Apollo 14
Day 7, part 2: Demonstrations on TV
Corrected Transcript and Commentary Copyright © 2020-2023 by W. David Woods, Ben Feist, Ronald Hansen and Johannes Kemppanen. All rights reserved.
Last updated 2023-09-20
172:31:12 Mitchell: Houston; Apollo 14.
172:31:14 Fullerton: Apollo 14, Houston. We're getting a very nice picture of Apollo 14 patch. Over.
172:31:22 Mitchell: Very good. How are you this afternoon, Gordon?
172:31:26 Fullerton: Fine. Gold Team's at your service and standing by for your show.
172:31:32 Mitchell: Okay. We'd like to welcome you to an afternoon with Apollo 14 - a Sunday afternoon, by the way, with Apollo 14. And we're going to present some experiments for you. And our narrator for this afternoon will be Stu Roosa; and, I guess, he's about ready to go. Stu.
172:31:58 Roosa: Okay, Houston. What we'll try to do this afternoon is show you four of the experiments that we're carrying on board; and even though we'd like to think that maybe they're a major breakthrough, essentially what these are, are experiments to check out not only the theory involved in the zero-g environment but also the technical problems that we may face in designing bigger and better experiments for Skylab. And three of these experiments deal primarily with convection or, in our case, lack of convection, we hope, during the zero-g. And now, for the purists out - of you in the audience that say we should be calling it zero g, we'll concede to that and go ahead and call it zero g anyway, just for clarification; and everybody knows what we are talking about. But, really, what we're talking about is a free-fall situation, or the lack of weight. So, of course, on Earth under a one-g field, when you heat something, air, so forth, why, we say air rises; and this is due the influence of gravity on the - on the air that becomes less dense; and the cold air comes underneath; and you have your convection patterns, which everyone is familiar with. Well, under our situation, we probably have a lack of, or we do have a lack of these convection patterns; and we're going to use this to show some experiments and, hopefully, how in later missions that we can manufacture products and, perhaps, medicines and so forth. And the first one of these is the heat flow - it's a heat-flow experiment that we've got mounted over here, if Ed will put the camera on it. And what we have here are various cells; and, maybe, Al can point them out there on the radial zone. And inside each one of these zones, as - as outlined here, is a heat-sensitive material. And it will change colors as it's heated. And they'll not all change at the same time due to the substance that the sensor is made out of; however, these two are exactly the same. And, now, under a g-field, if you had - had these two the same and you heated them, well, of course, the hot air would rise. And let's say that you had this sitting on the table, the one above it you would see a - a marked difference in the heating pattern. Here, under our weightless condition, the pattern should be the same. In other words, in these two cells, the heating should go out evenly on both sides. Now, you will see a difference on - on these two because of the sensor being of different material. So, if Al will throw on the switch - and we'll see some response from this. It'll take about a minute. And, while we?re waiting for that, we have essentially the same thing in a different form, across the top. And we can only heat one at a time; so, we'll heat up this radial zone, first - I think you'll have a better chance of seeing this. And maybe, we'll throw - heat this up and throw it on -put the TV camera on them later. And while - while that's heating up, I'd like to show you another one that - that we've got. Okay.
172:36:08 Mitchell: Houston. Color check on the picture - How's it coming through to you now?
172:36:14 Fullerton: We're getting a pretty good picture, Ed. But we're not noticing any difference in the crystals in the - circular heat-flow crystals, there...
172:36:27 Mitchell: They aren't going to show up on it, yet - so you wouldn't.
172:36:47 Roosa: Over here, we've got a - another experiment. Well, let's take another one of the convection types. Let's take the metal castings there, Al, Okay, Al has now got the - another experiment which we call metal composites. So, we have 18 different samples. These samples are metal. And really, what this experiment is, is to get some data -Okay. How's that picture, now, Gordon? Can you see the metal composite experiment?
172:37:08 Fullerton: Yes. Now, I have settled, and we're seeing it very well.
172:37:10 Roosa: Okay. What we have are l8 of these small canisters, each one containing a different metal and/or a mixture. And the purpose of this experiment is to get some data on casting under our weightless or zero-g conditions. And here again, when you cast metals, you heat them; and when they cool, you have convection currents in them. Hopefully, here in our laboratory, we can heat these and cool them - They will have even cooling. And also, another part of this experiment is, some of the metals are mixed with fibers and/or various other particles. And the theory here, to increase the strength of the casting with these fibers. Now, on Earth, under a one-g field, this gets to be a rather difficult process because, during the cooling, the fibers settle out; and you don't get a homogeneous mix and a cooling; so, you don't have equal strength. So, what we do is, we heat these up and then we run through various processes. Some of them we shake; some of them we don't shake; and then, we cool them. We put them on a little heat sink, here. And we'll let it set and cool for a certain period of time; and then, we'll change it, put in another casting, and press ahead. There?s really not much else to show on - on TV with - with this one. It's - it takes quite a bit of time, by the time we run through all the castings; but we just park it up in the tunnel out of the way. And when our kitchen timer goes off, why, we'll either cool it or put in a new casting and press ahead. And I see the - getting some action on the convection experiment over here, on the radial experiment; and we'd be real curious, Gordon, if you can pick this up, if we've got enough light.
172:39:20 Fullerton: Yes, Stu. We can see a difference, particularly on the - as we're looking at it - upper left quadrant of the radial - window there.
