Loading the Rover

Losing the Heat Flow Experiment

 

ALSEP Off-load

Corrected Transcript and Commentary Copyright © 1996 by Eric M. Jones.
All rights reserved.
Scan credits in the Image Library.
Video credits in the Video Library.
Except where noted, audio clips by Roland Speth.
Last revised 24 April 2017.

MP3 Audio Clip ( 10 min 42 sec )

Video Clip ( 2 min 55 sec 0.8 Mb RealVideo or 29 Mb MPEG )

[Charlie has headed around the north side of the LM to open the SEQ Bay doors on the northeast face of the Descent Stage as per LMP-11. John is getting the flag out of the MESA as per CDR-13. On TV, we are watching John at the MESA. The only TV of an ALSEP off-load is from Apollo 14.]

120:19:57 Young: That's why I was glad I could see the ground (during the final approach to landing).

[Charlie is referring to the crater that John overflew during the final approach. Had he landed closer to the crater, Charlie would have had a very difficult time reaching up to get the two ALSEP packages out of the SEQ Bay. The ALSEP packages are affixed to booms on which they ride as Charlie pulls them out of the Bay. Prior crews had then used a pulley system to lower the packages to the ground. On Apollo 16, Charlie will simply lift the packages out of the Bay.]

[Training photo 71-H-1845 (scan by Frederic Artner) shows the open SEQ Bay doors on the side of the LM mockup. Charlie (left) appears to be assembling the carry bar which will fit in the socket visible on the face of the ALSEP package in front of him and in a corresponding socket on the package in front of John.]

120:20:03 Young: You bet ya.

120:20:04 Duke: Man, I sure didn't.

120:20:05 Young: That's why we were moving forward there toward the last. A little. Or trying to. (Long Pause)

[While John assembles the flag, under the Descent Stage at the left side of the TV picture, we can see Charlie's legs as he backs away from the LM, pulling a lanyard which will open the SEQ Bay doors. A detailed discussion of the flag assembly can be found in Anne Platoff's 'Where No Flag Has Gone Before'.]

[The SEQ Bay has a small, vertically hinged door on the left, which Charlie opened first. It also has a two-secton, horizontally hinged door that is opened by pulling on a lanyard. Diagrams on page 58 of Scott Sullivan's Virtual LM illustrate the way the main door is hinged. Additonal details can be found on pages 38 to 47.]

[Charlie moves in toward the SEQ Bay and drops the lanyard.]

[Journal Contributor Karsten Rinkema notes that the TV images brightens for a few seconds, then returns to the previous level. Because there are no signficants changes in relative brightness across the scene, Journal Contributor Bill Wood suggests that some one on Ed Fendell's team in Houston sent a command to change the Automatic Light Control setting from 'Peak' to 'Average' to see if the picture quality improved. Evidently, a decision was made to return to 'Peak'. See section 4.4.4 in the Ground Control Television Assembly Manual ( 7Mb PDF ).

120:20:35 Duke: The ALSEP doors. (To Houston) Okay, (as per LMP-11) your Descent switch is on, Houston. Descent ECA Temp Monitors. And we'll remove the experiments package.

120:20:53 England: Okay.

120:20:54 Duke: This ALSEP is right at eye level, Tony.

120:20:58 England: Very good.

120:20:59 Duke: Exactly eye level.

[Duke, from the 1972 Technical Debrief - "It looked exactly like it was the same level as in the training building."]

[This is Item 2 under "MESA Work" on CDR-13, a step that John forgot to do. Tony has misspoken. The LiOH can is supposed to go in the center of the MESA, but not in the Sun.]

[Somebody in Houston points out Tony's error.]

120:21:11 Young: (Puzzled) Want the LiOH can in the Sun...

120:21:15 England: Negative. In the center of the MESA cavity. Sorry.

120:21:19 Young: Yeah, I know that!

120:21:21 England: Okay.

120:21:22 Young: Don't let me forget it.

120:21:23 England: Okay. (Pause)

120:21:28 Young: That was what I was supposed to do before we do this, huh? (That's what) you're telling me.

120:21:35 Duke: Stealing your thunder back here, John. I'm taking all the ALSEP stuff out. (Pause)

[Normally, John would have helped Charlie with the ALSEP off-load as per CDR-14. However, because of the various changes in procedures, Charlie is doing all of the work himself. On LMP-11, note that Charlie does not have copies of John's procedures in his checklist. After Charlie removed the experiment package, John would have removed the RTG (Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator) package. The RTG provides electric power to the ALSEP experiments and must be fueled with a plutonium source which, at the moment, is sealed in a graphite cask mounted on the side of the spacecraft to the left of the SEQ Bay.]

[At the MESA, John has assembled the two-part flag staff and has removed a cover from the flag. The flag a telescoping crossbar thread into a hem sewn along the top of the flag. The crossbar is attached to the top of the upper staff section by a locking hinge and John has to raise the crossbar, lock it into place, and extend it.]

120:21:51 Duke: What happened?

120:21:52 Young: (Garbled) (Long Pause)

[Apparently, the bottom of the flag detached from the staff, but John quickly re-attaches it. He plants the flagstaff in the ground and takes a few minutes to shape the stiffened flag properly. In the process, the upper section of the flagstaff comes out of the lower section that is sticking in the ground.]

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

120:22:55 England: Outstanding, Charlie. I'm sure you'll hold the record now.

120:23:04 Duke: I doubt that. (Pause) Maybe for the Cayley Plains Saturday afternoon (grunts) shindig. (Long Pause)

[While Charlie was talking, John tries to retrieve the lower staff section by bobbing down to his knees but can't grab it. He then kneels without apparent difficulty, using the bottom of the upper staff section for support. He then rises with ease and does a little hop to get his feet under him, all without tipping forward as happens to many of the other astronauts in similar situations. Finally, he re-attaches the staff sections and moves off-camera to the left. After the usual delay, Fendell starts to follow but quickly realizes that he probably won't find John before reaching the counter-clockwise stop.]

[Young, from the 1972 Technical Debrief - "I can honestly say I had as much trouble putting the flag together in one-sixth gravity as I did in one gravity. My main concern was with the TV sitting there watching us: that we'd end up with the flag in the dirt and us standing on it. As soon as I picked up the lower leg of the flag, I dropped it and I was in the dirt. So, I was bent over holding the flag up with one hand and I picked the thing up and put it together."]

[Fendell reverse direction and starts a clockwise pan.]

120:23:40 Duke: I know, John.

120:23:43 Young: I'll put it right here. Big rock.

[John plants the flag next to a rock about 1/3 of a meter across. The rock is between Charlie and the flag in AS16-113- 18341.]

120:23:51 Young: Yeah.

120:23:52 Duke: Okay, wait a minute; I'll run and come get the camera. Can't pass that up.

120:23:56 Young: That's all right. (Grunts) That's got it. (Pause)

120:24:05 Duke: Wait a minute. You're not getting away from there without me getting your picture.

120:24:08 Young: Charlie, we can get that in a minute, okay?

120:24:11 Duke: I got it. Here we go. Come on. You get that LiOH canister and I'll get the camera.

