:26:04 Parker: Okay; copy that.

[Jack takes the first rake swath, standing with his right foot forward and his body turned to his left, dragging the rake with his right hand as he moves backwards.]

122:26:10 Parker: Copy that, guys.

[Jack finishes the first swath. The rake is not penetrating very far into the soil.]

122:26:16 Schmitt: Okay.

122:26:17 Parker: Good idea, Gene. (Long Pause)

[Jack takes three more swaths, shaking dirt out between the tines after each one. Gene's pan consists of frames AS17-134- 20408 to 20431.]

[Frames 20425 and 20426 are two views ( 554k ) of Jack with a large collection of small rocks he just collected with the rake. In the first, he has his left hand under rake head where it is attached to the extension handle and is about to lift it up to horizontal so he can carry it over to Gene. In the second picture, he is a lot closer to Gene, who will get a sample bag out once he finishes the pan.]

122:26:41 Cernan: Man, are there some good targets for the 500(-millimeter camera) around here. (Pause) We've got to get those Massifs with the 500. (Pause)

[Jack takes swaths number 5 and 6; the bottom of his SCB is loose.]

122:27:08 Schmitt: And, Bob, I'm really only penetrating about, at the most, 3 centimeters into this area with the rake. I've picked up a very good sample of boulders (fragments) but most of them were in that distance of the surface and projecting out of it.

122:27:28 Parker: Okay; I copy that.

122:27:31 Schmitt: You ready, Gene?

122:27:33 Cernan: A couple of more (pictures), Jack. (Pause) Okay, coming at you (with a sample bag). Bob, the pan is complete. I'll give you a frame count shortly.

122:27:44 Parker: Copy that, Geno.

122:27:45 Schmitt: There's two bags, I think.

[Gene is not in the TV picture.]

122:27:52 Parker: Copy that.

[Fendell pulls back on the zoom so that Gene can be seen.]

122:28:03 Schmitt: Okay.

122:28:05 Cernan: Okay, that's good. That's good. Okay. (Pause)

[Gene puts the sample bag in Jack's SCB.]

[Neither Gene nor Jack is sounding punchy any more.]

122:28:30 Parker: Copy that. Now we need the kilogram of the soil.

122:28:37 Schmitt: Yes, sir.

122:28:39 Cernan: Okay, Bob. All the fragments, of course, are completely covered with the mantle (meaning soil); and they are slightly...oh, maybe 20 percent vesicular. I just took a glance at them. But, for the most part, they appear to be rounded to subrounded fragments. (Pause)

122:28:58 Cernan: (To Jack) Okay. Let's get the kilogram. (Pause)

[Fendell pans up and then down; neither Jack nor Gene is in the picture when he finishes.]

122:29:10 Schmitt: Okay. (Pause) Aghh! Well, shoot. Start all over.

[Apparently, Jack has poured most of the soil onto the ground, not into the bag. The rake has solid metal sides so that, rotated ninety degrees, it can be used as a big scoop.]

122:29:25 Parker: Copy that.

122:29:33 Schmitt: (I'll) get some more.

[Fendell pulls back on the zoom again and finds Jack using the rake.]

122:29:48 Schmitt: Can you close it?

122:29:49 Cernan: Yeah, yeah, I can close it.

122:29:51 Schmitt: That's a good kilogram.

[The sample bags are square and were designed to hold rocks up to 11 cm in diameter. The volume of such a rock is about 700 cc's and bags could clearly hold a greater volume of soil. Soil poured loosely into a bag would have a density of no less than about 1.3 kg per liter and, consequently, a kilogram would occupy a volume of no more than about 800 cc's.]

122:30:06 Schmitt: Okay; you get the "after"?

122:30:07 Cernan: I tried to blow the dust off my camera!

[Not a very useful thing to try when wearing a helmet.]

122:30:18 Cernan: Bob, we got time to get the core?

122:30:19 Parker: Negative. The core has been deleted. We'd like for you to get your second pan, Jack, and then we'll press on.

122:30:27 Schmitt: Okay. (Pause)

[Jack retrieves the rake and goes to the Rover. Gene takes the "after" picture, AS17-134- 20432.]

[Jack had planned to take two pans at Station 1 - one at the start and one at the end - but, for some reason, did not take the initial pan and, instead, went over to the boulders to examine them right away. Although Parker may suspect that the first pan wasn't taken, he doesn't know that for certain. The two pans, had they both been taken, would have provided "before" and "after" views of the site as a whole.]

122:30:37 Parker: Copy that. (Pause)

[Jack mounts the rake on the gate, pushing the handle into a retaining bracket.]

122:31:34 Parker: Okay. Ready for it. (Pause)

[Fendell starts to follow Jack, but sees Gene's shadow, stops, and pans to find him at the gate. Fendell then pans away again and stops to look at a split boulder. Evidently, the geology team in Houston decided that the boulder was not of sufficient interest to call it to the crew's attention. The LM may be visible in the TV picture as a bright dot.]

122:31:55 Parker: Okay; copy that, Geno.

122:32:03 Cernan: Okay, and no more (seismic) charges to deploy going back, right?

122:32:07 Parker: No, we will deploy charge number 7 on the way back.

122:32:13 Cernan: On the way back. Okay.

122:32:14 Parker: Roger. It will be deployed at the same location we were originally planning on deploying it, which was in the checklist (on CDR-31) there.

122:32:24 Cernan: Okay. Very good, sir. We'll get at it. (Pause)

[Fendell finds Jack taking a pan southwest of the Rover. These photos are AS17-136- 20744 to 20776. Note that frames 20769 to 20772 show the rim of Steno Crater.]

