Deploying the Rover

ALSEP Off-load

 

Loading the Rover

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 27 July 2014.

MP3 Audio Clip ( 11 min 58 sec )

119:40:48 Young: Okay. "Off-load and deploy the far UV" (as per CDR-8). (Long Pause)

[John will aim the UV camera at a variety of astronomical sources and take pictures on ultraviolet-sensitive film. Because the Earth's atmosphere strongly absorbs UV radiation, observations can only be made above the atmosphere. Early observations had been made with sounding rocket flight and, after its launch on 7 December 1968, the Orbiting Astronomical Observatory satellite was used to make extensive observations. The Apollo 16 camera provided coverage at shorter wavelengths than could be detected with the OAO, and, of course, could observe the whole Earth.]

[A detail from AS16-107-17436, a frame from a LM pan Charlie takes at the start of EVA-2, shows the empty Quad III Payload Pallet compartment where the UV camera is stowed. Quad III is on the northeast face of the spacecraft. The thermal blanket that covered the compartment hangs down from the bottom. As indicated on page 194 of the Final Lunar Surface Procedures document, the LRV Aft Pallet was stowed to the left of the Payload Pallet.]

[Note that John is at 0+50 in his checklist. The EVA started 47 minutes ago at 118:53:33. At 119:14:56, just before John started the LRV deployment, he was about 8 minutes ahead of schedule and, since then, he has lost only about 5 minutes. Compared with Apollo 15, the LRV deployment has gone quite smoothly.]

119:41:07 Duke: Yeah. You might give a word.

119:41:11 Young: Oh, I'm looking at a rock here that's got all kinds of dark clasts in it, and biggies (meaning large clasts) and that's got to be a breccia. Too many different kinds (of clasts). Yeah. It is.

[Most of the rocks at the landing site are breccias, a type of rock made up of fragments of other rocks merged together by the high stresses that occur in an impact. Because many in the geologic community were expecting to find various types of volcanics at Descartes, this is a significant observation early in the EVA.]

[Muehlberger, from a 1996 e-mail message - "John Young - describing a rock near the LM as having dark clasts, that were biggies, and stating that it has 'got to be a breccia', as he was standing in front of it - should really have gotten our attention. Again it was during a time that all of the conversation to this point had been concerned with powering down, getting into their suits, getting onto the lunar surface, and off-loading equipment, so it, too, could have gone on past our consciousness at that time. I hope that it didn't get by all of us that were involved!"]

[See, also, Bill's comments following 107:05:28.]

119:42:05 Young: (Laughs)

119:42:06 Duke: ...and separation. What is it, John?

119:42:13 Young: (Laughing) Pulled the top out of the MESA blanket.

119:42:15 Duke: Oh.

[AS16-112- 18217 shows some of this structure near the Stone Mountain summit.]

[John probably mis-spoke when he said "MESA blanket". He is probably removing a thermal cover from the Quad III pallet that contains the UV camera.]

119:42:21 Duke: The guy that invented Velcro didn't know his own strength! (Straining) I got to get this blanket back.

[Charlie is on LMP-7. He has put the Hasselblad camera in the Rover floor pan and is now removing the LCRU (Lunar Communications Relay Unit) from the MESA. He is having trouble moving the thermal blankets.]

119:42:45 Duke: (Proud of himself) Look at that LCRU come out of here! Hah! No struggle. (Long Pause) Now, I can't bend the suit. (Pause)

[As per LMP-7, Charlie has probably carried the LCRU over to the Rover and is trying to get low enough to mount it on the front of the Rover. See Figure 2-13 from the LRV Operations Handbook.]

[Jones - "After you get the LCRU out of the MESA, you install it on the front of the LRV. And that must have been fairly low. Would that have been a problem getting down to get it into position?"]

[Duke - "Yeah, I think so. Uh-huh, to bend down at the knees."]

[Jones - "Did you have to use two hands on the LCRU?"]

[Duke - "I think so."]

[There is good video coverage of the LCRU installation on Apollo 15.]

[Duke - "If I remember, he had trouble reaching back into there. And he was thinking he was going to have a tough time reaching in and getting that...There was a covering over the UV camera, and that's why he was so excited, because it came out with no problem at all. There is a problem, I think. You've got to be very careful that you try to cinch things down and Velcro things down in one g and then, you get up on the Moon and you might have to reach just a little bit farther and you try to pull things away and pull the Velcro off...And that Velcro was very, very strong. You know, an inch-wide strip of Velcro that's maybe six (or) seven inches long - and it's fresh - is really difficult to pull. That's why we said earlier we could pull - just trying to get the Velcro off the Rover seats, we could pick up the whole vehicle!"]

119:44:10 Duke: You got it!

119:44:11 Young: Look at me carry it! I'm carrying it over my shoulder!!! Ha ha ha! I guess we don't have to worry about dust getting on it. Boy, one-sixth g is the neatest environment you can find for this kind of work. (Long Pause)

[In person, John Young is a slight, quiet, reserved man who rarely makes eye contact. The exuberance he shows here makes a stunning contrast.]

[Duke - "John was ecstatic with the one-sixth gravity. You know, in the training, even the lightweight stuff we had was difficult to horse around - these experiments and the UV camera and all that stuff - and, up there, like he said, he could just throw it over his shoulder."]

[Young, from the 1972 Technical Debrief - "Okay, the far-UV camera. I didn't have any problem with off-loading it. I expected trouble from the bags. It came loose and I expected trouble picking the thing up and getting it off and I expected problems with keeping it out of the dust. I was able to get around the front of the vehicle (meaning the west side of the LM) and hold it over my head. It was easy to carry that weight around."]

[John was probably able to flex his suit more than any of the other astronauts. Few would have been able to carry anything above shoulder height because of restricted arm movement. Unfortunately, we have no TV of John performing this feat.]

119:45:00 Duke: Okay.

[The diagram on CDR-9 shows that John is to place the UV camera 15 feet from the LM in the spacecraft shadow.]

