Ballet Crater

Traverse to Station 5

 

Orange Soil

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 17 June 2014.

Video Clip ( 3 min 36 sec 1.0 Mb RealVideo or 37 Mb MPEG )

RealVideo Clip by Mick Hyde (15 min 50 sec)

MP3 Audio Clip starting at 145:23:48 ( 16 min 51 sec )

145:23:48 Schmitt: Okay, Houston. Shorty is clearly a darker-rimmed crater. The inner wall is quite blocky but...Except for the western portion of it, which is less blocky than the others. The floor is hummocky, as we thought it was in the (Apollo 15) photographs. The central peak, if you will, or central mound, is very blocky and jagged. And the impression I have of the other mounds in the bottom is that they look like slump masses that may have come off the side.

[TV on.]

[Schmitt - "The tiredness is clearly gone from my voice. Getting there provided a new surge of adrenaline. Visually, this was a lot more exciting than Station 3, and it got even more exciting with the discovery of the orange soil. Station 3 was a lot of work; and this one turned out to be fun."]

145:24:42 Schmitt: That's just what they look like. I'm not sure that...They have a bench appearance.

145:24:47 Parker: Okay, and the number 1 and 2 priorities at this station will be samples from the crater rim and the pan from the crater rim. Over.

[Gene leans in front of the rearward-facing TV to dust the right-side battery covers. The tasks planned for Station 4 are listed on cuff checklist page LMP/CDR-21. Because of the imminent discovery of orange soil on the rim of Shorty, this list of tasks will be abandoned.]

[Cernan - "(Watching the video) This is very interesting. You can see a reflection in my visor of me dusting the battery covers."]

[Jack is moving toward the boulder.]

[Gene has finished with the battery covers and moves to his side of the Rover.]

145:25:50 Parker: Rog. We have TV, and you might brush the (TV) lens for us before you run away.

145:25:57 Cernan: Yeah, I'll get it. I've got to get my battery covers cleaned.

[Fendell pans to Gene dusting the left-side battery covers.]

[Jack is not going to try solo sampling this time.]

[Gene dusts his RCU. The brush looks like a 6-inch paint brush.]

145:26:22 Schmitt: Oh, hey! (Very brief pause)

[Jack has just seen the orange soil. He is cautious, having been fooled by sunlight reflected off the LCRU at the Scarp stop.]

145:26:26 Cernan: What?

[Fendell starts panning slowly counter-clockwise.]

[Schmitt - "The orange soil was several meters away from the Rover, up closer to the boulder. The orange spots of light that I saw reflected off the LCRU at the Scarp stop were tiny things; the Mylar covering the LCRU was crinkled, and you only got small spots every once in a while when the Sun angles were just right. When I spotted the orange soil, I probably hadn't even started the pan. What I probably saw was the scuff marks I'd made when I went over to the boulder. Actually you could see the orange through the regolith, but it was more obvious after you'd stirred it up."]

[The patch of orange soil will become discernible in the TV picture once Fendell has panned around to the boulder.]

[Cernan - "Quite frankly, when Jack said he saw orange soil, I began to wonder if he hadn't been on the Moon too long. Until I saw it myself."]

145:26:38 Cernan: Don't move it until I see it.

145:26:40 Schmitt: I stirred it up with my feet.

145:26:42 Cernan: (Excited, too) Hey, it is!! I can see it from here!

145:26:44 Schmitt: It's orange!

145:26:46 Cernan: Wait a minute, let me put my visor up. It's still orange!

[Cernan - "Like a pair of ordinary sunglasses, the visor attenuated the light but didn't really change the colors. If it was red, it was red; if it was blue, it was blue. But you could see the colors better with the visor up. I do that flying; I take my sunglasses off if I really want to see things clearly. So lifting up the visor was a natural thing for me to do."]

145:26:53 Cernan: Orange!

145:26:54 Schmitt: I've got to dig a trench, Houston.

145:27:00 Parker: Copy that. I guess we'd better work fast.

[Gene passes in front of the panning TV, on his way to the SEP receiver. At some point during this exchange, Jack starts his Station 4 pan.]

[With regard to the timing of the pan, what seems likely is that Jack went over to examine the boulder and then moved back part way toward the Rover to start his pan. Because he always started his pans with a down-Sun shot, he would have been facing the boulder and would have seen the disturbed orange soil before actually taking a picture. Having made his report to Houston, he then started the pan while he waited for Gene to finish his housekeeping chores at the Rover. Note that 20248 shows Gene replacing the dustbrush in its bracket on the front of the Rover. This picture was, therefore, taken at about 145:27:34. Note that we know from the TV record that Jack's Station 3 pan took about a minute and a half to complete. Both that pan and the one taken here at Shorty consist of about 27 frames, so we can fairly safely assume that the Shorty pan also takes no more than a minute and a half to complete - less if Jack hurried a bit or could take pictures more quickly because, here, he is standing on level ground. 20248 is the 20th frame in the pan, and its timing suggests that Jack started the pan at - or, perhaps, a little later than - 145:26:30. This estimate is consistent with Jack's recollection that he didn't actually do the pan until after he reported the orange soil to Houston.]

145:27:07 Parker: Is it the same color as cheese?

[This may be a serious question. Many American cheeses are orange.]

[Schmitt - "You'll have to ask Bob, but I think he was thinking of green cheese, as in 'The Moon's made out of green cheese.' My guess is that he wasn't convinced that we weren't trying to pull their leg again. And for good reason, because every once in a while we'd do that, either inadvertently or advertently."]

[Bob says that it was a serious question - but with a joke thrown in.]

145:27:15 Schmitt: It's almost the same color as the LMP decal on my camera.

145:27:21 Parker: Okay. Copy that.

