| Geology Station 8 | Geology Station 9 at Van Serg |
| Geology Station 8 | Geology Station 9 at Van Serg |
MP3 Audio Clip starting at 167:35:13 ( 17 min 44 sec )
167:35:30 Cernan: Okay. (Consulting checklist page LMP/CDR-20) We're heading to Station 9 pointed about 267. Okay, and they're reading us through the LM, so I won't worry about the low-gain. We're powering up. The switch is on. Okay, I'm going to make a turn to the right.
167:35:43 Parker: Okay. And the updated (Rover) headings, since you're at the north end of Station 8, will be something like about 240.
167:35:54 Cernan: Okay, Bob. 240.
[The heading of 267 indicated on the checklist for the drive to Station 9 would have been valid had they done Station 8 at the south end of the planned area. Because they are at the northern end, their average heading will be more to the south.]167:35:58 Schmitt: Bob, I think your rake sample here at the Sculptured Hills is going to have to tell the tale combined with the observation that most of the blocks we saw were, like (the one) Gene sampled, looked like subfloor gabbro. It's conceivable that the Sculptured Hills could be the same kind of material. I think it's fairly clear that the boulder population does not resemble the Massif (boulder) population at all.
167:36:34 Parker: Okay. Copy that. (Pause)
167:36:44 Schmitt: (Laughs)
167:36:45 Cernan: You been riding on this downslope all the time!?!
167:36:47 Schmitt: (Laughing) Yes, but...
167:36:48 Cernan: And you hadn't said anything, huh?
167:36:50 Schmitt: Scary, isn't it?
167:36:53 Cernan: (Laughing) Man, I'm glad I'm driving!
[Cernan - "The 240 heading - southwest - put me on the downslope side of the Rover. And what I'm saying here is that I'm never going to put myself on the downslope again."]167:36:57 Parker: Okay. And, Jack...
167:36:59 Cernan: (Still laughing)
167:36:59 Parker: ...when you're not holding on with two hands, we'd like the frame count from you.
167:37:02 Schmitt: Wait a minute. Yeah. (To Gene) Is that Van Serg over there?
[Van Serg is WSW of Station 8, beyond the southern rim of Cochise but short of Shakespeare.]167:37:08 Cernan: Ahhhh...
167:37:11 Parker: Should have a bearing (at Station 9) of 234...
167:37:13 Cernan: I think it's...
167:37:13 Parker: ...and a range of 2.1.
167:37:14 Schmitt: I don't know...No...It's...
167:37:19 Cernan: (To Bob) Okay. (Pause) (To Jack) We got to get around SWP (means "Bowen") here and then ... Well, that's...
167:37:26 Schmitt: Yeah.
167:37:27 Cernan: ...and then head on more westerly.
167:37:30 Schmitt: LMP frame is at 80.
167:37:33 Parker: Copy 80.
167:37:36 Cernan: SWP...(correcting himself) or Bowen, I mean. Bowen, I guess that is.
167:37:38 Schmitt: Well...(Pause) That's SWP over there. Bowen is out here ahead of us.
167:37:46 Cernan: Yeah. (Pause) Guess he said...
167:37:50 Schmitt: Bowen isn't much of a crater on the map.
[During the initial stages of the drive, they are headed more or less southwest, toward the South Massif and Bear Mountain. Jack's traverse photos are AS17-142- 21746 to 21751.]167:37:53 Cernan: ...225? What did you say, Bob? 225 what?
167:37:56 Parker: 234 / 2.1.
167:37:58 Schmitt: 234...
167:38:00 Parker: Heading ought to be about 240; 240 for a heading for there. (Pause)
167:38:05 Cernan: Did you hear him? I didn't hear him.
167:38:07 Schmitt: 240. Are you not reading him?
167:38:09 Cernan: But what did he say for bearing and range? That's what I'm interested in.
167:38:10 Parker: (Enunciating the digits slowly) 234...
167:38:11 Schmitt: 240. State bearing and range, Bob.