119:45:32 Duke: (Straining) Astromate connectors. I'm an astro-matey. (Long Pause)

[Jones - "Astromate connectors?"]

[Duke - "It was a push-and-turn type deal."]

[Jones - "Was it a multiple pin-type connector?"]

[Duke - "Yeah, it was; but they had alignment marks."]

[Duke, from the 1972 Technical Debrief - "Everything went well on the LRV load-up until I tried to get the power connector on from the LRV to the LCRU. The flight gear is really stiff and the cable had a set in it and it was just tough for me to get that Astromate connector on. It took a lot longer than in training, but it finally locked in and that was really the only problem I had on the front end of the load-up."]

[Young, from the 1972 Technical Debrief - "The cables were what was stiff."]

[Duke, from the 1972 Technical Debrief - "You'd get the connector aligned and, to see where you were aligned, you had to put it in place and get over to the side; and, when I'd do that, the cable would spring out again."]

119:46:14 England: Okay. (Pause)

[Here, John is using "wheels" in the aircraft sense of landing gear. There aren't any wheels on the bottom of the UV camera legs since small wheels would serve no purpose in the soft lunar surface. See figure 3.4-4 in the Lunar Surface Procedures volume.]

119:46:20 Duke: What?

119:46:21 Young: Do you know where I'm gonna have to put this contraption?

119:46:23 Duke: Where?

119:46:24 Young: Right here. According to my picture. (Pause)

[Young, from the 1972 Technical Debrief - "The place that we had to mount it in the shadow was in a small, subdued crater with about a 3- to 4-degree slope, and probably it was more than that. The only way I could get the camera level was to really step down on two of the legs, push them clean down out of sight in the dirt, with the other leg sitting right on the surface. And that was the first problem I had with it."]

119:46:36 England: That's close enough to due west. It'll be about 3 degrees off.

119:46:43 Young: Well, I can set it 3 degrees some way or another.

119:46:47 England: Okay, bias it north slightly.

119:46:52 Young: Okay. A little north bias. (Pause)

[As indicated in Figure 2.3-1 in the Lunar Surface Procedures volume, the Sun is slightly north of east. The time is currently about 1741 GMT on April 21, 1972. From the chart, the sun is about 6 degrees north of east. The LM shadow is tapered and that might explain Tony's estimate of a 3-degree bias.]

[In addition to the task list on CDR-10, John has a "cronopaque" sheet with detailed procedures printed on one side and a target list on the other. See Figure 5.3-1 from the Lunar Surface Procedures volume. Cronopaque is a photographic paper and, according to the Lunar Surface Procedures volume, this set of instructions is "attached to the Far UV Camera by a Velcro strap". The list is the square object at the upper left corner of the camera in AS16-114- 18439. Markus Mehring has produced a detail showing the list.]

[Duke - "It wasn't going too well, I remember. If I remember, you had to push it and lock it; and it was difficult to get enough strength (means leverage) to push it in and overcome the tension in the thing to lock it. I remember we worked hard on that."]

119:47:45 England: Okay, that sounds good.

[John is looking at a patch called a tempa-label with a series of spots which change from white to black successively higher temperatures. A detail from Apollo 16 training photo KSC-71P-111 shows a tempa-label on the handle of a UHT.]

[Duke - "If I remember, they started about 100 degrees and went up every 50 degrees. There was a little patch that would turn black when the temperature got to that limit. So it was like 100, 150, 200, 250. And then I think it might have even had a 300 on it. That was one thing I thought we always should have had, was a thermometer up there on the surface. And Apollo never had a thermometer on the lunar surface; just had these little decals."]

[Young, from the 1972 Technical Debrief - "The second problem (with the UV camera), which was a continual one, was the battery cable. Even though I didn't deploy the battery too far out in the sunshine, the battery cable had a mind of its own and insisted on staying about 4 inches off the ground around the camera where I was walking, even though I pulled the whole thing back in there. So, every time I walked around the camera, I had to pick my feet up to avoid the battery cable; and 2 or 3 times I tripped over it but, fortunately, it was the battery that moved and not the camera."]

[John can be seen stepping over the battery cable in training photo KSC-71P-628.]

119:48:46 Young: I thought you might have, Tony.

[They had planned to start the first EVA at 102:25 and to reach this point in the timeline at about 103:25. The 16-hour difference would create a pointing difference of about 8 degrees for all targets other than Earth.]

119:49:20 Duke: Hey, Tony, now that we got this little beauty (meaning the suit) pressurized, the suit just feels perfect.

119:49:27 England: Good show.

119:49:29 Young: Pull the...

119:49:30 England: Shall we give credits to the tailor?

119:49:35 Young: ...plate pin. (Pause)

119:49:41 Duke: I'll give credit to Clyde and Troy and those guys and everybody who helped me get it fitted right.

119:49:47 England: Right.

119:49:48 Duke: It was a little doubtful there the first time in the LM, but...(Pause)

[Duke - "Clyde and Troy were our suit technicians. Troy Stewart (shown with Neil Armstrong and Deke Slayton) was an Air Force Sergeant. Clyde Teague (shown with Wally Schirra in September 1968) was retired military but was working at NASA. I don't now about Clyde, but Troy's still around, I think. And they were suit techs, working in Crew Systems Division. They were with us the whole flight. They got everything fitted and they took care of our suits - the flight suits and the training suits."]

[Jones - "One of the things I've discussed with Jack a bit is: at what point does a full-time suit tech becomes necessary at a lunar base? One of the questions is: How many 8-hour EVAs do you think you could have gotten out of the EMUs before you really had a problem, even with the maximum maintenance you could do with more elbow room - say a suit prep room or something like that."]

[Duke - "To me, the suit probably wasn't going to be the limiting factor. It was going to be the PLSS, probably, because it had all the mechanical components. The suit was basically solid; and I felt that if you kept it clean - all the connectors and seals and stuff like that - after every EVA, like we tried to do - it was going to work. It wasn't going to get sticky and the seals wouldn't be abraded and start leaking."]