[Frame 20758 shows the seismic charge and Gene working at the back of the Rover.]

[Frame 20760 is an excellent portrait of the Rover.]

[Erik van Meijgaarden has combined 20758 and 20760 as a portrait of Gene at the Rover.]

[The portion of Jack's pan showing the Station 1 crater was assembled by David Harland.]

[Harland calls attention to the difference in shadow lengths in this view compared with the lengths of the astronaut shadows in Gene's early pan. The dominant factor that produces the different shadow lengths is the different ground slopes on which the shadows are falling at this low Sun angle. A comparison of the pans suggest that Gene parked on a slight rise. Note, for example, that the Rover shadow can not be seen in Gene's pan, which was taken from east of the Rover. Clearly, the Rover shadow visible in Jack's pan falls on a downslope - relative to the Sun - while the astronaut shadows in Gene's pan may fall on an upslope. The Sun is about 18 degrees and, on a level surface, a 2-meter-high suited astronaut would cast a 6.15 meter shadow. A modest two degree upslope would reduce the shadow length to 5.49 meters while a two degree downslope would increase it to 6.97 meters. A second factor which influences perceptions of shadow length is orientation of the shadow relative to the observer. In Gene's pan the astronaut shadows fall more or less along the line of sight, which can make them look shorter than they really are while, in Jack's pan, the shadows run more nearly across the line-of-sight and suffer little foreshortening.]

[Frame 20773 shows a large, pyramidal boulder near the local horizon. This boulder can be identified in a detail from Pan Camera frame 2309.

122:32:43 Parker: Okay. And, Jack, you got the pan or getting it?

122:32:50 Schmitt: Yes, sir.

122:32:53 Cernan: And, Bob, CDR is on frame count 60.

[TV off.]

122:33:05 Cernan: (Garbled) switch one.

122:33:08 Schmitt: And the LMP is on nine-five.

122:33:13 Parker: Copy, 95.

[Jack has just taken AS17-136- 20776. Details of the Station 1 close-out and of the drive back to the SEP transmitter are given, identically, on cuff checklist pages LMP-33 and CDR-31.]

122:33:19 Cernan: We need EP-7, Jack.

122:33:23 Schmitt: You got the gnomon?

122:33:24 Cernan: Got the gnomon.

122:33:27 Schmitt: And the rake and the scoop?

122:33:28 Cernan: The rake and the scoop are back on (the gate). Okay, get the charge. I'll set the low gain (antenna), and we'll be ready to do it.

122:33:35 Schmitt: Bob, my impression right now is that the dark mantle may just be a...Well, at least in here, it's indistinguishable from a regolith that might be derived from these other rocks. It seems to be a little dark for that, but that might be the answer.

122:33:55 Parker: Okay. We'll...

122:33:56 Schmitt: (To Gene) EP-7?

122:33:57 Cernan: EP-7.

122:33:58 Parker: We hope to do (more) on that (dark mantle question) again tomorrow. And EP-7 is the charge, right?

122:34:08 Cernan: Jack, I figured out (that) if you mount the Rover at 90 degrees, when you kick up your feet, you'll miss the dust. (Pause) Let me hook you in before I do that.

122:34:23 Schmitt: Okay. (Pause)

122:34:27 Cernan: Just put your feet 90 degrees to it (the Rover).

122:34:30 Schmitt: Yep. (Pause) Boy, you certainly ride high.

122:34:35 Cernan: Do I?

122:34:36 Schmitt: Yeah. I'm surprised the belt fits.

122:34:39 Cernan: Yeah, it fits fine. Okay. I'm in.

122:34:45 Schmitt: Okay. (Pause)

122:34:51 Cernan: Oop...

122:34:52 Schmitt: Not too good, huh?

[Jack's seat belt is twisted, which makes it too short to latch.]

[That is, did Jack close Gene's sample collection bag?]

122:35:07 Parker: Okay, we mark you underway.

122:35:09 Cernan: You know, you ought to put that sampler (garbled)...(Answering Bob) Not yet.

122:35:13 Schmitt: It's not the sampler; it's these bags with memory.

[The sample bags hooked to the bottom of Jack's camera have apparently held the folds that they'd acquired in storage and are blocking his view of his seatbelt.]

122:35:23 Parker: Okay.

122:35:28 Cernan: Okay. And you want the charge deployed at 320/0.7 (as per the fourth line from the bottom of CDR-31), huh?

122:35:38 Parker: Roger. It will be 0.6 (km). We'll change that to 0.6 on EP-7; and it will really be just wherever you cross 0.6 on the range (that is, at about 650 meters from the SEP.)

122:35:53 Cernan: Okay.

122:35:54 Schmitt: Well, it (the seatbelt) fit once. (Pause)

122:36:01 Cernan: It's twisted, Jack, 180 (degrees). That took out some of your (length)...Wait a minute. Here.

122:36:07 Schmitt: Which way?

122:36:08 Cernan: Well, I can't see. Your left hand's in the way now. (Pause) Away from you. Twist it away from you 180 degrees.

122:36:14 Schmitt: Like that?

[Jack turns the belt part way to find out if he's understood Gene correctly.]

122:36:33 Schmitt: Okay.

MP3 Audio Clip ( 20 min 12 sec )

122:36:34 Cernan: Okay. (Pause) Here's your charge. I think we're learning, (and) that's half of the first EVA. Okay, Bob, we are rolling. Mark it.

122:36:49 Parker: Okay, copy that, Jack...(correcting himself) Gene. (Pause)