167:38:13 Parker: ...2.1.
167:38:17 Cernan: Okay. I got that. (Long Pause)
167:38:38 Parker: Okay. And we think you're even farther north than I was saying. Maybe it's about 215 would be your heading for there.
167:38:48 Cernan: Okay, Bob. I'll find it. 234/2.1.
167:38:51 Parker: Roger.
[Cernan - "Because of the slope and the craters, we made some wide turns and I just wanted to know where we wanted to go, not how to get there."]167:38:55 Schmitt: And all the big blocks still look like subfloor from the Rover. But "big blocks" in here are only about a third of a meter in diameter. And they're subrounded to subangular. Okay. We're out on the plains again now, just off the break in slope (coming down off the Sculptured Hills) (Long Pause)
167:39:41 Cernan: That stuff sure looks like outcrop down in the East Massif on the lower slopes, where the high albedo is. Doesn't it? See it over there?
[The East Massif summit is SSE of their present position. As mentioned previously, this outcrop area is visible in AS17-146- 22367, a photo taken from Station 8. The outcrop area is the dark blemish visible on the East Massif foothill above and slightly to the right of the SEP antenna. As they drive along, Jack takes AS17-142- 21752, 21753, and 21754, which show, they have turned south for a moment, possibly to get around Bowen.]167:39:48 Schmitt: Yeah. Yeah; it does. (Pause) It was one of my guidelines for the geophone deployment...(correcting himself) (I mean) "guide points". (Pause)
[Schmitt - "When I was laying out the east geophone line, I had picked out a point on the horizon to walk towards."]167:40:22 Schmitt: There's some more of that blue-gray rock there on the east end of the South Massif, down low.
167:40:25 Cernan: Yep.
[They are headed southwest again. Jack's traverse photos covering the drive from here to the rim of Cochise are AS17-142- 21755 to 21764.]167:40:26 Schmitt: It looks like it might have been a slump block or something.
167:40:27 Cernan: Yep. You can see it's blue-gray because of it's contrast with the light mantle.
167:40:31 Schmitt: Yep. It might be a slump block, or something like that.
167:40:35 Cernan: Jack, I'm going to go to the left.
[Cernan - "Note the change in course."]167:40:36 Schmitt: You going to go through...(Laughs)
167:40:39 Cernan: Need 234...
167:40:41 Schmitt: (Garbled).
167:40:42 Cernan: No, No. I'm going over here. This is closer. It's a shorter cut.
167:40:44 Schmitt: That's probably Bowen there, don't you think?
167:40:46 Cernan: I think...
167:40:47 Schmitt: Ahhh, well (not sure)...
167:40:49 Cernan: Well, see, we never got too far...
167:40:51 Parker: How about a range and bearing, guys.
167:40:52 Schmitt: (Garbled) aren't very far from SWP.
167:40:54 Cernan: Maybe we got too far east. (Responding to Bob) Okay. It's 228/3.4. And we're moving along at 10 to 12 clicks. That's all it'll hack.
167:41:05 Parker: Copy that. (Pause) How about an amps reading? We haven't had one of those for a couple of (garbled).
167:41:11 Schmitt: Starting to rain again.
[The replacement fender has started to fail, flapping around and allowing the rear wheel to shower them with dust.]167:41:15 Schmitt: Got a crater ahead of you.
167:41:18 Cernan: Oooh, boy.
167:41:21 Schmitt: Down-Sun isn't much easier than up-Sun.
167:41:23 Cernan: It's just easier on the eyes. (Chuckles) You just can't see any more, that's all. (Pause) You don't have that static, huh?
[At Houston's request, they turned the LCRU off at 167:31:36 and are transmitting directly from their OPS antennas to the LM.]167:41:34 Schmitt: Nope. (Pause) Hope you've still got an (OPS) antenna; I haven't looked recently.
167:41:44 Cernan: Well, there's no holes in the high-gain.
