Heat Flow Reprise

EVA-2 Closeout

 

The Dreaded Station 8

Corrected Transcript and Commentary Copyright © 1996 by Eric M. Jones.
All rights reserved.
Scan credits in the Image Library
Last revised 27 February 2015.

Video Clip   2 min 34 sec ( 0.7 Mb RealVideo or 23 Mb MPG )

MP3 Audio Clip ( 12 min 32 sec ) by David Shaffer

147:56:18 Scott: Okay, Joe, what's next on the agenda?

147:56:20 Irwin: Station 8.

147:56:22 Allen: I copied your question, Dave, and stand by and take a breather. We're thinking about it here.

[Dave resumes his effort to straighten the cable to the east heat flow probe. All through this sequence, it is obvious that Dave and Jim are conscious of the cables underfoot and we see them repeatedly stepping or hopping over them.]

147:56:36 Allen: Dave, why don't you do that?

147:56:37 Scott: Okay, Jim.

147:56:38 Irwin: I've been resting. (Pause)

[Dave is using the UHT handle to pick up the wrench, which he dropped about a minute earlier.]

]

147:56:48 Irwin: I'll be over at the Rover, Dave.

147:56:49 Scott: Be right there. (Long Pause)

[Jim runs to the Rover, using the loping stride, and we get a good view of the motion of his backpack. He covers the 25-meter distance in about 24 seconds and his average speed is about 3.7 km/hr.]

[Jones - "The backpack's going side-to-side, a little bit, relative to the suit. It's a pretty normal motion that I've seen on all the flights. It's a function of the side-to-side stride, I think."]

[Scott - "Probably is. I don't remember. Did we ever say anything about that, about feeling it?"]

[Jones - "No. Nobody did. Nobody was bothered by it."]

[Scott - "That's interesting. As you say, it was probably a function of the side-to-side movements, and maybe the thing you do is put a side strap on it to take that lateral load. When people designed it, they probably didn't think about lateral loads. They thought about vertical loads, only."]

[Jones - "So what's the complaint that the people in Houston had?"]

[Scott - "Well, in the scene they had with Charlie, it was really bouncing! I mean, it was almost coming off. Well, it wasn't almost coming off. But there was severe displacement as he moved."]

[Jones - "I'll betcha that's the scene where he's running back to the LM at the end of the second EVA, maybe the third. But more than we just saw here?"]

[Scott - "Oh yeah."]

[The scene in question is actually at the end of the first Apollo 16 EVA at about 125 hours. Charlie covers the 57 meters from the back of the Rover to the MESA in about 42 seconds and his average speed is about 4.9 km/hr. It does appear that his PLSS moves farther from side to side than Jim's does here, but the difference is not dramatic and is probably accounted for by the difference in running speeds.]

[Returning now to Apollo 15, while Jim ran to the Rover, Dave retrieved the drill from the site of the west heat flow hole and brought it to the Rover. Because it was awkward running with the drill brushing his right leg and, as well, he had to be careful to avoid spraying dust and tripping on cables, he covered the 30-m distance in 32 seconds and had an average speed of 3.4 km/hr.]

147:57:56 Scott: Ready, go. (Pause)

147:58:01 Allen: Rog, get Jim started on the ditching experiment, if you would please; and then I've got another good one to lay on you here. Don't quite know how to explain it. We'd like for you to try to get the deep core for us with the drill.

147:58:17 Scott: (Jim laughs) Aw, Joe, you didn't even have to tell me, because I knew darn well that was coming with the stuff that we must be on top of here. Okay.

[This comment suggests that, at this point, Dave believes that the troubles he has been having with the drilling are due to hard subsurface layers.]

147:58:29 Irwin: Shall we take Station 8 with the (garbled)?

147:58:30 Allen: ...Jim is going to be digging at the same time.

147:58:35 Scott: Rog.

147:58:38 Irwin: (Looking at his cuff checklist) Well, the thing is, do we want to do the whole Station 8 activity. The comprehensive sample?

Video Clip   2 min 58 sec ( 0.8 Mb RealVideo or 27 Mb MPG )

147:58:44 Scott: Sure! I guess if they want to do Station 8, they want to do Station 8.

147:58:47 Irwin: Okay.

[The Station 8 proceedures and cuff checklists can be found on pages 117-123 from Apollo 15 Final Lunar Procedures. There are slight differences between the CDR and LMP checklists.]

[Cuff checklist page CDR-15 indicates that they had planned to do Station 8 with the Rover pointed south and the trench west of the LM. This configuration would give good lighting on the trench wall for both the TV and the 16-mm camera. As per CDR-16, they had planned to load a fresh film magazine in the 16-mm camera and film the Station 8 activities at 12 frames per second.]

147:59:03 Scott: No, they won't like that because the TV is all messed up then. Oh, boy! Listen. Let's just play it out here in front, right out over there (pointing west) and pretend like that is the side of the LRV, except the 16-millimeter won't be in the right spot. Oh, boy! Show biz.

[This is one of the few times during Apollo when both members of a crew are standing around, basically doing nothing while a decision is being made. Indeed, since Jim finished the ALSEP pan at 147:38:40, he has done very little other than change film magazines and, on his own initiative, collected the pink rock and the black rock. The difficulty, of course, is that no one had anticipated how much trouble Dave would have with the drilling and, although Jim has been talking about starting Station 8 since about 147:35:59, he and Dave had done all their training with the expectation that they would do Station 8 as a team. In hindsight, Jim, Dave, and/or somebody in Houston should have decided on an abbreviated list of tasks that Jim could have performed without Dave's participation. Certainly, Jim could have picked a site, done the "before" photographs, and dug the trench. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.]