[Jones - "Could you have gone ten EVAs?"]

[Duke - "It's hard to say. Even though the suits look ratty on the outside - you know, they were covered with dust and they'd turned gray - the integrity of the suit was still solid. You know, we pressurized that suit four times: three on the Moon and one coming back (for Ken Mattingly's EVA). I think, with a good maintenance schedule, you'd have been alright for ten EVAs, probably. I'm not sure you need a full-time suit tech. I think you could train on your suit to do some preventive maintenance and learn how to replace laces and stuff like that. And we had done that a little bit. On the way out, my suit didn't fit. I felt like I had gotten it too short in the torso."]

["You could let out the legs. The legs had these laces and you could undo the laces and sort of work it around and it would extend the leg; and I was about ready to do that. I felt like I could do that. I had seen the suit techs do it; but they (meaning Houston) nixed it. They didn't want me to do that, in case I screwed it up. But with just a few more hours of preliminary training on cleaning seals and making sure the laces are right and preliminary inspections, I think a guy could maintain his own suit."]

["Now, I'm not so sure about a backpack, of course. If you've got a mechanical problem, if a pump goes out or a cooling loop or you get a little leak here or there, then you're going to need somebody that's technically qualified to deal with it."]

[Jones - "It's going to be an issue when you start talking about people spending six months at a lunar base or, for some of the extended Mars missions where they're talking about six month to one-year stays."]

[Duke - "I wouldn't waste a spot (that is, a crew position) with just a suit tech. If you're going to have a guy who's technical, you need somebody who can be an expert on the environmental control systems and the suits and the Rover and whatever you're going to have up there."]

[Jones - "A general Mr. Fix-it."]

[Duke - "Yeah. Uh-huh. Somebody that was well-trained in everything. That's going to be interesting - the crew make up. A lot of thought should be given to that."]

[I had a delightful conversation with Troy Stewart on Jan. 18, 1996. He said that the cover layers on the training suits got shredded from working on the sand at the Cape. On one occasion, he made a pink, heart-shape patch to cover a rip on the seat of Charlie's training suit.]

[Journal Contributor Harald Kucharek notes that training photo KSC-72PC-154 shows Charlie sporting blue, heart-shaped patches on his right thigh and right sleeve.]

[Troy mentioned that the Beta cloth was also subject to abrasion, particularly in places where it was ground between the PLSS and hard features inside the suit. Later, the Beta cloth was replaced with a Teflon-coated Beta, which had better wear properties. They did periodic maintenance on the training suits, roughly once every 25 use-hours unless something particular came up. The rings and seals were cleaned and lubricated daily. He did not look at the flight suits in detail after the missions but noted that they all looked like they had been sprayed with graphite powder.]

[Troy worked on Apollo 11, 13, 16, and 17. He also said that, during the stand-down after the Challenger accident, he was a suit subject during some development work on an 8-psi hardsuit for the Space Station. He said that the hardsuit is easier to manipulate at 8-psi than the 4-psi soft suit - except for the hands, which are about the same on the two suits.]

119:50:03 England: (Laughs) Now we got a data point; magnets work on the Moon.

[In a 1996 exchange of e-mail, Tony England suggested that the magnet in question is the magnet inside the camera used to focus the electrons produced by the UV radiation on a photocathode. See Figure 13-2 in the Preliminary Science Report. Evidently, something on John's suit was attracted by the magnet as it had been in training. Possibilities include his watch and pressure gauge. His wristrings are made of aluminum and would not be attracted.]

119:50:22 Young: Charlie, I forgot to put in the Aux circuit breakers over there (on the LRV console). Push it in.

119:50:26 Duke: Aux circuit breaker going in.

119:50:28 Young: Okay. That'll save us some trouble. (Pause)

[Charlie has installed the LCRU and the TCU (Television Control Unit) on the front of the Rover and, next, will install the low-gain antenna on the top of John's inboard handhold. The low-gain only has to be pointed to within about 30 degrees of Earth and, because the Earth is nearly overhead, John will not have to change the aiming as he drives. Figure 2-13 in the LRV Operations Handbook shows the installation of the TCU and Figure 2-14 shows the low-gain antenna. Retired RCA technical illustrator James Burns has provided a drawing of the antenna storage canister he did prior to Apollo 15. Figure 3.1-4 from the Apollo 15 Final Lunar Surface Procedures volume (9 Mb) shows the canister stowed on the lefthand side of the MESA. The canister contains both the low-gain and high-gain.]

119:50:40 Young: Isn't that nice?

119:50:42 Duke: I was really worried about that one, babe. (Pause)

[Jones - "Did you ever cross-train for these things (that is, did Charlie do any training on John's tasks)?"]

[Duke - "A little. I don't remember much about it; but, yeah, I could deploy the UV camera and I knew how to do the experiments at the Central Station - how to get 'em out and aligned and level. We didn't practice much, I think; enough to be familiar with it."]

119:51:13 Duke: (With a touch of triumph in his voice) Ahhhh! Just like in the training building!

119:51:19 England: Aw, come on. I doubt that. That's got to be better...

119:51:20 Duke: Tony, you look away...In fact, (if) you look anywhere but...(Responding to Tony) Well, I mean the gear's working exactly like we...And I'll tell you, those guys - (John) Covington and all of them and Jerry Stoner(?) and Bob Kain and that group are all - Roger Copa (??) - they were all slave drivers, but it's really paying off, I'll tell you. (Pause) The low-gain is connected to the...I should have say the "ankle bone" but it ain't, it's the LCRU (as per LMP-8). (Pause) Okay, (reviewing LMP-7) "install TCU; unstow rake; connect low gain; (on LMP-8) install high gain." That's what I thought. (Long Pause)

[We have good video of Dave Scott installing the high-gain antenna during Apollo 15. The locking collar at the base of the antenna staff is shown in Detail A in Figure 2-12 in the LRV Operations Handbook.]