[A detail from Gene's Station 1 photo AS17-134-20425 shows an orange "LMP" decal on the side of Jack's camera. See, also, AS17-134-20426. A similar 'CDR' decal can be seen on the top of John Young's camera, just behind the lens, in a detail from Apollo 16 training photo KSC-71PC-776; and an 'LMP' decal on Charlie's camera in a detail from Apollo 16 training photo KSC-71PC-777. In a 2004 exchange of e-mail, Jack wrote that the orange color in the detail from KSC-71PC-776 "looks pretty close." Compare the color of the various 'LMP' and 'CDR' decals with the color of an f-stop decal on the Apollo 11 EVA magazine in the Smithsonian photo which, in a 2001 exchange of e-mail, Jack described as being "pretty close to what I remember, maybe not quite as bright or vivid.". Smithsonian Institution photo by Eric Long; courtesy Allan Needell. One of Jack's magazines is in the Smithsonian's collection at the National Air and Space Museum. Smithsonian Institution photo by Jim Remar; courtesy Allan Needell.]

[Gene passes in front of the TV going around the front of the Rover to replace the dustbrush on the left corner of the LCRU and then go to his seat to get the lens brush for the TV camera.]

145:27:34 Cernan: Boy, this brush is getting harder to get on and off, too. But I sure don't want to lose it. Man, I may start putting that under my seat. (Pause)

[Frame AS17-133-20248 in Jack's pan shows Gene replacing the dustbrush on the LCRU.]

145:27:50 Cernan: Well, zap me with a little cold water. Okay, the SEP has been dusted. I think I gave you 102 or something like that (for the SEP receiver temperature).

[Schmitt - "The dust is going to get into anything that's not hermetically sealed. After a while, moving parts don't move any more with dust in them. We had a bracket for the dusting brush, and that bracket was now full of dust and he couldn't get the brush handle in it. One lock on the gate was no longer usable; and I was having an awfully hard time getting my scoop on and off."]

[Fendell finds Jack just west of the Rover finishing his pan. He takes the last frame a second or two before 145:28:15 and then hops west toward the scoop. He had dropped it, probably prior to starting the pan, and apparently contemplates going to one knee to get it; but he then kicks the scoop a few feet to toward Shorty, perhaps so that his feet will be downslope when he drops to his hands and knees and then pushes back to with his hands. With his feet and/or knees downslope, a given push off his hands will be more effective in getting his center-of-mass far enough back that he can stand.]

145:28:25 Cernan: How can there be orange soil on the Moon?! (Pause) Jack, that is really orange. It's been oxidized. Tell Ron (Evans) to get the lunar sounder over here.

[Schmitt - "I don't know what Gene had in mind, but I suspect that the sounder was just an instrument in the Command Module that he remembered that you could point at something. But the sounder wouldn't have had anything to see here, because of it's coarse resolution, if nothing else."]

[The Apollo Lunar Sounder Experiment (ALSE) used radar equipment on the Command and Service Module to map lunar topography and variation in subsurface electrical conductivity. Water present in the subsurface materials would influence the conductivity and, as Journal Contributor George Giusti notes, the orange/red color may have gotten Gene thinking about rust (oxidation) and, therefore, water and the sounder. Giusti writes, "According to the December 11, 1972 issue of US News and World Report, the sounder was intended to 'search by radar, from the orbiting command ship, America, for signs of water under the lunar surface'. My notes taken at the time of the mission indicate that, after the discovery of the orange soil, Farouk El Baz was quoted over the television as saying that the color might be due to the presence of water at some time in the lunar history. Indeed, the December 13 issue of the San Francisco Examiner has an article saying: 'Farouk El Baz said the orange color most likely was the result of iron in the lunar soil rusted by the water vapor escaping from the vent'. Maybe Gene was thinking along the same lines and that's why he wanted the sounder."]

[Readers should also note that the resolution of the instrument was no better than about 400 meters and, as Jack says, was incapable of seeing detail on the scale of Shorty.]

[Schmitt - "Of course, Ron started to see orange areas from orbit as soon as he heard about it. He saw orange in the southwestern part of the Serenitatis Basin, in what's called the Sulpicius Gallus region ( 12 Mb ). And, when Gene and I got back into orbit, we were able to confirm and I mapped quite extensive regions of the orange and other colors. And, as we left the Moon, we were looking back at a full Moon and, for a little while, we had good color/tint definition."]

[See, also, the discussion in the chapter covering orbital activities after rendezvous.]

[At this moment, Evans is about ten minutes from LOS (Loss of Signal) on his 29th orbit. News of the discovery of the orange soil won't be passed up to him until shortly after he reappears around the Moon's eastern limb at 146:14. At that time he will have the following exchange with Houston.]

[CapCom: While you're doing your pre-sleep checklist, you might be interested that, at Shorty, the surface crew found some very, very orange soil, a great deal of it. Indicates strong oxidation and possibly indicates water and/or volcanics in the area. And they're really...Jack's kind of like a boy at Christmas time. I'll tell you, a little kid at Christmas time on that one.]

[Evans: (Laughing) I bet he would be. Hey, that's a great find, by gosh!]

[CapCom: Yeah, that's the first time we find...It's orange. Boy, you can see it in the television; it's bright orange soil. No question about it.]

[Evans: I'll be darned.]

[CapCom: And, as luck would have it, they found it all and got working, and then they had to pull out of Shorty due to constraints, walkback constraints in the area. You know, consumables versus walkback.]

[Evans begins his rest period about ten minutes later; his wake-up call will come at 154:40; and it won't be until he gets a chance to look at Shorty at 166:17:51 that he becomes convinced that there is an orange tint around the crater and in certain other areas. His observation is reported to Gene and Jack at 171:02:56 and is reproduced there. It is important to note that, throughout the mission Evans has been conscious of variations in shades and tints and has reported his impressions. At 158:35:09, he remarks that "You know, to me the Moon's got a lot more color than I'd been led to believe. I kind of had the impression that everything was the same color. That's far from being true." However, the shades and tints are subtle and it will take a look at Shorty before he is convinced that he can see the orange from orbit.]