120:24:16 Young: Okay. That's fair enough. (Pause)

[Fendell finds the flag north of the Rover and just catches John's shadow as he heads for the MESA. See Figure 6-13 in the Apollo 16 Preliminary Science Report for the flag location.]

120:24:23 Young: I know, I had to go...I've been on my knees twice to get things. (There's) no way to avoid it. That's why I'm glad the pressure suit bends.

[The dirt on John's legs can be seen in AS16-113- 18339, which Charlie will take in just a few minutes. In that picture, John's legs are partially shadowed. Frame 18388, which Charlie takes at the end of the ALSEP deployment, is a better picture of John's dirty legs. In 18341, we see that Charlie's legs are getting dirty, too.]

120:24:41 Young: Houston, I'll admit (laughing) I forgot that the LiOH canister was supposed to be out and I missed that step, but I'm sure glad your first attempt to tell me to put it in the Sun was...

120:24:57 England: Yeah, that was my error, John.

120:24:59 Young: ...a baddie.

[Charlie comes into view and goes beyond the flag to get into position to takes some tourist pictures of John.]

120:25:02 Duke: And, Tony, the Rover tracks are just...We're barely sinking in!

120:25:08 England: Yeah, we can see that.

[Jones - "You were going out to the flag bouncing a little bit, although not as easily as you do later."]

[Duke - "I felt right at home, almost from the moment we hit the ground. You just felt like your balance was good. I didn't feel like I could do any high jumps at this point, 'cause we did get better at it. I found there were really three ways...You could run, you know, one leg in front of the other (in a) normal run; or you could skip; or you could..."]

[Jones - "Kangaroo hop?"]

[Duke - "Well, that kangaroo hop...but it was sort of a side to side motion that I had. (Demonstrating) Like that, you see."]

[Jones - "You turn so that your maybe 45 degrees, say with your left foot forward. Bring that forward follow with the right, bring that up to it and then go again."]

[Duke - "On sort of a side step thing. And I found that was real comfortable and it gave me real good balance if I was just moving around, short distances, like I did going out to the flag there."]

[We watched the video sequence again.]

[Jones - "Yeah, that's sort of what you're doing. You've got your left foot forward, and you're only turned about 30 degrees off of straight ahead."]

[Duke - "See, I was walking and then I just...(pause)"]

[Jones - "Yeah. You've got good bounce already."]

[Charlie stops and then, apparently, examines a rock. His wide-leg stance suggests, however, that he is urinating.]

120:25:15 England: Say again, John?

120:25:16 Young: Okay, there it is. Okay, I got it in there now.

[Charlie turns to face the LM and then side-hops to his left about 4 or 5 meters to get lined up for the pictures.]

120:25:23 Duke: Hey, John, this is perfect, with the LM and the Rover and you and Stone Mountain. And the old flag. Come on out here and give me a salute. Big Navy salute.

120:25:35 Young: Look at this. (Pause)

[John walks into view and waves his right arm in and out at shoulder level to position the restraining cable so that he can salute.]

[And 'echo' of part of Tony's transmission, particularly the word 'picture' can be heard in Charlie's following transmission, presumably involving a round trip from the Earth to the Moon via Charlie's headset and microphones. Prof. David Keeports at Mills College, Oakland, California, measured a time delay of 2.716 seconds, which necessarily represents a trip from the Earth to the Moon and back, plus signal propagation between Houston and the Madrid Tracking Station, which has the Moon in sight at this time, 18:20 UTC on 21 April 1972. I've used Celestia to create a view of the Earth ( 80k ) from Descartes at this time. The Sahara dominates the center of the disk. Using JPL Horizons the range of the landing site from the Madrid Tracking Station is 1.284 light seconds. The one-way time delay measured from the echo is 1.358 seconds, leaving 0.074 seconds for the signal to get from Madrid to Houston and/or for uncertainties in tape speed, etc. ]

[John Saxon, who was Operations Manager at the Honeysuckle Creek Tracking Station during Apollo 16, writes "Honeysuckle usually communicated via microwave to a mid NSW ground station at Ceduna (South Australia), then via a pacific (geostationary) satellite to the San Francisco area, then various microwaves to/from Houston - via Goddard switching centre in Maryland. But occasionally we would use Mwave Houston to Goddard, then Atlantic satellite, then Indian Ocean satellite to Carnarvon on the (Australian) west coast to Honeysuckle. The round trip time to a geosynchronous satellite is about 0.239 seconds - noticeable - and therefore two hops is nearly 1/2 sec - annoying - before it even gets uplinked to the lunar surface and returns - possibly via another couple of terrestrial 'hops'. It can all add up. And let's not even think about Manned Spaceflight Network relay configurations where one ground station sends the voice uplink and uses the downlink from another station which maybe relays via a 3rd or 4th station to the second spacecraft (usually CSM) which then replies to Houston etc! No wonder the ground network occasionally - but not very often - ended up in almost infinite echo feedback loops - sometimes via the moon! That was never popular with anyone - specially the astronauts."]

[The difference between Keeports's 2.716 second timing of the echo of Tony's 'picture' and the two-way Earth-Moon transit time is 0.161 seconds, which suggests that the path from Houston to Madrid did not involve any geostationary satellites. However, Ken Glover notes that the digital audio clips in the ALSJ were made from cassette tapes supplied to us by NASA Johnson and that those are subject to differences in recording and playback speeds, the effects of tape stretch, etc.]

[John bends his knees slightly, springs about a half meter off the ground, and salutes. He is off the ground about 1.45 seconds which, in the lunar gravity field, means that he launched himself at a velocity of about 1.17 m/s and reached a maximum height of 0.42 m. This superb picture is AS16-113- 18339. Note that John's total weight - body, suit, and backpack, is about 30 kilograms or 65 pounds. In Houston, Tony chuckles with delight.]

[Ken Glover writes: "The RealVideo Clip has a frame rate of 15 fps. This clip was produced from a high-resolution AVI file which I captured from the VHS source, but the RealVideo clip itself was optimized for streaming over slow (56k modem) connections and is therefore somewhat degraded in terms of resolution. For students interested in analyzing John's 'Big Navy Salute', I have made a short, 2.7 Mb MPEG-1 clip of better resolution and at 29.97 fps, showing only the two jumps."]

[Jones - "John's jumps says to me he's got a great deal of confidence this early."]

[Duke - "His balance was really extraordinary."]

[John's second jump lasts about 1.30 seconds and, consequently, his launch velocity is about 1.05 m/s and his maximum height is 0.34 m. This picture is AS16-113- 18340 .]

[Journal Contributor Joe Cannaday notes that the peak of John's first jump was at about 120:25:49 and the peak of the second was three seconds later at 120:25:52.]

[While John walks toward him, Charlie takes the Hasselblad off his RCU bracket and gives it to John.]

[Charlie reaches the flag and bounces around to face John.]

120:26:09 Young: (Laughing)

120:26:10 Duke: And fly high and straight and land soft.

120:26:13 Young: Okay, Charlie, say when.

120:26:15 Duke: Here we go.

[Charlie salutes. The picture is AS16-113- 18341.]

120:26:17 Duke: One for you. Okay, wait a minute; one more.

[These pictures are AS16-113- 18342 and 18343.]

