Grand Prix

Post-EVA-1 Activities

 

EVA-1 Closeout

Corrected Transcript and Commentary Copyright © 1997 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 27 July 2016.

MP3 Audio Clip ( 11 min 01 sec )

125:10:44 Duke: Okay, Tony; can I take the pictures of the SWC (Solar Wind Collector) with my black and white?

RealAudio clip (21 min 04 sec) by Siegfried Kessler

125:10:56 England: Stand by a second. (Pause)

[Charlie's camera is loaded with B&W film and, apparently, he had planned to use John's camera to photograph the Solar Wind with color film. There is, however, no mention of this on LMP-29.]

125:11:03 England: Yeah, go ahead.

125:11:07 Duke: Okay. Thank you.

[Charlie's cross-Sun stereopair of the SWC are AS16-109- 17863 and 17864. These are the last exposed frames on the magazine.]

125:11:13 England: Okay. (Burst of static)

125:11:24 Duke: (Static clear) every one of them.

125:11:25 Young: Yeah.

125:11:26 Duke: And we didn't see any at the other two craters.

125:11:30 Young: We might have missed some, but I agree I didn't...

125:11:35 Duke: Tony, I'd say 15 percent of these rocks are glass coated, and at stops 1 and 2, we didn't see any (glass-coated rocks).

125:11:45 England: And, Charlie, while you got the camera, taking pictures there, we'd like you to go around and look at that cosmic ray and take a picture of it, and read off the Tempa label.

125:11:56 Duke: Yeah. I already took a picture of it (early in the EVA). I got the...

125:11:58 England: Okay. We're going to need a Tempa label reading.

125:12:00 Duke: ...7-footer in color. (Hearing Tony) Okay. I'll go read the temp. You want another picture?

125:12:09 England: No, we don't need another picture. You might comment if there's any dust on it.

125:12:16 Duke: No, it's clean as a whistle. (Pause) And, buddy, it must be hot. All of the labels, all three on each side, are black. It's over 140.

[Various piece of equipment have sets of temeprature sensitive labels attached. 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.]

125:12:39 Duke: Okay. John will have to do that.

125:12:42 England: Okay. (Long Pause)

125:13:03 England: Okay. And, Charlie, we'd like to press on with the closeout.

125:13:08 Duke: And that's what I'm doing.

125:13:10 England: Okay.

125:13:13 Duke: I've gotten John's bag (from under the CDR seat) now, and I'm gonna empty it in the SRC, keeping the core tubes out. (Pause)

125:13:37 Duke: John, I think we've raised this thing (meaning the MESA) too high. (Long Pause)

[In Houston, there is an ongoing discussion about putting Charlie's SCB-5 in the rock box instead of John's SCB-1. Apparently, SCB-1 was "clean" (probably meaning it had flown to the Moon in the rock box and was known to be sterile), while SCB-5 was not. On the other hand, SCB-5 contains most of the soil samples from this EVA and the Backroom would liked to keep those under vacuum conditions in the rock box. In the end, Jim Lovell, the spokesman for the Backroom, tells the Flight Director that they want the contents of SCB-5 in the rock box.]

[TV on.]

125:13:58 Young: Okay, Houston. You should have us now. (Long Pause)

[Charlie has been working at the MESA and comes to the Rover carrying SCB-1, which is now empty.]

125:14:36 Young: Okay.

125:14:37 Duke: ...I'll get on with this.

[Charlie turns slightly to present his SCB. John comes over and goes to his knees to release the fasteners at the bottom. After a few seconds, he hops up.]

125:14:49 Duke: Tony, I've already emptied SCB-1 in there.

[John lifts SCB-5 off Charlie's PLSS and, on the side that was against the PLSS we see a metal band which fit over two upturned metal tabs on side of Charlie's PLSS. See Figure 14-62 from the Apollo 16 Mission Report.]

125:14:59 Duke: Yeah.

125:15:00 England: Okay. Great.

125:15:01 Duke: I think I can get them both in there. I'm emptying them in, Tony.

125:15:03 England: Good show.

[John gives SCB-5 to Charlie and goes off-camera to the left. Charlie heads for the MESA and Fendell pans left.]

125:15:09 England: Okay.

125:15:10 Duke: And it packs easier that way. (Pause)

[The alternative is to put the entire SCB in the rock box and, obviously, that takes up more room. In addition, by pouring the individual sample bags in, Charlie can fill the corners in the box more effectively.]

[John comes into view with the dustbrush and starts cleaning the front of the Rover as per CDR-40. A detail from training photo KSC-71PC-777 shows the dustbrush stowed on the front of the training Rover.]

[After cleaning the TCU (Television Control Unit) mirror, John uses the dustbrush on the TV lens.]

125:15:47 Young: Say again?

125:15:48 England: I said, "thank you".

125:15:52 Young: Okay. (Pause)

[John goes off-camera to the left to stow the dustbrush on its bracket on the high-gain antenna. Fendell resumes his counter-clockwise pan.]

125:16:03 Duke: Okay.

125:16:04 Young: Okay, Houston, (as per CDR-40) going to Reset on the far UV. (Long Pause)

Video Clip ( 2 min 47 sec 0.7 Mb RealVideo or 25 Mb MPEG )

125:16:26 England: And, John, we have a new (UV camera) target for you.

125:16:32 Young: Okay. Go ahead.

125:16:33 England: 204, azimuth; elevation 26.

125:16:42 Young: Boy, Charlie, you have to watch that battery cable. It's way up in the air around this thing.

125:16:46 Duke: I know it.

125:16:48 Young: Say again the azimuth, Houston.

125:16:49 England: 204.

125:16:53 Young: No, you keep clipping out your first number.

125:16:56 England: Roger. That's azimuth 204, elevation 26.

125:17:04 Young: Okay. (Long Pause) I can't believe that! (Long Pause)

[Young, from the 1972 Technical Debrief - "It was just before ingress when we reset the (UV) camera (and) that son-of-a-gun really was hard to turn in azimuth; and I didn't think I was going to be able to turn it."]

[Fendell reaches the counter-clockwise pan limit and reverses direction. Although we can see most of the LM shadow, John is probably just off-camera to the left.]

125:17:39 Young: Okay, Houston. This thing is getting tighter and tighter in turning in the azimuth. I bet you it ain't going to make it much longer.(Pause) 204 and 26.

125:18:02 England: Rog. (Long Pause)

[Young, from the 1972 Technical Debrief - "To move the camera in azimuth completely destroyed any leveling. As the mission went on, to move the camera in azimuth got harder and harder and, finally, it got so hard that, every time you moved it, it would pick the camera up off the ground and destroy the level. I had to re-level it after every setting and that took a lot of time. And, in some cases, because we were really in a hurry, I didn't get the level where I would have like to have had it, as far as being perfectly level. Adjusting the level, using the wheels, just couldn't compensate for both the slope and picking the thing up every time. From that standpoint, it was pretty bad."]

["There was something wrong with the azimuth; it just got stickier and stickier. It didn't work at all like on the training model or either qual model. I don't know what it could have been. But, I would devote a reasonable amount of time to leveling the camera after each setting. I think we have probably devoted three to four times as much time as we'd allotted for each setting. I got behind doing that."]

125:18:22 Young: Okay; 204 and 26.

125:18:25 England: Sounds good. (Pause)

125:18:34 Young: Okay. It (meaning the UV camera) may see a little (bit of the) LM there, Houston. (If) that's what you want; we'll leave it there.

125:18:41 England: Okay. And, John, we'd like you to go to Intermediate on your cooling.

125:18:49 Young: Yeah. Okay. (Pause)

125:19:00 Duke: John, you've got to move the cosmic ray.