[Cernan - "When I heard that Ron had seen some orange patches from orbit, I was concerned that maybe the power of suggestion had taken over. You can stand on the Moon and suggest colors to yourself and you begin to see those colors. You could tint the bland gray color of the Moon blue or green or brown. By this time I was absolutely convinced that Jack and I could see the definitive color delineation between the orange and the gray (at Shorty), but I was concerned that Ron was being influenced by the power of suggestion. But, when we got back into orbit, I ate my thoughts because we really did see areas that you could definitively define as orange. Now, whether we would have seen those orange patches had we not seen orange soil on the surface, I don't know. If we had not found orange soil on the surface, we might have seen the orange areas from orbit and have just passed them off as reflections of some kind; because, who would have expected to find orange soil on the Moon? But, having known it was on the surface, we could feel comfortable about being able to say that we could see the orange from orbit."]

[Schmitt - "The reason that this was a little more exciting than it might have even been otherwise was that, in our thinking about the origins of Shorty, we really had two major possibilities, with a number of observations related to each one. Number One was what we really believed and what turned out to be true: that Shorty was an impact crater that had penetrated the light mantle and was exposing the dark-mantle and/or subfloor basalt beneath. The other alternative, just because of the lack of resolution and information from the pre-mission photographs, was that it was a dark-haloed volcanic crater; and, if that were true, one of the things that we had on our list to look for were signs of alteration, possible fluid-induced alteration of materials around the crater. And normally, on Earth, that alteration is colored, fumarolic alteration from oxidation. And so, when we saw orange, that was the immediate thought that everybody had. 'My God, there's a volcanic emanation here that's altered the soil.' Well, it turned out that that wasn't true, of course. It was volcanic material, but it was volcanic glass that had been spewed out of some fire-fountain-like eruptions 3.5 billion years ago that somehow had been protected from mixing with anything else, even though it was now at the surface. It had almost certainly been covered almost immediately by a lava flow, so that it was protected from meteor disruption and stirring. And then, when Shorty formed, somehow the pyroclastic ended up in the rim and a few other places in nearly pure form. There are some issues having to do with its origins that we can get to in a moment, but that's what caused all the excitement. We had sort of halfway predicted that we would find it there, even though it turned out not to be what we predicted we would find. They had a camera running in the Backroom, and what it shows is that, when that call came over, everybody sort of jumped up in the air and there was just total loss of control in the back science room."]

[Post-flight photo S73-15171 shows some of the orange and black glass spheres, which have typical sizes of 20-45 microns.]

[Jack goes on hands and knees to get the scoop and, to get up, pushes sharply with his hands to get on his knees. He rotates backwards and, as his PLSS gets over his feet, he rises easily. He may have put his feet in a small crater to get leverage. This would explain his kicking the scoop earlier. Once he's up, Jack goes about ten feet toward the orange soil, carrying the scoop. Fendell pans counter-clockwise.]

[Cernan - "This is not meant as a criticism, but I think that Jack tended to fall more than the rest of us did. And it's maybe because he became more aggressive. And, thank God for one-sixth gravity. You would have dropped things anyway because of the lack of nimbleness and dexterity and you would have wanted to get down to pick things up and chip rocks and what have you. And one-sixth gravity made getting back up a lot easier than it would have been otherwise. You developed a personal technique - the way you skipped or hopped, the way you got on and off the Rover, the way you got up when you fell."]

[Gene moves the TV so that he can dust it.]

145:28:57 Cernan: No, I mean the television camera. (To Fendell) I'll put you back where I had you. (Pause) Now, I'll put you right (back) where you finished your pan.

[Gene re-positions the TV.]

145:29:27 Cernan: What? Circumferential?

145:29:29 Schmitt: Yeah. Man, if there ever was a (chuckles)...I'm not going to say it. (And then does, anyway) But if there ever was something that looked like a fumarole alteration, this is it.

145:29:39 Cernan: (To Bob) Okay, let me give you a gravimeter. Mark it.

145:29:41 Parker: Okay, mark the gravimeter.

145:29:43 Cernan: And she is flashing. Oh, never mind, Bob. I'm going to go to Standby. I got to get my gnomon. (Pause)

[In getting the gnomon, Gene will disturb the Rover and, therefore, the gravimeter. Therefore, he doesn't want to start the measurement until he has the gnomon. Fendell returns to Jack, who is digging his trench.]

[Schmitt - "What we dug was half of a trench. That is, we'd only try to maintain one wall - the east-facing wall - and tear down the other one so that you could see in."]

145:30:06 Parker: Yeah. The problem is we're looking at PLSS constraints right now, as luck would have it, of course.

[At 145:37:01 Bob will tell Gene and Jack that they will have to leave no later than 145:57. They are currently about 4 hours 56 minutes into the EVA and the dash lines in the walkback diagram ( 50k ) indicate that they will have to leave at about 5 hours 24 minutes.]

145:30:16 Parker: Roger. Copy that.

[After Fendell gets Jack in the TV field-of-view so they can watch him digging the trench, the TV starts tilting down.]

[In Houston, Ed Fendell tells Flight "It's gone (meaning 'tilted') down on me, and I can't tilt it (back up). Journal Contributor Bertrand Ouellet suggests that Bob said "dived", rather than "died". I"m not convinced I can hear the 'v' sound but, this context, either word describes the situation.]

145:30:35 Cernan: Well, stand by.

[Gene raises the TV, thereby disturbing the gravimeter.]

145:30:46 Parker: Okay. (Pause)

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145:30:58 Cernan: Standby. On. And Mark it.

145:31:00 Parker: Copy that.

[Fendell returns to Jack; the orange is faintly visible in a video tape copy made in 1989.]

[Gene joins Jack and looks west into the trench.]

145:31:19 Schmitt: Okay, Gene, we're going to have to...

145:31:20 Cernan: That's incredible.

145:31:21 Schmitt: You need to get a down-Sun color...

145:31:25 Cernan: That's incredible.

145:31:26 Schmitt: ...as well as...I'll get my black-and-white.

145:31:28 Cernan: I'll get it. (Long Pause)

[Schmitt - "I think there have been others, but this is a particularly good example of where Gene deferred to me in organizing how we would approach a geological problem, just as I would defer to him on the Rover stuff and things like that. It worked out pretty well; that had all been sorted out, almost without us knowing it, during the training cycle."]