147:59:28 Scott: Yeah, let me...Hey, Houston; what would you rather have? 16 millimeter movies of Station 8 or TV movies of Station 8?

147:59:43 Allen: Dave, we copy that question. Stand by.

147:59:49 Scott: (Getting a little frustrated) You know, by the time we stand by, and you get to a decision (lost under Joe)...

147:59:52 Allen: Roger; and we'll take TV; that's plenty good enough.

147:59:55 Scott: ...squared away. Jim, let's...(Hearing Joe) Oh, okay.

[Dave's tone of voice indicates that he is very pleased with the quick decision.]

148:00:00 Scott: Fine.

148:00:01 Allen: ...started with the trench there...

148:00:02 Scott: We could turn the Rover around and...(Stops to listen to Joe)

148:00:03 Allen: ...And, Dave, once you get him started, we can begin with the drill.

148:00:10 Scott: Okay.

148:00:11 Irwin: Okay, I guess we want to really start the trench first, Dave.

148:00:14 Scott: Yeah, let me get the gnomon.

[Dave's level of frustration must not be very high because he playfully uses a hard, non-silent "g" when he says "gnomon".]

148:00:18 Scott: Okay, Jim, and you...

148:00:19 Allen: That's affirmative, Jim.

148:00:20 Scott: ...you better...Boy. I better have your camera, because...Let's go out here where it's fresh.

[Dave takes the gnomon to a spot about 8 to 10 meters northeast of the TV. Jim goes to his seat so that he can put the scoop down while he takes his camera off.]

148:00:34 Scott: Bring it to me.

148:00:35 Irwin: Yeah.

148:00:37 Scott: Well, just leave it there. Yeah, I'll take it, and I'll come do...

148:00:39 Irwin: You're coming by here anyway.

148:00:41 Scott: Yeah.

148:00:42 Irwin: Just get me started,...

148:00:45 Scott: Okay.

148:00:46 Irwin: (Joking) I know, you want me to dig down to that bedrock.

148:00:48 Scott: Say again?

148:00:49 Irwin: You want me to dig down to bedrock.

148:00:50 Scott: Oh, that's...Yeah, that's down (Sun?). Yeah. Bedrock. You remember how the Rover would normally be.

148:00:55 Irwin: Yeah, we need the pictures.

148:00:58 Scott: Yeah, I'll get it (meaning the CDR's camera, which Jim has been using). (Long Pause)

[Dave skips to the Rover, circling around the undisturbed patch of ground he picked for the trenching.]

148:01:17 Allen: Dave, a couple of comments here, and Jim as well. We're going to be departing this site for the closeout in about 30 minutes. So you're looking real good on the time, and we'll just pick up whatever we can. No rush on any of it. Dave, you'll want to think a minute about where that (drill) treadle probably is.

Video Clip   2 min 49 sec ( 0.7 Mb RealVideo or 25 Mb MPG )

148:01:38 Scott: Yeah, I think I know where it is, Joe. (Chuckles) I've been thinking. (Pause)

[Dave turns and faces the gnomon and takes a stereopair of "before" photos, AS15-92- 12417 and 12418.]

148:01:52 Irwin: Okay, Dave. Thanks for getting me off to such a good start here.

148:01:56 Scott: Over there by the gnomon (Laughs).

148:01:59 Irwin: Yeah.

[Jim is standing east of the gnomon and Dave joins him. Jim starts to walk carefully toward the gnomon. I don't know if Jim was joking or being ironic or what. Certainly, he could have done what Dave just did.]

[Jim steps out of the way to the north (his right) and Dave takes AS15-92- 12419.]

148:02:13 Irwin: You've got your favorite task and I've got mine.

148:02:15 Scott: Yeah, man. (Pause)

[To dig the trench, Jim faces east, with his legs spread well apart. He holds the scoop with his right hand at the top and his left hand wrapped around the shaft. His hands are separated by a few inches. He plants the tip in the ground and then pulls it back, flipping a scoopful of dirt back between his legs. The idea is to create a vertical, sun-facing wall as he digs down as deep as practical. Three frames from Dave's pan show Jim as he digs.]

[Irwin - "It was a small shovel, and it was just rather awkward to do it in the pressurized suit. If you look at the tape, I actually find that I could do it quicker like a cat trying to dig a hole for it's droppings. Move the dirt between my legs and just kind of scrape it away. That's a faster operation than trying to do it as we would here on Earth, putting the scoop out to the side."]

[With permission from Mark Gray, Ken Glover has prepared a short Real Video clip showing Jim practicing trench digging at the Cape. The full film is available on the Apollo 15 Complete Dowlink Edition.]

Dave's Station 8 Pan ( frames AS15-92- 12420 to 12438 )

148:02:56 Irwin: Joe, do you only want it 12 inches deep?

148:03:01 Allen: What ever you think's reasonable, Jim.

148:03:05 Irwin: I'm down that far already.

148:03:09 Allen: Boy, you do fast work. (Long Pause)

[Irwin, from the 1971 Technical Debrief - "Digging the trench went much faster than I had expected. I estimate (that), in five minutes I had the trench dug."]

[At this point, Jim has only been digging for about a minute. He will finish at about 148:08:51, after about 6 minutes 30 seconds of digging.]

[Scott - "Jim's telling them that he's down 12 inches. We're not really conscious they're watching us. We never really think about that. So Jim is probably not conscious of them watching him dig. He's trying to tell them what he's doing."]