Video Clip ( 3 min 38 sec 0.9 Mb RealVideo or 32 Mb MPEG )

125:19:04 Young: Oh, yeah. Okay. (I'll) get it right now. (Pause)

[There is no mention of the cosmic ray experiment on LMP-29 and, after the trouble John had with it at about 120:38:45, he may have left it in the wrong place.]

[Fendell finds Charlie carrying the 16-mm camera from the MESA to the LMP seat.]

125:19:21 England: Outstanding, Charlie. The reason for putting those others in there, is they wanted the soils in the SRC.

125:19:30 Duke: Yeah. (Pause)

[The soil samples will be analyzed for volatile content, meaning the type and quantity of constituents that can be driven off with the application of heat and collected as gasses.]

[Fendell completes the clockwise pan and, as he looks over the top of the console, we watch Charlie securing the 16-mm camera on his inboard handhold.]

125:19:42 England: White ring. That's right. (Long Pause)

[John is doing something with the cosmic ray experiment. Fendell pans counter-clockwise.]

[Jones - "It looks like there's quite a bit of rock close to the LM."]

[Duke - "Yeah, scattered around. (At 119:39:33), I had estimated it, you know, 20 to 30 percent, and it's just not that much."]

[Jones - "But a lot more than there were out, say, at Flag."]

[Duke - "Yeah. Uh-huh. I think we were on a ray, here."]

[Jones - "It's striking. It's dramatically higher concentration than around the 15 or 17 landing sites, because of the ray."]

125:20:14 Young: Houston, I don't know how to tell you this, but cosmic ray unlocks down at the bottom, but it won't unlock up at the top. Which way do I push it or pull it?

125:20:27 England: It should be a lift-off. Straight up. Correction. Straight out. (Pause)

[I have been unable to find these cosmic ray procedures in the checklists.]

[Fendell stops the pan to look at the U.S. Flag and then pans up and slightly left to find the Rover high-gain antenna.]

125:20:59 England: Okay. That sounds good.

125:21:06 Young: And Charlie's right; it's up there (meaning that it is very hot). Charlie, be careful when you go past the minus-Y.

125:21:20 Duke: Okay. (Pause)

[Once Fendell finds the high-gain antenna, he pans up along the right edge until he finds Earth.]

125:21:33 England: Hey, fellows, we're able to see the Earth with your big eye there.

125:21:39 Duke: How about that. Pretty sight, isn't it?

125:21:43 England: Sure is. Man, that's weird.

[Fendell zooms in on Earth and, at maximum zoom, it covers about one quarter of the horizontal width of the field-of-view. The Earth's angular diameter from the Moon is about 2 degrees and, consequently, the field-of-view is about 8 degrees wide. A bit more than half of the disk of the Earth is in shadow and, on the sunlit portion, the blue of the oceans can be seen.]

125:22:18 England: Okay. We copy that, John.

[AS16-107- 17441 and 17442 is a pair of photos of the cosmic ray John takes at the start of EVA-2.]

[Fendell pulls back on the zoom and lowers his aim.]

125:22:24 England: That's no problem, John. That's good.

125:22:25 Duke: ...on magazine Bravo.

125:22:29 Young: Okay.

[As Houston realizes in a few moments, Charlie has mis-spoken. He has been using magazine Golf.]

125:22:33 Young: No. I haven't done those yet.

125:22:34 Duke: Okay. Tony, my frame count on magazine Bravo was 120.

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

125:22:39 England: Okay; 120. (Pause)

125:22:49 Duke: And I'm helping John load up. I'm doing the ETB right now, while he's taking pictures (of the UV camera).

125:22:56 England: Okay. (Long Pause)

[As per CDR-41, John was supposed to load the cameras, magazines, and other gear into the ETB but, because of the UV camera, he is behind schedule.]

[After looking at the Solar Wind Collector for a few seconds, Fendell lowers his aim and examines the surface between the SWC and the Rover. He then pans right, still looking at the surface near the Rover.]

[John is taking photos of the UV camera. The two down-Suns are AS16-114- 18435 and 18436.]

125:23:48 Duke: Whatever the one the checklist said.

125:23:55 England: Okay.

125:23:56 Duke: I'll tell you inside; I'm bringing it inside.

125:23:57 England: Okay. That's fine. (Pause)

125:24:06 Duke: Okay. I've got all the film, John.

125:24:08 Young: Okay, Charlie.

125:24:09 Duke: All I need is your camera, and the ETB is going over to the MESA table. And I got a great big rock: a muley.

[Fendell reaches the clockwise pan limit, giving us a view of two empty SCBs in the LMP footpan.]

["Muley" is, of course, sample 61016 ( External Link ) , which Charlie collected on the rim of Plum Crater.]

[If John stands too close to the UV camera and directly up-Sun, his shadow will fall on it.]

125:24:40 Young: Okay. I'll take it at 8 feet (focus). (Pause)

[John takes two down-Suns from 8 feet: AS16-114- 18437 and 18438.]

[Next, he takes 18439 and 18440, which are interesting cross-Suns from the south, showing Charlie in the background with the Rover and the flag to the left.]

[John's final frame, 18441, is a picture toward the northwest across the LM shadow.]

[David Harland has used 18439 to 18441 to create a mini-pan and Dave Byrne has created an alternate version.]

[As Fendell raises his aim, Charlie returns to the LRV from the MESA and leans across his seat. When he straightens up, he is holding Big Muley, sample 61016, which he holds up in sunlight in front of his faceplate and examines.]

[Charlie carries the rock around the back of the Rover.]

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125:25:20 Duke: Okay, we...(Stops to listen) What?

125:25:23 England: That's fine; we'll take it.

125:25:28 Duke: Okay. I dropped it onto the strut (and) part of it broke off. I'm sorry.

[Fendell zooms in on the U.S. Flag that is painted on the side of the LM above the MESA.]

125:25:47 Young: Okay; where does my (Hasselblad) camera go, Charlie?

125:25:49 Duke: Right here in the old ETB.

125:25:52 Young: What are we going to do with this thing? Can we throw it away?

125:25:55 Duke: Leave it under the - Throw it away; it's empty. Pull it straight up; there you go. That crummy thing!

[As Fendell pulls back on the zoom, we see Charlie standing at the MESA with his back to us. On the right side of the TV picture, a strap flaps around as John moves it out of the way. This is probably the lanyard John used at the start of the EVA to lower the ETB from the porch.]

125:26:07 Young: Look at that. (Pause)

125:26:13 England: Okay. To the items that you're transferring up, we'd like to add the Pallet 1 and the (ECS) LiOH (Lithium Hydroxide) can.

125:26:24 Young: Yes, sir.

[As per LMP-10, they had planned to take the EVA-1 pallet and the LiOH can up to the cabin after the Rover deployment early in the EVA. Because of the late landing, Houston decided to defer the task to the end of the EVA. See the discussion and dialog following 120:15:17. The pallet contains food, replacement batteries for the PLSSs and other gear. According to the Final LM Stowage List, Apollo 16 carried a 10.5-pound (4.8-kg) 'food assembly' in the LM ascent stage and two 4.6-pound (2.1-kg) 'food assemblies' in the descent stage. One of the latter is in Pallet 1 and the other is in Pallet 2, which they will take up to the cabin at the end of EVA-2.]

125:26:30 England: Okay; 65. (Pause)

[Charlie peels back the thermal blanket on the right side of the MESA. As can be seen in the TV, while the top of the blanket is white Beta cloth - like the outer surface of the suits - the bottom is gold-colored Mylar. We can also see the Velcro strips that hold the blanket closed.]

125:26:47 England: I just aim to help.

[Charlie pulls the LiOH can out of the MESA and the blanket falls closed, having been disturbed when the MESA moved in response to Charlie's efforts.]

125:26:54 Duke: No...Yeah, but hold it.