[Cernan - "You can't specifically train for every moment of the mission, so the key is that you train for knowledge of each other and you train for teamwork. And, when you come up with something new and different, you just defer to each other's capabilities. In this particular case, Jack had pretty much surrounded the orange-soil project, if you will, and had in his mind what we needed to get. So we went ahead and did it."]

[Gene puts the gnomon on the ground and takes a cross-Sun picture from the south while Jack takes a down-Sun from the east. Unfortunately, all of the pictures Jack took after finishing his pan are badly overexposed and/or motion blurred, possibly because of his excitement. These are frames AS17-133- 20257 to 20268. It is interesting to note that, although Jack first noticed the orange soil at about the time he started his pan, Jack's pan frames weren't blurred beyond that caused by the dust smudge that appears on all the frames after 20215.]

[Gene's cross-Sun pictures taken here are AS17-137- 20984 to 20986. Notice the width of the orange band that Jack has exposed and how the orange color fades toward the far end, which is nearest the crater rim.]

[This is the two-meter-high boulder a few feet west of the trench.]

145:31:53 Schmitt: Okay.

145:31:54 Cernan: ...That's phenomenal. Look at where the contact between the gray and the...

145:31:56 Schmitt: Yes. Right, and it's on both sides (of the circumferential band)...

145:31:58 Cernan: Before you disturb it, let me just get a couple of close-ups of that.

[Gene does a deep knee bend to get the close-ups from a few feet southeast of the trench. These photos are AS17-137- 20987 to 20989.]

[Cernan - "You can see here how I could bend down without kneeling - without getting to a static position - to get some close-up pictures. In one-sixth gravity you can go down slow enough and you can waver in that almost-kneeling position - uncomfortable and hard to sustain - long enough to get a couple of pictures at a 125th of a second."]

145:32:05 Cernan: Okay.

145:32:06 Schmitt: Go to f/11. Get a little closer, Geno, if you think you're minimum. (Pause) There you go. (Pause)

145:32:20 Cernan: Let me get one more.

[Gene goes a few feet east for the down-Sun, AS17-137-20990.]

145:32:30 Parker: Stand by. They're debating that right now.

145:32:34 Cernan: (Garbled)

145:32:35 Parker: Roger. Let's get the short can for some of that and...

145:32:37 Schmitt: Okay, the color is...(Listens to Bob) Okay, let us get the...

145:32:42 Cernan: Better sample it first, then we'll get it. (Pause)

[They move in to sample: Jack with the scoop, Gene opening a bag.]

[Jack means that the soil is cohesive. He goes to his upslope (left) knee to scoop soil from the bottom of the trench; but he spills some of the soil getting up.]

145:33:04 Schmitt: I'll go get a new chunk.

[Schmitt - "It came out in chunks. It was cohesive. It eventually fell apart as they worked with it in Houston, but it was cohesive enough that when we put it in the bags it was in chunks."]

[About a cup full of the orange soil has stayed in the scoop; Jack pours it into the bag.]

145:33:09 Cernan: Yep, just take it easy.

145:33:12 Schmitt: I can't see into this.

[Jack is standing east of the trench, casting a shadow on it.]

145:33:14 Schmitt: Can you get around on the other side?

145:33:15 Cernan: Yep.

145:33:17 Schmitt: Because I can't see to sample. (Pause)

[Jack goes to the south end of the trench, Gene to the north. Jack goes to one knee to sample. He gets off balance with his right knee off the ground and, in the process of jumping to his feet, kicks surface material into the trench.]

[Jack does a deep knee bend and gets a sample this time.]

145:33:42 Cernan: See if you can get a sample right across that contact too.

[Jack pours the sample into the waiting bag.]

145:33:49 Cernan: Bag 509 has got the orange material from, oh, about 2 to 3 inches down.

[Gene closes the bag while Jack extends the trench southward to well past the edge of the orange band. Gene then puts the sample in Jack's SCB.]

145:34:00 Parker: Copy that. (Long Pause) Okay, we're suggesting Intermediate (cooling) for you, Jack.

[Jack is working hard. He gets another sample.]

[Jack pours.]

145:34:35 Cernan: Yeah, a little more.

[Jack gets a sample by scooping sideways, knees bent.]

[Jack pours, and then presents his SCB for loading. He changes his cooling while he waits.]

145:35:01 Parker: Copy that.

145:35:02 Cernan: I had it, and I can't see it now.

145:35:04 Schmitt: And the LMP is Intermediate.

145:35:05 Parker: Copy that.

145:35:06 Cernan: 510, Bob.

145:35:07 Parker: Copy that.

145:35:08 Cernan: And that orange band is about a meter wide, I think.

145:35:13 Schmitt: About a meter.

[Schmitt - "Post-mission analysis showed that the orange soil turned out to be very small, spherical beads of glass, rich in titanium and low in silica and with the intensity of the orange color apparently related to the titanium/iron ratio."]

145:35:16 Schmitt: I haven't been able to yet.

145:35:18 Parker: Okay...

145:35:19 Schmitt: [Moving to the north end of the trench] Just to be sure, why don't we sample this side of it, too.

145:35:24 Cernan: Then I'm going to go get the can.

145:35:26 Schmitt: Okay...One...

145:35:28 Cernan: If I can remember where we put it. Bob, where did we put the small can?

[Gene opens a bag; Jack pours.]

145:35:34 Cernan: Okay. (Commenting on the amount of soil Jack has poured in the sample bag) That's good.

[The short can or Special Environmental Sample Container (SESC) is 13 cm tall and has a 6 cm inside diameter. Like the long can (CVSC) used to transport one of the Station 3 drive tubes and, like the rock boxes (SRCs), the short can has a knife edge/indium seal to protect the sample from terrestrial and spacecraft gases. In order to increase the chances of getting a good seal, both the knife edge and the indium are protected with Teflon covers which Gene will remove just before he closes and latches the lid. In addition, Gene will put the short can in the rock box at the end of the EVA, doubling the chances that at least one seal - the short can itself or the rock box - will be good. Some of the knife-edge seals on previous missions were compromised by dust despite the precautions taken.]