[A hole in the high-gain antenna would indicate that Gene had caught his OPS antenna in it and, possibly, broken it off. Gene doesn't remember having such troubles in training.]167:41:47 Schmitt: Might have hit it on a rock (when you fell at Station 8).
167:41:51 Cernan: (Reacting to a rock or crater in their path) Oh, boy!
167:41:53 Schmitt: Okay. We're back into the mantle area (and the) population of fragments is still one percent or so. The crater out off to our left, which is at 227 and three point ...What is that? Three point what? Three?
167:42:11 Cernan: 3.3; 227/3.3.
167:42:15 Schmitt: It is a fairly good-sized depression, but it's completely mantled. There's no blocks showing in the wall at all. (Pause) How do you read, Bob?
167:42:29 Parker: Loud and clear. We're listening.
[Note that, despite Jack's earlier complaints about needless acknowledgments from Houston, here he wants to make sure that they are being heard.]167:42:38 Schmitt: Now, there's a crater in the wall of that depression or the small one near it. And it has one big block in the side, as if it penetrated the mantle and exposed some of the wall of the depression. Just about a 30-meter crater. (Pause)
167:43:07 Cernan: Valley of Taurus-Littrow is not planar!
167:43:11 Schmitt: No, it isn't. (Pause) I'm glad we changed it to a "subfloor" instead of the "plains" unit. (Gene laughs)
[Schmitt - "I think that, at some point in the deep, dark past, the geologists at Flagstaff may have called the valley fill the 'plains unit'. You referred to these things as they appeared in the (overhead) photographs - the floor, the plains of the valley. They may have called it the plains unit at one time and then, because we're talking about the rocks - what's underneath that floor - decided to refer to it as the subfloor basalt."]167:43:22 Schmitt: Okay. We're in the inner wall of the depression here, and the rocks still look like subfloor gabbro. Boy, there's certainly not much variety. (Pause) In general, there are few exotics ...[The decision to call the bedrock "subfloor" seems to have come fairly late. The November 6, 1972 edition of the Apollo 17 Lunar Surface Procedures volume (the OPS plan) contains a paragraph headed "Plains Materials" describing the valley fill. There is a footnote to the paragraph title which reads "Or, better, 'subfloor material' to avoid confusion with the more familiar usage of 'plain' meaning the valley floor independent of any stratigraphic connotation." Prior to the flight, the geologists were not sure just what Cernan and Schmitt would find out in the middle of the valley. "The relative evenness of the valley floor at the landing site suggests that a basin-filling unit (plains material) that apparently submerged all but the highest projections of hill-forming (that is, massif) material was emplaced after formation of the trough (that is, the valley). Such fill might consist of volcanic flows (here, they were hoping for younger volcanics over mare basalts), colluvium derived from the adjacent uplands, or sheets of breccia (that is, flat layers of breccia from Imbrium and/or Serenitatis). Similar material may fill nearby uplands basins (e.g. Littrow) or may underlie the topographic bench around the eastern edge of the Serenitatis basin. Plains material is presumably exposed in the bright walls of the craters on the plains. The abundance of blocks in the crater walls and on their rims indicates that the plains material is either indurated or contains large indurated blocks. The large craters may penetrate through the plains material into the underlying massif or (Sculptured) hills units, which may represent their ejecta. Plains materials appear to be younger than the bulk of the massif and hill material and is probably older than the youngest mare fill of the Serenitatis basin. Hence, an age of Imbrium or pre-Imbrium is inferred for the plains material."]
[Schmitt - "From memory, I believe they expected to see "dark mantle material" as the top unit and then had three options for the block-forming subfloor: (1) basalt, or (2) the down-faulted top of the Serenitatis ejecta, possibly partially molten 'sheet breccia', or (3) debris derived from the highlands. Also, they had no idea how thick the subfloor material might be."]
167:43:34 Cernan: Ooh, now that's got to be Cochise.
167:43:36 Schmitt: Ah, look at Cochise.
167:43:37 Cernan: That's Cochise!