[Jones - "Did they use TV in training much? Were there occasional exercises where you'd go out an do a practice EVA with the TV?"]

[Scott - "I don't think we ever used TV, or looked at it. We pointed the antenna and turned it on and went through the procedures and dusted it off and whatever. But it was never a conscious part of the training. Hmm. For the next go 'round, it would be good training for the TV operator and the Backroom to have a live TV during training. They could see the value of it and how better to use it, and when to use it. 'Cause it's a great tool."]

[Jones - "And, in watching this - which I haven't watched in a long time - it seems to me that, back in Houston, they were learning how to use it. They did a much better job of using it on 16 and 17."]

[Scott - "Fendell probably never got to run it before now, so he's learning in real time."]

[Fendell zooms on the trench, albeit not on the vertical west wall.]

[During 95 seconds of digging, Jim has dug 30 scoopfuls out of the ground. He stops for a moment while he talks to Joe.]

148:04:12 Allen: Now, you're bragging.

[After a ten-second pause, Jim resumes digging. The timber of his voice gives clear indication that he is working hard. In the next 82 seconds, Jim digs 22 scoopfuls out of the trench. Because of the increasing depth of the trench and, most likely, increasing hand and forearm fatigue, Jim doesn't fling the dirt nearly as far as he did the early scoopfuls.]

Video Clip  3 min 04 sec ( 0.8 Mb RealVideo or 27 Mb MPG )

148:04:15 Allen: Roger. And we'll stand by for a verbal description, in fact. (Pause) Any sign of layering?

148:04:29 Irwin: No signs of layering. I do find some small fragments: white fragments, black fragments. I just exposed a very small fragment about 3 millimeters of a black glass. But the wall that I've got here is only...No signs of layering at all.

148:04:51 Allen: Roger. (Pause)

[Jones - "I can see why this is such hard work. Jim's using both hands he's been gripping the scoop for five minutes."]

[Scott - "And he's gripping it way up at the top, 'cause you can't get down; so it's a long lever which puts a lot of force on his hands."]

[Jones - "Plus having to bend both arms against the pressure of the suit."]

148:05:08 Irwin: I think I'm just about ready, Dave.

148:05:12 Scott: Okay. (Pause) Okay. (Pause) Okay, let me take your pictures then.

148:05:25 Irwin: Come over and see what you think. Check...

[Jim stops digging as Dave joins him.]

148:05:35 Irwin: But not wide enough, you don't think?

[The trench is about a meter long in the north-south direction.]

148:05:38 Irwin: Not long enough, huh? Okay.

[The penetrometer is a soil mechanics experiment. As shown in Figure 7-1 from the Preliminary Science Report, the penetrometer is basically a long rod with a tip of known shape and size. Later, when Jim pushes the tip into the soil, a device at the top will measure the force he has to use, giving an indication of soil strength. He will make some measurements at the bottom of the trench and, consequently, the trench has to be big enough to accommodate the flat, metal plate - the "ears" - that supports the tip.]

148:05:45 Irwin: Do you want to make a bet on that one?

148:05:48 Scott: Oh, yeah? (Long Pause)

[Jim resumes digging and, in the next 77 seconds, gets 23 scoopfuls. Fendell pulls back on the zoom. Although Jim's hands are in shadow, it appears that, because of the depth of the trench, his left hand is now at the very top of the shaft.]

148:06:14 Allen: Copy that, Jim.

[Irwin - "You know, when I dug that ditch, when I got down to about a foot, it was just a completely hard pan. I couldn't dig through it. I could scrape it with the sharp blade of the shovel but, you know, it was almost impossible to dig through it. I can imagine how difficult it would be to try to drill."]

[Jones - "How much were you able to scrape off with the tip of the tool?"]

[Irwin - "Very little. Just a foot down, it was like a layer of hardpan. It amazes me that we were able to get other (hammer-driven) core tubes in; and I can identify with Dave trying to drill into it."]

148:06:36 Allen: Yes, sir!

148:06:39 Irwin: Boy, it's easy to make a flat bottom because it's so hard. I can see why Dave had a hard time drilling through it, now. (Long Pause)

[Jim takes another short break.]

[The checklist on Dave's right arm is the EVA-1 checklist from the previous day, covering the drilling activities which should have been long-since finished; and the one on his left arm is the EVA-2 checklist which covers Station 8. At 138:52:18, before they started EVA-2 preparations, CapCom Gordon Fullerton tolad them, "we suggest that you each wear your EVA-1 cuff checklist on your right arm for use at the end of EVA-2. That's for both of you. Over." Photo AS15-90-12236, which Jim took at Station 7, shows Dave with a checklist on each arm. See, also, AS15-92-12407, which Jim took of Dave working with a heat-flow probe at 147:48:26. Finally, AS15-92-12424, which Dave took at 148:02:20 shows Jim with a checklist on each arm.]

148:07:12 Irwin: Wild, isn't it?

148:07:15 Scott: (Hearty laughter) Unreal. (Long Pause)

[After a 15 second break, Jim starts extending the trench toward the south. He digs 14 scoopfuls in about 43 seconds.]

[Members of some of the other crews tended to read aloud from their checklists. Dave and Jim hardly ever do. EVA-2 checklist page CDR-19 lists "LMP: change 16-mm mag".]

[Jim takes about a 10-second break and then resumes digging.]

148:08:10 Scott: Yes, sir. That's from me, and I'm going to put Foxtrot on the 16.

148:08:13 Allen: Okay, beautiful.