[Charlie gives the LiOH can to John. It is a cylinder about a foot (1/3 meter) long and about a half foot in diameter.]

125:26:58 Young: All right.

125:26:59 Duke: (Garbled) Let me go put this ETB over (garbled) thing.

[Although John is blocking our view, as per LMP-29, Charlie is probably putting the ETB in the plus-Z (west) footpad.]

125:27:07 Duke: I can do it over the SRC; it's all right, John.

125:27:12 Young: You can?

125:27:13 Duke: Yeah.

[Jones - "I don't understand that line about 'can do it over the SRC'. It sounds like you were a little concerned about getting the ETB in the dust? Were you saying you were going to put the SRC under it?"]

[Duke - "No, I don't think so. The SRC, at the time, is on the MESA table and I think I was talking about getting something out over the SRC, from inside the MESA."]

[Jones - "The pallet with the food and PLSS batteries."]

[Duke - "Probably. I don't remember."]

[I now believe that Charlie is probably talking about checking the pallet contents and looking at indicators - as per LMP-10 - to verify that the replacement batteries and LiOH cans for the PLSSs are good.]

[Fendell starts to pan counter clockwise.]

125:27:32 Duke: I guess maybe you did; it didn't feel like it, though. Nice soft Navy landing.

125:27:39 Young: Thirty g's.

125:27:40 Duke: (Probably getting the pallet out of the MESA) Hot dog! Look at that beauty come out of there Ha ha!

125:27:44 Young: Stick it right...Wait a minute. Wait a minute.

125:27:47 Duke: Okay. (Long Pause)

[Fendell zooms in on Stone Mountain.]

125:28:03 England: Charlie, you can adjust that LEC (Lunar Equipment Conveyor, the lanyard) if you want.

125:28:09 Duke: Okay, we will. Why don't you Velcro that (MESA blanket) down for me, John. John?

125:28:17 Young: Yeah?

125:28:18 Duke: Look; can you Velcro that down for me? Excuse me. (Pause) There, that's great. Okay. I guess we got to dust (each other) and stow (PLSS/OPS) antennas.

125:28:29 Young: What are you fixing to do with all that stuff, Charlie? Don't drop any of it.

125:28:32 Duke: All right. I'm going to put it right over here.

125:28:35 England: And, John, when you're working on Charlie there, we noticed he's got some loose straps on his tool harness. You might get those down; otherwise, he'll snag them. (Pause) Okay. It's the cover over the (SCB) hooks.

125:28:45 Young: Yeah. (Long Pause)

[Fendell pulls back on the zoom and continues his counter-clockwise pan.]

125:29:04 Duke: Okay; turn around and let me check you(r straps). You're okay on this side. Let me check the other side. (Pause) You got a couple dangling, too. Can you bend over, John? (Pause) Oh, rats. Can't see where that Velcro is on that. Okay. That's got it. Okay. (Reviewing LMP-29) I've placed the core stems; I've deployed the SRC; HEDC; Commander unload; SCB; close SRC-l; MESA blanket; big rocks. Ready for the clean EMUs.

125:29:41 Young: I think we're ready for that, Charlie. (I'll) go get the LCRU brush (meaning the dustbrush that's hanging from the front of the LCRU).

125:29:46 Duke: Okay. I'll go run get it.

125:29:47 Young: I'll get it. Let me get it!

125:29:49 Duke: Okay.

125:29:50 Young: (You're) working too hard as it is.

[In Houston, somebody asks Flight why Fendell isn't watching the crew. Fendell responds that he wants to take a look at the LCRU mirrors and Flight suggests that, when he is done with that, he return his attention to John and Charlie.]

[Once the TV is pointed over the right front wheel, Fendell lowers his aim to look at the mirrors. John comes into view, going around the left side of the Rover to get the dustbrush.]

125:29:59 Young: Yeah.

125:30:02 Duke: You know the only thing tired on me is my hands. Fingers, really. You'll never get us clean. I think this (chuckling) is a waste of time.

125:30:12 Young: Well, we're going to try it anyway, Charlie. (Pause) (Garbled)

[The LCRU mirrors are covered. At the top of the picture, John heads back to Charlie with the dustbrush.]

125:30:26 Young: Yeah. It's coming off. (Pause)

125:30:31 Duke: I think a good kick on the strut would be the best thing (to get the dust off). (Pause)

[Without raising his aim, Fendell pans clockwise. At the right side of the picture, the TV's own shadow comes into view against the front of the right front fender. For the next couple of minutes, Fendell scans back and forth across the LCRU mirror covers.]

125:30:42 Duke: And I set my water...(stops to listen)

125:30:43 Young: Bend over, Charlie?

125:30:55 Duke: Yeah. (Pause) Tony, be advised that we are not taking any SCBs up. I emptied the SCBs into the SRC.

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125:31:08 England: Okay. We copy that.

125:31:10 Young: (Were you) able to get them all in there, Charlie?

125:31:12 Duke: Yeah. All the rocks went in there.

125:31:15 England: You might put...What are you...

125:31:17 Duke: Okay, John. (Lost under Tony) dusting.

125:31:17 England: ...going to put the big rock in? That might go in the SCB.

125:31:22 Duke: (To Tony) Okay. It will.

125:31:24 Young: Won't fit! Remember?

125:31:26 Duke: No. One of them will. The one I just picked up (near the LM) will. The big one that we picked up out at Flag (Big Muley) won't fit.

125:31:36 England: Okay. (Pause)

125:31:43 Young: Okay. I've got you, Charlie, as good as I can get you. (Pause)

125:31:54 Duke: Get your hands up. (Pause) It's bad in here. You've got some dirt right in here on your...Hold your arm up. There you go. (Pause) Get your hoses clean. Man, you can feel that water running through your hose right there, John.

125:32:14 Young: I know.

125:32:16 Duke: Great feeling.

[Fendell is looking toward the left rear of the Rover and raises his aim to look at John.]

125:32:19 Young: Dropped the brush, Charlie.

125:32:20 Duke: Dropped the brush.

125:32:23 Young: (I'll) get it. (Pause)

[John circles the dustbrush, trying to get in just the right position to bob down on his right knee. He finally is ready and drops down, but he loses his balance and, for the first time, falls sideways. As he falls, he gets himself turned so that he ends up on his hands and knees. See the discussion following 119:24:37.]

[Charlie steps in to help John get up. John pushes back with his hands and rotates his upper body backwards until he is balanced on his knees. Charlie holds out his hand and John takes it as he stands.]

125:32:45 Young: No. Here. Let me dust the dustbrush first. Okay.

[John did manage to get the brush while he was down and now, after wiping it against his left hand, brushes his right leg. He then starts brushing Charlie's right arm.]

125:32:55 Duke: No. That's okay. (Pause)

[John taps the dustbrush with his hand, and then shakes the brush, in an effort to get it clean.]

[John brushes his own left forearm. Charlie laughs when he hears Tony.]

125:33:14 Duke: I don't know how we're going to get it off!

125:33:16 Young: Just do the best we can.

125:33:17 Duke: Yeah. Let me have it, John.

125:33:19 Young: Okay.

[Charlie takes the brush and works on John's left hip.]

[Here, Charlie is saying that John's strap-on thigh pocket is relatively clean.]

[My thanks to Journal Contributor George Giusti, who successfully transcribed Charlie's "I promise not to drop it." I had been unable to get more than "I promise not to (garbled)."]

[Charlie brushes John's stomach and then moves around to his right side. John turns to accommodate him.]

[Jones - "Can you say anything about the kind of force you could exert with the brush?"]