172:39:39 Roosa: Okay. Now, as I said before, this quadrangle will heat faster; so, you'll see more of - a faster color change. Now, these two will also heat, and these are the two that really show our zero-g condition, because these two will - and, - are heating out - extended the radial distance out - at the same rate. So, we're not getting any help, on either one of them, from the convection currents. And the fourth one is just now starting to pick up.
172:40:16 Fullerton: Roger - -
172:40:17 Roosa: And we'll drop off from that one and just let it extend out a little bit; we'll talk about another experiment we have that also deals with convection.
172:40:30 Fullerton: Roger, Stu. The - That's very apparent that the upper-right and lower-left quadrants are heating equally. That's a very good picture.
172:40:40 Roosa: Okay. And we - we did run this experiment on the ground before flight, and it was - It was very marked difference. It's quite impressive how it working - -
172:40:56 Fullerton: Roger.
172:41:00 Shepard: You do understand that the - this quadrant down here is a higher temperature crystal. That's the reason that - that it's not going out as fast as the one in the upper-left quadrant. It has nothing to do with the - the gravitational effect at all - it's a higher temperature crystal down here.
172:41:17 Fullerton: Roger, Al.
172:41:41 Roosa: Okay. Now, Gordon, our intrepid LMP is - is holding another experiment. And how's that picture look? Can you get anything of Ed and the blue box here?
172:42:01 Fullerton: We're not getting it, yet. It looks like you're still getting the camera settled down, I'm seeing Ed's face - Now - now we're seeing it - That's right in the center, now. I think, maybe, if you stop the lens down, the - the little window is overexposed with respect to the rest of the scene; so, we've been getting not much more than just a bright light. That's looking real good, now. I think that's a good setting, right there.
172:42:33 Mitchell: Okay, Gordon. And what we have here is an elect - electrophoresis experiment. And we're not - we're not going to run this one on the TV camera. It's a one-shot operation. But on the left side here, we're got three channels going across this beauty; and over on the left, in a chamber, we have three different compounds containing organic molecules. And what we're going to do is apply a voltage to each one of these chambers, and then, open up the partition between the chamber where the organic molecules are, and our channel going across. And the theory here being that as you charge the - the molecules, they will move out across this channel. Now, some molecules will take a better charge than the other ones, and they will move faster. Well, under a gravity field - here again, you have the convection currents; and it tends to mix up the molecules; the heavier molecules settle out to the bottom of the channel. They don't make it all the way across, and so forth. All the problems involved with the convection again. So here, hopefully, the only variable will be the different type of molecule. And we hope these molecules will then separate themselves in bunches - based on the assumption that all molecules of the same kind, you know - you know are all - been doing their physical conditioning and will run as the same rate. So, anyway, the molecules will move across and, hopefully, will separate them into bands. Now, we've got three different types of - of molecules here; and one, the simplest one, it's just some red and blue dye. And this phenomena will take place under a gravity field, and this happens on the Earth. And we work up in numbers up to - to quite heavy molecules, and these are the ones that we cannot do on Earth. And we're trying to see if it's possible to - to do them here under zero-g; and there are quite a few ramifications to this, if it really comes off. And one of the most obvious is in the field of medicine, in making pure vaccines, and so forth. Now, we don't expect this - this experiment to solve the problems. We're trying to get a hack -see if the theory is correct and, also, to work out some of the engineering details, such as, when you heat - apply this voltage, you form a few gas bubbles around it, and so, we have to have a little pump that circulates the fluid at a very low rate. And we're wanting to see if this works and if it disrupts the travel of the molecules. So, this - this we hope is the first step toward bigger and better experiments and, eventually, a truly manufacturing process.
172:45:56 Shepard: Ed, if you want to move on down closer to that light for a few minutes, we'll put you on the camera and, maybe, your family can see what you've got hanging all over your face.
172:46:07 Roosa: We couldn't talk Ed into shaving this morning.
172:46:10 Mitchell: Or yesterday morning, either.
172:46:15 Fullerton: You might open up the lens slightly, if you're going to a less brightly lit object.
172:46:25 Roosa: Are you - are you trying to say Ed's not very bright, Gordon? (Laughter)
172:46:30 Fullerton: I guess I won't comment on the interpretation there.
172:46:36 Roosa: Okay (Laughter).
172:46:37 Mitchell: I'm being conspired against.
172:47:27 Mitchell: Since I'm being conspired against, I'll take the camera back.
172:47:39 Roosa: Okay. We'll come back down off the one that does not deal with - with the convection principle, and that's the transfer of liquid. If I can get out of the way here, and what - is that showing up, Gordon?
172:47:58 Fullerton: That's pretty good...
172:47:59 Mitchell: All you can see...
172:48:00 Fullerton: ...for centering, Stu.
172:48:01 Mitchell: ...is one great eyeball.
172:48:03 Fullerton: Can we...
172:48:05 Mitchell: Okay. We're watching it.
172:48:07 Fullerton: That's looking pretty good. You might move the camera down slightly, now. It's in the lower part of the screen. Okay. It's centered; well - It was. Also, you might try a peak on the camera; it might improve the exposure. That was one suggestion from the background man there.
172:48:37 Mitchell: You have peak. How's it now? Peak and f/8.
172:48:43 Fullerton: I think that'll work. You might open it slightly, Ed. Open the f-stop slightly; and, I think, we'll have it.
172:49:03 Roosa: Okay. What we've got, Gordon, is, of course, two tanks here; and these have no baffles whatsoever. And we tried to transfer the liquid from one, into the other one, and then back again; and we ended up in about the condition that - that you see here, not being able to do much with it. And I've got me a handy-dandy pump, which I'm going to mount on here. And this experiment is, of course, slanted toward the large space station refueling operations, transfer of fluids on a space station - Any time you have a rather large complex structure up here, why, you're going to have to be doing this type operation. And it's a first look at what type of baffles and - we need, and you'll see this on the other side. What I'd like to show you is a - the difficulty you have when you're trying to do them without any - without the aid of any baffles.