119:52:35 Duke: Ha! This (locking collar installation) is so easy! (Pause) This (garbled). (Long Pause)

[After locking the high-gain staff in place, Charlie opens the umbrella-shaped, wire-mesh dish.]

[Although Charlie is supposed to align the high-gain antenna next, the following dialog suggests that he skips that step in order to install the TV camera.]

119:53:44 England: Outstanding. That's got to be a first.

119:53:49 Duke: It is for me. (Long Pause)

[During the 1992 mission review, Charlie was fairly confident that, here, he was installing the TV camera and connecting the cable. The cable connection had given him trouble in training.]

119:54:05 England: Okay. (Pause)

[John is leveling the UV camera as per CDR-10. With it leveled and, initially pointing down-Sun, he will be able to point at various targets using an elevation gauge near the top and an azimuth gauge at the base. See NASA training photo KSC-71P-628.]

119:54:16 England: Okay, we'd like to make the azimuth 98.

119:54:26 Young: (Surprised by the big difference) 98?!

119:54:28 England: Right, we're changing targets.

119:54:29 Young: That ain't even close. (Hearing England) Yeah. (Chuckling) Okay.

119:54:37 England: And the elevation is 28. (Pause) And watch the film advance as you turn the power on. (Pause)

119:55:00 Young: And turning it in azimuth just completely destroyed whatever level it had. 98 and what now?

119:55:10 England: (Annunciation carefully) 98 and 28. (Pause)

119:55:26 Young: 98 and 28. Okay. (Pause)

[Meanwhile, Charlie is aiming the high gain using the handle and sighting scope shown in Figure 2-13 in the LRV Operations Handbook. Photo AS16-110- 18008 gives a good side view of the sighting scope at Station 5 and AS16-108- 17671 shows John doing an alignment at Station 8.]

119:55:39 England: Outstanding.

119:55:45 Duke: Gonna be right on, babe. I think. Oops. Hey, you really got to bend back to see that beauty (meaning Earth). Y'all are right overhead! Okay, TV. (Long Pause)

[Jones - "Could you get your head back far enough to actually see it?"]

[Duke - "By leaning back, holding onto the antenna mast or the ladder or something, you could do it. It was difficult, though."]

119:56:41 England: Okay. (Pause)

119:56:51 Young: Okay, Houston, will you go with this bubble just broke off on one side, or do you want to level it every time?

[The level bubble is in a small, covered, bowl shaped cavity.]

119:57:03 Young: Yeah, it's off the case.

119:57:04 England: Okay, that's fine. As long as it's off the case.

119:57:11 Young: Okay. (Long Pause) Okay. Now, all you want me to do on this first one is turn the power switch on, right?

119:57:43 England: Right. Power switch on, and watch the film advance as you come on so you can tell us how many degrees.

119:57:52 Young: Okay, it looked like it was better than 90. That's about all I can say about it. Maybe 100 or 110.

119:57:58 England: Okay. (Pause) Let's just leave it there.

119:58:06 Young: Okay. (To Charlie) Hear that VHF (Very High Frequency)?

119:58:11 Duke: Is that what that is?

119:58:12 Young: Yeah.

119:58:13 Duke: Ah, so. I can hear it, John.

119:58:26 Young: Yep. (Pause) (To Houston) Okay, I guess that tells us something about the camera operation.

119:58:29 England: Right, the mode change works.

119:58:30 Young: It started, I'm sure, Houston. (Hearing Tony) Yep. Well, I don't know. That'll probably be in a minute or two - like two and a quarter minutes. Okay. I'm gonna...(Pause)

[Apparently, some function in the UV camera generates a VHF signal that can be picked up by the comm system. The other possible source of VHF is the Command Module which, however, won't pass over the landing site for about another 16 minutes and, consequently, is well below the local horizon.]

119:59:17 Duke: (Garbled) (Pause) Okay, Tony, I'm reading, on Internal, S-band (signal strength) is 26, Temp is 14, Power is 22. Over.

119:59:40 Young: Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.

119:59:41 England: Okay, we copy.

119:59:42 Young: Look at this, Charlie.

119:59:43 Duke: Yeah.

119:59:46 Young: I can carry it over my head. (Chuckles)

[As per CDR-10, John is carrying the Quad III LRV Aft Pallet to the Rover. This pallet was stowed just to the left of the Quad III Payload Pallet compartment where the UV camera is stowed, which is shown empty in a detail from AS16-107-17436, a frame from a LM pan Charlie will take at the start of EVA-2. As indicated in Figure 3.4-1 in the Lunar Surface Procedures volume, the LRV Aft pallet contains a variety of geology tools and, also, the penetrometer and the Portable magnetometer. John is at the 1:05 mark in the checklist. The EVA started at 118:53:33 and, consequently, John is on schedule.]

119:59:58 Young: He gets paid double time, Charlie.

120:00:00 Duke: I'll tell you.

120:00:01 Young: For every strip.

120:00:05 Duke: (Grunts) It's amazing. (Pause) (As per LMP-8) the LCRU blankets are 100 percent open.

120:00:17 England: Okay.

120:00:19 Duke: Going to External. (Pause) Mode switch to 2.

120:00:37 Young: (Very pleased) I'll be darn if the old Quad III pallet didn't go on like it was supposed to!

120:00:43 Duke: And, Tony, you ought to have it; you got 4.0 on the signal strength.

120:00:47 Young: Lookit that! (Pause) (Garbled) (Pause)

120:01:06 Duke: You getting a signal, Tony?

120:01:08 England: Ah, we're working it.

120:01:12 Duke: Okay, you got 4.0; you got External, and your mode switch is 2, and the Power is 2 - correction - I didn't check the power. The S-Band... (Pause) The Power is 12. 14. Over. Correction, make that 18.

120:01:38 Young: Oh, don't tell me.

120:01:40 Duke: What?

120:01:44 Young: Finally happened.

120:01:46 Duke: What?

120:01:47 Young: I pulled a wire loose, Charlie.