[Duke - "Not very much (force). It tended to rotate in your hand. You had a tough time getting a good grip on it. And we found out, I think, later - I just went up there and pounded my arms on the ladder - or on the strut - and more fell off than any...It seemed like to me all we were doing was just dusting the dust into the pores of the suit. We went through the motions; but you can see we didn't get much off. And it took a lot of effort. Holding anything real tight like that for long a time was really tiring."]

[Jones - "On the forearm, mostly?"]

[Duke - "Yeah."]

[Here, John is taking the opportunity to give Houston is overall impression of the site. There has been pre-mission speculation that the landing site had been subject to relatively-recent volcanism and John's observation, plus the fact that virtually all of the rocks that they've seen have been breccias, is a clear indication that there hasn't been any recent volcanism around the LM or along the EVA-1 traverse route.]

[While John was talking, Charlie started working on the back of John's PLSS, starting at the top.]

[With the PLSS out of the way, Charlie brushes John's buttocks.]

125:34:19 Duke: Okay, that's good as I can do.

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125:34:20 England: Okay, we copy that.

125:34:21 Duke: There you go.

[Charlie holds the dustbrush up, offering it to John.]

125:34:26 Young: Okay.

[John brushes the back of Charlie's right arm.]

[Charlie goes off-camera to the right. John turns the brush so that the handle is up and goes off-camera to the right to stow it at the front of the Rover. Fendell pans right.]

125:34:58 Young: Well, there's a data point. Just since the time I dusted LCRU and right now, it needs dusting again.

[Fendell finds John at the right front of the Rover. The LCRU probably got dusty when John fell.]

[John uses the dustbrush to clean the TV lens and then moves off-camera to the right.]

125:35:17 England: (Not having heard Charlie) Charlie, we think you ought to put the one that you can get in the SCB...put it in a bag and carry it up. That one that's too big, if there's nowhere to stow it upstairs, why don't you just leave that one down.

125:35:29 Duke: Oh, there's a place to stow it. We just don't have the big rock bag out!

125:35:33 England: No, we understand. It'll just get a lot of dust around the cabin with that open rock. (Pause)

[Fendell is looking at the SWC and the U.S. Flag, not having moved the TV camera since John cleaned the lens.]

125:35:54 England: That's still affirmative.

125:35:58 Young: And you want your LCRU Power switch to go to Off?

[John moves into view and stands in front of the TV while he dusts the LCRU.]

125:36:11 Young: Okay. (Long Pause)

[While John dusts, we get a good view of the flag windows on the top of his RCU. See, also, training photo KSC-72PC-140.]

125:36:39 England: It doesn't make any difference. (Pause while he listens to Fendell) Okay, point it and then turn it off.

[John points the TV down-Sun and then tilts it down to look at the left front of the Rover.]

125:36:51 Young: Okay, Charlie.

125:36:54 Duke: Please.

125:36:58 Young: Wait a minute; I got my hands (garbled). (Long Pause)

[John stows the dustbrush on the LCRU and then kneels to turn the LCRU off.]

[TV off.]

125:37:26 Young: I mean the LCRU power (is going to Off). (Pause) Houston, how do you read? Over.

125:37:36 England: Okay, we're copying you, John. And verify the DAC's turned (with) the battery to the Sun. (Pause)

125:37:52 Duke: (To John) Can you reach it (possibly meaning Charlie's OPS antenna)?

125:37:53 Young: No, I can't reach it, Charlie.

125:37:56 Duke: Okay, wait a minute. (Pause)

125:38:06 Young: (Garbled) No need to unlock it.

125:38:12 Duke: (Garbled), go ahead. Houston, how do you read? Over.

125:38:17 England: We're copying you both 5 by. How us?

125:38:19 Young: (Lost under Tony) receiving us.

125:38:22 Duke: (Hearing Tony) Okay; now we got you.

125:38:23 England: Okay. Good show, and...

125:38:24 Duke: (Lost under Tony)

125:38:25 England: ...John, while you're still out there, we'd like you to confirm that the DAC camera is turned with the battery towards the Sun.

125:38:33 Duke: I fooled you on that one, Tony; I did it.

125:38:36 England: Okay.

125:38:39 Young: (To Charlie) Wait a minute. (Pause)

[John is stowing Charlie's OPS antenna.]

125:38:47 Duke: Got it?

125:38:48 Young: No. Bend over. One time good. Okay, I'm just going to Velcro it down.

125:38:52 Duke: That's fine.

125:38:53 Young: Okay. Go.

125:38:54 Duke: Okay.

125:38:55 Young: (Garbled) that's the best I can do.

125:38:56 Duke: That's okay. Let me...(Pause)

125:39:00 Young: Can you get to mine?

125:39:01 Duke: Yeah, fine. If I can (garbled). (Garbled) get to it, that's where I can get it in that little strap there. (Garbled)

125:39:13 Duke: Okay, there it goes. Okay, you're down, John.

125:39:19 Young: Okay.

125:39:22 Duke: Okay, I'll tell you what. Let me jump up on the ladder and then you hand me that (pallet). Okay?

125:39:26 Young: Okay. (Pause)

125:39:32 Duke: We got an SCB (means "SRC"), a ETB, a core stem, and (repeating himself) the core stem.

125:39:37 Young: Okay.

125:39:39 Duke: (Probably jumping up the first rung) Man, look at that.

125:39:40 Young: You want to throw the pallet out (after you unload it)?

125:39:43 Duke: Yeah, I will. Okay.

[Duke, from the 1972 Technical Debrief - "During the ingress, I didn't feel stable enough to jump up on the ladder with the pallet in my hand. I jumped up to the first rung and John handed it up to me and then I felt stable enough to go on up with that big pallet."]

125:39:47 Duke: Got it. (Pause)

125:39:52 Young: Can you do that all right, Charlie?

125:39:54 Duke: Yeah. (Pause) Got to step (from rung to rung).

125:40:01 Young: Do you need some help?

125:40:02 Duke: No, I say you've just got to step.

125:40:04 Young: Okay, do you need some help on getting in there?

125:40:06 Duke: Don't think so.

125:40:07 Young: Okay.

MP3 Audio Clip ( 11 min 35 sec )

125:40:08 Young: Wait, you're just gonna...

125:40:11 Duke: I know it. (Pause)

125:40:21 England: Okay, John. How you going to carry that large (ECS) LiOH can up?

125:40:28 Young: Large LiOH can is in the pallet, Houston.

125:40:32 England: Okay. Fine.

125:40:33 Young: Isn't that where it's supposed to be?

125:40:35 England: That's fine.

125:40:38 Young: Okay.

125:40:41 Duke: Okay, Tony, I'm up on the porch. (Pause) Ah ha! Hatch opens. (Long Pause)

[We can hear Charlie's breathing as he gets in the LM.]

125:41:45 Duke: (Pleased with himself) Guess what?

125:41:46 Young: What?

125:41:47 Duke: I'm in.

125:41:48 England: Good show. (Pause)

[Duke, from the 1972 Technical Debrief - "You could stick the pallet inside and put it over against John's left-hand stowage area and I still had plenty of room to get in and take all the gear off of it and had the pallet back out."]

[Jones - "What can you tell me about getting in? If you had put stuff on the engine cover, would that have hindered either of you getting in?"]

[Duke - "No. Uh-uh. There was the ascent engine cover and there was a shelf (usually called the 'midstep'). The hatch was out here and you came in and you really bumped into the shelf and then the engine cover was back in here. So you wiggled your way in and started (hand) walking up that little step. And then you could use the Ascent engine cover to help you get on up. But you never leaned back over the engine cover. You were sort of wedged between the DSKY and the perch (midstep) or whatever it was called."]

125:42:05 Young: Okay. I verify that the battery covers are open. I haven't pulled the circuit breakers yet. I'm dusting the battery covers (because) they're dirty.

125:42:13 England: Okay. Understand.

