Preparations for EVA-3

Traverse to North Ray Crater

 

Loading the Rover for the EVA-3 Traverse

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 16 June 2014.

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165:33:12 Duke: Okay, 2 minutes (since the start of depressurization from 3.5 psi). We're down at zero on the gauge. Want to try it, John?

165:33:20 Young: Do it.

165:33:23 Duke: Get my arm up out of your way. There you go. There, you got it. (John grunts; Long Pause)

[The NASA Public Affairs commentator tells the press that the surface temperature is about 185 F (85 C) and has been rising steadily with the increasing Sun elevation.]

165:33:42 Duke: Okay, I know (garbled) Okay, partially open forward hatch.

165:33:51 Young: It's open.

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165:33:52 Duke: Okay, (as per Surface 6-7) we can turn on the (PLSS cooling feed)water.

165:33:56 Young: Okay. Can you going to get mine? (Pause)

165:34:08 Duke: (Your) water's on.

165:34:11 Young: (Can you) get yours, Charlie?

165:34:12 Duke: Got it. (Long Pause)

165:34:25 Duke: Tony, somebody's got an open mike down there.

165:34:28 England: Okay. (Pause)

165:34:40 Duke: Okay.

MP3 Audio Clip ( 8 min 29 sec )

165:34:42 Young: Charlie, it's going to be hot out there today. I recommend you put your visor down. Shades down.

165:34:47 Duke: I always have had mine down. I agree with you. Can't believe that shadow. It looks like we...What kind of Sun angle we got now, Tony? (Long Pause)

[Evidently, Tony does not hear the question. As shown in Figure 2.3-1 in the Lunar Surface Procedures volume, the Sun's elevation is currently about 45 degrees.]

[John and Charlie have now finished the procedures on Surface 6-7. John will now use CDR-27 and Charlie will use LMP-27.]

165:35:22 Young: Nope (Pause) Yeah, I think mine's cleared.

165:35:40 Duke: Tony, how does the feedwater pressures look?

165:35:47 England: Stand by one. (Pause)

165:35:52 Duke: Okay. Mine's clear, John.

165:35:53 Young: Good.

165:35:54 England: Okay. As soon as your flags are clear, you're Go for egress.

165:36:02 Young: Roger.

165:36:03 Duke: Okay. Flags are both clear.

165:36:05 England: Okay. Outstanding.

165:36:07 Duke: I think your (garbled) (Long Pause)

165:36:28 Young: Jettison bag and ETB, Charlie. (I) can't turn around. (Long Pause)

165:36:51 Duke: Okay. Your PLSS is on the instrument panel. There you go. Okay. You're lined up great today, John. Okay. Come to my side a little bit. Get down a little bit, if you can. Don't hang up your PLSS tool harness. There you go. (Pause) Okay. John is on the porch, Tony.

165:37:16 England: Okay.

165:37:19 Young: Almost. Okay. Charlie, hand me the jett bag.

165:37:31 Duke: Darn thing's so heavy. (Pause)

165:37:39 England: Charlie, I'm surprised you admit something's heavy in one-sixth g.

165:37:47 Duke: Well, I can pick John and his suit up, and that big jett bag, I can barely pick up. (Pause)

165:37:59 Young: Golly!

165:38:01 Duke: Heavy, isn't it? (Long Pause)

165:38:16 Young: That was the MESA it hit when it went down.

165:38:18 Duke: That's okay. Here's the ETB.

165:38:20 Young: Okay.

165:38:22 Duke: I don't want to throw it (through the hatch). The cameras are in there.

165:38:24 Young: Not going to. There you go.

165:38:26 Duke: Okay. I'll start...(As per LMP-27) Recorder is Off; I knew we were supposed to do that; Vox Sensitivities are max...

165:38:34 Young: Okay, I'm coming down the steps.

165:38:35 Duke: CB configuration. Make sure your visors are down, John.