[Training photo KSC-72PC-440 shows the SESC in a pocket on the outside of the SCB on Gene's PLSS.]

145:35:41 Cernan: And the other side happens to be the crater side.

145:35:46 Schmitt: That's right. North side.

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

[Gene goes to the Rover.]

[Jack comes about halfway back to the Rover then drags the scoop north along a crater radial.]

145:36:14 Parker: 17, Houston. We'd like to get the double core here instead of the small can. Double core, please, instead of the small can.

145:36:23 Cernan: Okay.

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145:36:24 Schmitt: Did you want it in the orange?

[A chorus of voices in Houston says "Yes".]

[Schmitt - "The reason I asked the question was not so much because I disagreed but, as I did several times during the EVAs, I wanted to make the Backroom think a little bit, just to make sure they thought through some of the options they had. Based on the information we had up to this point, it looked like something vertical in the rim of the crater; and, fortunately, we did what they suggested and didn't change because, otherwise, we might not have hit the underlying black soil."]

[Twenty years after the fact, Gene questions whether Jack was quite so logical at the time.]

[Jack is removing the scoop from the extension handle so that he can attach it to the drive tubes.]

[What Jack means by "vertical stratigraphy" is that the orange soil deposit appears to have vertical contacts.]

145:37:00 Schmitt: (Responding to Bob's "deep as we can") All right.

[Jack goes to the Rover.]

145:37:12 Schmitt: Okay.

[They are currently about 5 hours 03 minutes into the EVA and the dash lines in the walkback diagram ( 50k ) indicate that they will have to leave at about 5 hours 24 minutes.]

[Jack turns to look into Shorty; Fendell camera pans clockwise toward the crater.]

145:37:40 Schmitt: We will.

145:37:41 Cernan: Yes, sir.

[Gene crosses the TV picture, carrying the core tubes.]

145:37:49 Schmitt: It (the 70-mm pan) did (include the crater).

145:37:51 Cernan: Yeah, look into it yourself and then, I'll also get you a stereo pan before we leave. I can do that.

145:37:58 Parker: Roger. That's some crater!

145:38:02 Schmitt: (To Gene) Got your hammer?

145:38:04 Cernan: Yeah. I've practiced too long on taking stereo pans of craters, without getting one here.

145:38:10 Schmitt: I got mine from right down there, Gene. So...

145:38:16 Cernan: What is that right there?

145:38:19 Schmitt: What?

145:38:20 Cernan: That right there.

145:38:22 Schmitt: I don't see. Oh, it's a piece of glass, probably.

145:38:26 Cernan: Boy, it sure is.

145:38:29 Schmitt: Hey, how about right up here, (just west of the trench, for the core)? (Pause) You know, we just about got [laughs] to the upper edge of this little ellipsoid zone. I think we're going to have to...We've messed up most of it. Let's try right over here.

145:39:00 Cernan: I've got a little piece of glass in my pocket.

[Once he gets back in the LM, Gene will describe his piece of glass in some detail at 149:12:10.]

145:39:11 Parker: Okay. Copy that.

145:39:16 Cernan: That was a little piece of black glass...

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145:39:20 Schmitt: (To Gene) You may want to get uphill...

145:39:21 Cernan: ...solid black glass.

145:39:23 Schmitt: Okay. That...Did you get a...Hold it, and I'll get a shot.

145:39:26 Cernan: Take your picture.

[This photo, like the others Jack has taken since finishing his pan, is badly overexposed.]

145:39:33 Parker: Okay. And, 17, while you're doing that, was the gray mantle over the top of this, or was this showing all the way through to the surface?

145:39:43 Schmitt: No, it was over the top. About a half a centimeter over the top.

145:39:46 Parker: Copy that.

145:39:48 Schmitt: He's getting about 3 centimeters a whack.

145:39:52 Parker: Very good.

145:39:55 Cernan: I'll tell you, it's a lot harder going in than that double core was back there (at Station 3).

145:40:00 Schmitt: Yeah, it's pretty hard. (To Bob) It acts like it's inherently cohesive. It breaks up in angular fragments.

MP3 Audio Clip ( 16 min 37 sec )

145:40:08 Parker: Copy that.

145:40:09 Schmitt: The central portion of the zone actually has a crimson hue, or a red hue. Outside of that it's orange. And outside of that, it's gray.

Video Clip ( 3 min 15 sec 0.8 Mb RealVideo or 32 Mb MPEG )

145:40:22 Cernan: (Breathing heavily) Wait a minute, Jack.

[Fendell returns to the astronauts. Jack is facing west with his back to the camera; Gene is facing him. The core tube is out of sight between them.]

145:40:32 Cernan: I'm going up to Max (cooling) here for just a minute or two.

145:40:35 Parker: Copy that.

145:40:36 Cernan: Okay, let me hit some more. Ready?

145:40:40 Schmitt: Yeah, go ahead.

[Jack is holding the core tube while Gene hammers it, and Gene is very anxious about that. He stutters a couple of phrases before he gets the thought out.]

[Jack moves out of the way to the south. Gene raises the hammer to level with the top of his helmet and swings down to hit the top of the extension handle at about waist height. He is hitting with the flat of the hammer to get a better chance of connecting.]

[Cernan - "You had to hold the hammer tightly with your fingers. It was like gripping your golf club too tightly: all your muscles tighten up and your swing goes to hell and you get tired. And to make it harder, the core wasn't going down all that readily. It was just a heavy bit of work, particularly clutching the hammer."]

[Usually, a locator is a shot taken at the sample site of either the LM or the Rover.]

[Gene stops to rest. Jack takes a picture of the Rover as a locator. Gene then hits the core a half dozen times more and stops. Jack's visor is halfway up.]

145:41:17 Schmitt: Has it?

145:41:18 Cernan: Yeah.

145:41:19 Schmitt: Okay, do I have core tubes on me now? I mean caps?

145:41:22 Cernan: Yes.

145:41:23 Schmitt: Caps.

145:41:24 Cernan: Yes, sir.

145:41:25 Schmitt: And the rammer.

145:41:26 Cernan: Yes.

145:41:27 Schmitt: Okay...Only...