148:08:19 Scott: Do this according to Hoyle. (Long Pause)

[The expression refers to Hoyle's Rules of Games; but, here, Dave means the checklist.]

148:08:42 Irwin: Gee, I think I've hit bedrock. I think I've hit the bedrock!

[Scott - "He's trying to hit bedrock. He thinks he's getting down there 'cause it's getting harder. And if you hit bedrock, that's a big deal, right?"]

[Jim steps back from the trench, having gotten another 13 scoopfuls out in the last 40 seconds.]

148:08:53 Scott: Yeah, I'm coming over right now. (Garbled) the right time.

[Dave may be saying that the tasks he decided to do around the Rover took just the right amount of time so that he would be ready to take pictures when Jim finished lengthening the trench.]

148:09:08 Scott: Okay, Joe. (Long Pause)

[As shown in Judy Allton's Apollo Tool Catalog, the SESC is 12.7 cm tall and has an inside diameter of 6 cm. It has a knife-edge vacuum seal like those on the rock boxes. In the picture, the seal is covered by a Teflon seal protector. Photo AS12-49-7278 shows Al Bean holding an SESC during the second Apollo 12 EVA.]

[The TV picture jiggles as Dave gets the can. Jim is resting.]

[Jim walks off-camera to the right, going slowly to avoid kicking dirt back into the trench.]

[Dave gets into position east of the trench.]

148:09:39 Scott: Oh, yeah!! That's just super. (Pause)

[Dave adjusts the focus and f-stop settings on the camera.]

148:09:50 Scott: That right?

148:09:52 Irwin: Yeah, we ought to have some good sample there from the bottom. (Long Pause)

[Dave positions himself northeast of the trench.]

MP3 Audio Clip ( 13 min 21 sec ) by David Shaffer

148:10:11 Scott: It looks like it has a little color change down there, too.

[Dave takes a stereopair, AS15-92- 12439 and 12440. He then changes the camera settings.]

[Dave gets into position to take down-Sun pictures of the trench.]

[Dave takes a half step to his right and takes a stereopair, AS15-92- 12441 and 12442.]

[Dave has been carrying the SESC in his left hand and, while Jim talks to Houston, takes the top off.]

148:10:40 Scott: Okay, we need an SESC.

148:10:42 Allen: Roger, Jim.

148:10:43 Irwin: (To Dave) Three quarters full.

148:10:44 Scott: Yes, sir. (Pause)

148:10:52 Allen: Okay, Dave and Jim. Jim, we think you can collect the samples here pretty well. And, Dave, in order to get that drill task accomplished, we're going to have to get you started on that shortly.

[During Joe's transmission, Jim positioned himself southeast of the trench and, with some difficulty, dug a scoopful of soil out of the bottom of the trench. While he was digging the trench, he scraped soil out without having to penetrate very far. Here, he has to push the scoop into the soil and that is a more difficult task.]

[Dave is standing north of the trench and holds the SESC out at about waist height.]

148:11:22 Scott: (To Jim) Okay, rotate it a little bit. (Pause)

[Jim couldn't raise the scoop handle high enough to pour the dirt out of the end and, at Dave's suggestions, rotates it around a horizontal axis to pour the dirt out the side.]

148:11:29 Irwin: Okay. (Pause)

148:11:37 Allen: And while you're looking down in there, how deep do you think it is now?

[Jim gets another scoopful and, after he gets the tip of the scoop balanced on the top of the can - spilling about half of the dirt in the process - he raises the handle with a rotation of his left shoulder. Evidently, Jim puts some downward force on the can.]

148:11:55 Irwin: Okay.

148:11:59 Scott: (Answering Joe) Oh, I'd say it's 14 (to) 16 inches deep, Joe.

148:12:05 Allen: Extraordinary. Thank you. (Pause)

[Jim gets a third scoopful and, although his body hides most of the scoop, he seems to use a pouring technique more like the one he used for the first scoopful than the second.]

148:12:16 Scott: Okay, babe. Can you tilt it up? Got it. (Pause) White clast in there. A little bit more; keep coming. Good job.

148:12:31 Irwin: Think we got enough.

148:12:32 Scott: Yes, sir. We got 75 percent full.

148:12:34 Allen: Outstanding.

[Dave removes the Teflon seal protector and drops it on the ground next to the trench. The tranch sample is 15014, consisting of 333 grams of soil.]

[As indicated on LMP-17, Jim will get samples from various depths in the trench wall.]

[Dave removes the seal protector from the lid and drops it on the ground next to the first protector.]

148:12:43 Irwin: Okay.

[While Dave puts the top on the can, Jim walks to the Rover.]

148:12:49 Irwin: Not at all, brother! You got her. I'll do all the...(Pause) Why don't you loan me your checklist.

148:13:00 LM Crew: (Sustained, hearty laughter at the thought of Jim with three cuff checklists)

148:13:02 Scott: Oh, yeah! (Jim continues laughing) Guess what!

148:13:05 Irwin: Yeah, I...(Stops to laugh) Oh, I think I can get...Joe'll talk me through it.

[Scott, from the 1971 Technical Debrief - "You did all the penetrometer yourself. That was an interesting departure from our pre-flight plan, because we had planned to do the Station 8 together. I had all the procedures in my checklist (see CDR-17 to 19), since (in the planned Station 8) I just walked you through them. Apparently, you made out all right without having all those detailed procedures."]

[Irwin, from the 1971 Technical Debrief - "I had just enough abbreviated details (see LMP-17 to 19) that I could follow it through."]