120:01:48 Duke: Uh-oh. (Long Pause)

[Young, from the 1972 Technical Debrief - "On the back end (Rover load-up), the old pallet just fell off (that is, came off easily) the Quad III and fell onto the LRV and went right in place and locked right in place and I don't understand it (why the operation went so smoothly). Just a piece of cake. And the only problem I had was that, on one of the penetrometer pins (at the bottom on CDR-10), the wire pulled loose so that, instead of having a loop, I just had a long piece of wire. I was able to wrap the wire around my hand and pull the pin. The pin was pretty hard to pull and it was being pulled at an angle since the loop had broken. But, nevertheless, it came off."]

120:02:41 Duke: Houston, how do you read?

120:02:45 England: Stand by a second, Charlie. (Pause) Okay, it's looking pretty good. Don't have a picture here in the (Mission Operations Control) room yet, but we're getting data.

120:02:54 Duke: Okay, fine. Okay. (As per LMP-9) the DAC (Data Acquisition Camera) is coming out (of its stowage place in the MESA). (Pause)

[The DAC is a 16-mm movie camera that Charlie will mount on his handhold as shown in Figure 2-14 from the LRV Operations Handbook. And undated Ed Dempsey training photo shows the DAC mounted on the Rover at the Cape. Scan courtesy Frederic Artner.]

120:03:13 Duke: Okay, Tony, the TV camera is pointed right down at the ground, forward of the Rover.

120:03:21 England: Hey, our comm just improved 900 percent. That's beautiful. (Long Pause)

120:03:46 Young : Uh-oh, look at that. (Laughs)

120:03:49 Duke: Did you get that pin out, John?

120:03:51 Young: Which one, Charlie?

120:03:52 Duke: The one that you broke the wire on.

120:03:54 Young: No, I haven't, but I'll work it later.

120:03:57 Duke: What is it to?

120:03:59 Young: I don't know. Wait a minute. (Pause) Think it's to the penetrometer. (Long Pause)

120:04:21 Duke: Man, I tell you, if my Christmas stocking looked like this ETB, I'd be saved. Okay, (DAC) magazine P, the X is in the middle, and the frame is lined up.

120:04:36 England: Okay, magazine Papa. (Pause) Hey, Charlie. Verify the TV power switch is on.

120:04:48 Young: (Lost under Tony) all right.

120:04:54 Duke: Stand by. (Pause)

120:05:01 Young: Got it, Charlie.

[John has solved his penetrometer problem.]

120:05:10 England: On the TCU.

120:05:14 Duke: Okay, I'll shoot it to On. Okay, momentary On; back to center.

120:05:23 England: Okay. (Pause) Hey, we've got a picture!!

[TV on.]

MP3 Audio Clip ( 14 min 27 sec )

120:05:38 Duke: Yea!

120:05:39 Young: Of the ground, no doubt.

120:05:40 England: Of the ground.

[Those listening to the audio track may have noticed a high-pitched beep at the start and end of each of Tony's transmissions. Markus Mehring has provided a discussion of these Quindar Tones.]

120:05:44 Young: Yeah. That's nice looking ground.

[The TV camera will be operated from Houston by Ed Fendell. Fendell raises his aim and gives us a view of the WNW horizon. He then pans counter-clockwise.]

120:05:52 England: Outstanding.

120:05:53 Young: I don't believe it.

120:05:55 Duke: It's actually...

120:05:56 Young: Outstanding. (Pause)

[The Apollo 15 crew had numerous problems with their DAC because of film magazine jams and got very little usable film during their traverses.]

120:06:06 England: This mission's full of firsts.

120:06:13 Duke: Little firsts, but they mean something...

120:06:18 Young: Oh, is this easy to do in one-sixth gravity....

120:06:20 Duke: ...personally, anyway.

120:06:23 Young: ...I really like it. This is about the neatest thing I ever saw. Okay. (Long Pause)

[John is loading equipment on the aft pallet. In the meantime, Fendell finds Charlie at the MESA. Charlie turns toward the Rover, carrying the ETB in his right hand and the DAC in his left. The UV camera is at the right side of the TV frame.]

120:06:53 England: Right. The big eye's on you, Charlie.

120:06:57 Young: (They're) trying to see if you're nervous, Charlie. (Pause)

120:07:10 Duke: Can't just throw those bags over there like I used to (in training); they bounce into the dirt.

120:07:14 Young: Yeah. (Pause)

[As per LMP-9, Charlie has taken the ETB to the Rover. He is standing next to John's seat and has probably just tried to toss the two padded bags listed near the bottom of the checklist page over onto the right-hand, LMP seat. During training, it may have been easy to make the toss so that the bags would stay on the seat. Here, because of the one-sixth gravity, they have probably bounced off and landed on the ground on the other side of the Rover.]

120:07:21 England: Very good picture. (Pause) Beautiful; outstanding color.

120:07:32 Duke: Super.

120:07:33 England: You're in living color.

[Color television had come into widespread use only a few years before, in the mid-1960s.]

[Charlie is wearing John's camera. He is holding the film magazine in his left hand and removes a dark slide with his right hand. The magazine is a cube about 3 to 4 inches - 7 to 10 cm - on a side.]

120:07:53 England: Okay.

120:07:54 Young: That (trying to blow the dust off) won't work, Charlie.

[Charlie inserts the magazine at the back of the camera and then reaches down with his left hand to get the handle-mounted trigger and advances the film by one or two frames.]

120:07:56 Duke: It didn't get it off, John. (Responding to Tony) Well, it didn't work, so...

[Charlie takes the CDR camera off his RCU bracket and puts it on John's seat.]

[Young, from the 1972 Technical Debrief - "Unlike the training equipment, both the shovel and the rake were very easy to lock on (the extension handles) because it tells you which way to turn the thing to lock it and how to put it on."]

[Here, John is attaching the scoop to one of the two extension handles.]

[Charlie looks at his cuff checklist.]

[Charlie picks up the DAC and reaches across to put it on the LMP seat.]

120:08:13 Duke: How about that? (Laughs) A new first. This is so super.