[Gene hits the core seven times more.]

145:41:31 Schmitt: That's it. Thanks, Geno.

145:41:32 Cernan: ...I really wonder about getting it out.

145:41:33 Schmitt: Well, we'll give it the old college try.

145:41:35 Cernan: Yeah, we ought to be good at getting cores out by now.

145:41:37 Schmitt: It'll come out.

145:41:38 Cernan: Whew! Okay.

145:41:40 Schmitt: It wouldn't dare not come out. Wait a minute...

145:41:44 Cernan: Is there enough to hold on to?

145:41:45 Schmitt: Whoops. Which side you got?

145:41:47 Cernan: I was just getting this out for you. Let me. I can get this side better.

[Gene stands south of the core, facing east, and grabs the tube in his left hand. Jack stands to the north, facing west, and grabs with his left hand.]

145:41:54 Cernan: You ready?

145:41:56 Schmitt: Okay.

145:41:57 Cernan: Go. Okay, pull slowly.

[The core comes out about a foot with apparent ease.]

145:42:02 Schmitt: Okay.

145:42:03 Cernan: Okay. Hold it. Hold it. Let me get a cap. Turn.

[Gene gets a core tube cap off of the left side of Jack's PLSS.]

145:42:07 Cernan: Okay. Now, wait a minute.

145:42:08 Schmitt: Are you ready?

145:42:11 Cernan: Okay, very slow. Even the (outside of the) core tube is red!

[Jack finishes pulling the tube out of the ground.]

145:42:16 Cernan: Even the core is red! The bottom one's black and orange, and the top one's gray and orange!

[Jack raises the bottom of the tube for Gene to examine and cap. See, also, training photo 72-H-1229.]

145:42:27 Cernan: Hey, we must have gone through the red soil because it's filled, but it's filled with a black material.

[Schmitt - "Post mission analysis showed that the black soil was mostly beads of devitrified (crystallized) glass of the same composition as the orange, but with a different cooling history."]

145:42:34 Cernan: Dark gray, almost a very, very fine grained...

145:42:36 Schmitt: That might be a magnetite...

145:42:39 Parker: Fantastic.

[Schmitt - "It turned out to be ilmenite."]

145:42:40 Cernan: I got it.

145:42:41 Parker: Fantastic.

145:42:42 Schmitt: Go ahead.

145:42:43 Cernan: Okay.

145:42:45 Cernan: (Capping the bottom of the core) But it, it, it...

145:42:47 Schmitt: Let me...God, it is black isn't it?

145:42:51 Cernan: Yeah. I've got to get it so I can get the...Boy, it is black and is it contrasted to that orange stuff.

145:42:57 Schmitt: Very black. Well, not very black. It's a good dark gray.

145:43:03 Cernan: Very dark bluish gray.

145:43:04 Schmitt: Yeah...contrast.

145:43:05 Cernan: Okay, turn that thing so I can push this cap a little bit. Just turn.

145:43:09 Schmitt: Which way?

145:43:10 Cernan: Either way. Just turn the whole tube.

[Schmitt - "I think Gene had gotten the cap partially threaded on and wanted me to finish the threading by turning the tube in my hand while he held the cap."]

145:43:12 Cernan: It's just easier to turn the tube than my hand...

145:43:13 Schmitt: (Laughs)

145:43:14 Cernan: ...some more. I don't want this cap to come off. Okay. I'm going to Intermediate cooling. Okay. Now you don't have any caps, so let's take this back to the Rover.

[This time, Gene doesn't have to use the double wave to reach his cooling control.]

[Cernan - "You can see in the TV how much inertia I got into my arm to get it back there. I didn't move back slowly at all. I already had my hand chest high and I sort of raised my hand and then moved back very rapidly. You just couldn't go back slowly and sneak up on it. Other times, when my arm was down more, I'd have to do the double pump; but, here, my hand was already up there. You adapted mentally and physiologically to find the easy way to do things like this and, rather than bust my butt trying to stretch and push that suit to go back, I'd just bring my hand up chest high and, with the strength I'd need if I was swinging the hammer, just swing my arm back there. Then, once your hand was back there, the suit was stiff enough that, before it rebounded, you could reach the control and not have to forcibly hold your arm back there."]

145:43:27 Cernan: Why don't you take a picture of the hole, while you've got a camera there?

Video Clip ( 1 min 58 sec 0.5 Mb RealVideo or 19 Mb MPEG )

145:43:31 Schmitt: Be careful with that (core).

145:43:32 Cernan: Yep.

[Gene goes to the Rover.]

145:43:38 Schmitt: (Standing south of the core hole) Well, the hole's mostly in shadow.

145:43:43 Parker: And, 17...

145:43:44 Cernan: (Responding to Bob's confirmation about the caps) Yeah, I got them Bob.

145:43:45 Parker: ...And, 17, for your thought...We have to be leaving here... Not "like". We have to be leaving here in fourteen minutes. On the move, because of walkback constraints.

[They are currently about 5 hours 10 minutes into the EVA and the dash lines in the walkback diagram ( 50k ) indicate that they will have to leave at about 5 hours 24 minutes (145:57). The walkback constraint is based on the assumption that they would average 2.7 km/hr. They are 4.4 kilometers from the LM, so the walkback would take them 1 hour 38 minutes, getting them back at 7 hours 2 minutes with enough margins for an unhurried close-out.]

[Jack gets about halfway to the Rover when Bob gives the go-ahead to sample the boulder. He turns, gets the gnomon, and positions it at the east base of the boulder.]

145:44:19 Cernan: Come back this way when you do. I need that rammer again.

145:44:22 Schmitt: Oh, okay. Well, I better come there first, I guess.

145:44:26 Cernan: Well, I don't need it right this second...

145:44:29 Schmitt: Okay.

145:44:30 Parker: Why don't you leave the core there Gene, and you can take your stereo pan while Jack's getting that sample. And then you can get together and ram the core home.

[Schmitt - "When we knew we only had a little bit of time, we got things done a lot better than when we did a station for no specific purpose, like Station 3. Station 3 was a disaster. We got a lot done, but it was a very poor use of time. This one was both productive and fun."]