172:50:08 Fullerton: Stu, we see a couple of large bubbles in each tank. Will you point out just which part there is liquid and which part is the air space? Over.
172:50:20 Roosa: Okay. The white portion you see is the bubble, and you should be able to see a green fluid around the bubble. Can you see the green?
172:50:31 Fullerton: That's affirmative. We can see where you're - what the parts that you're pointing out there. The colors on our monitor here are not coming in true, but that shouldn't hurt the point of the experiment. Go ahead.
172:50:48 Roosa: Okay. We'll now take - yes - okay. And we'll -Al's now working this pump, and - okay. We can't even get the bubbles - to change too much, here.
172:51:15 Roosa: Okay, and about all we - okay if you'll watch that. About all you can succeed in doing when you pump with the pump is making the large bubble in the center, and the fluid has a tendency to cling around to the outside edge due to the surface tension. Now, this surface tension is quite important, and that is what will make the baffles work, as you see on the other side. But right now, the only surface for the fluid to cling to is right around the edge of the tank; and sure enough, that's where it goes, with the bubble in the center. And makes it very difficult, if not impossible, to work with.
172:51:54 Fullerton: Okay, that's very apparent from the picture we're seeing now.
172:52:01 Roosa: Okay, okay. And a little bit of the hardware here, we have a valve up here at the top that connects -connects the two tanks through two - through a tube, here. Now, Ed, if you can get it down. And we've got a valve on each - on the top of each tank here, in which the pump will either pump into this tank or suck from that tank into this tank. The tubing here goes from these valves through a little hand-operated pump. So, that's the engineering behind it; and, of course, as you can see, the liquid just clings to the periphery of the - of the tank due to the surface tension. We'll now switch the tank and show you the operation, using the baffle.
172:52:54 Mitchell: And while you're switching, I'll put the camera on Al; and let the world look at him. He did shave this morning. It didn't help a bit.
172:53:05 Fullerton: Roger. We can see that none of you look the worse for - worse for wear on the preceding 3 days' activities.
172:53:20 Shepard: No, we feel great up here. Great shape.
172:54:05 Fullerton: Stu, a reminder; if you still have the heat on the radial experiment, you might turn it off. It - it might be overheating by this time.
172:54:14 Shepard: Well, you might swing on over. There's another part of the experiment, that we're not sure you'll be able to see, that we turned on instead. I don't know whether Ed can get it on the camera or not, I'll push the top in.
172:54:35 Roosa: Okay, now, up here, we have the [garble] we were heating - heating, extending out radially from a point here. Okay, up on the top, we're heating - Stand by 1; here, we'll get the camera rigged up. Okay, we've now switched to the zone cells, as they're called; and here again, we have the different crystals.
172:55:06 Fullerton: Ed, can you refocus there? As you moved in tight, we lost the focus and lost most of the detail of that part of the experiment.
172:55:24 Mitchell: How's that, Gordon?
172:55:31 Fullerton: Okay, that's better. I think that range is good. Just hold everything as it is.
172:55:33 Mitchell: Okay. Okay, Gordon. Now this is essentially the same principle only a different-type heating arrangement. Here, we're heating wiuh a band in the center, and we have the crystal in longitudinal strips running out from the center. And you prob - I don't know if you can pick up the color difference or not on these - on these bands as they move out.
172:55:58 Fullerton: We can see...
172:55:59 Roosa: I might add...
172:56:00 Fullerton: ...a little bit of difference there. It's not readily apparent; but, as you point it out, I believe we can see those zones moving out.
172:56:11 Roosa: Okay, and that's it basically. Now when we actually do the experiment for data, we have a 16-millimeter camera that sits out 1 foot; and we turn in on, and it takes a picture, and you go through a sequence here. So it's - it's a detailed experiment, in which we have the procedures and we run through those. And just - what we're doing here is just showing you the gross features of the experiment and - and its typical operation. Not trying to show you exactly how we gather the data or anything like that. And we're turning off the heat-convection experiment, now.
172:56:54 Fullerton: Roger.
172:56:59 Roosa: Okay, how are we focused on the tanks now, Gordon? Stand by.
172:57:09 Fullerton: Okay, Stu. That looks really good. Just center it up slightly, and we can see the liquid and the baffles very clearly. Over.
172:57:21 Roosa: Okay, just to point out that we've got two different-type baffles, I think you probably see the baffle, on this side, and over on this side there are two baffles running up, and with a little different feed-in arrangement - I meant bottom on the - on the baffle. Okay, now, I'll steady up the camera, and Al will supply some power on the pumps, and you'll see the liquid now moving out. And due to the surface tension on the baffles, it clings to the baffles and comes out and fills up the tank in an orderly fashion instead of going up the side walls and leaving that large bubble right in the center.
172:58:17 Fullerton: That's a beautiful demonstration...
172:58:18 Roosa: I know [garble].
172:58:21 Fullerton: It's very clear from here.
172:58:23 Roosa: Okay, good. Okay, we've got just about all we're going to get out of the tank. Now, Al will back it up, and we'll show you how the other set of baffles work. And you'll note the baffles not only aid on the fluid coming into the tank but also it makes for nice orderly discharge on the other tank. Now you can see it coming into this tank, with here again surface tension on the side walls and the two baffles, and proceeding to fill the tank.