125:42:15 Young: They get dirty from what you might expect; (from) opening the battery covers.

125:42:22 England: Okay.

125:42:23 Young: I think they're clean before that.

[Young, from the 1972 Technical Debrief - "When we opened the battery covers, the dirt just flew up in the air and came right back down on the batteries. We had to dust the batteries. I could see why they got dusty. There's hardly any way to avoid it. That was on the first EVA, before we lost any fenders. We were relatively free of dust in the front of the vehicle other than what we accumulated on the front of it as we drove."]

[Journal Contributor David Woods writes "I had to smile at John Young's comment: 'When we opened the battery covers, the dirt just flew up in the air'. AIR! The conspiracy nuts will be using this as proof that Apollo was a fake. For myself, it just made me smile. :-) "]

[Don McMillan has provided an animation ( 0.8 Mb ) of the battery covers on a his Virtual Rover being opened.]

125:42:47 England: Say again, Charlie.

125:42:51 Duke: Two green on the LiOH cans.

125:42:52 England: Okay. We copy that, Charlie.

125:42:57 Young: Got two green on the LiOH cans.

[Jones - "Can you tell me anything at all about those green pins."]

[Duke - "It was something to do with whether they were any good or not. Green was go and, if it was sitting on another color, you couldn't use 'em for some reason."]

[Charlie then looked in the ECS summary.]

[Duke - (Reading) "The primary had 5.2 pounds of LiOH and half a pound of activated charcoal and it was 41 man-hours at 520 Btu's per man-hour. And the secondary canister had 3 pounds LiOH, 0.3 pounds of activated charcoal, and 18 man-hours at 520 Btu per man-hour."]

[Jones - "And the secondaries - I think I remember - were the same cans that were used in the PLSS."]

[Duke - "Yeah; you're right. Uh-huh. It doesn't say anything about the pins."]

[Charlie then found a description of the PLSS LiOH cans on page EMU-1 of the Apollo 16 & 17 LM Systems Data Book.]

[Duke - "This is a good schematics. It describes the canister, here. It's 3.12 to 3.38 pounds of LiOH; 9.4 hours at 1050 Btu/hr."]

125:43:07 Young: You're kidding me.

125:43:08 Duke: No. It popped out of that stowage. Busted the snaps. (Pause) Gonna take me a few minutes to do this emptying here.

[It is not clear whether Charlie is talking about the food packages in the pallet or ones that were already in the LM.]

[Duke - "It looked like it wasn't (completely) vacuum packed. You know, like a bag of peanuts on an airliner? It was the same way. The bags were just bulged. Which means that they really weren't vacuum packed."]

[David Woods writes, "A small comment about the vacuum packed foods. I find it hard to imagine anything being packed on Earth that when exposed to the hard vacuum of the Moon wouldn't appear blown. At the very least, I would expect the food itself to begin outgassing in its container once its surroundings are depressurized."]

[See the dialog at 128:47:20 when Tony asks Charlie about the food packages, and Charlie replies that it was the overbag that had expanded. The individual food packages had retained vacuum.]

[NASA photo S72-19887 shows Apollo dietician Rita Rapp posing with some of the Apollo 16 food packages. The package in the center foreground is labeled 'Day 4, Meal A'. Details for that meal can be found in the LM Menu given in the Apollo 16 Press Kit ( 5.6 Mb PDF ).]

125:43:30 England: Okay, John; sounds good. (Pause)

[Jones - "I was just noticing through here - as I've noticed in other places and in the other missions - that, when you're talking to each other, it's at one volume level and, when you're talking to Houston, you're talking louder."]

[Duke - "That's typical. You think you've got to shout to make them hear you. No reason for that; that's just the way you do."]

[Jones- "It certainly makes it easy to understand who's being talked to."]

[Duke - "Uh-huh."]

125:44:12 Duke: You can't believe the dirt I've tracked in here, John.

125:44:16 Young: I can believe it, Charlie.

125:44:19 Duke: Old Orion was nice and clean; now she's filthy.

125:44:24 Young: Okay, (As per CDR-42) Bus A, B, C, and D (circuit breakers) coming open.

125:44:27 England: Okay. (Pause)

125:44:33 Young: All four buses open. (Long Pause) Okay, Charlie. Can I bring you the SRC-1?

125:44:58 Duke: Yeah. Look; I don't want to hit the (UV) camera. Here comes the pallet.

[The UV camera is only 2 meters southwest of the plus-Z (ladder) footpad.]

125:45:12 Duke: All right, that's a good deal.

125:45:14 Young: Yeah.

125:45:15 Duke: Watch yourself! That's not as easy as it looks, John, climbing up there.

125:45:20 Young: I know that. (I) come from a long line of cowards.

[John's statement may seem a bit ironic if one considers where he is and what he's doing. Nonetheless, it underlines the fact that none of the Apollo astronauts took unnecessary risks. When risk could be reduced by a cautious testing of the waters, the astronauts did so. Then, once they were confident in what they were doing - whether it was landing the LM or climbing the ladder - they went ahead and did it.]

[Duke, from the 1972 Technical Debrief - "John looked real stable to me coming up the ladder with the bags in his hand - the rock bags and the SRCs."]

[Young, from the 1972 Technical Debrief - "The technique I used (is), I'd stand at the bottom of the ladder and bend down and spring and I could get up to the second rung of the ladder with either the SRC or an SCB in my hand. That is really the way to fly. You feel like Superman jumping up off the ground like that."]

125:46:04 Young: Huh?

125:46:05 Duke: Are you on the ladder?

125:46:06 Young: Yep.

125:46:07 Duke: Good. (Pause) Don't fall there, babe. (Long Pause)

[Duke - "He was coming up one-handed with the SRC in one hand and you could rock off to one side. So I was just telling him to be careful."]

[Young, from the 1972 Technical Debrief - "The way I would do it (meaning the equipment transfer) is, I'd put a bag on the LEC down at the end of the ladder, take the (other) bag in my hand and leap up the ladder, hand one of the bags to Charlie, and then pull up the LEC and hand the other bag to him. That saved me a trip back down the ladder. It was real easy to pull up the LEC. You just lean against the ladder, do like this, and the thing would come up and then you'd grab it down a little further and you could pull it up in 3- or 4-foot grabs, even though the actual weight of something like the ETB was probably a good 30 (terrestrial) pounds with all the cameras and everything in it."]

[John's description suggests that, at the top of the ladder, he took hold of the LEC with his left hand, pulled it up sharply and, then, as the LEC and the attached bag rose in the weak lunar gravity and reached the top of their trajectories, grabbed the LEC farther down.]

[Young, from the 1972 Technical Debrief - "It was real easy and I'm glad we went to that LEC because, once we got (the length) adjusted, we never got any dirt in the cockpit from it - although we got so much other dirt, I don't know if it made a lot of difference."]

[The early crews used a version of the LEC which Neil Armstrong described as a "Brooklyn clothesline". The Commander would attach a bag or rock box to the LEC and move out from the bottom of the ladder to put tension on it. Then, he or the LMP would reel the bag up into the cabin. The trouble with the clothesline LEC was that it tended to pick up dirt and, as the crew pulled on it, the dust would fly off and coat both the Commander and the inside of the cabin. On Apollo 14, Ed Mitchell carried some of the gear up the ladder by hand and, on Apollo 15, Dave Scott and Jim Irwin made minimal use of their clothesline LEC. Pre-flight, John and Charlie decided that they would rather fly with a simple lanyard which, regrettably, retained the LEC designation.]

[Young, from the 1972 Technical Debrief - "I guess the recommendation of the LEC is to put the (length) adjustment strap down at the bottom of it instead of at the top."]

125:46:33 Duke: Okay. (Pause)

125:46:38 Young: Can you get it?