[Jack is standing southeast of the boulder taking photographs. These photos are also badly overexposed and the next usable photos he will take will be once he gets back on the Rover for the drive to Station 5.]

[Jack moves to take down-Sun pictures of the boulder.]

[Jack leans on the boulder to examine it, then pulls off a hand-sized sample. He then moves southeast to take some "after" pictures.]

[Schmitt - "The boulder had been intensely shocked. It was falling apart."]

145:45:18 Parker: How about that. (Pause)

[Jack picks up the gnomon and heads for the Rover.]

RealVideo Clip (9 min 16 sec)

145:45:28 Schmitt: (Garbled; pause) If I ever saw a classic alteration halo around a volcanic crater, this is it. It's ellipsoidal; it appears to be zoned. There's one sample we didn't get. We didn't get the more yellowy stuff, we got the center portion...

145:45:45 Cernan: Let me get those caps, Jack.

145:45:46 Schmitt: Okay.

145:45:47 Cernan: What's holding...That's what's holding it, holding it from coming out.

[Gene is trying to get a core cap out of the dispenser.]

145:45:59 Cernan: Okay. (Pause) Here.

[Gene hands Jack a sample bag. Jack's visor is up and we can see his face. He has probably had the visor up ever since he first found the orange soil.]

[Schmitt - "Here, when I was bagging the sample, I was using the RCU and the top of my camera as a work bench that was immediately available."]

[John Young did something similar while collecting samples prior to the start of the A16 EVA-1 traverse.]

145:46:21 Parker: Copy that. (Long Pause)

[The pockets on the side of Gene's SCB are clearly visible. Gene picks up something with his tongs.]

145:46:41 Cernan: Got it? (Pause)

145:46:45 Schmitt: Okay. (Pause)

145:46:54 Cernan: Jack, our lock is on the outside here, so we ought to watch this gate.

[Gene is at the left rear of the Rover. Jack is gathering the gnomon legs in his fist prior to stowage.]

145:47:00 Cernan: Not going to worry about it. This (gate) lock is on the outside of that lever lock. You'll see what I mean when you look at the lock. (Pause) Okay, I'm going to go get my pan.

145:47:13 Schmitt: Okay.

145:47:16 Cernan: The cores are not rammed yet. You want to ram them while you're here?

[That is, compact the material in the core by ramming a "follower" on top of the soil so that it won't get shaken and mixed.]

145:47:21 Cernan: Here. And if you want to ram them (probably handing Jack the rammer)...

145:47:23 Schmitt: Okay.

145:47:24 Cernan: ...here you are. They're not rammed.

[Gene heads east; Fendell follows him.]

145:47:31 Cernan: Okay, Bob, I'm going several meters around to the east and (slightly) towards the south to get this pan.

145:47:38 Parker: Copy that.

[Gene takes this pan from about 40 meters east of the Rover.]

145:47:57 Schmitt: Okay, the lower core is "chucky-jam" full. (A favorite expression of one of Schmitt's college professors, R. H. Jahns.) I don't think I've budged that thing.

Video Clip ( 3 min 27 sec 0.9 Mb RealVideo or 34 Mb MPEG )

145:48:06 Parker: Okay. Copy that. (Pause)

[Fendell catches up with Gene at the southeast rim of the crater.]

[The TV picture shakes as Jack works at the Rover.]

145:48:36 Parker: Copy that.

145:48:37 Cernan: (Looking west) Hey, Bob, from where I am, (I can look at a place) about 100 meters around the west side of the rim of this crater (where) the mantle on the inside of the rim turns from this gray material we've been sampling, in here, to a very dark gray material. And there's a lot of orange stuff that goes down - radially down - into the pit of the crater.

[Schmitt - "A first-rate observation."]

[Cernan - (Tongue slightly in cheek) "I really do appreciate getting an A-plus on the quiz. I really wondered; it's taken a long time (nearly 19 years) to find out how I did."]

[Frame AS17-137-20996 from Gene's pan shows these orange/red streaks.]

145:49:08 Schmitt: Hey, Bob, those cores didn't feel like the follower went down at all.

145:49:14 Parker: Okay.

145:49:15 Schmitt: Shouldn't it have gone a little bit?

145:49:17 Parker: Not necessarily, if it's pretty compact stuff. You were having a hard time getting it in.

145:49:24 Schmitt: Well, I thought there was a little space up there, but maybe I just didn't feel it.

145:49:27 Parker: Not very much...

145:49:28 Schmitt: I don't think there's much danger of them coming apart.

[Gene finishes his Station 4 color pan. The frames are AS17-137-20991 to 21027. Frames 21009-12 show Jack working at the Rover. Journal Contributor Yuri Krasilnikov has animated the sequence.]

145:49:34 Cernan: I got to take a couple of more pictures at that contact slope over there. You can't see it from where you are, Jack, but I guess we got to leave. Otherwise it would be nice to sample that dark stuff up on top.

[Gene moves about ten feet west. As he moves, he kicks flat sheets of dust a few inches off the ground. The sheets reflect sunlight into the TV camera, creating a short-lived patch of light.]

145:49:51 Cernan: We can get a...Oh, I bet I'm out of film! Well, I got them all anyway, Bob. I'm at (frame) 162. I'm out of film.

[Gene heads back toward the Rover.]

145:50:25 Parker: Guys, we don't have that much time.

145:50:31 Cernan: I know, Bob, I know. (Pause) There's a lot of little pieces - not a lot - but enough that I've seen five or six of them. Little pieces of obsidian-like glass. I got one in my pocket. Unbagged. Undocumented. (Pause) This boulder that you were looking at with the TV, I'm going to take a sample. Undocumented.

145:51:00 Schmitt: I got it! I got it!

145:51:02 Cernan: Oh, you got it?

145:51:03 Schmitt: Yeah.

145:51:04 Parker: Yeah.

145:51:05 Schmitt: Let's go.

145:51:06 Cernan: I'm sorry, I didn't know you got that. (Pause)

145:51:10 Schmitt: Bag 461 has another sample of basalt that I picked up right near where we dug the trench.