172:59:21 Fullerton: That's very clear, Stu. You might run it back once more.
172:59:30 Roosa: Okay, we'll give it to you again.
172:59:49 Roosa: And I don't know if you can see it or not, Gordon; but when a bubble does come into the tank, it's broken up by the - by the baffles and tends to hang in pretty well. There, we just saw one burst there, if you happened- to notice that.
173:00:05 Fullerton: Hey, we can see that very clearly.
173:00:11 Mitchell: Why don?t you run it fast and show the slosh, if you can get it that fast.
173:00:22 Roosa: Okay, we're going to increase the rate of flow on this one.
173:00:25 Fullerton: Okay.
173:00:40 Roosa: Okay, now with the faster flow rate, you don't quite have time for the bubbles to dissipate, using the - using the baffles, and we did pick up a few more bubbles. And, Gordon, you really - you really - to appreciate this, you have to try the other side. I'm afraid that one didn't show up too well, because all we had were the two bubbles in the center;- but we can prove to you that the pump was working, because it works on this side. But it - it was just impossible to transfer any fluid after we opened the valve the first time, and got fluid out of one tank into the other one.
173:01:20 Fullerton: I think that's clear, Stu, now that we see how well this side works. We can see that the -without the baffles, it's a pretty hopeless situation.
173:02:05 Roosa: Okay, Gordon. That's probably about enough of liquid transfer. And I think we pretty well covered the - the four experiments unless you've got some questions, that I didn't make clear, or that has come up during the presentation.
173:02:29 Fullerton: One quick question. Did you have - Have you tried the - on the heat-flow convection experiment - the flow pattern part - part of it where you expected to see Benard cells, did that work out?
173:02:50 Roosa: Yes. We tried that, Gordon, and it didn't work out too good. Maybe while we?ve got the TV here, we'll - we'll talk about that one and maybe you can give - get some help, and we'd like to try running it again. We ran everything except the Benard cells. And, Ed, could you put the camera back over on the convection experiment, Ed?
173:03:22 Shepard: What has been happening here, in this particular experiment, we have a Krytox fluid that's supposed to come out at three different locations along the base of this cup. Can you see that cup from - from there, Gordo?
173:03:33 Fullerton: Yes. We're getting a very good view of it.
173:03:43 Shepard: This is the outline of the cup right here. It has three very small holes down at the base of the cup, at its periphery, and Krytox fluid flows in when we work a little hand pump here. And it's supposed to spread evenly over the bottom of this cup, which it does under one g. The cup is a heating element, and we - we're - we're - we were going to study the rate of growth of the - size of growth of Benard cells in the Krytox fluid. Unfortunately, we're not sure whether we have air in the fluid, too much air in the fluid, or not; but attempting to get the fluid to flow off the base of the cup through surface tension, we find that we don't have any luck, and rather it comes up along the walls of the cup adjacent to all three of the holes. And if you have any experts down there, we might just talk about that a minute.
173:04:49 Fullerton: Have you tried...
173:04:50 Roosa: Gordon, it [garble]...
173:04:51 Fullerton: ...to use an object to move - to try force the fluid to spread on over the surface by opening the lid on it and then trying to force it to spread out evenly.
173:05:05 Roosa: You mean physically spreading the Krytox around, Gordon?
173:05:11 Fullerton: That's - that's right. That's the question. We wondered if you tried that yet?
173:05:16 Roosa: No. We - we didn't. You know, our instructions there said if it didn't adhere to the - to the surface, we were to close up the lid and go home. We tried it three times; and to amplify there, it comes out of the hole, comes up the wall, and then spreads between the holes right on around the wall and just keeps packing up. We - we're most anxious to try it again; and we'll - we'll turn her on, and try spreading it across there.
173:05:48 Fullerton: Okay, Stu. We don't...
173:05:51 Roosa: It, it [garble]...
173:05:52 Fullerton: ...intend to ask you to try all this on TV, but our only suggestion would be to maybe open it up and try to spread it across with your finger or with a tissue or something like that. But that seems to be the only idea to be offered.
173:06:10 Roosa: Okay. Well, if you've got the time, we'll - we'll turn on the Krytox here and - watch - let you watch it come out.
173:06:18 Fullerton: Okay. We?re - be glad to watch.
173:06:38 Shepard: What I'm doing here is opening a flow valve, between the tank and Krytox and the liquid plate. And over here we have a pump, which is actuated when I turn it in a clockwise direction.
173:07:05 Shepard: Perhaps you can already see that we have fluid coming out, right here. It's staying right in this crevice, moving up the side walls. Can you see that on the camera?
173:07:17 Fullerton: Yes, sir. We can see that very clearly.
173:07:23 Shepard: See, It's doing it almost the same all the way around it. This one is spreading a little further down the line, doesn't have quite as much fluid yet. But these two are spreading the same way. They're going up the walls as much as they are coming out on the floor. Now we'll get a finger in here and see what happens.
173:08:10 Shepard: I believe we may be able to get enough there to show you the formation of these Benard cells.
173:08:16 Fullerton: Okay.
173:08:49 Shepard: We have a thin layer here, now, Let's turn on some heat and we'll see what happens.
173:08:53 Fullerton: Okay.
173:09:26 Fullerton: Ed, a comment for the cameraman there - we noticed a real improvement in the picture just about a minute or 2 ago. Which - If you did anything different there, remember what you did for future use.
173:09:27 Mitchell: We just put it back on average from the peak we had it on a little while ago.