167:43:38 Parker: Roger. We think you're coming up on Cochise.
167:43:39 Cernan: Get yourself a couple pictures while you're looking right at it.
167:43:42 Schmitt: Could you swing right. Swing right.
[Frame 21765 shows the approach to the rim of Cochise.]167:43:44 Cernan: Bob, we are on the northeastern rim of Cochise. I'm going to work my way around the other side.[Frames 21766, 21767, and 21768 show the interior of the crater.]
167:43:50 Schmitt: And Bob...
167:43:51 Parker: Roger. Copy that.
167:43:51 Schmitt: ...looking at the western wall of Cochise, I can see a contact within the subfloor between albedo units, one of which is a light tan-gray and the other is a light blue-gray. (It) may reflect the two kinds of subfloor gabbro we've already sampled. Vesicular and non-vesicular. And that contact looked like it was dipping...(The) apparent dip in the wall was to the north. In the west wall dipping to the north about 20 degrees.
[The contact is visible in 21780, dipping down to the right, just above the TV camera and intersecting the right-front corner of the TV camera mirror. The picture was taken at about 167:48:42.]167:44:35 Parker: Okay. Copy that. (Pause) Which one's on top? Can you tell?
167:44:48 Schmitt: Yeah. The blue-gray's on top. I'm sorry.
167:44:51 Parker: Thank you. And you got a bearing and range there at the rim of Cochise?
167:44:52 Schmitt: I took a picture of it and...
167:44:56 Cernan: (Answering Bob ) Okay. We're at 228/3.0, and we're headed south and not quite on the east rim.
167:45:05 Parker: All right.
[AS17-142- 21769 to 21777 are taken as they skirt the rim of Cochise, headed south at first and then southwest.]167:45:08 Cernan: I'll give you a hack at the east rim.
[That is, when they are east of the center of the crater.]167:45:16 Schmitt: Bob, I got a picture of that contact, so...
167:45:21 Cernan: (To Bob) I took some pictures right into Cochise, too, when we were coming up.
[AS17-146- 22404 to 22408 are Gene's pictures from the east rim of Cochise.]167:45:24 Schmitt: Good. It'll show on yours, too, probably. I hope. (Pause) Okay. We're sort of on the inner...(Garbled)
167:45:36 Cernan: Mark. 230/2.9. We're on the east rim.
167:45:39 Parker: Copy that.
167:45:40 Schmitt: Well, we're sort of inside the east rim a little bit.
167:45:43 Parker: Well, don't get too far inside.
167:45:44 Schmitt: We're halfway between the rim and where the blocky wall starts.
167:45:50 Parker: All right. Copy that.
167:45:52 Schmitt: Did you get that, Bob?
167:45:53 Parker: Yeah. We got that. (Pause)
167:46:04 Schmitt: Cochise is much like Horatio - actually, more like Camelot, although not as blocky in the walls, in general - in that it has blocky walls but a mantled rim. (Pause) Again, all the blocks I see in here - big ones and blocks down to about 20 centimeters - are subangular, in general, and appear to have the appearance of the subfloor gabbro; although most of the smaller rocks do not appear to be highly vesicular.
167:46:47 Parker: All right. We're copying that all. (Long Pause)
167:47:05 Cernan: We're at 232 and 2.7.
167:47:10 Parker: Roger. Copy that. (Pause)
167:47:23 Schmitt: Watch it. (Pause)
167:47:29 Cernan: You know what happened there?
167:47:31 Schmitt: What?
167:47:32 Cernan: I was just about to take a picture, and the minute you take your eye off anything...
[Gene's picture is 22409.]167:47:35 Schmitt: Yeh. (Pause) I got another view of that contact, and let's put that on the northwest wall of Cochise and dipping to the southeast. (Is ) that right?
167:47:54 Cernan: South and east is to our left.
167:47:58 Schmitt: No, no, no, no, no. Put it on the northwest wall dipping to the northeast. (Pause)
167:48:08 Cernan: Yeah, that's right. (Pause)
167:48:14 Schmitt: See that, Geno, can you see that over there?