[Journal Contributor James Fincannon has used sunrise-to-sunset sequences of LROC images on the site to demonstrate that, as of 2009-2011, the Apollo 16 flag is still aloft and casting a shadow.

120:26:20 Young: Okay.

120:26:21 Duke: (To Young) Got it?

120:26:21 England: ...The House passed the space budget yesterday, 277 to 60, which includes the vote for the Shuttle.

120:26:30 LM Crew: Beautiful. Wonderful. Beautiful.

[John and Charlie return to the Rover. Once again, Charlie does a leisurely skip, getting slightly off the ground each time. John takes the Hasselblad off the RCU bracket and walks back.]

120:26:42 Young: And I'll say it too.

120:26:43 England: So am I.

120:26:44 Young: The country needs that Shuttle mighty bad. You'll see.

[John became the Chief of the Astronaut Office in 1975 and, later, appointed himself to command the first Shuttle flight. STS-1 was 36-orbit mission launched on April 12, 1981, the twentieth anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's Vostok flight. The pilot - and only other crewmember - on STS-1 was Robert Crippen.]

120:26:50 Young: What do you want to do with this camera, Charlie?

120:26:53 Duke: Put it on the left floor...Right seat, my seat. No, on your left...It's got to go under your seat. I'm sorry.

120:26:59 Young: That's okay. (Long Pause)

[Fendell pans clockwise.]

120:27:18 Duke: Okay, I don't need one. (Pause)

120:27:28 Young: Okay, (as per CDR-13) the MESA blankets are all closed, Houston. Or getting that way.

120:27:33 England: Okay. (Pause)

120:27:38 Young: LiOH canister is (pause) in the...(Pause)

[Fendell reaches the clockwise stop and reverses direction.]

Video Clip ( 3 min 41 sec 0.9 Mb RealVideo or 33 Mb MPEG )

120:28:31 Duke: I know. Hey, John, I'll let you put this (ALSEP carry bar) together. I'm really...Think I know how to do it, but I don't want to foul it up.

120:28:38 Young: Here you go.

120:28:39 Duke: Everything else is ready.

[As per CDR-14, John is assembling the ALSEP carry bar. He will attach the two ALSEP packages to the ends so that Charlie can carry the assembly like a barbell as he goes out to the deployment site.]

[Charlie will fuel the RTG with a plutonium fuel element which is currently in a cask at the left side of the SEQ Bay. John's "hot stuff" is a reference not to the radioactivity but the fact that the surface temperature of the graphite cask is about 500 to 700 degrees Fahrenheit (260 to 370 Celsius) and the fuel element temperature is about 1400 F. For details and photos of the first RTG fueling operation, see the Apollo 12 Lunar Surface Journal at 116:38:50 in the ALSEP Off-Loading chapter..]

[Charlie is using a lanyard to rotate the fuel cask from vertical to horizontal.]

[Charlie now has the dome removal tool - or DRT as on LMP-11 - with which he will remove the hemispherical dome covering the fuel element.]

[The other tool is the Fuel Transfer Tool which Charlie will use to transfer the fuel element from the cask to the RTG.]

120:30:06 Duke: Hoo-boy. Scared me for a minute.

[Duke, from the 1972 Technical Debrief - "We got the pole (meaning the carry bar) together and dropped that (fuel cask) down (to horizontal). I didn't quite get it (meaning the dome removal tool) locked on before I started changing it. I thought I'd lost the dome, but I started over again and made sure the tool was locked in; and then the dome came right off with no trouble."]

[The "scary part" was, of course, that they wouldn't be able to remove the dome and, consequently, that they would lose all of the ALSEP experiments for lack of power.]

[Fendell stops his counter-clockwise pan and, because John and Charlie are out of sight on the far side of the LM, Fendell slowly pans upward to examine the spacecraft.]

120:30:09 England: Okay, while you're standing still, how about an EMU check? (Pause)

120:30:18 Duke: Okay, I got a...

120:30:19 Young: What makes you think we're standing still?

120:30:23 Duke: I'm clear flags, 75 percent, just about Min cooling, and 3.8 (psi).

120:30:30 England: Okay; we copy. (Pause)

[Fendell zooms in on the disk-shaped steerable (high-gain) antenna.]

120:30:41 Duke: John, I threw a thing all the way over those double craters over there.

120:30:45 Young: Okay, I'm going to reset the far UV. I've got the top off the hot package. Let me move this around so you don't run into it. (Pause)

[John may be moving the dome with the still-attached removal tool out of the way.]

120:31:04 Young: Okay. (Pause)

120:31:10 Duke: Look out! Here it comes! Hot stuff!

[Charlie is removing the fuel element from the cask and is transferring it to the RTG.]

[Duke, from the 1972 Technical Debrief - "Off-loading of the fuel was just like we'd done it in the trainer. It wasn't red like it's painted in the training model; it was black. I couldn't feel any heat coming off of it."]

[Fendell zooms in on the US flag on the side of the Descent Stage. At the right side of the TV picture, we see John going to the UV camera.]

120:31:25 England: Okay, they're 56 and 76.

120:31:31 Young: Okay. Going to Reset.

120:31:37 Young: Mark. It's (garbled). It's pointed, and it's taking imagery now. (Pause; Subvocal) Damn.

[Fendell pans right and we watch John trying to get over a cable. He gets his foot caught and has to lift his foot and shake it to get the cable off. Fendell continues to pan.]

120:31:55 Young: Okay; 56 and 76.

120:31:59 England: That's affirmative. (Pause)

Video Clip ( 2 min 50 sec 0.7 Mb RealVideo or 25 Mb MPEG )

120:32:05 Duke: Okay, Tony, the RTG is fueled.

120:32:08 England: Very good! (Long Pause)

[Fendell stops his pan and returns to John just as he turns the UV camera to a new target.]

[After turning the UV camera to the new azimuth, John turns a wheel near the top of the camera to change the elevation.]

120:32:44 Young: (Adjusting the elevation) 56 and 76?

120:32:46 England: That's affirmative.

120:32:51 Young: Okay.

120:32:54 Duke: How's the old heart rate looking? (No answer)

[Heart-rate records for the first EVA are shown in Mission Report figures 10-3a and 10-3b for John and Charlie, respectively. John's rate is in the mid-90s and Charlie's is in between 110 and 115. At about 120:33:40, Charlie starts carrying the ALSEP packages out to the deployment site and his heart rate will peak at over 140 beats per minute.]

[The UV camera is now pointed nearly straight up at Earth. John moves around to the south side of the camera to look through a sighting device to check his alignment.]

120:33:20 England: Outstanding. You did a good down-Sun alignment.

120:33:25 Young: I can't believe it. I mean, the crescent is right in the middle of that scope. I might move it a half of a degree, but I wouldn't move it any more. (Pause)

[The UV camera's field-of view is about 20 degrees while the Earth is about 2 degrees across.]

[In Houston, the Flight Director asks the Flight Surgeon about Charlie's heart rate, which is "over 100".]

120:33:42 Young: Okay, here's the...

120:33:43 England: (Answering Charlie's heart rate question) Okay, Charlie; and you're okay.