173:09:51 Fullerton: Roger.
173:10:06 Roosa: Yes. We should see some action here probably in a couple of minutes, Gordon, when these - when these form. I think you saw them down at the Cape; didn't you, Gordon?
173:10:16 Fullerton: No. I didn?t see those personally.
173:10:20 Roosa: Okay. They're pretty impressive, and it breaks into the Benard cell here.
173:10:49 Shepard: I think we're having the formation of some small cells; but, of course , the film we've put out here, so far, is fairly thin. It's difficult to get the vertical - vertical circular pattern set up.
173:11:02 Fullerton: Roger.
173:12:20 Fullerton: Stu, the experts here would like to pass along the fact that it should take longer to get the cell formation with a thin layer of fluid than with a thick wet - than with a thick layer.
173:12:40 Shepard: Yes; well, we have a peculiar pattern in this - in this fluid, which you probably can?t see; but the fluid, which I put in the center, stayed there, but there's a very thin layer here indicating that it's gone out radially again. And, as you can see, we have some pretty good-size fillets that stay right on the outside of the - of the cup. Very much the same principle as the surface tension that you saw in the experiment of the tank without the baffles.
173:13:12 Fullerton: Roger, Al.
173:13:25 Shepard: Well, the cells are forming. You can see very small cells. But you probably can't pick them up with the camera, because the cells are only approximately a 16th of an inch in diameter, right now. I think - yes - if you hold on just a minute, we're going to see some pretty spectacular formations. They're starting to form right now and get a little bit larger.
173:13:50 Fullerton: Okay.
>173:13:55 Mitchell: Gordon, are you able to see the detail of the cells?
173:14:01 Fullerton: Not really now, Ed. It's - we see some texture there in the - in the fluid, but it's hard to say that they're really cells from here.
173:14:15 Mitchell: I think you'll be able to see them distinctly in a minute. They're starting to get larger and more active.
173:14:45 Fullerton: Okay, now I - Now we're seeing the cells pretty well. They're becoming much more apparent now.
173:14:57 Mitchell: Improved common techniques again.
173:15:32 Fullerton: Al, do you recall how many total turns you've put on the knob that pumps the Krytox out? They are curious just what total quantity is in the cup at this time.
173:15:45 Shepard: Well, we have about two turns full right now.
173:15:49 Fullerton: Roger.
173:16:29 Shepard: Well, we do have some tiny cells here, and we'll play with this one some more and photograph it. In the meantime, you all might be thinking about that.
173:16:35 Fullerton: Roger, Al.
173:16:39 Shepard: Well, we can definitely see these - the formation of the same type of cells, although they're smaller than we had down there. Perhaps with more fluid in there, we could get larger cells.
173:16:49 Fullerton: Roger.
173:16:50 Roosa: And, Gordon, after the TV here, we'll put the camera back up, and take a picture of what we've got here, just while it's there.
173:16:59 Fullerton: Roger, Stu.
173:17:11 Roosa: Okay, I guess that's about all of it from our zero-g lab of Apollo 14. I think - we're real pleased with the experiments, and I want to compliment all of the Pi's and the work that they did. They - they came out extremely well; they went just as advertised on the procedures, gave us no trouble, and it's been - they've been real enjoyable to work with. And, hopefully, this is the beginning of bigger and better things in the way of manufacturing processes and so forth, in space. And I believe Al has got some words here.
173:18:01 Shepard: I just wanted to say a couple of words before we signed off tonight. What we've been talking about among the three of us, as we been setting up these experiments, is the contribution this could make, immediately and directly, into American lives and to the lives of people around the world. For example, if, specifically, these manufacturing processes of metals turned out to be better in the space environment; or the vaccines, which are proposed to be developed in weightless condition, can be used effectively and immediately. And, certainly, this type of an operation in Skylabs of the future can become immediately beneficial to the peoples of the United States and the peoples of the World. As a matter of fact, one of the things we're talking about, in that connection, was the tremendous achievements of the space program, so far, that have contributed particularly in the field of communication. For example, right now, I'm sure this broadcast is going directly overseas to millions of people who are seeing it in their homes through satellite. And I think many people have said that this improvement in communication through the space satellite will certainly go a long way in solving the problems of the World -problems of understanding between peoples of different nations and different countries. We are reminded, however, as we look at that shimmering crescent tonight, which is the Earth, on our way back, that there still is fighting going on. The three of us all have acquaintances, friends, and even relatives in Viet Nam. We are reminded that some of the people - some of the men who have gone to Viet Nam - have not returned, that are still being held there, listed as missing in action or as prisoners of war. And it is our wish, tonight, that we can, in some way, contribute, through our efforts to the space program, to promote a better understanding of peace throughout the World and help to rectify these situations which still exist. And with that thought, for Ed and Stu and myself, I will say good night to you from Apollo 14.
173:20:24 Fullerton: Roger, Apollo 14. Thank you very much for the very interesting and - thank you very much for the whole show. We've enjoyed every minute. Good night.
173:20:44 Slayton: Inspiring was the word that Gordon was looking for.
173:20:50 Shepard: Okay, thank you.
This is Apollo Control 173 hours 25 minutes Ground Elapsed Time. The distance from Earth now 161,112 nautical miles, velocity 3,893 feet per second. Inflight demonstrations complete as recently televised. Thecrew of Apollo 14 now has gone back to the start of program 23, cislunar navigation exercises using the spacecraft optics or navigation sextant taking sightings and measurements on several selected stars in the Apollo navigation star list, measuring the included angle between the stars and the Earth far horizon as seen from 161 miles out. Still up and live on air-ground. This is Apollo Control at 173:26.