165:38:44 Young: Thank you, Charlie. (Pause)

165:38:53 Duke: Utility Lights are Off, and I hope the floods are off. (Pause) Okay, I'm on you (garbled) (Pause) Okay, Tony. I'm coming out.

165:39:25 England: Okay. (Long Pause) Out again on that sunny Descartes Plains.

165:39:45 Young: Ain't any "plains" around here, Tony. I told you that yesterday.

165:39:50 Duke: (Now on the porch) Okay. The hatch is closed...

165:39:51 England: Okay. The lumpy Descartes Plains.

165:39:52 Duke: ...but not locked.

165:39:54 England: The lumpy Descartes Plain.

165:39:55 Young: There you go. (Hearing Tony's repeat) Understand. (Pause)

165:40:05 Duke: UV visor coming down.

165:40:11 Young: Hey, Charlie, I'm putting the ETB on the (Rover) floorboard, and I'm going back and move the UV camera.

165:40:15 Duke: Okay.

165:40:19 Young: And I'll Reset before I do (move it). (Long Pause)

[By going to Reset, John ends the measurement that was in progress.]

165:40:48 Duke: Okay, let me put your antenna up, John, if you get the chance.

165:40:51 Young: Okay. (Long Pause)

165:41:04 Duke: They won't tell us apart today. We both have red stripes.

[Charlie is wearing John's OPS, which has a red stripe on it. John is still the only one with stripes on his helmet, sleeves, and legs. Distinguishing stripes were first added to the commander's suit on Apollo 13 so that the astronauts could be identified in the TV and photographs.]

[Ulli Lotzmann provides a TV still at 170:00:15 showing John on the left with the red CDR strip on his helmet and Charlie on the right wearing John's OPS with the CDR strips on the back.]

165:41:12 Duke: How about that? (Pause) Velcro down. Okay, it's down.

165:41:22 Young: Let me get yours.

165:41:23 Duke: Okay.

165:41:26 Young: (Garbled)

165:41:28 Duke: Hmmm?

165:41:29 Young: Better come over here and lean against the ladder, so old Shrimpo can do it. (Long Pause) Okay?

165:41:51 Duke: Okay. Whoops. Okay. I'm going to turn on the TV for them. (Pause) Okay, Tony. Give me the LRV power up (procedure) so I can get the TV going for you. All circuit breakers in?

[Because John is still busy with the UV camera, Charlie wants to take care of the LCRU/TV procedures on CDR-27 and CDR-28. Note that Tony doesn't respond to Charlie's question by reading up all the steps. As a consequence, in a few minutes John and Tony will have to double check and make sure everything gets done.]

165:42:13 Young: Okay, Tony, Reset that on the UV. Houston, the forward 2-1/2 to 3 inches of the cassette hand...all the cassette handle is in the sunlight. But the battery temp on the UV is still black at 100 (F). I'll move it.

165:42:36 England: Okay. Understand. We'd like you to slide it just out of the Sun so that you feel pretty confident it'll stay in for the EVA. And I have a new setting for you. Just try to hold the alignment you have now, and we won't re-align it. (Pause)

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165:42:57 Duke: Okay, Tony. I got the batteries in. You've got a signal strength of 4. (Comm clears dramatically) You're on...

165:43:02 Young: Okay. Give me the new numbers.

165:43:03 Duke: ...(LCRU Mode Select switch setting) number 3 (FM/TV).

165:43:04 England: Okay, 240...

165:43:06 Duke: What? I don't have...

165:43:07 Young: (Garbled) settings.

[John is telling Charlie that Tony is reading up new pointing angles for the UV camera.]

165:43:12 Young: Okay. (Pause)

165:43:23 England: And we'd like you to look at the Batt temperature on the UV camera.

[Evidently, Tony did not hear John's temperature report at 165:42:13.]

165:43:30 Young: (Lost under Tony)

165:43:30 England: Okay. We won't get a picture for 5 minutes,...

165:43:32 Young: What'd you say the elevation was?

165:43:32 England: ...but the comm is sure a lot better, Charlie.