120:33:46 Young: Okay; here's the one (garbled) Reset. Let's go for it.

[When John presses the reset switch, the camera takes two images and two spectra, each with its own filter and pass band. The exposure times can be selected to be as short as 0.5 minutes or as long as 200 minutes and the total time spent on any one target can range from 20 minutes to 16 hours. John is about to start a set of exposures of the Earth and the procedures here are different from those associated with other targets. See Figure 5.3-1 from the Lunar Surface Procedures volume, which shows the decal that is attached to the camera.]

[Charlie comes into view, carrying the ALSEP packages and taking them west of the LM. According to the deployment diagram on LMP-12, he is planning to carry the packages about 330 feet west of the LM. He is at 1:37 in the checklist. The EVA started at 118:53:33 and, consequently, Charlie is only three minutes behind schedule - in part due to the fact that they skipped the LMP ingress.]

[Brian McInall has created a planimetric map of the ALSEP deployment that includes both Charlie's walking path out to the deployment site and John's Rover tracks.]

120:33:52 England: Right, just take it easy. There is no hurry.

120:33:53 Duke: ...pack horse (garbled). I'm going out where this...(Pause)

[Charlie is trying to skip but is too weighed down to get any elevation. After crossing the TV field-of-view, he stops to examine a rock which is just out of our picture to the right.]

[Muehlberger, from a 1997 e-mail message - "How to tantalize. No further comment about it!"]

[This is reference to the 2.25 minute wait which is the fourth line under Item 2 on the back of the decal.]

[Charlie starts off again and Fendell shifts his aim slightly to the right to bring the rock into view. For a moment, he doesn't follow Charlie and keeps John at the left side of the frame.]

[Fendell pans right to follow Charlie, who is now walking with, perhaps, a slight bounce on each step.]

120:34:28 Duke: Uh-oh.

[About the time John reached 10 in his count, the right-hand (RTG) package comes off the carrybar and falls slowly to the ground. The weight of the other packages forces Charlie to veer left to keep both his balance and his grip on the carrybar. The bottom of the RTG package was no more than a meter off the ground so the fall took about 1.1 seconds and the impact velocity was about 1.8 m/s. The surface is, of course, very soft. After it hits, the package rolls into a shallow, foreground crater.]

[In watching the video, Charlie and I agreed that he had the carrybar cradled in the crook of his elbows, a technique used by most of the LMPs.]

[Duke - "Boy, my heart just dropped when that thing fell off, 'cause that had all the experiments in it. I don't understand why it just didn't lock in right, I guess, when put it together. It had one of these brackets that was open at the bottom; and this carry bar just went in there and you had to pick it up into this bracket and lock it. And it looked like it was locked to me when I picked it up and I shook it. As you see, when I was going out there, it was bouncing up and down and it just bounced off."]

[On Apollo 12, Al Bean noticed his RTG package tended to rotate and recommended installation of a locking mechanism. See the discussion following 116:52:43 in the A12LSJ.]

[Apollo 13 photo KSC-70PC-15 shows Jim Lovell carrying the ALSEP packages during training. He is carrying it in the arms-down position. The RTG pallet is on Lovell's left. Note the locking mechanism with which the pallets are secured to the carrybar and, also, the Universal Handling Tool (UHT) attached to each of the pallets.]

[Jones - "It was the Central Station mast that was the carry bar..."]

[Duke - "That's right."]

[Jones - "...and was really very flexible and what..."]

[Duke - "Well, actually, that thing wasn't so flexible as I was going out and bouncing, it was bouncing on my arm. The whole deal."]

[Jones - "But, when the package on the right side came off, somehow you managed to hang on to the package on the left side..."]

[Duke - "I just grab it with...I wrapped my right arm around it."]

[We looked at the sequence again and decided that, as he veered left, he got his right hand on the end of the carry bar so that it wouldn't tip off his left elbow.]

[Charlie sets the left-hand package on the ground and walks over to examine the other one.]

120:34:43 Young: It was...(Stops to listen)

Video Clip ( 2 min 38 sec 0.7 Mb RealVideo or 23 Mb MPEG )

120:34:46 England: Do you mean the camera moved?

[Evidently, John is talking about filter and/or film changes rather than a physical motion of the camera as a whole, but that distinction is not clear.]

[During John's next transmission, Charlie rights the fallen package, picks it up, and hits it a few times with his left hand to knock the dirt off it. He makes a series of sideways hops to his left to get out of the crater and sets the package in position on the ground next to the empty end of the carrybar.]

[Charlie leans to his right and re-attaches the fallen package to the carrybar.]

120:35:42 Young: That's affirmative.

120:35:46 England: Okay, that's probably the problem there. That thing should have been crossed out on your checklist to do that reset.

120:35:54 Young: Okay.

[Charlie jerks the packages several times, pulling it toward himself and rotating it around the carrybar to get it to seat in the lock.]

120:36:04 Young: You want to do it again? (Pause)

[In Houston, Experiments and the Flight Director decide to have John repeat the entire procedure.]

[Charlie continues to struggle with the lock and then picks up the carrybar and shakes the entire assembly to make sure the right-hand package is firmly locked.]

120:36:19 Young: How you coming, Charlie?

120:36:20 England: ...go ahead and watch for that film advance, and then time 15 seconds from the film advance. Don't do a reset when it comes back to Direct.

120:36:30 Young: Okay. (Pause)

[Charlie finishes with the lock and then stands still for a few minutes to rest.]

120:36:55 England: Good show, Charlie.

[Duke - "Even up there it was heavy. I thought I'd damaged the experiment or broke it or something. That it was all lost, and that's why I was feeling so bad. Turned out, it didn't bend any of the fins, didn't dent any of the experiments. It hits and just bounced and was okay."]

120:37:03 Duke: I agree.

120:37:06 England: How did it come off that thing?

120:37:08 Duke: (Examining the package) Okay, it seems to...(Stops to listen)

120:37:10 Young: (Noting that the film advance has occurred) Okay.

Video Clip ( 3 min 10 sec 0.8 Mb RealVideo or 28 Mb MPEG )

120:37:13 Duke: Okay, it seems to be locked now, Tony. I don't know what happened. I pushed on it back at the LM but it...

120:37:19 Young: 3, 4...

120:37:20 Duke: ...just popped off.

[Charlie lifts the package to get it up on his arms again.]

[Duke - "It's like a weight-lifter that's going to do a snatch-and-jerk or whatever they call it. You reach down with your palms out and you grab hold of the bar; and the object is to bend and pull it up and throw it up and then catch it in your elbows. And, what happened as I started up with it, it was so heavy it just pulled me forward. It pulled me off balance; and I was trying to run forward to catch up with it - stay under it - and that's why I ran out of the picture here. But I eventually got it up."]

[Jones - "So, even with heavy things, the one-sixth g does help because it stays up for a while."]

[We watched the sequence again.]

[Jones - "Hands on it, up, run forward about seven or eight steps..."]

[Duke - "And then I got it back up in my elbows."]

[Jones - "And you're on your away."]