173:29:04 Fullerton: Apollo 14, Houston.
173:29:09 Mitchell: Go ahead.
173:29:11 Fullerton: The only suggestion we can make on that problem of the Benard cell flow pattern experiment there -is that that rubber surface around the edge of the cup is supposed to be treated so that the fluid won't adhere to it. Obviously, it's not working. The - the only suggestion that might work would be to take a tissue and wipe that off real well and try to clean it as well as possible; and then, try to put as thick a layer as possible of Krytox into the cup with your finger, if necessary, and the thicker the better, evidently, for results -more visible results. And a question for all the experiments. We'd like a status on just where you stand as far as taking data, if - on each of the four. If you could give that to us, the support people would like to know. Also, if you intend to work on it tomorrow, they'll be here to answer any questions, or whether you're going to finish it all up tonight. Over.
173:30:24 Shepard: I - I don't think we'll be able to get It all completed by tonight, Gordo. However, if you give us a call when they're leaving, then we'll be able to tell you what the completion factor is.
173:30:49 Fullerton: Okay. Actually, they'll stand by as long as you wish. So, if you give us just a status right now, I think that's what they want. Have you taken any data on the - -
173:30:56 Shepard: Okay, well, as far as...
173:30:57 Fullerton: ...on the electrophoresis yet, for instance?
173:31:01 Shepard: Well, let's start with the metal composites, as far as that's concerned. We have no problems with that, and, well, we have completed, I think, three or four of those, and we will press right on with those all the way in. As far as the heat flow is concerned, we have completed with the zone and the radial flows, and we'll try one more time on the Krytox. We, I think, only did the film of the fluid transfer. We have no questions on that; so, no further support on that will be required. And we have not made an attempt on the electrophoresis, yet. We're using that for demonstration, for television only. That's the only one that we would really need any support on at all.
173:32:51 Fullerton: Okay, fine. I think that answers their question.
173:32:53 Shepard: We should be getting into the electrophoresis after we finish this next P23.
173:33:02 Fullerton: Okay, thank you, Al.
173:36:23 Roosa: Houston, 14.
173:36:25 Fullerton: Go ahead.
173:36:29 Roosa: Gordon, is anybody concerned about a little longer delay in going into PTC? I was looking ahead at these three constraint stars. We could cut those out if - I'm not suggesting it, but if we're concerned about the thermal aspect.
173:36:48 Fullerton: Stand by. We'll check on that.
173:37:13 Fullerton: Stu, I guess we - we don't see, immediately anyway, any - any particular rush to get into PTC. So, go ahead and complete the P23, as shown; and, if we come up with something, we'll call you later. That - that - something that requires us to get - get into the PTC sooner; I don't think there's going to be anything, though. Over.
173:37:35 Roosa: Okay, I just wanted to check with you. We've been out awhile.
173:48:31 Fullerton: Apollo 14. Apollo 14, Houston. Over.
173:48:38 Mitchell: Go ahead, Houston.
173:48:40 Fullerton: Okay, tank 3 heater is getting up above the limit. It's 335 and climbing. We'd like to have you turn tank 3 Off; 1 and 2 to Auto. That's the O
2 heater.
173:48:52 Mitchell: Tank number 3 coming Off; 1 and 2 to Auto.
173:48:58 Fullerton: Thank you.
173:48:59 Mitchell: You got it.
173:57:15 Fullerton: Stu, this is Houston. We think we - that you loaded 35 , Rasalhague, when you meant to load 33, Antares, there. Over.
173:57:34 Roosa: Roger, Gordon. I copy that. Okay. You're so right. I'm seeing double here.
173:57:49 Fullerton: Big Brother is watching.
173:57:55 Roosa: Good call.
This is Apollo Control. 174:15 Ground Elapsed Time. Spacecraft to Earth distance now 159,215 nautical miles, velocity 3,933 feet per second. Apollo 14 crew still at this time engaged in program 23 Cislunar Navigation Exercises. And shortly we'll be setting up PTC for the night - passive thermal control. Eat dinner and go into a ten hour rest period. We'll leave the circuit up till such time as they sign off for the night and go into that rest period. At 174:15, Ground Elapsed Time, this is Apollo Control.
174:34:43 Fullerton: Stu, this is Houston.
174:34:47 Mitchell: Go ahead.
174:34:49 Fullerton: For Stu, we noticed - at least it looked like it to us here - that he took six marks on star number 5, rather than three on 5 and then three on 6. Probably have to do 6 over. Over.
174:35:08 Roosa: Say that again, Gordon?
174:35:11 Fullerton: Well, the backroom guys that were watching said that you did six marks on number 5, rather than three on 5 and three on 6. Is that the way it seemed to you?
174:35:24 Roosa: Okay, I'll do 6.
174:35:43 Shepard: He knew 6 was going to be a difficult star, so he was practicing extra on 5-
174:35:49 Fullerton: Roger.
174:35:50 Roosa: Hey, Gordon. The tough one is that number 3. I don't know - I don't know why - that's a tough star
174:35:59 Fullerton: Yes , we get it.
174:36:43 Fullerton: Al, this is Houston.
174:36:48 Shepard: Go ahead, Houston.
174:36:50 Fullerton: For EECOM, we noticed one - on the last heater cycle on O
2 tank 3, that the temperature went up pretty fast. We'd just like to verify that the 50-Watt Heater breaker is out. That's on panel 226. The - that's on tank 3.