120:08:08 Young: (Laughing) Oh, boy!

120:08:09 Duke: Okay, (reading LMP-9) "three HEDC (Hasselblad Electronic Data Camera film magazines), two DAC (magazines), and 500 under the (CDR) seat".

[Charlie's hands are off-camera, but he appears to move the ETB so that he can raise John's seat.]

Video Clip (2 min 50 sec 0.7 Mb RealVideo clip or 26 Mb MPEG )

120:08:35 Young: Got you, huh?

120:08:48 Duke: Uh-huh. (Pause) Oops. (Pause)

[Although we can't see Charlie's hands or John's seat, it appears that, when Charlie tugs at the Velcro, he starts to fall forward and has to catch himself.]

[Charlie continues to struggle with the Velcro. The TV camera jiggles in response to his efforts.]

120:09:18 England: Outstanding. (Long Pause)

[Charlie finally gets the Velcro loose.]

[A training photo by Ed Dempsey shows the CDR camera in the stowage area under Charlie's seat. Scan courtesy of Frederic Artner.]

[John has mounted the vise on the top of the aft pallet behind Charlie's seat. They will use the vise to separate the drill stem sections of the deep core. Because of a design error, the Apollo 15 vise was mounted backwards and was all but useless to Scott and Irwin. Needless to say, that error was corrected for Apollo 16.]

[Charlie and I were unable to explain this transmission. Obviously, something to do with the under-seat stowage is different than it was in training. The under-seat stowage arrangement is shown in Figure 4-5 from the LRV Operations Handbook.]

120:10:11 Duke: How do you read, John? You're cutting out.

120:10:13 Young: Loud and clear, Charlie; I'm talking to myself.

120:10:16 Duke: Oh, okay. (Long Pause)

[Charlie begins to transfer items from the ETB to John's seat pan.]

120:10:39 Duke: What?

120:10:40 Young: I would never've thought that on the Moon, we'd run into each other right here at the seat, but we did in practice every time.

120:10:46 Duke: Every time!

120:10:48 England: Well, you're consistent. (Pause)

[As per CDR-11, John has gone to the CDR seat to stow the gnomon in its pouch behind the seat. According to plan (LMP-9), by this time Charlie was supposed to be at the LMP seat installing the map holder and the BSLSS (Buddy Secondary Life Support System).]

120:10:57 Young: Do this EVA two or three more times, we may get it down.

120:11:02 Duke: Okay, the Sun compass goes under your seat, (straining as he reaches across) map's going over in mine. (Pause) And here comes the big eye, the 500.

[The Sun compass is a cardboard site map with a raisable gnomon that could be used as a navigation aid in the event on a Rover navigation failure. The gnomon is used to orient the map relative to the Sun. The only time this type of Sun compass was used during Apollo was when Dave used one during the Apollo 15 Stand-up EVA. He used it to get rough bearings to prominent horizon features in an effort to pin down the LM location. The inherent errors of a few hundred meters were too great to do much good in that regard.]

[The "500" is a Hasselblad camera equipped with a 500-mm lens.]

[Fendell pans clockwise to the UV camera.]

120:11:17 Young: Oh, that's a clean dustbrush, Houston, but I don't think it's gonna last. (Pause)

[John crosses our field-of-view carrying the dustbrush. It is the size of a large house-painting brush and John will attach it to a bracket on the LCRU. See photo AS16-114- 18454 which was taken near the LM at the end of EVA-3. A detail from training photo KSC-71PC-777 shows the dustbrush stowed on the front of the training Rover.]

[What John means is that, after he got the brush in the holder, he tugged on it to make sure it was secure and picked up the front of the Rover in the process. The TV moved in response.]

[John crosses our field-of-view, looking at his checklist as he goes. Fendell continues his clockwise pan.]

120:12:13 Young: Okay, Charlie, where's the rake? There it is.

120:12:15 Duke: It's up there under the doomaflicky.

120:12:18 Young: Oh, yes; the old doomaflicky's got it. (Pause)

[According to CDR-11, the rake is one the MESA, possibly covered by the thermal blanket. "Doomaflicky" is Charlie's equivalent of "whachamacallit".]

120:12:39 Duke: Okay. Get your little ol' camera fixed here with that bracket that always fell off. (Pause)

[Charlie may be attaching an individual-sample-bag holder to John's camera. They will have troubles with the holders throughout the EVAs. See Figure 14-60 in the Apollo 16 Mission Report.]

[As Fendell continues his pan, there are noticeable effects of the changing sun angle.]

[Duke - "As you look down-Sun it was very, very bright. And as you turned, either north or south, and looking cross-Sun, it (meaning the surface) got progressively darker and darker and you started seeing the shadows. And then, when you looked up-Sun, it was very dark. You were looking at the shadowed side of the rock and the soils and the dust grains, I guess, because the albedo (reflectivity) change just got really pronounced as you moved around. You see that happening here. He's panning to the north, here."]

120:13:01 Duke: Super. "ETB back to the MESA". (Pause)

[Fendell reaches the clockwise stop. Charlie still has some tasks to complete before he takes the ETB to the MESA.]

[Charlie comes into view. He still has to mount the DAC on his handhold. He gets the DAC off his seat. At the back of the Rover, John stows the rake.]

120:13:55 Duke: (To Houston) Sorry I blocked your (TV) picture there, Tony. (Pause)

120:14:07 Young: Old Fredo (Haise) is to be congratulated for thinking of how to put this rake in.

120:14:12 Duke: Yeah, that's a new first.

120:14:14 Young: Darn right. That's good stuff. Save us a lot of work later on. (Long Pause)

[The rake was the brainchild of Caltech geologist Lee Silver and was first flown on Apollo 15. It is rather like a clam rake and is used to collect rocks of more than a centimeter in size. The rake is attached to an extension handle and, on Apollo 15, Scott and Irwin only had one extension handle. Consequently, when they wanted to use the rake, they had to remove the scoop head that was usually on the handle and attach the rake. Fred Haise, the Apollo 13 LMP and the Apollo 16 backup Commander, may have come up with the idea of having two extension handles.]