[John is asking Charlie if he can bend down far enough to get hold of the SRC.]

[Jones - "I gather you couldn't get your hand out to the porch, and he'd have to put the rock box in through the hatch for you. Is that right?"]

[Duke - "I could reach down a little bit; and I think I was on John's side at this time. So, yeah, I could lean down and reach out a little."]

[Jones - "So, if he stood it up on the porch..."]

[Duke - "I don't think I could reach all the way out to the porch. No. But he sort of shoved it in the hatch."]

[Jones - "Partway in the hatch."]

[The rock box was about 48 x 27 x 20 cm (18.9 x 10.6 x 7.9 inches). If John slid the box in with the long-dimension parallel to the floor, Charlie would have to reach down to mid-calf. If John pushed it in fully upright, the top of the box would be at about knee height.]

125:46:47 Young: (Garbled) (Pause)

125:46:58 Duke: Let me give you this thing here.

125:46:59 Young: Okay, give me that thing. (Pause)

125:47:06 Duke: Got it?

125:47:07 Young: Yep.

125:47:09 Duke: Okay, let me keep this SRC up where I can grab the handle.

125:47:11 Young: Okay; going back down (to the surface).

125:47:13 Duke: Okay. Now, we've got the core stems, an SCB (yet to come)...

125:47:17 Young: Yeah.

125:47:18 Duke: And that's it. And then an ETB.

125:47:22 Young: Rog. (Pause)

125:47:29 Duke: Hardest part of the whole EVA, Tony. (Pause)

125:47:39 England: Say again, Charlie.

125:47:43 Duke: I say getting into this moose (meaning the LM) is the hardest job of the whole EVA.

125:47:49 Young: Okay, and there's the pallet. What did you bring up with you?

125:47:57 Duke: I brought the pallet. We've got an SCB, the core stems, and the ETB.

125:48:06 Young: Okay. Hardly nothing in the SCB, right?

125:48:08 Duke: One big rock is all.

125:48:09 Young: Yeah. (Pause) Whew!

125:48:20 Duke: That other big muley ( 175k ) we'll get with the big rock bag later on. (Pause) Think you can do that all one-handed, John, huh?

125:48:36 Young: If I can jump up to the third rung. All I got to do here is jump. (Pause) Ah. There we go.

125:48:44 Duke: He jumps over buildings with a single bound, Houston! Faster than a speeding bullet.

[This is another reference to the comic book character, Superman.]

125:48:59 England: Okay, we copy that. (Pause)

125:49:06 Young: (Garbled) core.

125:49:08 Duke: Wait a minute. You're going to have to stick those up in the...

125:49:10 Young: Oh, don't kick them back out, Charlie...

125:49:11 Duke: I'm not.

125:49:12 Young: Hold still. I'll get them. I'll give them to you.

125:49:16 Duke: Okay. Can you hand them up?

125:49:18 Young: How's that?

125:49:19 Duke: I say great! Got them. Filthy.

125:49:25 Young: Here you go.

125:49:27 Duke: Gimme...No. (Pause)

125:49:33 Young: Here's your SCB.

125:49:34 Duke: Okay.

125:49:41 Young: Okay, let me get you an ETB.

125:49:46 Duke: Tony, read out the ETB stuff.

125:49:52 England: Okay, Charlie. You...

125:49:53 Duke: Just didn't look quite full to me.

125:49:54 England: Right, you have two HEDC mags, B and D; three HEDC mags, A, C, and H; one 500-millimeter mag L; three DAC mags, P, Q, and R; your maps; and six sample contingency bags...(correcting himself) or "containment bags".

125:50:21 Duke: Okay, John. I didn't get that.

125:50:25 Young: You didn't hear any of it?

125:50:26 Duke: I did not get those (containment) bags. See, I don't have that on my checklist.

125:50:32 Young: Okay.

[Duke - "They were bags for the bags; but I don't remember them."]

[Sample Containment Bags were flown on the J missions to help reduce the amount of dust in the cabin. The Sample Collection Bags were put inside the Containment Bags. Photos of containment bags in the National Air & Space collection courtesy Allan Needell.]

125:50:35 Young: Okay, I'll go get them.

125:50:36 Duke: Okay; they're for these cover bags.

125:50:38 Young: Yeah, right.

125:50:41 England: Okay. They're in the left front of the MESA, John.

125:50:46 Young: Yeah, I know where they're at. Okay, now it doesn't hit the deck anymore. That hit the deck some more.

[John notices that, because the pallet and rock box have been removed from the MESA, the bottom of it is no longer touching the ground.]

125:51:06 England: That's right. (Long Pause)

[The longest EVA up to this point in Apollo is the second Apollo 15 EVA, which lasted 7 hours 12 minutes. However, John and Charlie were out longer than the 6 hour 33 minute duration of the first Apollo 15 EVA.]

125:51:39 Young: Okay.

125:51:42 Duke: Yeah, I think that (meaning the containment bags) was the only thing I didn't have, John.

125:51:45 Young: Okay. (Pause)

125:51:56 England: Roger. You should have six DAC mags...Correction, six Hasselblad mags and three DAC mags.

125:52:06 Duke: Yeah, I've got all the film.

125:52:10 England: Okay. (Pause)

125:52:18 Young: These bags are on the left side of the MESA, right, Charlie?

125:52:21 Duke: Yeah.

125:52:22 Young: Left front.

125:52:23 Duke: Right where the SWC...I mean, the core stem bags were.

125:52:30 Young: Yeah, I've got them up here. (Pause)

125:52:41 England: And, John, maybe you could set the UV...

125:52:42 Young: (To Charlie) Right where the core stem bags was?

125:52:46 England: ...before you go up this time.

125:52:48 Young: Is it sample containment bags?

125:52:50 Duke: That's right.

125:52:51 Young: Okay. Oh, okay. And underneath that is a flag for the old whatchacallit. I'm not sure there's any sample containment bags in there, Char...Yeah, I guess maybe there are. (Pause) I'll bring them up separate, Charlie. (To Houston) You want me to reset the UV (as per CDR-42) before I go up this time?

[The MESA stowage diagram ( 145k doesn't provide an immediate identification of the 'flag for the old whatchacallit'.]

125:53:20 Duke: (To John) Why don't you bring the...

125:53:25 Young: (Responding to Tony; not looking forward to it) Oh, dear. Okay. (Long Pause)

[The UV camera decal, Figure 5.3-1 in the Apollo 16 Lunar Surface Procedures volume, indicates that the planned target for the next sixteen hours is a cluster of galaxies known as NGC 134 at an azimuth of 230 degrees and an elevation of 53 degrees. At 125:16:33, shortly after John arrived back at the LM, Houston had him point the UV camera at a target with an azimuth of 204 and an elevation of 26. Readers should note that, unlike the Rover Nav system which uses north as zero azimuth, the UV camera uses west as zero azimuth. This can be confirmed by a comparison of the UV camera decal, Figure 5.3-1 in the Apollo 16 Lunar Surface Procedures volume, with Table 2.3-1 in the same volume. In the table, the Sun's azimuth is listed as 87-plus degrees at the originally planned start time for EVA-1; and, because the Sun is low in the eastern sky, this table uses north as zero azimuth. In that same table, Earth is listed at an azimuth of about -41 and elevation of about 78. That is, Earth is not far from the zenith and down from it to the northwest. On the decal, Earth is listed at an azimuth of 54 degrees and an elevation of 77 degrees, and the difference in azimuth in the two sources is easily explained if the UV camera settings assume zero azimuth is west.]

125:53:45 Young: Okay.

125:53:46 Duke: ...it'll clean them off. That's what I'm doing up in the...by moving on the floor.

125:53:52 Young: Okay, (reading CDR-42) "ETB, then set the far UV". What's the target, Houston? I'm over at the far UV.