[Duke, from the 1972 Technical Debrief - "(At the LM) it apparently looked like it was locked on the RTG side and I could not pull it up any more, and it looked locked to me, though there was about a quarter of a sixteenth of an inch between the little half dome and the mast, but it still looked locked; but, as I was bouncing out there, I had gotten to about 25 meters and the RTG package fell off. It bounced into a crater. I thought I had blown it then, because of those very fragile fins on the RTG. But I looked at it, and it hadn't been damaged at all. In fact, it was hardly dusty. I put it back on and made sure I had it locked the next time. And the only thing I can say about that is to make sure that thing is locked. You don't want any gap between the post and the little half dome. If you do, the thing is not locked in. You cannot feel it snap in like the training gear snaps in."]

120:37:39 England: Outstanding, John.

120:37:40 Young: Okay. It's not turning. (Responding to Tony) I think we got it that time.

120:37:46 England: Good show. We'll go into a mode change in a few seconds now, but that's okay.

120:37:56 Young: Yeah, there it goes. (Pause) Gonna be able to hear that little rascal working all over the Moon (because of the VHF it radiates).

120:38:08 England: (Laughs)

[Charlie is walking flat-footed because of the load.]

120:38:14 England: Okay.

120:38:15 Young: And close the sequence (means SEQ or Scientific Equipment) bay door. (Pause) That red ring (on the Cosmic Ray Experiment).

[As shown in Figure 15-1 in the Preliminary Science Report, the Cosmic Ray Experiment is currently mounted on the Descent Stage to the right of the SEQ Bay. John will now move it to the minus-Y (south) footpad.]

[Charlie is near the top of the ridge west of the LM and puts the ALSEP packages down.]

[Duke, from the 1972 Technical Debrief - "Some of the hardest work I did was carrying that beauty out to where we finally deployed it."]

[As can be heard in the audio track of the TV clip, during this break, the Surgeon tells the Flight director that Charlie's heart rate peaks at 160 beats per minute ]

120:38:35 Duke: Hey, Tony I'm...(Stops to listen)

120:38:39 England: In fact, just stand there for a while.

120:38:40 Duke: (Turning to his right and facing north) I just climbed a little ridge. (Responding) I am.

120:38:45 Young: Okay, Houston. You won't believe this. The red ring pulled off the Cosmic Ray panel.

120:38:50 England: (Laughs) Did the top slide down?

120:38:52 Young: I think the panels are exposed. (Answering England) There's the top exposed with a bunch of slides in there and glasses and a black thing and, you know, I think that's what you mean, isn't it?

120:39:06 England: Right. That's right. So it worked out okay.

120:39:11 Young: All righty. (Laughing) God almighty, I can't believe...I don't know my own strength.

[The following is taken from the Apollo 16 Mission Report.]

["The Commander pulled the red-ring lanyard to shift the shade in Panel 4. The shade moved only 1 inch instead of about 3.5 inches and the lanyard broke."]

["A movable platinum shade (Figure 14-55) covers the top half of panel 4 during Translunar flight and until after the radioisotope thermoelectric generator is removed from the area during lunar surface operations. The shade passes over a rough guide bar at the top of the instrument (see Figure 14-56) and is connected in the back of the panel to the movable target plate. The red-ring lanyard is attached to the bottom edge of the target plate and, passing behind panels 1, 2, and 3, it extends from the bottom of panel 1. When the lanyard is pulled down, the target plate moves down and the platinum foil moves upward over the round guide bar. This exposes material mounted on the stationary backplate."]

["Examination of the panel assembly has shown that the failure of the shifting mechanism was caused by a clamping of the target plate by two retention bar screws which projected past the backplate into the target plate, and effectively locked it in place (Figure 14-57)."]

["Figure 14-56 shows the panel-4 assembly with the target plate and shade fully deployed after having backed off the two projecting screws. Note the rub mark from the screws on the target plate."]

["The assembly performed satisfactorily when deployed during the pre-flight fit and function check. However, it was necessary to refurbish the hardware after this operation, and the screw clearances may have changed as a result of the refurbishment. This experiment is not scheduled for another mission."]

[During the exchange between John and Tony, Charlie turns to look west and then turns to look off to the south. Finally, he turns to look east and raises his left hand to shield his eyes. He may be facing southeast so that he isn't looking directly into the Sun.]

[In AS16-113- 18367, Stone Mountain is the hill on the right and Kenesaw is probably the hill beyond it to the south. Frame 18368 shows the two large craters that Charlie describes at the western foot of Kenesaw. Ravine Crater is east of North Ray Crater and is shown in Figure 6-4 ( 648k ) from the Preliminary Science Report. Dome Mountain may be the peak beyond and to the left of Smoky Mountain as seen in 18357.]

[Muehlberger, from a 1996 e-mail message - "Dome is north of Sugar Loaf, which is shown on Plate 2, USGS Professional Paper 1048, 'Geology of the Apollo 16 Area, Central Lunar Highlands'. Sugar Loaf is a high domical feature about 2 km north of North Ray Crater. Dome is slightly west of north about 5 km from North Ray and even higher. It appears on 'Geologic map of the Apollo 16 (Descartes) region' by D.P. Elston, E.L. Boudette, and J.P. Schafer, April 1972, scale approximately 1:100,000. I have a blue-line copy. I have no idea whether it was ever published, there is no identification number on my copy."]

[Duke - "We named Kenesaw after a mountain in Georgia, which is north of Atlanta"]

[Jones - "Any special significance?"]

[Duke - "No. Dotty (Charlie's wife) being from Atlanta and all. We had one Stone Mountain (because) John's from Georgia and lived up there near Kenesaw when he was a kid, so we just picked that."]

120:40:10 England: That's affirm; we want to go to Mode 1.

[TV off, just as Charlie reaches down to grab the carrybar with his right hand.]

120:40:23 England: John, we'd like a Batt 2 check on the way out to the ALSEP site, and you do that by turning your Left Front and Right Front Drive Powers to Bus C.

120:40:36 Young: Okay.

120:40:46 Duke: Look at the size of that rock! Tony, it's about a 2-meter boulder, I just passed. Okay, John.

120:40:56 Young: Okay, the Nav breaker is going in, and we are reading - in the Sun shadow - we are reading 1 degree south. Pitch is zero. And roll is half a degree right.

[As shown in Figure 1-27 from the LRV Operations Handbook, the Sun Shadow Device consists of a gnomon mounted on a folding arm and a scale mounted on the console face (6 Mb). With the arm deployed and the Rover pointed more or less down-Sun, the Sun Shadow device and the known position of the Sun in the local sky allows a precise determination of the Rover heading. Don McMillan has provided an animation (2 Mb) of the Sun Shadow device being put in position to provide a reading. John had purposefully parked on a down-Sun heading when he first parked at the MESA at 119:40:12, hence the near-zero reading. The pitch/roll indicator is mounted on the left side of the console. Looking at left-bottom drawing in Figure 1-26 from the LRV Operations Handbook, the pitch indicator is hidden on the instrument face nearest the heading indicator and, in the right-bottom drawing, the roll indicator is hidden on the face farthest from the heading indicator. John reads pitch first and then rotates the instrument around an up-down axis to bring the roll indicator into view.]

[Experts in Houston will now use the Sun shadow, pitch, and roll readings to do a quick calculation of the true Rover heading and John will change - "torque" - the heading indicator until it shows the proper reading.]