[Fendell reverses direction and we see Charlie get a holder for the traverse maps.]

[Charlie attaches the map holder to his handhold and then picks up a couple of traverse maps. Each map is a laminated sandwich of two piece of stiff cronopaque, photographic paper with a labeled picture of a part of the site on one side and a contour map of the same area on the other. Figure 3.6.2-2) is the contour map for EVAs 1 and 2 and Figure 3.6.2-3 is the corresponding picture map. Each of the maps is about 8 by 10 1/2 inches - 20 by 27 cm.]

[Maps of Hadley Rille, such as the one shown mounted next to the console on the Apollo 15 Rover in a detail from AS15-85-11471 ( 169k ), are unmistakable. Charlie is joking. The maps he has show the Apollo 16 site.]

[Duke - "We never had the right ones in training! You know, the maps they gave us were not...They just threw anything out there. So we never had the right ones."]

[The EVA started 1 hour 22 minutes ago at 118:53:33. John is about to start the tasks on CDR-13 is about 7 minutes behind schedule. Charlie is about to start LMP-10 and is further behind. Note that the SRC (Sample Return Container) tasks are also listed on CDR-11 so that either one of them could take care of them in the event that one of them was behind. For the same reason, CDR-12 lists the tasks Charlie has just finished on LMP-9.]

120:14:58 England: No, you're right on the timeline.

120:14:59 Young: Probably pretty even.

[Charlie clips the maps to the holder which, evidently has aspring-operated retainer along the bottom edge.]

120:15:05 Young: So did I.

120:15:08 England: You're doing just fine.

120:15:09 Young: You got the ETB unstowed (as per CDR-12)?

120:15:13 Duke: Yeah, it's all done, John. Cameras are up.

120:15:17 Young: (On CDR-13) "Discard LCRU pallet." Okay, you gonna back...(Are you going to) go inside (the LM)?

[According to LMP-10, Charlie is supposed to get a pallet out of the MESA containing replacement batteries, food, etc. and take it up to the cabin. After stowing the items taken off the pallet, he would then power down some of the LM comm circuitry that is no longer needed now that the LCRU is up and running. However, in a moment Houston will tell him to defer the pallet transfer until the end of the EVA because the LM comm system is already operating at minimum power as part of the conservation measures dictated by the delayed landing.]

[During the following conversation, Charlie mounts the BSLSS behind his seat, attaching it with a Velcro strap.]

120:15:23 Young: (Lost under Tony)

120:15:23 England: Hey, Charlie, don't pull that pallet out, we'll hold that for later.

120:15:29 Duke: Okay.

120:15:30 England: We'll get that at the end of the EVA.

120:15:34 Duke: Super!

[Charlie puts the end of his seat belt on the handhold so it will be out of the way, later, when he climbs on-board.]

120:15:46 Duke: (Looking at LMP-10) Okay, the SRC's next. John, why don't you unpack the SRC (as per the bottom of CDR-11). It's on the right side (of the MESA).

120:15:53 Young: Okay, I'll get it.

120:15:55 Duke: And I'll get the core stems and stuff to my seat (as per LMP-10). (Pause)

[Charlie goes around the front of the Rover to the MESA. Fendell pans counter-clockwise.]

120:16:11 Duke: Oh, there's nothing...

120:16:13 Young: There's nothing up there?

120:16:14 Duke: Well, the only reason we had to go in there was to change to power down, see.

120:16:18 Young: Oh, okay. Right.

120:16:19 Duke: And we can get the other...The other stuff is just food and...

120:16:21 Young: Okay. Yeah, all right. Fine.

120:16:22 Duke: ...stuff like that.

120:16:24 Young: Okay. I got you. I thought it was something on that order. (Laughs) One small step for Charlie is one giant leap for me. I'm looking dead level with the table on the (MESA)...(Laughs).

120:16:44 Duke: (Giggling) Yeah, I did get it a little high!

120:16:46 Young: (Still laughing) Yeah, Charlie.

120:16:50 Duke: Okay, Tony. That "Percy Precision" Young, was coming right straight down when he hit. We didn't move an inch on those footpads.

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120:17:04 England: Very good. Would you verify that you got the sunshield on the TV camera?

120:17:11 Duke: Not yet; we'll get it.

120:17:13 England: Okay.

[Fendell finds John at the right side of the MESA.]

120:17:20 Young: That was going to be part of taking it out to the table, but we just skipped that part.

120:17:23 Duke: Oh, that's right; yeah, we did. (Pause)

[They had planned to deploy the TV camera on a tripod before deploying the Rover but, because of the need to conserve LM power, skipped those procedures on CDR-5.]

120:17:31 Young: There goes that shield thing that came off.

120:17:34 Duke: What shield thing?

120:17:35 Young: That thing down there.

120:17:37 Duke: That's okay.

120:17:41 Young: (Garbled) Make it hard to close the box later on.

[The vacuum sealing mechanism on the rock box consists of a knife-edge on the rim of the body and a strip of soft-indium metal on the rim of the lid. When the box is closed, the knife-edge sinks into the indium strip and makes the seal. In addition to these features, there are also o-rings. To keep the knife-edge from making contact with the indium strip during the flight out from Earth, the two are kept separate by a close-fitting spacer made of hard Teflon. In addition, to keep the sealing edges clean while John and Charlie put samples in the box, they cover the rim of both the body and the lid with a piece of Beta cloth which has a cut-out to give access to the box cavity. Evidently, John has knocked the Teflon spacer off the box he is preparing on the MESA. My only doubt about this hypothesis is John's anticipation of later difficulties in closing the box. Perhaps he is worried that its loss will increase the chances of damage to the sealing mechanism. NASA photo S70-29817 is a pre-flight picture of an Apollo 14 rock box with the Teflon spacer surrounding the knife-edge. NASA photo S88-52674 shows a rock box with a beta cloth cover protecting the knife-edge and indium strip.]