167:48:16 Cernan: Oh, yeah! I can see it now between the gray and blue-gray?
167:48:18 Schmitt: Yeah.
167:48:19 Cernan: Oh, yeah! Yes, I sure do.
167:48:23 Schmitt: Can you swing in there, and let me get another shot of it?
167:48:25 Cernan: You betcha. (Pause; Jack laughs) Now, there's a good view right here.
[Jack's photos into Cochise from this location are AS17-142- 21778 to 21782. Gene's are AS17-146- 22410 to 22412.]167:48:35 Schmitt: Okay now, I need to have you go left. (Pause)
167:48:40 Cernan: Okay. I got two of them in there, too.
167:48:42 Schmitt: Great.
167:48:43 Cernan: Look at that rock right in front of us. It looks like a contact between a blue and a gray.
167:48:47 Schmitt: Oh, yeah, there it is. Yeah, you're right.
167:48:48 Cernan: We can't get down to it, but take a picture.
167:48:50 Schmitt: Well, I think we've done...I think we've got that (contact) relationship. I think we got it at Station 1, as a matter of fact.
[Cernan - (Tongue still firmly in cheek) "At 48:50, where Jack says 'I think we've got that relationship', I don't want anyone to misinterpret the fact that we've been on the Moon three days. (Laughing) 'We can't get down to it, but at least we can take a picture.' "]167:48:55 Cernan: But that's a big beautiful boulder on the...[Schmitt - "It'd be a little hard to have a relationship in those suits, anyway."]
167:48:56 Schmitt: Yeah, that's...
167:48:57 Cernan: ...inner rim...
167:48:59 Schmitt: ...that's quite a block.
167:48:59 Cernan: ...inner south rim of Cochise.
167:49:00 Schmitt: Oooh...
167:49:01 Cernan: It's a single block.
[This is the block in 21777.]167:49:02 Schmitt: That's how you bend your tires.
[Schmitt - "Gene was still talking about the rock in Cochise, and I was talking about a rock he hit."]167:49:03 Cernan: Well, that's what it (the wire wheel)'s for. (Pause) Boy, that's a nice...Oh, man, would that be (garbled)...[Cernan - "We're moving pretty rapidly through this area. If you're going ten kilometers (per hour) and you hit a football (sized rock), you feel it. We put some dents into those wire-wheel tires."]
167:49:07 Schmitt: Well, now, that might be glass covered. That might be a glass coating; the way it sort of hangs on the outside there. Hard to say.
167:49:17 Cernan: We're at 234 - can't see it - 2.5.
167:49:23 Schmitt: Starting to sling dust. I wonder if we've lost our fender.
167:49:25 Parker: Roger. Copy that.
167:49:26 Cernan: No, they're on there tight. (Garbled) warp.
[Gene seems to be speculating that the fender has warped. He had tightened the inside clamp at Station 8 and, once he and Jack reach Station 9, they will take another look. At 167:56:11, they find that the fender has, indeed, warped. Gene brought the fender back to Earth. It is currently on display at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in Washington. The rear portion of the fender - the last two or three inches that would have borne the brunt of the rooster tail - appears to be badly worn.]167:49:27 Schmitt: You think that's Van Serg? Right over there.[Schmitt - "And if there is dust between the clamp and the map, it may be slipping."]
167:49:29 Cernan: Well, let's see...(Pause)
167:49:32 Schmitt: There it is. Betcha you.
167:49:37 Cernan: Yeah. I think you're right, because that's just about the right place. Let's see, 234 and 2.1 is where I want to go, and I'm at 230/2.5.
167:49:45 Schmitt: Okay, our...
167:49:46 Cernan: Pretty close.
[Jack's photos taken during the drive from Cochise to Van Serg are AS17-142- 21783 to 21788.]167:49:47 Schmitt: Our block population in here now - on the south rim of Cochise and out ahead of us - looks like it's up to 5 percent. (Pause) And it all looks like light, tan subfloor gabbro...or tan-gray. You don't see much blue-gray; not out on here. (Pause) There's a recent hit, (a fresh crater).