120:41:31 Young: Sequence bay doors are shut, and we're pointed up about 2 degrees.

120:41:36 England: Okay; pitch up 2.

120:41:37 Young: I see Charlie over...Charlie's down there to the southwest. (Pause) Can I go Reset on this thing to clear these numbers off before 2 minutes?

[John is referring to the LRV Operations Decal, which is Figure 3.7-9 from the Lunar Surface Procedures volume. As indicated in the "Nav Align" section he wanted to be parked with the Sun Shadow Device reading no more than 3 degrees off center and with no more than 6 degrees of roll and pitch. He then closed the Nav circuit breaker and needed to wait at least 1.5 minutes before cycling the System Reset switch to Reset and then Off. Figure 2-11 from the LRV Operations Handbook shows the Nav circuit breaker at the upper right and the System Reset switch just below in.]

120:41:58 Young: Say again?

120:42:00 England: Yes, go Reset.

120:42:00 Young: (Under Tony) I missed out on the first part. (Pause)

120:42:08 Duke: Tony, I think that the best place here for the ALSEP is to the LM 11 o'clock position (that is, SW of the LM), and I'll let John give you the range (from the Rover readouts when he arrives). But it's up on the top of a dome, and it's fairly flat, and I think John can drive about 290, maybe 28, down over a ridge for the thumper. There's just not any flat places here, Tony. I can't...This is the flattest I can find.

[As shown on LMP-12, after John arrives at the ALSEP deployment site, he will drive away from the Central Station on a heading of 290 (WNW) and lay down some tire tracks on which he will later deploy a geophone line.]

120:42:53 Young: Understand; (the true Rover heading is) 266.

[Duke - "I'm not sure it was a very good spot, but it was the best we had. It's really difficult to find a real flat spot where some experiment's not in a little crater or off angle or something. You know, for long-duration (future) missions, if you have too many narrow constraints on the experiments, it'll be real difficult to find a spot up there on the Moon where you can lay everything out within a confined area of one central power source like we had in Apollo. A lot of thought ought to go into that; and not have the experiments that have to be so precisely aligned and positioned. I know, sometimes, you've got to do that; but, if there's any way you can get around it, boy, it would be nice. We didn't feel like we were so particularly constrained; but, you know, in training we laid it out in a place that was like a big billiard table; and everything went out and you could put it exactly right and get the lines straight. Up on the Moon, it was not that at all, of course, and you had to just do the best you could. In the TV, you'll see here in a moment, once we get the ALSEP out, it turns out the Central Station is right near a big rock! (This rock is shown in AS16-113- 18347.) The site I picked had a few of boulders, but it was the best I could find."]

[Jones - "That's not surprising; you were out in the middle of that ray from South Ray. Did you ever do a deployment in a non-ideal place in training?"]

[Duke - "No. It was always right out behind the MSOB (Manned Spacecraft Operations Building at the Cape)."]

[Jones - "Did you get to the point where you knew how far away things were supposed to be from each other? Or was it just to the end of the cables in certain directions?"]

[The planned layout is shown on LMP-12 and, more clearly, in Figure 3.4-3 from the Lunar Surface procedures volume. Brian McInall's planimetric map of the ALSEP deployment includes both Charlie's walking path out to the deployment site and John's Rover tracks.]

[Duke - "We had a minimum, I remember; but it was just basically to the end of the cables. The thumper experiment - which was an active seismic experiment - was a hundred meters (true) or something. He had to go out and lay a line; and that was probably the most critical. Then I had to get the heat flow and the holes had to be so far apart. In your mind's eye, you're just trying to figure this all out - will it all fit? And, you know, you're looking at rolling terrain and there's a boulder here and a crater here and 'Well, I guess it's going to fit.' You can't really sit there and spend too much time trying to measure it."]

[Jones - "Was the distance perception problem not as bad when you're looking at a confined area like that? Could you judge distances reasonably well?"]

[Duke - "Well, better, of course, because you're a little bit closer in. But it was a problem. I'm still not sure I judged the size of the rocks right."] 120:42:57 Duke: Okay, Tony. The regolith hasn't changed any out this far. We still have numerous subrounded to angular blocks, partially buried. Here's a secondary. Here's a big boulder, the one I described, that's 2 meters across with about a 50-centimeter fillet above the...

[This rock is shown in AS16-113- 18348, which is a taken to the north across the top of the Central Station, 18356, and 18357. Smoky Mountain is in the background. The last two of these are part of a clockwise pan and the following frames, 18358 and 18359, show the LM.]

[Jones - "Another question that this 'partially buried' brings up is that, at the 17 site, they kept running into rocks with flatish tops and maybe a few inches sticking up out of the regolith. Did you see much of that, or was it mostly more angular and less buried?"]

[Duke - "We saw some. In fact, one we picked up on the edge of Plum Crater was like that. It was a rounded rock we called Big Muley. It turned out it was big; only the top part was out. I dug it out and it was like a watermelon. But, mostly, they were rounded and it looked like they'd been a secondary boulder that had hit and then broken up? And, as they hit again, they dug in. And then, these fillets...A fillet was sort of a smooth...The regolith would sort of come up to a rock and we'd call it a fillet, like it would fill in around. And it would be higher next to the rock and then it would slope away."]

[Jones - "You just demonstrated that it wasn't a level, flat slope, but a curved one."]

[Duke - "It seemed to me it was like a curve."]

[Jones - "Definitely a steeper slope in close to the boulder."]

[Charlie's answer suggests that they saw relatively few of the flat-topped, mostly-buried boulders like those seen by the 17 crew. Big Muley, which they will find on the east rim of Plum Crater, is the large rock on the right side of the picture near the Rover in AS16-109- 17800 and, comparatively speaking, is only slightly buried. In AS16-109- 17804 we see an example of a flat-topped, mostly-buried boulder on the southwest rim of Plum.]

120:43:33 England: Okay. We'd like you to just start out with the Left Front and the Right Front Drive Powers on Bus C. If the battery 2 isn't working, you shouldn't go anywhere.

120:43:46 Young: Okay, Left Front, Right Front Powers on Battery C, and 266 on the Gyro Torque. (Pause)

120:44:01 Duke: Tony, I'm looking at this big rock, and it's a two-rock breccia. The matrix is a black rock - blackish to bluish - with some very fine, submillimeter-size crystals. The...

[A breccia is a rock formed out of pieces of other rocks during an impact. In this case, the bulk of the rock is a black material and, embedded in it, are fragments of another rock type.]

120:44:52 England: Okay, we copy that.

120:44:54 Young: I don't understand that. (Pause) Well, I just did something. No, that's all right. (Pause)

120:45:07 Duke: John, it sure looks like we're on a more than 2-degree landing slope, but it's not.

120:45:12 Young: Let's not run that battery check now that we got all those good readings, Houston.

[If it ain't broke, don't fix it.]

120:45:19 Young: Okay, I've had that on, Charlie.

120:45:21 Duke: Okay, it's working! It's working!