165:43:38 Duke: Okay. Okay, all the battery covers were open, Tony.

165:43:45 England: Okay. Understand.

165:43:47 Young: Okay. That's well out of the Sun now, Houston. And it's not looking at anything. It's about a foot past the ladder.

165:43:56 England: Okay.

165:44:00 Young: That's 2...

165:44:02 England: 240...

165:44:03 Young: ...40...

165:44:04 England: ...and elevation 33.

165:44:05 Young: ...and 33. (Pause)

165:44:14 England: And, Charlie, they've got a good picture at Honeysuckle. We don't have it here yet.

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[The NASA Public Affairs commentator tells the press that the TV pictures won't be available until the signal is acquired at Madrid, "where we have our communications lines set up between Madrid and Houston. They are getting, as you heard, a good picture at Honeysuckle; we simply have no means of getting it here until we re-acquire at Madrid".]

[It is currently about 9:38 a.m., April 23, 1972, in Houston or 15:38 Greenwich Mean Time. The Moon is setting at Honeysuckle and is about 10 degrees above the western horizon. In Madrid, the Moon is rising and is about 10 degrees above the eastern horizon.]

[At Honeysuckle Creek, Video Tech Ed von Renouard is using his personal Super-8 movie camera to film the video monitor. Ed found the film in 2005 and, with help from Colin Mackellar and others, we now have digital transfers of the three short clips Ed filmed during this period before Madrid acquired the signal.]

165:44:29 Young: Okay, she (meaning the UV camera)'s working, Houston.

165:44:31 England: Okay.

165:44:33 Young: Here she goes.

[Charlie is now unloading the ETB as per LMP-28.]

165:44:38 Duke: And, Tony, our (Hasselblad) cameras are loaded as per checklist.

165:44:43 England: Okay, the changes on that...

165:44:44 Duke: Tell me again what mags you want on the 500?

165:44:47 England: ...500 millimeter is magazine Mike.

165:44:54 Duke: Okay.

165:44:58 England: And while you have it in your hand, we'd like a pan of Stone Mountain with it.

165:45:05 Duke: Okay. I don't have it yet.

165:45:08 England: Okay.

[Tony mentioned this added 500-mm pan during the EVA planning discussion at 163:46:46 and said he would mention it again at this time.]

165:45:16 England: And, Charlie, we'd like the LCRU (Power) on Internal.

165:45:25 Duke: Okay. John can get that, he's right there.

165:45:26 England: Okay.

165:45:27 Young: Okay, the LCRU is going to Internal.

165:45:29 England: Good show. (Pause)

165:45:36 Young: Wait a minute. (Pause) Is that Internal, Houston? (Answering his own question, possibly having looked at the last line on CDR-27) Yeah. (Long Pause)

165:45:52 Duke: Okay, Tony. It says magazine R to the right seat. I'm going to use magazine - I think it's S...

165:46:00 England: Okay. That's fine.

165:46:04 Duke: ...on the DAC. We used up R yesterday.

165:46:09 England: Rog. (Long Pause)

165:46:50 Duke: (To himself) Okay. Magazine Mike (on the 500).

165:46:53 Young: Okay. The battery covers are closed tight (as per CDR-28).

165:46:56 England: Okay.

165:46:57 Young: LCRU covers are open 100 percent. I'll dust it because the old...(Pause) Closing the battery covers got dust on the LCRU. I suspect. (Long Pause)

165:47:40 Young: Okay, Charlie. You're taking the ETB to the (MESA) table. I'll get the big-rock bag.

165:47:44 Duke: Okay.

[As indicated on CDR-28 and LMP-28, unloading the ETB was something that either John or Charlie was going to do. Now that John has finished up the LCRU power-up that Charlie started and the dusting he started shortly after 165:46:57, he's looked at CDR-29 and has decided to pick up the final item in the ETB section, which Charlie hasn't yet done. The "pallet" is probably the geopallet on the back of the Rover.]

[John's question suggests that it was usually Charlie who did this task in training.]