167:50:23 Cernan: This Rover is getting tested for what it was built for now.
167:50:26 Schmitt: Yeh. (Pause)
167:50:35 Cernan: I tell you it handles just the way as advertised, maybe even better.
167:50:41 Parker: Okay. We think you guys are getting to the point we ought to swing a little bit west to make that 234/2.1.
167:50:48 Cernan: Yeah, I am, Bob.
167:50:53 Schmitt: I think we've got it. Tally-ho...
["Tally-ho"is a call made during a hunt when the fox is first seen.]167:50:54 Cernan: Bob, that's my fix. I'm just navigating to it.
167:50:57 Parker: Okay. Copy that.
167:50:59 Cernan: I know where. I'll get there.
167:51:00 Parker: Roger.
[Cernan - "I was getting irritated with Bob for telling me how to get where I'm going. There was a touch of it a page or two ago and you're seeing it again here. What Bob doesn't see is that you don't just go from here to there. I might have to go around something, and I can see why I'm saying 'Damn it, I'm too good of a pilot not to know where I'm going! Don't tell me; just tell me where I need be and I'll be there.' Jack used to get irritated at Bob, and this is the first sign of my irritation."]167:51:01 Schmitt: We have a Tally-ho on Shorty...I mean of Van Serg. (Bob chuckles) How about through there, Geno?[Throughout these transcripts, Gene has shown great restraint in the face of provocation - from Jack, from Bob, and from the little misfortunes that are inevitably part of such a mission. After three days, he may be getting a little tired and, consequently, a little less willing to ignore minor irritations.]
[Cernan - "That may be. But, see, now he's infringing on my ability to navigate. He's telling me how to fly. And he doesn't know what the terrain looks like. He doesn't know how many football-sized rocks we're banging into and how many little craters we've got to go through and what the Sun is doing to us and what sightseeing we're doing along the way so that we can get up on the rim of a crater so we can get a picture. Yeah, I'm probably getting tired."]
167:51:07 Cernan: Thanks.
167:51:10 Parker: Let's not pre-judge the crater too much.
167:51:11 Cernan: You want 234/2.1. Okay.
167:51:16 Parker: And remember we talked about parking on the southeast rim.
167:51:17 Cernan: It wanders like...Our wander-factor in here has got to be 50 percent.
167:51:21 Parker: Copy that.
[Cernan - "We had been moving at 10 or 12 clicks for a while but we're not moving that fast here. We're picking our way through here, probably at low speed, but as fast as we can get through the block field. With a wander factor of 50 percent, I've got to drive 15 meters to go forward 10."]167:51:25 Schmitt: Bob, you're being cut out. I can't tell what you're saying. (To Gene) Isn't that where we want to go, over there?
167:51:32 Cernan: 23...Well,...
167:51:34 Schmitt: Well...Look, (garbled) way to get...
167:51:34 Cernan: ...(garbled) found the crater.
167:51:36 Parker: 234 or 232...
167:51:37 Schmitt: No, we didn't. It's there on the right.
167:51:37 Parker: ...It doesn't make much difference, 17. If you see Van Serg, that's what we want.
167:51:43 Schmitt: Well, you're...
167:51:44 Cernan: Let me wander over that way. That's where I want to get, but I couldn't go there because of that...(Pause)
167:51:52 Schmitt: There's a different looking rock there.
167:51:54 Parker: And remember, we're talking about parking on the southeast rim. (Pause)
[Frame 21789 shows the Van Serg ejecta and 21790 shows the rim.]167:52:02 Schmitt: (To Gene) Yeah, I think you're going to have to bear right.
167:52:03 Cernan: Yep. That's why I...I've got to get through this (boulder) field, though.