[Apparently, John doesn't start driving until 120:46:29. Here, he is probably turning the wheels with the handcontroller. The fact that Charlie can see the Rover wheel indicates that, from the vicinity of the large rock, he can see the ground around the LM.]

120:45:24 Young: Maybe it just needs to sit around and heat up. (Pause)

[This is the likely explanation. See the discussion following 119:38:31.]

120:45:32 Duke: Okay, Tony, back to this rock. The small frags in it are whitish in color with small millimeter-size crystals of - it looked like perhaps olivine in the white matrix, in the white clasts, let's say. And it's a biggie; it's right near the ALSEP. We'll get a picture for that. It'll show up in the pan (for example, in AS16-113- 18357). (Pause) (To Young) John, that's gonna be some ride.

120:46:02 England: Okay, John, we'd like you to go ahead and drive out on battery 2.

120:46:09 Young: Yes, it's gonna be. (To England) Okay, you want me to pull Batt A and B circuit breakers?

120:46:13 England: No, negative. Just put the Left Front...

120:46:17 Young: You want me to...(Listens)

120:46:18 England: ...and the Right Front to Bus C.

120:46:20 Young: Okay. Left Front and Right Front are on Bus C.

120:46:29 Duke: It's moving.

[John has started the drive.]

120:46:33 England: Good show; everything looks good.

120:46:34 Duke: Okay, you're kicking up a...(Stops to listen) You got a small rooster tail, John, but not very much of one.

120:46:42 England: And, could you give us an Amp reading while you're driving?

120:46:45 Young: Man, I tell you...(Stops to listen) Yeah, Amp-Hours are 18 amp. Okay, I'm not doing very many clicks. Twenty-two (amps) on the front and exactly nothing on two and nothing on the other one. Charlie...

120:47:07 England: Okay; we copy.

120:47:09 Young: ...there's just hardly any place that hasn't got craters around here. Is that where you want to put the ALSEP?

120:47:13 Duke: This is as level a spot I could find.

120:47:16 Young: I tell you, Houston, there's just no place that's not got craters and things around it. (Pause) (To Charlie) Think 290 from here, huh?

120:47:28 Duke: Yeah, I'm about cross-Sun here.

[Charlie may be standing north of the Central Station at the proposed start of the thumper geophone line, as shown in Figure 3.4-3 from the Lunar Surface Procedures volume.]

[According to Figure 6-13 in the Apollo 16 Preliminary Science Report, Charlie will deploy the ALSEP Central Station about 90 meters SW of the LM. At 120:48:04, Charlie decides to move the Central Station about 30 feet (9 meters) from his present location and, if he is currently near the boulder, that final move may be in a southerly direction. This would also be consistent with his statement at 120:42:08 that he was then at the 11 o'clock LM position (30 degrees south of west). The final deployment site is at about the 10:30 position (45 degrees south of west). In frame AS16-113- 18359, a picture Charlie will take from the ALSEP site at about 122:13:49, the hatch is clearly visible to the left of the vertical centerline on the Ascent Stage in a position consistent with the ALSEP being SW of the LM.]

[According to the checklists, they had planned to deploy the Central Station west of the LM, but the terrain has forced him farther south.]

[Young, from the 1972 Technical Debrief - "When I went back to reset the UV taking the Earth pictures of the geo-corona, I fouled up that procedure and had to do it all over again. Even if we had done it right, Charlie would have been out at the site (first, because of the cumulative delays John was experiencing). What we intended to do was take the Rover and run a little recon to pick a good place, if there was such a thing. I have the feeling that, no matter what place we picked, it would have impacted one or the other experiments because of the blocks and because of all the craters out there. I don't think, in a reasonable time, that we could have picked a better site than we did. It's 20/20 hindsight for a man sitting on the ground with photographs to say, 'well, you should have put it over there.' That's no good."]

[Duke, from the 1972 Technical Debrief - "Some of the hardest work I did was carrying that beauty out to where we finally deployed it. I highly recommend that you put that thing off the left side of the LM if you can, if your experiments will allow you to. Because, on lift-off, that MESA blanket (which is on the right side of the spacecraft) we had went sailing off right straight out front (west) just like it did on 15 and impacted about a hundred meters out in front of the LM. It could have been another wipeout on the Central Station, like it almost was on 15. So that's probably a good idea to put it (meaning the ALSEP) off to the left."]

[Young, from the 1972 Technical Debrief - "Yes; and I don't know why that MESA blanket did that. Maybe we should take the MESA blanket off and stow it inside."]

[Here, John probably means stow the MESA blanket inside the Descent Stage, say in the now empty SEQ Bay. Nothing of this sort was done on Apollo 17, nor was there any change in the planned ALSEP placement 300 feet west of the spacecraft.]

[Young, from the 1972 Technical Debrief - "I don't know which MESA blanket it was."]

[Duke, from the 1972 Technical Debrief - "I don't either. So, I think you're wasting you time pulling those blankets off. If you just put the ALSEP off to the left, you don't have that problem."]

[Young, from the 1972 Technical Debrief - "There's no way it (meaning the MESA blanket) can get there."]

120:47:45 Young: Okay, let me turn 29...(Stops to listen) Maybe right over in here, Charlie, right here.

120:47:48 Duke: Huh?

120:47:49 Young: Is that too close to the...

120:47:51 Duke: Is that 290?

120:47:52 Young: No, let me show you 290. Like this.

120:47:58 Duke: Okay; that's okay.

[John will drive on a heading of 290 to lay down tire tracks to guide his deployment of the thumper-geophone line.]

120:48:04 Duke: I can move it over here another 30 feet or so. You'll be all right.

120:48:07 Young: Okay, do that. (Pause) Oh boy, I tell you, this place is full of holes, Houston. (Pause) And rocks. (Long Pause)

[Young, from the 1972 Technical Debrief - "There sure were a lot of rocks out at that site, and it wasn't the world's greatest ALSEP site. After practicing for months on a flat terrain, with no craters, we ended up with a lot of craters and a lot of rocks and a lot of holes. You sort of had to thread your way to where you were going to put each piece. I'm not sure it was a good idea to have a rock between the Central Station and the PSE (and) right out there at the end of the LSM. I'm not sure how that affects the data."]

[The rock near the PSE is shown in AS16-113- 18347 and in 18359; and the one near the LSM is just to the left of the instrument in 18349.]

[Duke, from the 1972 Technical Debrief - "They said it was all right, John."]

[Young, from the 1972 Technical Debrief - "They said they were having thermal problems with the PSE."]

[Duke, from the 1972 Technical Debrief - "Already? That's because there's dust on them (meaning on the experiments)."]

[Young, from the 1972 Technical Debrief - "Yes. And because I kept falling over rocks as I walked by it."]

[Duke, from the 1972 Technical Debrief - "That's the only flat spot I could find."]

[Young, from the 1972 Technical Debrief - "I know, Charlie. You did a good job. I don't see how you could have done any better."]

[Duke, from the 1972 Technical Debrief - "I wasn't about to carry the ALSEP all the way to Spook Crater"]

[The near rim of Spook is about a half kilometer WSW of the LM.]

[Young, from the 1972 Technical Debrief - "I'm glad you didn't carry it any farther. If you had, when we did the ASE (Active Seismic Experiment) deployment (west of the Central Station), we'd have been down in a big hole. We just barely missed being down in a big hole as it was."]