165:48:00 Young: (Garbled; Long Pause)

165:48:14 England: Okay. The big-rock bag should go on the Hand Tool Carrier (HTC).

165:48:17 Duke: (To himself) Okay. (Pause)

165:48:27 Young: (Responding to Tony) You want it on the Hand Tool Carrier?

165:48:31 England: That's right.

165:48:32 Duke: I thought they said they didn't want the big rocks bouncing, but they might as well, huh? Okay. It's going on the Hand Tool Carrier.

[Comm Break]

165:49:44 England: Okay. (Pause) And, John, verify that you got the new battery for the LCRU.

165:50:01 Young: Nope, sure didn't. (Long Pause)

[This is item 1 under LCRU Power-up and Bat(tery) on CDR-27. This is one of the steps Tony should have read up in response to Charlie's request at 165:41:51. John will not install the new battery at this time but will stow it under the CDR seat.]

165:50:44 England: Okay. On Mike, 65.

165:50:50 Duke: That's affirmative. And I got a horizontal pan, east to west, three levels of it.

165:50:58 England: Good show.

165:50:59 Duke: Top to bottom of the mounteen (sic).

[Charlie's 500-mm Stone Mountain pictures are AS16-105- 17053 to 17116.]

[TV on. The camera is pointed more or less west and the Solar Wind Collector (SWC) is at the right side of the picture.]

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165:51:08 Duke: (Not having heard Tony's question) And the lineations, you can see...(Stops to listen) Yeah, they're still there. They seem wider apart today than they did yesterday, though.

165:51:23 England: Okay.

165:51:28 Duke: Okay; (reading LMP-28) "unstow (big rock bag), tidy MESA, big rock bag to HTC". Okay.

165:51:39 England: And we('ve) got a (TV) picture.

165:51:44 Duke: Super.

[Comm Break. Fendell pans left.]

[While John unstows the spare Rover battery, Charlie takes a 16-mm magazine to the DAC as per item 2 on LMP-28 and then checks the camera setting as per the last line on LMP-29.]

[As Fendell continues to pan, we see the area south of the Rover criss-crossed with Rover tracks which have darkened the surface. Fendell stops the pan with the right-front Rover wheel at the left side of the picture and then reverses direction.]

165:53:29 Young: The LCRU battery is sort of hanging up, Houston.

[Gene Cernan will have a similar problem during Apollo 17.]

[As Fendell looks toward the north, we see a trail of very dark footprints. These are crossed by a set of Rover tracks, which are not nearly so dark. The surface looks relatively soft and, on such a surface, John and Charlie probably kicked a great deal of dirt around as they walked. In contrast, the primary effect of the Rover wheels is to compact the surface and, at least at low speeds, only a small amount of soil is picked up by the wire mesh and scattered on the undisturbed surface on either side of the tracks. Jack Schmitt has speculated that, during the landing, the descent engine sweeps away large numbers of very small particles and leaves a surface with a higher-than-normal population of larger particles. These are effective sunlight reflectors and the net result is a bright surface in the immediate vicinity of the LM. Schmitt speculates that, when the surface is disturbed by walking astronauts or by the Rover, the surface is actually restored to something more closely resembling its normal reflectivity and looks dark in comparison to the brightened soil. This scene seems to support Schmitt's conjecture.]

165:53:38 Young: Give me the hammer, Charlie.

165:53:40 Duke: Under the seat here. Just a minute, John. I'll get it. (Pause) (Chuckling) You going to hammer it out?

165:53:55 Young: No, it's...You wouldn't believe it.

165:53:58 Duke: It (meaning the hammer)'s not in here, it's in that...Oh yeah, here it is. Wait a minute.

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165:54:07 England: Okay. It should come straight out of the MESA. All you can do...

165:54:10 Duke: (Lost under Tony)

165:54:10 England: ...is jiggle and pull.