[Dave didn't want to wait for Houston to make up its collective mind. Jim is at the LMP seat getting an individual sample bag. Normally, he would have a pack suspended from his camera but he isn't wearing his camera. Because his camera had malfunctioned, he decided to use Dave's camera for the rest of the EVA when they were at the LM at 147:11:46. What is not clear from the dialog is where Jim's camera is at the moment. As indicated in the discussion following 148:48:04, Jim's camera may be on the Rover. If so, he has decided not to wear it, probably because the benefit of having bags at hand wouldn't outweigh the disadvantage of having the camera sticking out from his chest. Because the Rover is only a short distance from the trench, Jim won't spend much time going back and forth to get one bag at a time.]

148:13:32 Scott: ...for now so I can get going. (Hearing Joe) No; (you're) too late.

[Jim is still standing at his seat and, off-camera, Dave may be trying to put the SESC in Jim's SCB.]

148:13:41 Irwin: Yeah?

148:13:43 Scott: Okay. Nothing; press on.

[Dave's transmission at 148:14:39 suggests that he has given up on the attempt to get the SESC in Jim's SCB.]

148:13:58 Allen: I hear you. (Pause)

148:14:03 Irwin: (If I can) just hang on to the (individual sample) bags. (Pause)

[Jim has dropped the sample bag and, rather than waste time retrieving it, returns to the Rover to get another.]

148:14:22 Irwin: (To Houston) Probably won't be quite as much of a sample here, since I'm doing it myself, Joe.

[Jim walks to the trench and, initially, kicks some dust ahead of him. However, when he gets close to the trench, he slows and is even more careful to lift his feet and gets into position without kicking any noticeable amount of dust into the trench.]

QuickTime Clip (0 min 52 sec) by Peter Dayton

148:14:39 Scott: Oh, it's in a seat pan right now; we'll get to it later, Joe.

148:14:42 Allen: That's fine. That's a perfect place; couldn't have suggested any better myself.

148:14:49 Scott: Good.

[Jim extends the scoop into the trench with his right arm. He has virtually all of his weight on his right leg but has his left leg and his left arm back for balance. During Joe's next transmission, Jim raises the scoop and, holding the sample bag out from his left hip, moves his right hand out to his right until he gets the scoop head in the bag. He then pours the sample into the bag without difficulty. On Apollo 17, Jack Schmitt had considerable difficulty with this maneuver and had to learn how to get a grip lower on the scoop handle. Part of the difference in experience may be due to differences in arm length; but, also, there could have been differences in suit fit.]

148:15:09 Scott: Okay, Joe. Fine.

148:15:12 Allen: You wouldn't want to go on towards the North Complex without visiting the ALSEP site again, would you?

Video Clip  2 min 41 sec ( 0.7 Mb RealVideo or 24 Mb MPG )

148:15:19 Scott: Shoot, no. Never! (Pause)

[Jim got a second scoopful of soil from the bottom of the trench into the bag and, now, walks to the Rover.]

148:15:32 Allen: 252; great. (Pause) And, Dave and Jim, we're coming up on fifteen minutes, "one-five" minutes, before closeout.

148:15:51 Scott: Doing our best, Joe.

148:15:52 Allen: Roger, and you've done yeoman service. (Pause)

[Fendell followed Jim and we get a relatively good look as he seals the bag, puts it down, and gets another. Dave is at the back of the Rover getting two drill stems out of an SCB and joining them together. See page 33 in the A15 Final Lunar Surface Procedures (9 Mb PDF).]

148:16:00 Irwin: I'll get out of here.

148:16:02 Scott: Yeah, that'd be a good idea. I need to use this area.

[Dave goes to Jim's seat with the drill stem. He probably has the drill sitting on Jim's seat.]

148:16:23 Allen: Okay, Jim. Sounds good, if you don't see layering.

148:16:26 Irwin: So I can get on with the penetrometer.

148:16:34 Allen: Okay. (Long Pause)

[Jim had planned to get samples from the bottom of the trench, from the middle of the vertical wall, and from the top. The absence of obvious layering suggests that the soil is well mixed and that the wall sample would not add to the amount of information gained from the samples.]

[Jim takes a sample from the trench wall at a depth of 5 to 10 cm (2 to 4 inches).]

[Dave takes up a position east of the trench. He is carrying the drill and the treadle, which is a flat plate with a hole in the center to accommodate the drill stems. He drops the treadle and tries to get it level by moving it around with his foot. Training photo 71-HC-717 shows Dave practicing the deep core at the Cape. The treadle is resting on the lip of a buried canister containing material closer in drilling properties to lunar regolith than is Cape sand.]

[Jim returns to the Rover.]

[On Earth, dust in the air scatters enough light that shadows aren't really very dark. Here, Dave is still trying to get the treadle in a good position and, when the shadow of his foot falls on the treadle, he has trouble seeing what he's doing. He finally gets it in postion so that, when he steps on it, it will remain steady.]

QuickTime Clip (1 min 45 sec) by Peter Dayton

148:17:21 Allen: Roger; 253.

148:17:23 Scott: Hey, Jim, you're in the way of the (16-mm) camera, old buddy.

[We can just see the treadle under Jim's PLSS.]

148:17:27 Scott: Yeah; if we're going to use all that (16-mm) film...

148:17:31 Irwin: I got to get some bags here, man.

[Jim moves a step closer to the Rover and unblocks Dave, who grabs the drill handles and then lets out a mild oath when the treadle moves. He will emplace six 40-cm drill stems and, to start, has two of them already assembled.]

148:17:35 Allen: (Responding to Dave) That's fine. We can still see (with the TV).