[The Active Seismic Experiment is also known as the Thumper/Geophone.]

[The temperature labels on the Cosmic Ray Experiment are shown in Figure 15-3 from the Preliminary Science Report. At a particular temperature, some of the labels will be white and the others will have changed to black, thus making a coarsely-graded thermometer. A detail from Apollo 16 training photo KSC-71P-111 shows a tempa-label on the handle of a UHT.]

[Young, from the 1972 Technical Debrief - "When I deployed it, I forgot to look at the temperature decals on them. I'm sure as a result of our three (extra) revs, plus our time enroute, all those temperature decals were black (indicating a high temperature) before we ever got there. I can't imagine that anybody would think they could put something on the side of the Lunar Module and expect not to see more than 140 degrees F. It saw 140 degrees F during the Translunar coast, because the temperature was plus or minus 250 degrees (in direct sun and full shade, respectively). They could stand about 120 or 130 before the experiment is ruined. I never could understand why they were worried about thermal. I still think that, long before we ever got to the Moon, thermal problems were a factor and that experiment was gone. I don't know how you could have avoided that, unless you put a lot of insulation on the detector or put it in the MESA."]

[According to the Apollo 16 Preliminary Science Report, all of the labels were black at temperatures above 318 K (81F) and, when John finally examines the instrument at the end of EVA-1, all the labels are black. The experimenters wanted to have temperatures below 328 K (99F) but, after retrieval, two temperature labels inside the instrument indicated that peak temperatures of 339 (119 F) and 350 K (139F) were reached, respectively. Thermal control had been attempted though the strategic use of materials that were highly reflective in the visible and were efficient radiators in the infrared, but the adopted measures were inadequate.]

120:48:54 England: Okay.

120:48:55 Young: Want to go back and get it? Be just a second in the Rover here?

120:48:58 England: No, negative.

120:49:03 Young: Okay. (Pause)

120:49:16 England: And, John, when you get a chance, you can go back to normal (switch and circuit breaker) configuration on the Rover.

120:49:24 Young: Okay.

120:49:25 Duke: How does that look out there, John?

120:49:27 Young: (Laughing) Charlie, it looks like everything else around here: full of holes.

120:49:31 Duke: I know it, and lots of craters.

120:49:33 Young: Lots of craters. We're not lacking for them, Houston. (Pause)

120:49:44 Duke: Tony, this is just an indescribable experience. I'll tell you.

120:49:52 England: I bet it is, Charlie. Hey, what's the difference between a hole and a crater?

120:50:02 Duke: Beats me. (Pause)

120:50:11 Young: Man, this has just got to be...If the number of craters are any indication, this has got to be (laughing) old material. Even the craters have craters. (Long Pause)

[John is probably returning from his drive along a heading of 290 to lay down tracks for the thumper/geophone line.]

[Muehlberger, from a 1997 e-mail message - "This is the oldest lunar surface to be landed on - by any mission as it turned out. The irregular topography was likely, but our pre-mission photos did not give a real feel for it. Thus, this kind of comment helped us understand their problems to maneuver around."]

120:50:52 Young: Okay, have you got the Central Station lined up?

120:50:55 Duke: East-west.

120:50:57 Young: Yeah. You gonna deploy your drill down there, huh?

[As shown in LMP-12, Charlie will drill two holes for the Heat Flow Experiment about 30 feet south of the Central Station.]

120:51:11 Young: I'll park over there by that rock, Charlie. Heading 180?

120:51:16 Duke: Yeah, that'd be good.

120:51:18 Young: (Consulting his checklist) 195.

120:51:19 Duke: Yeah, that'll be good. Great.

[As indicated in Figure 6-13 in the Preliminary Science Report and as called out on CDR-17, John is parking about 35 meters SSE (South Southeast) of the Central Station on a heading of 195. The rock in question is just to the right of the Rover in AS16-113- 18365.]

[At some point after he gets off the Rover, John takes AS16-113- 18344, a view across the seats which shows the rock mentioned here.]

120:51:58 Young: Okay, and we're...

120:52:02 Duke: Tony, I'm tapping the RTG fins to get the dust off of them, and it's flaking...It's coming off real good.

120:52:10 England: Okay, very good. (Pause)

120:52:16 Duke: I'm sorry about dropping that thing, Tony; but, golly,...

120:52:19 England: No, we understand.

120:52:20 Duke: ...it appeared locked to me, but it just came sailing off of there.

120:52:26 England: It's going outstanding, Charlie. (Long Pause)

120:52:38 Young: Okay, Houston. And the seatbelt worked; I'm pleased to report. (Pause)

[Prior to Apollo 15, proper account was not taken of the fact that, in one-sixth g, the suits don't compress in the seat as much as they do in one g and, consequently, Scott and Irwin had to struggle to get their seatbelts firmly cinched. As indicated previously, John and Charlie spent time in one-sixth-g airplane flights getting a good fit.]

120:52:56 Duke: Hey, that looks great, John. That's perfect. (Pause)

[As shown in Figure 6-13 in the Preliminary Science Report, John's parking place is 115 m SSW of the LM and 35 meters SSE of the Central Station.]

120:53:15 Young: It (meaning the regolith) sure looks sandy to me, Charlie (and, therefore, easy to drill in). (Long Pause; static)

[The static is an indication that, as per CDR-17, John has put the LCRU Mode switch to position 3 (FM/TV), which sends the signal through the high-gain antenna. The static will clear when he gets the High-gain pointed at Earth.]

[As per LMP-13, Charlie has positioned the RTG and is about to release the Heat Flow experiment from the RTG pallet. On Apollo 15, drilling the heat flow holes proved to be a time-consuming, frustrating task for Dave Scott and Charlie is hoping that his job will be easier. In post-mission analysis, it was determined that Dave's troubles were caused by a faulty design of the core stems. I asked Charlie if he did any testing of the new design.]

[Duke - "Yeah. We tested it; and we had some special stuff (to drill in). It was like clay, really, but it simulated the lunar regolith."]

[Jones - "In a big drum?"]

[Duke - "Yeah, in a big oil drum. We had one of those actually out on the ALSEP training site, plus we did some of that inside. We had this big pit, ten/twelve feet deep, filled with this clay-like material. So, the changes we made worked real fine."]

[Jones - "But, nonetheless, not having tried them on the Moon, you were just a little anxious that they were going to work?"]

[Duke - "Oh, yeah."]

120:54:53 Duke: Can you see the Earth?

120:54:55 Young: No.

120:54:56 Duke: It looks pretty close, to me. It's almost vertical.

120:55:01 Young: There we go. There it is. Oh, you little rascal, no wonder I couldn't find you.

120:55:11 Duke: It's not very big.

120:55:12 Young: I got it. It's beautiful. Houston, you ought to have it now. It's beautiful.

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120:55:22 Duke: (Static clears) Is Houston reading you, John?

[TV on. Fendell is looking at the surface in the ENE direction.]

120:55:25 England: Now we're copying you 5 by, and we got a picture.

120:55:31 Young: Okay; fine.

[Fendell begins a clockwise pan.]