165:54:15 Young: (To Tony and showing some annoyance) Yes, I know that. (Long Pause)

[Fendell finds Charlie at the LMP seat where he is holding one of the Hasselblads. He looks toward John, who is in the background at the MESA. Fendell continues his clockwise pan, but soon reaches the stop. Fendell then reverses direction and we find that Charlie has joined John at the MESA.]

[In Houston, Flight Director Pete Frank concludes that, because they still have a good battery in the Rover, there is no point in wasting any more time trying to free the spare.]

165:54:44 Duke: (To John) It's been...That battery's always did that. Can you rap...Here let...(Pause) Let me. Let me hit it.

165:54:55 Young: Charlie. Charlie, let me do this.

165:54:58 Duke: Okay. Go ahead. I'll take a picture. (Pause)

[Charlie goes off-camera to the right. He doesn't appear to be wearing a camera and is probably going to the CDR seat to get John's so he can take the pan called out on LMP-29. As John wrestles with the spare battery, the MESA jiggles. After a few seconds of this, the battery obviously comes loose.]

[The TV images moves a little, probably as Charlie gets John's camera, which he will use for the pan because it contains color film.]

[John goes off-camera to the right. Fendell follows and finds him as he puts the battery in the seat pan.]

165:55:23 Young: Okay, it's going under the left (CDR) seat. (Pause)

165:55:34 Duke: Here we are (at) sleepy little Descartes. (Pause)

[Charlie will take the pan from a spot west of the ladder strut and, therefore, from a plus-Z position in LM coordinates.]

[John appears to look at his checklist, possibly reviewing CDR-29 and 30. He reaches into the seatpan and pulls out a Sample Collection Bag (SCB), probably in anticipation of the PLSS Load-up, and then brushes the checklist with his right hand, apparently going back to review CDR-27.]

[Having completed his review, John turns his checklist page back the way it was, probably to review CDR-28 and CDR-29.]

165:56:08 Young: (Answering Tony) Okay. (To Charlie) Okay, Charlie. You got the ETB (un)loaded, right?

165:56:12 Duke: Yes, sir.

165:56:13 Young: The big rock bag is on the Hand Tool Carrier. And...(Pause)

165:56:30 Duke: (Taking AS16-116- 18574) Ah, the old U.S. flag. Looks colorful. (Pause)

[Each frame on magazine 116/E shows a set of smudges. Detail of the smudge pattern change only slowly from the begining of the magazine to the end. The smudges are undoubtedly the result of contact of a dust-ladened, damp cloth with the reseau plate in John's camera during an attempt the clean enough dust off the camera to make the settings readable. See page 10-60 from the Apollo 16 Technical Crew Debriefing.]

[John leans over his seat to check the circuit breakers as per CDR-28.]

[John stands and looks at his checklist.]

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165:57:02 England: Okay. (Pause)

[Charlie's plus-Z pan consists of frames AS16-116- 18563 to 18591.]

[Mike Constantine has assembled a high resolution version (660k). Constantine says, "Very tricky, this one! The Rover tracks all over the place meant that the foreground had to match perfectly, but that threw out the background mountains, so quite a lot of stretching, re-sizing and cheating on this one!"

[The down-Sun photo, 18563, shows a large breccia just beyond his helmet shadow and, after taking the picture, he steps to his right, perhaps to take a stereo companion, 18564. ]

[Frame 18573 shows the Solar Wind Collector. Note the bright spot on the ground created by sunlight reflected off the SWC.]

[Frame 18575 shows John working at the CDR seat.]

[In frame 18576, the Rover tracks help us see the Rover-scale undulations in the terrain.]

[Frame 18578 shows the LM and the Rover in the up-Sun glare.]

[Frame 18586 shows the western flank of Stone Mountain. Note that South Ray Crater is hidden by an intervening ridge.]

[The f-stop settings used relative to the direction of the Sun are shown on decals mounted on the tops of the film magazines. 'HBW' is High-Speed Black-and-White and 'HCEX' is High-Speed Color Exterior.]