148:17:39 Irwin: (Responding to Joe) Dave's talking about the other one.

[Dave seems to push the stems into the ground about 6 inches, although he may have had the drill running. Penetration is then steady and, in under seven seconds, gets about half of the string of two drill stems into the ground. He then realizes that he is still wearing a camera, takes it off so that it won't get in his way, and takes it toward the Rover.]

Video Clip  3 min 7 sec ( 0.8 Mb RealVideo or 28 Mb MPG )

148:17:54 Scott: Your (70-mm Hasselblad) camera's in your seat pan if you need it.

[Readers will remember that this is actually Dave's camera.]

148:18:01 Scott: (Joking) Why not?

148:18:05 Irwin: Sorry about that.

[Dave gets about 30 cm of core into the ground in two short bursts of drilling of about 4 seconds each.]

[Scott - (Tongue-in-cheek) " You know, with all my training and all my experience, I've never had a chance to use my drill talents since? You'd think somebody would invite me out to drill."]

148:18:15 Scott: (Grunting as he leans down) Okay, Joe. Thank you.

[Dave steps on the treadle and tries to remove the drill by rotating it. As with the heat flow drilling, he has no luck.]

148:18:35 Scott: Oh, I forgot! I'm sorry. Just in a hurry to get it done, and I just forgot your one inch per second; and I'll do that. (Pause) (With a touch of self-criticism) Some days...

[Dave got about 70 cm of core into the ground in about 16 seconds of drilling. That works out to about 17 inches per second, nearly twice the desired rate.]

[Scott, from the 1971 Technical Debrief - "As I started out, the soil was very soft, and the drill went very easily and too fast down to the bedrock. The ground gave a call on the rates, which I had forgotten in my haste to finish up the drill. We were supposed to go an inch per second. I got about a stem and a half in before the ground reminded me of the rate; and I slowed it down to an inch per second. I hit bedrock, or very hard soil, which was a step-jump in hardness as I drilled. From that point on, it was easy to drill on at an inch per second, because that's about as fast as I could get it in anyway. I could feel layering as the drill went in. Some places, it was easier to drill than others as I went through. As a matter of fact, in some places, the drill pulled me down. I could just feel the drill pulling right through the underlying material."]

[Dave gets a warning tone and, despite the warning from Joe, sounds a bit startled.]

[Dave raises his upper right arm until it is oriented horizontally. As shown in the accompanying picture, he has a cable inside his suit that is fixed at the center of his chest, runs across to his arm pit and then up, over the outside of his shoulder through a tube and, finally, is attached at the center of his back. Friction of the cable in the tube helps his keep his arm in any position he chooses. By raising his arm, he gives the cable a freer run through the tube and he then has no trouble moving his arm back and then down to get to the PLSS controls. Many of the other astronauts got their arms back by swinging the arm forward in a vertical plane, and then swinging it back quickly, sometimes doing this twice in what I call the 'double wave'. The shoulder tubes can be seen in a photo (scan by Ed Hengeveld) from a suit fit session which shows a subject - probably Gene Cernan - seated on a minimalist Rover mock-up.]

[Scott - "Path of least resistance, I guess. I'll be darned. I never knew that was different; but that was the way I learned to do it."]

[Houston wants Dave to minimize the flow of feedwater to the sublimator while the flow switches from the main tank to the Auxiliary tank.]

148:19:17 Irwin: Yeah.

148:19:18 Scott: I just can't feel in there.

[There are three controls on the bottom, right-front corner of the PLSS. The feedwater control is on the outside and is easiest to reach. The Aux water and oxygen controls - which are on/off switches that are rarely used - are harder to reach and, here, Dave needs some help. The three controls have different shapes so they can be distinguished by feel.]

[Scott, from a 1996 letter - "My fingers are probably not in very good shape for feeling at this stage."]

[Jim joins Dave, carrying the penetrometer and, in a matter of a second or so, changes the Aux Water switch.]

148:19:29 Scott: No, I got the Min Cooling part, I just couldn't feel the Aux Water.

148:19:32 Irwin: Okay. I can get it; I'm right here.

148:19:36 Scott: No, I got the Min Cooling.

148:19:37 Irwin: Oh, okay. (Pause)

[Jim returns to the Rover and Dave returns to the problem of removing the drill. He turns it in the hole, again with no success.]

[Dave goes to the Rover to get what appears to be a UHT (Universal Handling Tool). During the next minute or so, Fendell has some trouble figuring out where to point the TV. He follows Dave to the Rover but, because his reaction time is necessarily slow, Dave is gone by the time Fendell gets there. He then reverses direction but overshoots the drill and stops with the camera pointed at the trench. Just as Jim arrives with the penetrometer, Fendell reverses direction again and ends up - at about 148:20:49 - with Jim at the left edge and Dave at the right edge and neither completely in view.]

148:20:09 Allen: Roger.

[Dave may be referring to the loop cable he uses to carry the drill. With the drill pointed down, the cable drags on the ground and on the treadle.]

[Jim is probably talking about the recording drum at the top of the instrument. There are a number of recording positions and, apparently, Jim is going to start with position 2.]

[Dave clears the cable and sticks the UHT in the ground to his left.]

[Off-camera, Dave starts to remove the drill.]

148:20:49 Irwin: Joe, I hope you can watch this on TV. The ground plate...I pull it down; and the spring is too strong. It pulls the ground plate up.

[During Jim's last transmission, Fendell re-aimed the TV to get both astronauts in the field-of-view and, with Houston watching, Dave removed the drill with relatively little difficulty.]