125:53:58 England: Okay. Reset. And then the target is 134 azimuth and 39 elevation.

[Note that this is not the target (No. 4) indicated on the checklist. Because the late landing, necessitated deploying the UV camera closer to the LM, the target list is being changed in real time.]

125:54:44 England: Okay, fine.

125:54:48 Young: Because it's re-moding. Boy. (Long Pause)

125:55:03 England: Okay, that azimuth was 134.

125:55:10 Young: 134 is looking at the lunar module, Houston! You don't want to do that.

125:55:17 England: Okay. Would an elevation of 39 look over it?

125:55:25 Young: Heck, no. It's at 26 now (and) it's not clearing it. (Pause)

[The LM is 7 meters tall and the horizontal distance from the footpad to the point on the ground directly under the front of the top surface is about 4.0 meters. Consequently, if the UV camera were pointed directly at the LM, any target at an elevation of less than about 60 degrees would be blocked by the spacecraft. However, because (1) the footpad is 4.7 meters from the spacecraft, (2) the UV camera is 2 meters southwest of the footpad, and (3) the horizontal radius of the Descent stage is about 2.2 meters, the LM blocks targets with azimuths roughly between 146 to 187 degrees - where zero azimuth is west in UV camera parlance. Any target outside that range should be visible.]

125:55:45 Duke: Okay, Houston, I just got a water flag.

125:55:48 Young: If you want to take a look at Charlie (with the UV camera), yeah, it'll clear it, but that's not any good, Houston.

[Readers should note that an azimuth of 134 would leave the camera pointing in the general direction of the LMP window on the north side of the LM, confirming our conjecture that, with regard to UV camera settings only, zero azimuth is west.]

125:56:05 Young: He has a water flag. (Pause)

125:56:20 England: (Giving John a new target) Okay. Azimuth is 258, elevation is 64.

125:56:29 Young: Okay. I'm going to go to Reset again; will that be all right?

125:56:32 England: That's fine.

125:56:33 Young: Because I can't make it. (Hearing Tony) Okay, Reset; Mark. 258, 64.

125:56:40 England: Rog. (Long Pause)

125:57:11 Duke: Man, that (UV camera) is some contraption, John. (Long Pause)

125:57:34 Young: 258 and 64, Houston.

125:57:37 England: Okay, fine. We'd like you to get on in then.

125:57:42 Young: Okay. That's not looking at anything that I recognize. (Long Pause)

[AZ258 and EL64 do not correspond to any of the targets listed on the UV camera decal. Because the lunar surface is so bright, he is probably not able to see any stars and, therefore, would not be commenting on his aim relative to the constellations.]

[Young, from the 1972 Technical Debrief - "There's something else I don't really understand about the Far UV camera setup and the alignment that we're doing in real time. Except for the geo-corona and the Earth (Target No. 2 on the decal), we changed every target in real time. I don't understand that. After doing it (in training) for months, we changed every target in real time. There were at least two targets that they called up and we got the alignment with the tough azimuth change (because of a sticking rotation mechanism) and they were pointed right at the Lunar Module. And, you know, when I turned the thing around, I was taking a nice picture of Charlie looking out the window. In my opinion, that's an inexcusable waste of time on the Moon - doing that kind of thing, but we did it anyway. I just can't believe we're doing that. There was one setting, when we turned that son-of-a-gun around, and it wasn't even clearing the ladder good. I don't understand that. I'll never understand that; but that's what we did. Golly! Changed every setting after we practiced these things for months and we specifically reviewed them. When we started all this business back about a year ago, about one out of four would be pointing at the Lunar Module and we'd say 'go back and research this, as we don't want to be taking pictures of the Lunar Module, surely'. So they had them all changed; and I figured that, before we launched, we had them all down in real time and, by golly, if we didn't change every target. I can't imagine that 6 hours (landing delay) could do that to you. It would (change the pointing a few degrees) on most targets, but I find it hard to believe (that targets would have to be changed). Plus, we had to move the camera after each EVA, and I don't understand that, either. It was in the sunlight after the second sleep period. The bottom half of that square box the spectroscope looks out of was in the sunlight and, after the second EVA, the upper three inches of the cassette handle was in the sunlight. Of course, that could clobber your film because, if the heat goes down that cotton-picking barrel like it probably does - and heats up that film - that wipes you right out. I don't understand that, either. That would be a tragedy to lose that (experiment) for something like that. But we may have."]

[In fact, the film was not damaged and the experiment yielded useful data.]

[Jones - "Could you see stars out in the shadow?"]

[Duke - "No. The only thing that was visible was the Sun and the Earth. The UV camera was just looking up into the heavens all the time, to me; and I don't know what they were looking at. We didn't take the time to dark adapt."]

[A related question is whether or not stellar images could have been captured in any of the lunar surface photography. All of the photos taken out on the surface were taken at an exposure of 1/250th of a second at f/8 or f/11. The two film types were SO 368 Ektachrome MS color-reversal film ASA 64 and 2485 black and white film, ASA 6000. Sky and Telescope Senior Editor Dennis di Cicco states, "Sirius and a few other bright stars might actually be bright enough to have recorded on the exposures, but the images would be impossibly small and hard to find on the original negatives. Furthermore, when such a negative was printed to show the foreground properly, it certainly would not have shown the star(s)" di Cicco notes that it would be easy to perform such an experiment on Earth. "Go out at night with a similar setup used for the lunar photos and take a similar exposure of bright stars. Develop the film and see if you can find any star images. Then, have the negative printed with an exposure that would be proper for a normally exposed daylight negative. I am confident that you'll never, ever see a star on the print!"]

125:58:17 Duke: I'm fine. Don't worry. (Pause)

[Although Charlie has gotten a warning tone indicating that he is just about out of cooling water, he will end the EVA with about a half pound left out of the original twelve pounds. He is not working very hard at the moment and, if need be, could get hooked up to the LM system relatively quickly.]

125:58:34 Duke: Beautiful

125:58:35 Young: Just like flying.

125:58:37 Duke: Put you on...The (Los Angeles) Lakers will want you when you get back. (Pause)

[The Los Angeles Lakers professional basketball team was a top-ranked team of the time.]

125:58:47 Duke: Okay. Fine, I've got them. Thank you. Well, I thought I had them. (Garbled) a little bit. I'm not closing you out, John. I'm just (pause) getting some bending room here. (Long Pause)

[Charlie is standing behind the hatch and John is still out on the porch.]

[Jones - "After you got everything in, you had to get over behind the hatch to let John in."]

[Duke - "Yeah. And I was on the right (LMP) side at this point and I swing the hatch open so that he could get in, and that trapped me behind the hatch, and you couldn't bend down; and, at this point, John's still shoving stuff in. I think he's got some sort of bags. I forgot what it was - whether it was the ETB or whatever it is...But, anyway, something that's coming in with him; and I couldn't reach down and get it with the hatch fully open, so I had to open up so I could sort of lean over the hatch a little bit and bend at the knees to get down. And, when I did that, I sort of closed the door. John didn't mention anything but I just said, you know, 'I'm not closing you out'."]

125:59:36 Duke: Okay. (Pause)

125:59:46 Young: Here's the ETB.

125:59:47 Duke: Okay. I'd get that (LEC) hook out of the way, if I were you. (Pause)

125:59:59 Young: Okay, hook is out of the way. (Pause)

[John has probably draped the LEC over the porch railing.]

126:00:12 Duke: No, I think you can get in...Wait a minute; I can get it here. (Pause) Okay, I got it.

126:00:20 Young: Okay.