[John takes a sample collection bag (SCB) to the Rover. He will attach it to the Hand Tool Carrier (HTC) which is on the aft pallet. NASA photos S71-22475 and S71-22477 show the tool carrier in a lab setting with two SCBs in place and AS16-107- 17446 shows the HTC on the back of the Apollo 16 Rover, albeit without an SCB. The contents of the SCB, which was stowed in the rock box, are shown in Figure 3.5-5a from the Lunar Surface Procedures volume.]

120:17:46 Young: What, Charlie?

120:17:48 Duke: I can't reach. There we go. (Pause)

[Charlie flexes his knees and jumps up onto the MESA.]

[Duke - "I was leaning on the MESA and I just kicked up so I could get back in there and reach a piece of gear (the TV sunshield) that I was pulling out. When I got up, I just sort of rested on my stomach, as I reached back over in there to get the thing."]

120:17:57 Young: Yeah?

120:17:58 Duke: Look at that. I just pole-vaulted up into the MESA to get that beauty.

[Before he gets down, Charlie bends his knees almost to 90 degrees.]

[Duke - "That was to get back down. That was to give you a little elevation. I kicked 'em and then pushed..."]

[Jones - "To get back off. So you really could flex that knee a fair amount. They came back about 90 degrees."]

[I was thinking about the difficulty Charlie had with kneeling to pick things up off the ground.]

[Duke - "The reason you couldn't bend down and do like a deep knee bend was because of balance. If you were leaning on something, you had a better chance of doing it. But you get down and, to me, I was always off balance and either fall down or it'd hop you back up, or you'd run across...As you popped up, it'd throw you forward a little bit, so you'd have to run to catch up...for your feet to catch up with you."]

[Indeed, a re-examination of the TV here shows that while Charlie did flex his knees virtually to 90 degrees, he didn't hold them in the bent position for any time at all.]

[Jones - "But, if you'd been next to the Rover, you think you could have just gotten down on your knees?"]

[Duke - "Oh, yeah. In fact, John does it later on, around the ALSEP."]

[Charlie's knee flex doesn't appear to help him get off the MESA and, a second later, he pushes himself off with his hands.]

120:18:13 Duke: Okay, the SRC; it just says (reading LMP-10) "Seal control sample. SCB to left-hand tool carry."

120:18:19 Young: Okay.

[During this exchange, Charlie unwrapped the sunshield but wound up with nothing in his hands.]

[Charlie grabs the MESA with his left hand and drops to his knees, illustrating the point discussed above. He has to lean forward to get the sunshield and, as he rises, he hops forward, out of the TV field-of-view, to get his feet under his center of gravity. Note the ETB swinging on the front of the MESA.]

120:18:24 Duke: (Straining) Ahhh, I've got it, now.

120:18:27 Young: Covered with dirt?

120:18:28 Duke: (To Houston) Second blow of dust off, Tony, but it didn't work.

120:18:33 England: Okay; that's two. (Pause)

[Fendell starts to pan clockwise but doesn't find Charlie who has probably moved around the front of the Rover and is standing to the right of the TV so that he can install the sunshield.]

120:18:47 England: Okay. (Long Pause)

[Charlie puts the sunshield on and then moves around to the front of the Rover so that he can look straight at the front of the TV camera to examine his handiwork.]

120:19:02 England: Outstanding here.

120:19:04 Duke: It's on straight. How about you? (Hearing Tony) Okay. (Pause)

[Charlie captured the sunshield in a number of his traverse photos, such as AS16-106-17381 As is discussed at 169:20:59, the sunshield was attached to the front of the TV camera with Velcro. A close-up photo from the right front of the publically-displayed Qualification Unit at the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum shows attachment Velcro on the top of the barrel and surrounding the lens ( 1.6 Mb or 0.4 Mb ). A photo from above gives a second view ( 0.6 Mb or 0.3 Mb ). In both photos, note the control tabs for 'IRIS' and 'ZOOM'. In 17381 (linked above), the 'ZOOM' tab is clearly visible.]

120:19:12 Duke: Okay, John.

[Charlie goes to the MESA and, after a delay dictated by the time it takes the TV picture to get to Houston and for Fendell's command to get to the camera, the TV pans counter clockwise to follow.]

120:19:16 Duke: The box?

120:19:18 Young: It's on there.

[John has mounted the SRC on a stand called the MESA "table". NASA photo S69-31080 shows Neil Armstrong working with an SRC on a MESA mock-up during training for Apollo 11.]

[When Fendell finds them, Charlie is at the right side of the MESA and John is at the left. John moves in and covers the left side of the MESA with the thermal blanket.]

120:19:31 Duke: What thing?

120:19:32 Young: That critter.

120:19:33 Duke: I'm gonna get the control sample here.

120:19:34 Young: Okay, I'll get the (U.S.) flag (out of the MESA).

[The control sample is a roll of clean aluminum metal which Charlie has just put in an individual sample bag.]

[As can be seen in the three figures on page 55 of Judy Allton's "Catalog of Apollo Lunar Surface Geological Sampling Tools and Containers", the sample bags had a thin metal re-enforcing strip running along the top edges and, at either side, metal tabs. The astronauts used two methods to seal the bags. Most folded the top of the bag down a few times and then bent one of the tabs across one face of the folded bag and then the other tab across the opposite face, creating a "Z" pattern. The other method, which Charlie employs here, is to grasp both tabs and spin the bag several times around the axis formed by the re-enforcing wire before finally "Z-ing" the tabs. NASA photo S72-36984 is a post-flight picture of one of the Apollo 16 rock boxes and shows several spun bags. The Z-pattern of closure is evident on the bag at the right side of the picture.]

[Charlie puts the control sample in the SRC.]

120:19:49 Young: Okay.

[Charlie hops sideways to his left, going out of view as he heads for the SEQ Bay on the northeast face of the Descent Stage. See Figure 3.4-1 in the Lunar Surface Procedures volume.]

[John has the U.S. Flag in his right hand.]