145:51:21 Parker: Copy 561 (sic).

[Gene grabs the TV and turns it to point into the west portion of the crater.]

145:51:22 Cernan: Okay, Bob, I'm going to give you something with the TV. I want to show you where that dark material starts.

145:51:33 Schmitt: (Putting a sample in Gene's SCB) Hold still, now.

145:51:34 Cernan: (To Bob) Okay. As you look at the inner rim - as it goes down (cough) to the right - you see a lot of boulders, a lot of rocks - that are protruding out. Where that rock pattern thins out, just beyond that is an orange - a visible orange - radial pattern, and then beyond that is a definite change in albedo where you get the gray material, and a definite change in the number of rocks on the slope.

145:52:08 Parker: Gene, Roger...

145:52:09 Cernan: And that particular...

145:52:10 Parker: Copy that.

145:52:11 Cernan: ...material can...(Hearing Bob)

145:52:12 Parker: And if...

145:52:13 Cernan: ...and that particular material...(Hearing Bob again) That par...(Stopping a last time for Bob) Let me finish, Bob! That particular rim material there continues around to the due north, and then there's a drastic change again where you see the inner rim completely terraced with this boulder fill.

145:52:34 Parker: Okay, copy that, Gene...

145:52:35 Cernan: And I can't bet on it, but I can see it...

145:52:36 Parker: ...and you can talk about it when you get home.

145:52:40 Cernan: Okay. As long as you're happy, I am.

145:52:42 Schmitt: Wait, Gene. Wait, wait, wait.

145:52:44 Cernan: I got to get the film changed, Jack...

145:52:46 Parker: All right, Gene, change the film at the next...

145:52:47 Cernan: ...(garbled).

145:52:48 Schmitt: Okay.

145:52:49 Parker: ...station. We can save time that way.

145:52:51 Cernan: All right.

145:52:53 Parker: And we would like the SEP turned on before you leave...

145:52:56 Cernan: (Garbled).

145:52:57 Parker: ...and we'd like EP number 1 taken, Jack, so you can deploy that at Victory.

[This is another explosives package for the seismic experiment.]

145:53:06 Cernan: I'll get your scoop for you. Have you been leaving it cocked like that?

145:53:10 Schmitt: Yes.

[The scoop head can be rotated by squeezing a pair of flat plates on either side of the pivot. By pushing the plates, a locking mechanism releases. There are detents at angles to the handle of 0, 40, and 90 degrees. Here, Jack has been using the 40 degree detent.]

[Fendell finds Earth, which is a bit more than half illuminated.]

[Gene's "I guess I owe you" was said so quickly that, despite numerous listenings, none of us could figure out what he said until, during a final review of the manuscript, I was finally listening to it in the right frame of mind. Bob's next statement makes it clear that he didn't understand what Gene said and thought he was talking about comm quality.]

145:53:39 Cernan: (The gravimeter reading is) 670, 012, 501; 670, 012, 501.

145:53:46 Parker: Okay, we copy that, Geno, and...

145:53:49 Schmitt: Okay, got the...

145:53:50 Parker: Charge number 1 and we need the SEP, On...

145:53:53 Schmitt: We got the gnomon, we got the rake...(Pause)

145:53:58 Cernan: SEP on, Jack? I'll get charge number 1 for you.

145:54:00 Schmitt: Okay. I'll get the SEP on.

145:54:01 Cernan: I'll just hand it (the charge) to you (after Jack is seated).

145:54:03 Parker: And what's your frame count, Jack?

145:54:05 Cernan: Charge number 1.

145:54:07 Schmitt: Okay, (SEP) power's On, recorder's On, the temperature is one-twelve (112).

145:54:16 Parker: I copy that. (Pause)

145:54:26 Schmitt: Can you get it (the charge), Geno?

145:54:27 Cernan: Yep. (Pause) You get in (and) I'll hand it to you.

145:54:36 Schmitt: Okay.

145:54:37 Cernan: And then I'm going to get the TV.

145:54:38 Parker: And, Jack, what's your frame count, please?

145:54:42 Schmitt: Wait, Bob, I can give you that on the Rover.

[TV off]

145:54:47 Cernan: Okay, camera Mode switch is 1; (TV) camera's going Aft. Well, I guess that's the breaks of life. Low-gain I'll set when I get on. I'll give you (Jack) this (charge) when you're ready. First thing I got to do, Bob, is change film at the next station.

145:55:12 Parker: That's affirm.

145:55:15 Schmitt: And, Bob, LMP is at (frame count) seven-five

145:55:19 Parker: Say again, there, Jack, I missed that.

145:55:24 Schmitt: Seven-five.

145:55:25 Parker: Copy that. Thank you. (Pause)

145:55:31 Cernan: I must be getting fatter, you know it.

[The seat belt feels snug.]

145:55:35 Cernan: Well...

145:55:37 Schmitt: Depends on how you get in. (Garbled) your hammer.

145:55:40 Cernan: Okay, we got a (warning) flag on the Rover.

[The warning flag is a thin metal plate, hinged at the top of the control console and held down by a spring. It is painted with diagonal red stripes and is triggered by thermostats in the batteries, nominally at 125 F, and in the drive motors at 400F. The warning flag can be reset.]

[Schmitt - "We could see part of each other's footpan, but not all of it because of the console."]

[On the first day, the battery temperatures had been higher than expected and, prior to the second EVA, engineers at the Marshall Spaceflight Center in Huntsville had re-examined the question of battery sensitivity to temperature and advised the Flight Director and the crew that temperatures below 140 degrees Fahrenheit (or 60 Celsius) wouldn't be a problem.]

[Schmitt - "The temperatures were getting up there; but Marshall also had pretty good safety margins on those batteries. The fact that they were getting hotter was a concern, but they never caused a problem."]

145:55:54 Parker: Say again on that one, Gene.

[Schmitt - "My first inclination in the MOCR would have been to turn around and say 'Did anybody get that?,' rather than call right up and distract the crew."]

145:56:03 Parker: Copy that.