[Before Jim finishes adjusting the ground plate, Fendell shifts his aim to concentrate on Dave.]

[With the cable out of the way, Dave has no trouble removing the drill.]

148:21:09 Allen: That's no problem.

[As Dave puts the drill down, Fendell re-aims the TV at Jim, who is on the north side of the trench.]

148:21:15 Allen: Roger.

148:21:16 Irwin: ...right here. And I'm pushing. (Pause) I'm bottomed out.

148:21:29 Allen: Roger.

[Jim did the first penetrometer test at the north end of the trench. As he puts the penetrometer down, he just has his right hand on the shaft just above the recording drum and, although Fendell zooms in on the ground plate, there is no change in Jim's leg positions that would indicate that he went to two hands.]

148:21:33 Scott: Yeah.

148:21:34 Irwin: (The imprints will show) where I took it. Okay; that was adjacent to the trench.

[Fendell pulls back on the zoom and we see Jim adjusting the recording drum.]

[Jim pulls on the ground plate to get it out to the end of the shaft again. The ground plate had slid up the shaft when Jim raised the tip to get at the recording drum.]

148:21:56 Scott: No, it wouldn't have run out by now, Joe. (Responding to Joe's last sentence) That's what I'm saying. It wouldn't have run out by now. I just turned it on; 12 frames per second, and it looks like it's 90 percent gone.

148:22:08 Allen: Okay, beautiful; outstanding.

148:22:13 Scott: And, hey, I need a call when my sublimator gets going, Joe.

[Dave wants to have more cooling than the minimum setting provides.]

[Jim has carefully placed the ground plate in the trench and, this time, appears to use two hands, probably expecting to meet greater resistance.]

[Although, once again, Fendell has zoomed in and we only see the bottom of Jim's legs, the fact that his left legs slips backwards right at the end suggests that he put his full weight on the shaft. Jim removes the penetrometer from the trench and resets the drum.]

148:22:38 Scott: Thank you!

148:22:43 Irwin: (To Joe) Okay, I'm starting for (drum index position) 4.

148:22:44 Allen: (To Dave) Okay, verify flags for me, please.

MP3 Audio Clip ( 9 min 34 sec ) by David Shaffer

148:22:53 Scott: Yeah. The water flag's clear, Joe. (Going to higher cooling) Ohh, that feels so good!

[The Sun is currently about 30 degrees above the horizon and, from Figure 9-9 in the Apollo 17 Preliminary Science Report, we can estimate that the current surface temperature is about 50 C or 120 F.]

148:23:03 Allen: Roger. (Long Pause)

[Jim moves up-Sun, going slow enough that Fendell has no trouble following. As Jim passes behind Dave, we see that Dave has threaded two more drill-stem sections on the string in the ground and is attaching the drill.]

[Jim stops behind the Rover to make the next penetrometer measurement.]

148:23:27 Irwin: Okay, I'm on the very freshest Rover tracks...(Pause)

148:23:32 Allen: The very freshest.

148:23:36 Irwin: (Garbled) And I'm pushing.

148:23:37 Allen: Roger.

[Jim has both hands on the extension handle and, as he pushes, moves both feet back, getting up on his toes as he puts his weight on the instrument.]

148:23:50 Irwin: I'm indexing to 5.

148:23:53 Allen: Roger. (Pause) And, Dave and Jim...

148:23:57 Irwin: And the one adjacent (to the Rover tracks)

148:23:58 Allen: ...it's coming up on 5 minutes remaining before close out.

148:24:04 Scott: Okay. (Long Pause)

[Fendell zooms in on a dark patch on the surface NNE of the right-rear Rover wheel.]

148:24:21 Allen: Roger.

148:24:25 Irwin: (Grunting) Bottomed out. (Pause) We don't want to leave here before I get a chance to collapse my trench, Joe.

148:24:42 Allen: You've got 5 minutes, Jim. Play it accordingly; and I thought that was my job.

[This is obviously a training reference. Jim will attach a fixed plate to the penetrometer and will measure the amount of force it takes to collapse the trench wall by pushing on the surface a short distances from the wall.]

148:25:03 Allen: Roger. (Long Pause)

[While Jim goes to the Rover, Fendell aims the TV at Dave, who is twisting the drill off the drill string. Dave grabs the wire loop, puts the drill on the ground, and heads for the Rover.]

[Scott - "One of the more fun parts of the whole mission was the planning. Certainly the geology planning was fun. In the crew quarters, at night, we worked on all these traverses. Doing all the planning and putting everything to fit together, that was a lot of fun. Lot of guys involved."]

[Jones - "And you were an active part of that."]

[Scott - "Yeah, well, they had to deal with us. They didn't have any choice. (Laughing) We were the one's who were going to do it. We were in a pretty good position, right?"]

[Jones - "You had to buy into it, otherwise, it wasn't going to work."]

[Fendell pans right and finds Jim at the back of the Rover.]

148:25:43 Allen: Roger, Jim.

[The plate is the small, rectangular object on the tip of the penetrometer shaft.]

148:25:49 Allen: Say again.

148:25:54 Irwin: I don't think I indexed it after the last one.

148:25:57 Allen: Okay. Try it again. No problem. We've got several...

148:25:59 Irwin: I'm index...

[Jim walks slowly toward the trench as he adjusts the recording drum. Dave bounds past him with a joined pair of drill stem sections.]

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

148:26:04 Irwin: I'm indexing to six.

148:26:05 Allen: Roger.

148:26:06 Irwin: I'm indexing to six here for the trench bottom.