174:37:12 Shepard: Stand by.
174:37:17 Shepard: You want - O
2 tank 3.
174:37:20 Fullerton: Roger. We'd like to know where it was when you look at it. We think it was out; we'd like to verify that, and we'd like you to leave it out, if it is out.
174:37:44 Shepard: The breaker was in. It's now out. We're taking a look at our Flight Plan to see where that was supposed to happen.
175:22:15 Fullerton: Apollo 14, Houston. Over.
175:22:19 Shepard: Go ahead.
175:22:20 Fullerton: Al, we have a fairly lengthy procedure for stowing the probe for entry. We thought it might be a good idea to try to summarize it quickly to you now so that you can think about it somewhat. We're picking out a time tomorrow to accomplish this. We think that it should be no problem to finish it in about an hour, and it looks like maybe the crew exercise period scheduled at 190 hours might be a good time. So what we'd like to do is get Stu on the horn and summarize the whole procedure. Just quickly so you can think about it, and then when it comes - when you get ready to do it, rather than - probably it would be a long time -take as long to write down all these directions as it would to do' the stowage, so we could just, real-time, read the steps to you one at a time as you accomplish it. And it might be easier than trying to copy it all down. Over.
175:23:33 Shepard: Okay, it sounds fine. As a matter of fact, we were discussing that a few minutes ago. If you'll hold on just a second, we'll put Stu on the air.
175:23:42 Fullerton: Okay.
175:32:03 Roosa: Houston, 14.
175:32:07 Fullerton: Roger; this is Houston.
175:32:10 Roosa: Roger; I think we're all on the air.
175:32:12 Fullerton: Okay, Stu. I'm not intending for you to either write this all down, or to under - to remember it all. We'd just like to give it to you once through quickly so you can think about it, and we'll do it In detail tomorrow when we get around to doing it for real. The first thing is the stowage for the decontamination bags that ordinarily go on A-10 and A-13. We're going to modify that to stow the one that has 30 pounds in it, and put that one on A-13, using the existing tiedown rings. But the one that has 20 pounds, rather than putting it on A-10, we want to put it on A-8. And use the D-rings on A-8 in essentially the same manner - the normal manner of strapping it down. On top of that one, we want to take the CMP suit and helmet and put it in a sleeping bag, and then use the LM webbing and lash it down on top of the 20-pound decontamination bag on A-8. And this should all tie down there to allow a minimum 4-inch clearance to the couch for couch stroking. Are you with me so far?
175:33:51 Roosa: Yes, that's fine.
175:33:53 Fullerton: Okay. Now for the probe stowage. We start by going through A-10. And remove anything you think you might need later. We can't identify anything in there that will be needed later, but you want to take a check, because once we get the probe lashed down on top of that - it will be pretty tough to get back in there. Then go to A-5 and remove the headrest pads and put them on the couches. Take the heel clips and ropes, there should be five ropes in there , and stow them temporarily. From the right-hand side of A-5, take the cushion and all the equipment that's in that cushion and put it in foodbox B-l. And from A-6, take the two LiOH cans from A-6 and put them in the left-hand side of A-5. So take the TV equipment that's in A-6, wrap the TV monitor in a constant wear garment, and put all the TV equipment into B-l, also. Okay. Now take the ropes -take one of the ropes that you removed from A-5 and double it, and then tie it to footpad on A-6 -the footpad that's in the corner. It'd be the plus-Y, plus-Z footpad on A-6. And take three other ropes and tie one end of each of those three ropes - we won?t double those ropes - tie one end of each of those three to the same point, that being the other footpad near the wall on A-6. It'd be the plus-Y, minus-Z footpad. Okay. Now we go to the probe and take two flight data file books and tape them to the base end of the probe, the end with the capture latch release handle. The probe now will be placed with one of the pitch arms - those are the large arms that - that normally contact the face of the drogue - one of those pitch arms down toward the aft bulkhead between A-6 and A-10. The apex of the probe pointing in the minus-Y direction and the base end of the probe with the flight data file books taped on them to touching the right-hand equipment bay. Is that clear - more or less the position that it - it'll be stowed in? Over.
175:36:57 Roosa: Yes, it's real clear, Gordon. You're doing a great job.
175:37:01 Fullerton: Okay. Then the - there'll be six points that the probe will be resting on. I won't go into all of those, but we'll identify those as we go. And determine where, with a pencil or something, mark where these points are, and then remove the probe from that location. And on three of those positions we'll have to shim them up. One of the -one of these contact points will be shimmed with a sleeping bag, on top of which we'll put one of the rendezvous window shades and, on top of that, a flight data file book. One of the other shim points - one of the other contact points will be shimmed with a flight data book, and the third point will probably take a couple of flight data books to fill up the gap. Once we get the shims in place, we'll put the probe back down and check that all six contact points are indeed making contact. And then we go through a fairly - well about five steps of rope tying, I won't go into the details, but we've got it all figured out where each rope coming from the A-6 footpads goes to on the probe and then back down to various other places, essentially lashing the whole thing down between points on A-6 and A-10. And as a final step, using tools that we've got for you from the toolkit, tools that we have identified, we'll take apart one of the support arms, we'll remove the bolt that holds that support arm to the shock strut, and then tie the loose support arm to the probe with the last rope to keep it from flopping around. This takes that support arm out of the couch stroke envelope. And that'll do it. How's that, clear as mud?
175:39:15 Roosa: No. That's - that's pretty clear, Gordon. When we got to that part about all the rope tieing, you know, I thought I sure am glad I'm flying with two sailors, you know. Shoot, they can handle that, no sweat.