167:52:06 Schmitt: Yeah, I know. (Laughs; Pause) Okay, Bob. We're still primarily in an extreme block field here now. It's up to a 20 percent cover, and...(20 percent cover) of fragments, mostly the subfloor. Some of it looks quite highly shattered. I just saw one piece that looked like a white anorthositic rock.
167:52:37 Cernan: How's this look to you? We can go farther up there, I guess. Let me go farther up.
167:52:41 Schmitt: Well, okay, if you can get up.
167:52:40 Cernan: Get a little farther on the southeast. A little higher...
167:52:45 Schmitt: (Garbled) to overdo it.
167:52:46 Cernan: Well...(Pause)
167:52:50 Schmitt: There is some grayish rocks that are...Oops! High centered.
[Gene has scraped the bottom of the Rover on a rock.]167:52:58 Cernan: Right, coming up here. I turn to the right and park right here.
167:53:02 Schmitt: (Returning to his description of the grayish rocks)...that have somewhat of a swirl texture.
167:53:07 Cernan: Okay, Bob, we're at 230/2.2.
167:53:13 Parker: Copy that. Copy you parked.
167:53:19 Cernan: Yep. What did I say? 230? I meant...Yeah, bearing is 230/2.2, and I'm parked on a heading of 320, which gives you a better view.
167:53:36 Parker: Copy 320 for the parking.
167:53:43 Cernan: Yeah, 330.
167:53:46 Schmitt: Oh, boy. This (seatbelt) is getting harder and harder (to release). (Long Pause)
167:54:01 Cernan: (Garbled; Pause)
167:54:08 Schmitt: Well, what's wrong with it, now. I might have got it twisted.
167:54:09 Cernan: Here, let me look at it.
167:54:11 Schmitt: Got it hooked, but not so I can get it undone.
167:54:14 Cernan: Here, let me look at it. I'd say "stay put", but I don't think you have any choice. That fender just curled under, that's where we're getting the dust. (Pause) Starting to warp. Look at those other fenders, talk about warping.
[Cernan - "I'm out of my seat and I'm walking behind the Rover to see if I can't help Jack with his twisted seatbelt. And, while I'm there, I see the fender curled under. That's where we're getting our dust. And, maybe the other fenders were getting hot and twisted in the Sun."]167:54:32 Schmitt: Did I get it (the seatbelt) twisted or something?[Schmitt - (To Gene) "Isn't it remarkable, though, that - even with the transcript - you have no image of looking at those fenders. I run into that all the time."]
[Cernan - "I can create the image here of what they looked like, but it's today's image; it's not a recollection."]
[Schmitt - "Now, having read this and having heard about my belt, I can remember that now. It's a real image."]
[Cernan - "Certain things hit me like that, too. But I don't remember seeing the replacement fender curling or the others being warped. I would be kidding you if I said it was a recollection."]
[Schmitt - "Another example, for me, of not having an image is all that floundering around you apparently did beside the Rover (at Station 8). And of me trying to get you stood up. Very faint bells have started to ring. And it didn't come immediately."]
[Cernan - "Me, too. And, then, I can go back earlier to Tracy's Rock and that whole slope and that whole affair came back to me beautifully. I was there. I remembered it. I remembered working around that rock. I remembered the slope. But, here, I'm losing it."]
167:54:34 Cernan: Yeah, you did twist it when you put it on. Okay, scrunch down.
167:54:37 Schmitt: I'm scrunched.
167:54:38 Cernan: Okay. (Pause) You had one twist in it.
167:54:43 Schmitt: Boy, that makes a difference (by shortening the belt).
167:54:44 Cernan: Sure does. Here. (Pause) Your footpan's down, too.
[Gene has rotated Jack's footrest out of the way.]167:54:52 Schmitt: I'll get it. (Pause) It's lost it's stiffness in there. Okay, I guess nominal plan for Shorty, huh? Or Van Serg.
167:55:08 Cernan: Okay, LCRU Power's On.
| Geology Station 8 | Apollo 17 Journal | Geology Station 9 at Van Serg |