148:26:09 Allen: Okay. (Long Pause)

[Fendell is watching Dave as he threads the drill-stem pair on the string in the ground.]

148:26:41 Allen: Roger. (Pause)

148:26:46 Irwin: It bottomed out.

148:26:47 Allen: Okay. (Long Pause)

[Dave's breathing is intermittently audible. Dave is still having trouble getting the stems threaded.]

[Jones - "The thing that amazes me is that the threads on those cores really had a big pitch. In shirtsleeves, it's trivial to get those things attached. I've tried it and it's easy. But standing there at the end of that lever arm, wearing those gloves with the huge fingers..."]

[Scott - "Yeah. And you've got to move the suit. The suit's good, but you still have to move against it (and) overcome the pressure."]

[Scott, from the 1971 Technical Debrief - "I got all the sections in; and I noted in the process that it was more difficult to screw the sections together than it had been in training. I don't know whether it was the thermal problem (that is, sunlight heating of the stems) or what, but it took quite a bit of motion and patience with them to get the stems all the way to the joint (that is, fully threaded)."]

148:27:01 Allen: Roger. (Long Pause)

[Just before Jim's next transmission, Dave finally gets the drill stems threaded. At some point during his struggles, he knocks the drill over but, this time, has no trouble bobbing down to get it. He doesn't quite go to his knees.]

[Dave threads the drill on the drill string and, as Fendell zooms in on the treadle, Dave steps on the treadle and starts to drill.]

148:28:12 Allen: It won't collapse?

148:28:14 Irwin: (Grunting) I'm continuing to push. Yup. It just collapsed.

148:28:16 Allen: Okay.

148:28:16 Irwin: ...collapsed. I'll take a quick picture here so you can see the location of all of those. (Long Pause)

[Jim passes in front of the TV on his way to the back of the Rover where he will remove the extension handle and stow the penetrometer.]

148:28:41 Allen: Dave, are you working on the last stem there?

148:28:47 Scott: Yeah.

148:28:49 Allen: You are one fast worker. (Pause)

[Dave's breathing is can be heard again. After about 57 seconds of drilling, Dave comes close to finishing the last two sections. Probably following Houston's request to let the drill go in slowly, his average rate for this 80 cm was about 1.4 cm/s or 0.6 inches/s. Dave relaxes his grip and hops back to rest. When Fendell pulls back on the zoom, we see Dave leaning forward with his arms hanging down.]

148:29:12 Scott: Okay. Let me finish it off. (Long Pause)

[Dave starts drilling again and completes the remaining 20 to 30 cm. When he steps back, the drill chuck is only a few centimeters off the ground.]

[Joe's "flutes" is difficult to understand. He may, in fact, have said "lutes".]

148:29:39 Allen: Rog. As long as the threads pull free from the hole.

148:29:46 Scott: Yeah. Well, we'll try that now.

[Dave leans forward and grabs the drill handles. He pulls up sharply, raising the drill perhaps 20 cm.]

148:29:56 Allen: Okay, Dave. We want the handle away from the Sun. And we're ready for you to get back on the Rover.

148:30:05 Scott: Wait a minute Joe.

[Dave grabs the drill again, gets his feet on either side of the drill stem and twice uses his legs to pull up on the drill. He ends up with the chuck just below knee height.]

[Scott, from the 1971 Technical Debrief - "When I got the drill all the way in, I attempted to pull it out and, not surprisingly, it was very difficult to pull out. We expected that from our training. In certain cases during training, people observing in shirtsleeves couldn't get the drill out of the ground at the Cape. I wasn't at all surprised to find that, after having drilled through bedrock, I couldn't pull the drill out. I got maybe a foot back out and, at that point, the ground recommended coming back another day to finish. I was somewhat sorry to see that we couldn't get it out any easier than that, because we'd invested so much time in it, and it seemed like a shame to lose that time. On the other hand, there was a question in my mind as to whether we should spend any more time on it at all because of the amount of effort involved."]

[Fendell pans to the Rover and we watch as Jim goes to his seat, gets the scoop head, and attaches it to the extension handle.]

[Dave bounds over to the trench to get the gnomon. In hindsight, it would have been better if he had left it in place until Jim took some pictures but, of course, he was intent on getting back to the LM and hadn't thought about pictures.]

[Fendell starts a counter-clockwise pan.]

148:30:45 Scott: Get pictures of the drill will you, Jim? Take...Go...Hey, just south of the drill, I really need a (locator)...I already did a pan here. Get your trench (pictures) and get a couple of pictures of the drill to show its position.

148:30:56 Irwin: Okay.

148:30:59 Allen: Okay, Jim. A few pictures and you can walk back and, Dave, we want you to start on the Rover, please.

148:31:08 Scott: Yeah, Joe. I'm on the way.

148:31:11 Allen: Okay. (Long Pause)

[Fendell stops his pan to look at the Central Station. Note how little of Hill 305 is visible beyond the local horizon. As with LM visibility near Station 4, the fact that relatively little of the mountain is visible is probably due to local terrain.]

[Jim takes only one picture, AS15-92- 12443, which is a down-Sun after of the collapsed trench.]

148:31:33 Scott: Heck no.

[Fendell resumes his pan.]

148:31:35 Scott: Yeah. (Pause) Much dust when you drive fast.

[Jim is concerned about the possibility of getting sprayed with dust as Dave drives by him.]

148:31:47 Scott: Okay, Joe, you going back PM1/WB. (Long Pause; heavy static which continues until noted below)

[TV off.]