126:00:24 Duke: Okay, enter your humble abode. Okay, you really got to arch your back, John, (and get your stomach low so that the PLSS clears the bottom of the DSKY). There you go; you got it. Okay, come towards me a little bit. Okay. Keep coming towards me. There you go. Okay; now bend over a little bit. Come forward a little bit. There you go; you got it. Your tool harness is hooking up on your...There you go. (Pause)

126:01:04 Young: (Phew), man! (Pause)

126:01:11 Duke: Okay. Now we're back inside (and ready to switch to Lunar Surface Checklist page 3-1).

126:01:15 Young: Why can't I turn around, Charlie.

[After John crawled into the cabin and got his PLSS past the DSKY, he came upright on his knees, facing the left rear of the crew area.]

126:01:24 Young: Hung up on something.

126:01:25 Duke: Yeah, you're sitting on the hatch!

126:01:28 Young: Oh.

126:01:31 Duke: Don't want to close it (meaning the hatch) all the way and getting all this feedwater in here.

[Jones - "The way I understand it is that the sublimator wouldn't work if the hatch was closed. On Apollo 12, Al Bean accidentally swung the door closed and there was enough of a pressure buildup from the water vapor coming off the sublimator that the sublimator quit working - although it certainly wasn't enough pressure to keep him from opening the hatch."]

[Duke - "The sublimator needed a vacuum. We'd have to go on through here and look at the checklist. (Pause) We had to close our water before we shut the hatch...It had something to do with the sublimator problem or, like I said here, getting the water condensing inside. Anyway, the whole object was to close the primary H2O on the PLSS and then close and lock the hatch. Both dump valves in Auto, and then we'd hit cabin Repress, Auto. Boy, you could hear it coming on, too, when that happened. And I think we're going to comment about that later on."]

126:01:41 Young: Okay.

126:01:42 Duke: Okay. (Reading the top of the righthand column of Card 2 Side 1) We've got to close the (PLSS) Primary H2O.

126:01:47 Young: Okay.

126:01:48 Duke: If you'll turn...There you go.

126:01:52 Young: Get yours closed. (Pause)

126:01:58 Duke: Okay, yours is closed.

126:02:00 Young: Okay, let me get yours. Get my visor up.

126:02:06 Duke: Okay (garbled). (Long Pause)

126:02:27 Young: Can you swing your (back)pack this way just a little?

[The feedwater shut-off valve is one of the three valves on the lower right rear corner of the PLSS. Charlie is probably turning to his left to swing it around so John can reach it.]

126:02:34 Young: Okay, and your water valve is closed.

126:02:37 Duke: Okay. And we can close the hatch. (Pause) Okay, (overhead) dump valve going Auto.

126:02:47 Young: I haven't got the hatch closed, Charlie.

126:02:49 Duke: Okay.

[As he did during the Depress, Charlie is using the overhead valve and probably can't see what John is doing with the hatch. Charlie is left-handed, so it is relatively easy for him to reach up to get the valve, which is near the center of the ceiling.]

126:02:53 Duke: Okay; can you lock it?

126:02:54 Young: No.

126:02:56 Duke: Okay. (Pause) Probably got to push it to lock it. There you go.

126:03:04 Young: Damn it! (Pause) Ain't locking. Why don't we wait until we get it pressurized. It's closed good and tight.

126:03:19 Duke: Okay.

[Once the cabin pressure goes above a few tenths of a psi, the hatch will seat itself. After they depressurize the suits, they will be able to bend over much more easily to reach the latch. The latch is really rather superfluous because, at 4.5 psi, the forward hatch would be impossible to open.]

126:03:21 Duke: No, not yet. I was waiting until you get out of the way.

126:03:26 Young: Okay.

126:03:27 Duke: Okay, (overhead) dump valve's in Auto. Okay, "PLSS O2 and the press flags may come on during Repress". Okay, I'm going "Cabin Repress, Auto; CB 16, Cabin Repress, Closed".

126:03:38 Young: Okay.

126:03:39 Duke: Move up (meaning "forward") just slightly. Let me turn around.

126:03:46 Young: Okay. (Pause)

[Charlie needs to turn around so he can get the valve on the front of the ECS cabinet and then the circuit breaker on the panel on the right bulkhead.]

[Jones - "You've got the Snoopy cap on inside the helmet. Repress is pretty loud in the mike, although not terribly. Could you hear it?"]

[Duke - "You could hear this, but it wasn't bad."]

126:04:01 Duke: I got an O flag (as expected).

126:04:06 Young: I got an O flag. (Pause)

126:04:18 Duke: How is the (cabin) pressure?

126:04:19 Young: Two psi, Charlie.

126:04:20 Duke: Two?

126:04:21 Young: Two.

126:04:22 Duke: Three?

126:04:23 Young: Two!

126:04:24 Duke: Oh, okay. Okay, read the checklist. Something happens at 2-1/2.

126:04:29 Young: Okay. Where is it?

126:04:32 Duke: (Garbled)

126:04:33 Young: Okay. "Cabin at 3 1/2 (garbled)"

[John is referring to the line 'PLSS O2 - OFF @ Cabin > 2.5 Psia', fourn lines above 109:25 in the righthand column of Card 2 Side 1.]

126:04:39 Young: Okay. (Pause) Okay, "PLSS O2 off at cabin 2 1/2".

126:04:54 Duke: Okay. My thing's going right down. (Repress noise subsidies) Man, it's up there already?

126:05:05 Young: Yeah.

126:05:06 Duke: That is amazing. Hey, Houston...

126:05:07 Young: Will you turn off my PLSS O2 Charlie?

126:05:09 Duke: Yeah, (garbled) another hand.

126:05:12 England: Okay, very good. You had a 7 hour and 11 minute EVA.

126:05:19 Duke: (Hearing Tony) Super! (Whistles) Master Alarm. It's cabin...Probably.

[The Caution and Warning System is telling them that the ECS is not properly configured - and that the warning system is working.]

126:05:36 Young: Press Reg A and B to Cabin, Charlie.

126:05:39 Duke: Okay, got them.

126:05:40 Young: Okay, "Cabin warning light off"?

126:05:43 Duke: It is.

126:05:44 Young: "Verify cabin pressure stable at 4.6 to 5."

126:05:48 Duke: Yeah.

126:05:49 Young: "Use Purge Valve to depress PGA (Pressure Garment Assembly) as required."

126:05:52 Duke: Okay, mine's depressed.

126:05:53 Young: Mine seems like it's depressed, too.

126:05:54 Duke: Yeah.

[They have reached 109:25 in the righthand column of Card 2 Side 1.]

126:06:02 Duke: Okay.

126:06:03 Young: White dots out plus EVA decals, plus other contingencies. Power down ones that we're using today.

[They are checking the circuit breakers to make sure none were bumped open or closed as they moved around with the PLSSs on. As indicated on 1-4 and 1-5, they have four circuit breakers open which would be closed were they not trying to conserve power because of the late landing. These open breakers are the S-Band Antenna near the left end of the top row on CB11, Mission Timer near the middle of the second row, LGC DSKY near the right end of the fourth row, and Inverter 2 near the middle of the bottom row on CB16.]

126:06:17 England: Rog. We have telemetry.

126:06:21 Duke: Okay, how does the cabin ECS look to you? (Long Pause)

126:06:34 Young: Wow, look at all them footprints out there, Charlie!

126:06:37 Duke: Great.

126:06:38 England: John, verify you locked the forward hatch.

126:06:41 Duke: (Lost under Tony) looks tracked.

126:06:44 Young: No, I didn't lock it. I will. (Pause)

[It is a lot easier to get down to lock the hatch with the suits depressurized.]

126:06:56 Young: Yeah. Now it's locked, Houston.

126:06:57 England: Okay.

126:06:58 Duke: Got to push that beauty in. That's hard to do, pressurized. In fact, it's impossible. I am so dirty, I can't believe it.