175:39:28 Shepard: That's what you call abundantly clear. It sounds like you've put a lot of effort in to that one.
175:39:32 Mitchell: I was just wondering how many new hires it took to figure all that out in 2 days.
175:39:37 Fullerton: There has been a few manhours spent on it. What I intend to do is go over tomorrow and do it all myself in the mockup. And then I'll probably spell Bruce sometime - if we end up at that same time in the shift tomorrow that we suggested around 195 hours - I'll be back here spelling him anyway, and I can go through the gory details with you as you do it, if that sounds good to you.
175:40:07 Roosa: That's - that's great, Gordon. We sure appreciate all the effort you're going to here, and it sounds like you've got it well in hand. That was pretty clear - real clear the first time through, and with you giving us the details, it shouldn't be any sweat. In fact, I bet we could hack it right now.
175:40:26 Fullerton: Okay. Very good.
175:40:44 Fullerton: 14, Houston.
175:40:48 Shepard: Go ahead.
175:40:50 Fullerton: Would you verify that you did change the lithium hydroxide canisters called for at 174 hours?
175:40:59 Roosa: Naturally.
175:41:00 Shepard: Absolutely.
175:41:01 Fullerton: Okay.
175:43:13 Fullerton: Apollo 14 , Houston,
175:43:17 Mitchell: Go ahead.
175:43:19 Fullerton: If you're all finished with your overboard dumps up there, your rates look good for starting the spinup. And we would like you to configure the High Gain in the coast to sleep mode as shown in - the Systems Checklist. We'd like you to use option 1 under that, which is with the High Gain operation as shown there rather than Omni operation. We want to watch the High Gain awhile; and then, before you go to sleep, we'll probably go back to Omni. Over.
175:43:54 Mitchell: Okay, Gordon. Fine. I'll bring it up that way.
175:43:59 Shepard: Okay. We'll spin up with B-2/D-2.
176:05:25 CC: Apollo 14, Houston.
176:05:35 Mitchell: Go ahead.
176:05:37 CC: We're ready for you to go to the sleep configuration on the comm, if - any time you are. We'd like you to secure the High Gain in Pitch, minus 52, and Yaw, 270, and Manual on Wide, and then the other switches as shown in the checklist. Over.
176:06:04 Mitchell: Okeydoke. We'll do that. Thank you.
176:06:16 : (Music - Tijuana Brass, 'The Work Song')
176:06:45 CC: Sounds like you?re having a party up there.
176:06:54 Mitchell: Say again, Freddo.
176:06:56 Roosa: Yes, we got a little music going up here.
176:07:06 Mitchell: That's the only ingredients we have for a party, though.
This is Apollo Control at 176 hours, 18 minutes Ground Elapsed Time. Apollo 14 now 154,455 nautical miles out from Earth approaching at a velocity of 4,037 feet per second. The crew of Apollo 14 apparently preparing for the 10 hour sleep period and there having been no communications from the crew in the last several minutes, we will take the circuit down at this time and play back on a delayed basis any subsequent conversation prior to sleep, if there is any. At 176:19 ground elapsedtime, this is Apollo Control.
This is Apollo Control 176:46 Ground Elapsed Time. Spacecraft communicator Gordon Fullerton is giving the crew their last go to bed instructions on the communications, which antenna to use, and so on. And, we've accumulated short amount of tape, and we'll catch up livehere. Let's roll the tape.
176:56:45 CC: Apollo 14, Houston. EECOM has informed us that unless we get these onboard read-outs before you go to sleep, we?re going to have to return to Earth as soon as possible. Over.
176:57:07 Mitchell: Well, if we thought it would help, we'd just be quiet.
177:00:49 Mitchell: Houston, Apollo 14.
177:01:02 Mitchell: Houston, Apollo 14.
177:01:03 CC: Go ahead, 14.
177:01:09 Mitchell: Okay, Gordon. The onboard read-out follows: Bat C, 37 volts; pyro Bat A, 37.3; Pyro Bat B, 37-3; RCS A, 58; B, 55; C, 57; D, 60; and stand by for the rest of it.
177:02:12 Mitchell: And, Houston, 14. We have no medication to report. The crew is doing fine.
176:22:19 CC: Okay, Ed. Thank you.
177:11:36 CC: Apollo 14, Houston. Over.
177:11:43 Mitchell: Go ahead, Houston.
177:11:45 CC: We're at a good angle now for a E-MOD dump, if you?d like to give it to us.
177:11:53 Mitchell: Okay.
177:11:56 CC: And that about completes all the things that we had to pass up before you go to sleep. We want to finish the rest of the presleep checklist and wish you a good night.
177:12:12 Mitchell: Okay, here it comes. Good night to you.
177:12:31 Mitchell: Did you get my last, Gordon?
177:12:33 CC: Negative. Say again, Ed.
177:12:36 Mitchell: Okay, the E-MOD dump's on the way, and good night to you.
177:12:44 CC: You planning to raise the cabin pressure now, or wait awhile?
177:12:52 Mitchell: Oh, we'll wait awhile; we're not quite ready to go to sleep yet.
This is Apollo Control. Apollo 14 now established in a barbeque roll, passive thermal control mode. They reported that the crew is in fine shape; no medication has been taken today. Gave their onboard readouts and battery voltage readings and quantities remaining in the Service Module Reaction Control System propellant tanks. And it isn't likely that they'll call back to control center again tonight before going to bed. So at 177 hours 22 minutes Ground Elapsed Time, this is Apollo Control.