[John walks toward the MESA carrying the SCB. He is waiting for Charlie so they can do the PLSS Load-up. Readers should note that this interval corresponds to a spike in Charlie's heart-rate record, which is shown in Figure 10-5(b) in the Mission Report. I am inclined to believe that the spike is the result of a spurious data point because there is nothing in the dialog or in the audio tape to suggest strenuous activity.]

165:57:16 Duke: Okay. Gotta get you some (individual sample) bags, John.

[John comes around the back of the Rover to the LMP seat, still carrying the SCB.]

165:57:25 Duke: Okay.

[John grabs a second SCB from Charlie's footpan and joins Charlie at the back of the Rover. Charlie is just off-camera to the right.]

[John hands the second SCB to Charlie. Evidently they had trained with the Special Environment Sample Container stowed in John's SCB. Bag 4 is not the one that goes on John's PLSS. They don't give Houston the number of the second SCB; it will fall off John's PLSS at 166:34:15 during the drive to North Ray Crater.]

165:57:45 Young: Yeah.

165:57:46 Duke: Yeah. Okay.

165:57:48 Young: (Garbled)

165:57:49 Duke: Yeah. (Pause)

[John turns to face the front of the Rover, presenting the left side of his PLSS and then steps to his left to get a bit closer to Charlie.]

165:58:09 Young: (Should I) straighten up or bend over?

165:58:10 Duke: No, you're just fine right there. (Long Pause)

165:58:56 Duke: Okay, John. That's got it. Let me cinch up on your harness just a little bit here.

[Charlie bounces sideways until he is behind the right side of John's PLSS. John leans forward, supporting himself on the back of the Rover and, thereby, raises the bottom of his PLSS.]

165:59:01 Young: Okay. How do you want me to get for that?

165:59:02 Duke: That's fine. Just right there. Pick you up off the ground, huh?

165:59:06 Young: (Laughing) Yeah.

[Charlie pulled up on the tool harness to tighten it and John started tipping to his left as a result.]

[John and Charlie have more or less changed places. Charlie is now standing down-Sun of John with the right side of his PLSS presented. John attaches SCB-4 to Charlie's PLSS. The top attachment seats easily and then John steps to his left to get behind Charlie and pulls out the bottom strap that has been hanging down, presumably from the tool harness. See Figure 14-62 in the Apollo 16 Mission Report.]

[Charlie glances at his checklist which, apparently, jogs his memory, even though there is no mention of the following item in his cuff checklist.]

165:59:38 Young: (I'm) sure it won't hurt. (Garbled)

[At 165:29:47, just before the Cabin Depress as per Surface 6-6, Charlie was supposed to turn off the MESA heater by opening the circuit breaker. As Journal Contributor Brian Lawrence notes, MESA heating is no longer required because all the food and other items requiring temperature control have been removed.]

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165:59:44 England: Go ahead, Charlie.

165:59:48 Young: If it's set right. It hasn't been running for the past 3 days.

165:59:52 Duke: I never did get that MESA heater breaker open. Remind me of that when we get back.

165:59:56 England: Okay.

165:59:57 Duke: After the EVA.

165:59:58 England: Fine. (Long Pause)

[After getting the strap threaded through a fabric loop near the bottom on the PLSS-ward side of the SCB, John kneels so he can press the Velcro patch on the end of the strap to the corresponding patch sewn on the bottom of Charlie's PLSS. This may be the best record of an SCB attachment in the Apollo video record. John stands, flips the top of the SCB closed, and then steps forward to press the latch closed.]

166:00:15 Duke: Okay, babe.

166:00:17 England: And that's no problem, Charlie.

[John looks at his checklist to make sure he has finished all the tasks on CDR-29. Charlie checks LMP-29. Readers will note that John has not called out the steps involving the core cap dispenser, the hammer, and the extra packs of sample bags but may have taken care of those earlier.]

166:00:22 Duke: Okay. Fine, Tony.

166:00:24 Young: I think it was. (Pause)

[Charlie scans his checklist.]

166:00:29 Young: Yup.

166:00:30 Duke: Okay. You gonna...(Garbled)

166:00:34 Young: Gotta reset the UV.

166:00:35 Duke: Okay. (Pause)

[John heads toward the UV camera, which is hidden by the Rover seats, and Charlie bounds off-camera to the left. Fendell follows John.]

166:00:41 England: Okay. Good show. You fellows are really getting smooth.

166:00:44 Young: Okay. You want the battery temp? Did I give you that battery temp...(Stops to listen) Did I give that (UV camera) battery temperature, Houston?

166:00:50 England: I didn't hear it. ...

166:00:51 Young: Do you want me to set the UV, or what?

166:00:52 England: ...If you want to read it off; yeah. (Pause)

[John reported the battery temperature at 165:42:13. Near the UV camera, John bobs to one knee twice, undoubtedly to retrieve something.]

166:01:23 England: Okay.

166:01:27 Young: Okay...

166:01:28 Duke: Now what?

166:01:35 Young: ...170 F is black or it looks black. Actually, there's so much dust on it, I really (laughing)...Kind of bad to have black labels on a black surface. 170 F is black, as you might suspect.

166:01:44 England: Okay. We copy that.

[Charlie comes into view and reaches into his seatpan. For the next minute or so, he appears to be working on his seatbelt.]

166:01:47 England: Negative. We'd like to leave it out.

166:01:49 Young: What do you want to do with the battery? (Listens) Oh, golly! Okay.

[John runs toward the Rover.]

166:01:59 England: Okay. I guess we're changing our mind. We would like to put it in the shade.

166:02:06 Young: Yeah, that figures. (Retracing his steps) Okay, back to the battery. (Long Pause)

[Charlie props the end of his seatbelt on a support next to the console to get it out of the way. He then gets an empty SCB out of the seatpan and, finally, closes the seat.]

166:02:30 England: Rog. Reset, and I have the new settings. Azimuth 007, elevation 15.

166:02:43 Young: Okay; Reset. 007 and 15. Okay. (Long Pause)

[Charlie takes the empty SCB to the back of the Rover and attaches it to the HTC behind the LMP seat. He then goes off-camera to the left.]

[Charlie comes into view, takes hold of the DAC staff and rotates the camera, possibly to check the settings. He then goes off-camera to the left.]

166:03:33 Duke: Okay. I'll go out here, John, and see if I can find a landmark to get lined up on.

[During the return to the LM at the end of EVA-2, the Rover Navigation system stopped working. Although Houston believes the problem was caused by improper switch settings, the health of the Nav system won't be known until John and Charlie are on their way to North Ray Crater.]

[Duke - "I was unsure that the Nav system was going to be working; and so I ran out 50 to 100 yards to the north of the Rover and turned around and tried to sight on something between the LM and Stone Mountain. And my thought was, we can always see Stone Mountain and I'll pick a spot and we'll just aim for that spot on Stone Mountain and, if we've been going mostly directly north, when we come back, if we're not in our tracks, we'd just head for that point. And that would get us back."]

[Jones - "You wouldn't be far off."]

[Duke - "Uh-huh."]

[Jones - "I imagine it would have been a hard place to get lost in with all the landmarks around."]

[Duke - "It'd be easy. You don't see a lot of many of the things; a lot of the landmarks, you know, are down in those swales and all, and they all just disappear. You know, if you went out and back in your set of tracks, you're okay; but the big loops we did, like on EVA-2, when we thought we lost the Nav, John was biasing back to the east so that, eventually, we'd run across our tracks. But, you know, you could be a hundred yards away from something and, if you're on the wrong side of the hill, you wouldn't see it. I'm glad we had the Navigation system. I would have hated to have been up there without one."]

[John heads for the Rover.]

166:04:05 Duke: Okay, if we can keep Crown Crater and that...There's a big one to the bottom, one down on the first terrace and then one on the second terrace. (If we can keep) those three sort of in a line, coming home, we got it.

[Fendell starts panning left.]

166:04:21 Duke: Okay. I'm coming. I got to go to Mode Switch (position) 1 before we start moving?

166:04:26 Young: Yeah. That in your checklist?

166:04:28 Duke: Yeah.

166:04:30 Young: Okay, well, let me get in.

166:04:35 Duke: Okay. Why don't you bounce in.

[TV off.]

166:05:07 Young: (Joking as Charlie jumps in his seat) Gee whiz, Charlie. I think you broke it.

166:05:08 Duke: I hope not. (Pause)

166:05:17 Duke: Tony, a point - not that mission before - but this seatbelt adjustment was just perfect for me - from the airplane.

166:05:28 England: Okay, good data point.

166:05:29 Young: And me, too. Seatbelt...Seatbelt's fastened.

[Jones - "I gather that, after the experience the 15 crew had with Jim's seatbelt not fitting right, you spent some time in the one-sixth-g (KC-135) aircraft adjusting your seatbelts?"]

[Duke - "We did, yeah. We got a new belt, a new design; and then we went up in the one-sixth gravity in the airplane and adjusted everything so it would be preset for us."]

166:05:37 England: Okay, that's fine.

[The LRV power-up configuration is shown in the LRV Operations Decal, which is Figure 3.7-9 in the Lunar Surface Procedures volume. See, also, Figure 1-22 in the LRV Operations Handbook and the accompanying MSFC photo, which show the console.]

[John will turn the Rover until he is headed directly down-Sun as indicated by the Sun-Shadow Device. See Figure 1-27 in the LRV Operations Handbook.]

166:06:20 Duke: (Agreeing) Umm. (Pause)

166:06:25 Young: Charlie, now what...

166:06:27 Duke: That feels pretty level.

166:06:28 Young: Yeah, I reckon.

166:06:29 Duke: I reckon too.

166:06:31 England: Right. On the Drive Enables, we'd like the Left Rear and the Right Rear to PWM-2.

166:06:41 Young: Yeah, we've got that. It's normal configuration.

166:06:43 England: Okay, good show. That's what we want.

166:06:45 Duke: Okay, we're in 3 degrees right roll. Hey, the pitch needle is behind there, and I would say it's saying 2 degrees pitch up if the little needle was right in the middle. But it isn't very much (pitch), Houston.

166:07:03 England: Okay.

[During the drive up Stone Mountain to Station 4, the pitch scale de-bonded and fell into the bottom of the instrument, but the indicator needle stayed in place. John got used to the pitch indicator during training and can estimate his pitch from the position of the needle relative to the case.]

166:07:19 England: Okay, we copy that, and we need an SSD (Sun-Shadow Device) reading.

166:07:21 Young: ...And I think we're pretty well level in pitch. (Stops to listen) Three and a half degrees right. Almost four. No, three degrees right, excuse me.

166:07:31 England: Okay, copy.

166:07:33 Duke: And we're...Our...

166:07:38 England: And if...

166:07:39 Duke: Our heading is 264, if you can believe such a thing.

166:07:43 England: Okay, and if you want to power up...

166:07:44 Young: That's about right on.

166:07:45 Duke: Yeah.

166:07:46 England: I'd like the LRV readings.

166:07:51 Young: We're powered up.

166:07:53 Duke: Okay, 60 on the left. Okay, 264, 000, 000, 000, amp-hours is 60, 115; off-scale low, off-scale low. Okay, volts are 65, 65; 102, 120, off-scale low, off- scale low; and off-scale low, off-scale low.

166:08:27 England: Okay, we'll stick with the normal configuration you've got there, and we'd like to verify that you went back to Amps on the readout.

166:08:41 Young: That's verified.

166:08:43 England: Okay. (Pause) Okay, we've got 258 on the torquing angle. (Pause)

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166:08:52 Young: The rascally thing is only off...(Stops to listen) Okay, 258.

166:09:08 Young: How about that? I put my (PLSS) Diverter in Minimum; I didn't think I'd reach it on this round.