Preparations for EVA-3

Extracting the Core and Losing the North Complex

 

Rover Preps

Corrected Transcript and Commentary Copyright © 1996 by Eric M. Jones.
All rights reserved.
Scan credits in the Image Library
Last revised 16 June 2014.

MP3 Audio Clip ( 2 min 18 sec ) by David Shaffer

163:18:11 Scott: Okay. "Stand by for a tone and the water flag at 1.2 to 1.7." Cabin is down to about 2.2. (Long Pause) Are you coming back around?

163:18:32 Irwin: No. Don't think I will, not right now.

163:18:34 Scott: Yeah. Why don't you wait until we get this down a little bit. Cabin is still 1.0.

163:18:49 Irwin: Okay, I have a water flag.

[Jim's sensor system is telling him that he hasn't turned on his PLSS feedwater.]

163:19:54 Irwin: Okay.

163:19:56 Scott: Start working towards the hatch.

163:20:02 Irwin: Okay; I'm in the corner.

163:20:03 Scott: Good. I'll get in mine. (Long Pause)

[Jim is wedged in the far right corner against the front of the ECS cabinet and Dave is at the far left. This configuration will give Dave the most room to lean down to get the handle on the hatch.]

163:20:22 Irwin: Make it?

[Jim is asking if Dave can get the hatch open against the remaining pressure.]

163:21:35 Irwin: (Looking out his window) There go our ice pellets.

163:21:40 Scott: Okay. Forward hatch handle...Dump valve to Auto. Can you get that one?

[Dave has made the mistake of momentarily working from memory and has mis-remembered the sequence of steps. He corrects himself at 163:22:27.]

163:22:00 Scott: Don't close the door!

163:22:02 Irwin: Can you hold it (meaning the hatch) there while I get (turned) around?

163:22:04 Scott: Yeah. I've got it now. (Pause)

163:22:11 Irwin: Okay, it's back to Auto.

MP3 Audio Clip ( 11 min 45 sec ) by David Shaffer

163:22:12 Scott: Okay. (Pause) Okay. (Pause)

163:22:27 Scott: Oh, wait a minute. You've got to leave it in Open. The card's all arranged different here.

163:22:34 Irwin: (Garbled)

163:22:35 Scott: Yeah. Sorry about that.

163:22:37 Allen: Houston confirms. Leave it open.

163:22:42 Scott: Yeah, Rog. Okay, now, "PLSS Primary Water to Open".

163:22:52 Irwin: (Grunting as he reaches back) That's in work.

163:22:53 Scott: Okay. (Long Pause)

163:23:15 Irwin: Okay, mine's Open.

163:23:18 Scott: Mine's Open. Okay, "H2O flag should clear in 2 to 4 minutes."

[Comm Break]

163:24:54 Irwin: Mine is too. (Long Pause)

163:25:12 Scott: Okay; "verify PGA 3.7 to 4.6"; and mine's at about 4.2.

163:25:18 Irwin: Okay, mine's 4.1.

163:25:21 Scott: Okay, caution lamps (to be checked) are PREAMPS and ECS. (Pause) H2O Sep(arator) Component Light's on. "Lower EV visor." On we go.

[They have now finished with the EVA Prep & Post Card and will start to use cuff checklist pages LMP-23 and CDR-24.]

163:25:46 Allen: They both look good, Hadley Base. And, Dave, you can have your (PLSS feedwater) diverter valve.

163:25:54 Scott: Oh, thank you, Joe. Okay, Jim, I'm going to get over here and open the door.

163:26:01 Irwin: Okay. (Long Pause)

163:26:13 Scott: Can you see what I'm hung on, Jim?

163:26:14 Irwin: Just a minute.

163:26:17 Allen: And, Jim, diverter valve is yours as well.

163:26:19 Irwin: We'll switch here. (Responding to Joe) Okay, standby. Let's see if I can turn around here, Dave.

163:26:27 Scott: Okay. (Pause)

163:26:39 Irwin: Back behind me?

163:26:40 Scott: Say again.

163:26:42 Irwin: If you can turn right, I'm turning left.

163:26:46 Scott: Okay. That's right. Doesn't matter. (Pause)

163:26:56 Irwin: (Garbled) turn that way. Try the other way. (Pause) Am I pushing against you?

163:27:08 Scott: Yeah. You sure are. (Pause)

163:27:14 Irwin: I'll have to turn the other way then.

163:27:15 Scott: No, go back in your corner. Maybe I'm unhooked now. Are you back in your corner?

163:27:20 Irwin: Yeah. I'm back here as far as I can.

163:27:24 Scott: Okay. I'm clear. Open the door. Oop. Door won't open all the way.

163:27:38 Irwin: Hitting my foot, I guess.

163:27:40 Scott: Yeah. (Pause) It's hitting your PLSS!

163:27:44 Irwin: Stand up a little bit here.

163:27:45 Scott: There, okay.

163:27:47 Irwin: Before you go out though, let me turn around so I can watch you.

163:27:52 Scott: Okay. (Long Pause)

[Jones - "Jim must be facing the bulkhead with his body in the corner between the outside bulkhead and the ECS and his PLSS out in cabin. Sort of like a kid who's been bad, standing in the corner. This is the only clear statement in Apollo as to whether an LMP 'standing in his corner' has his face to the wall or his PLSS to the wall."]

163:28:14 Irwin: Oh, I'm okay. Where are you?

163:28:16 Scott: Oh, I've just got my feet out.

163:28:19 Irwin: Okay, let me turn around then.

163:28:21 Scott: Well, I'm not sure you can. I'm going out. I'm all right. Then you can turn around easier when I get to where you get my (PLSS/OPS) antenna.

163:28:30 Irwin: Oh, okay. I'll just stay over here in the corner then.

163:28:33 Scott: Okay. (Pause)

163:28:43 Irwin: In fact, if you want, Dave...Shoot, I'll get your (PLSS/OPS) antenna when we get down to the surface.

163:29:06 Scott: Yeah. (Chuckles) There. Okay; I'm out.

163:29:09 Irwin: Okay, I'm going to turn around. (Pause)

163:29:20 Scott: You might...See the little cover on the outside hatch handle? You might cover that; it's open.

163:29:27 Irwin: Okay. (Pause) Just stay there on the porch until I get all the gear out to you.

163:29:35 Scott: Oh, yeah.

163:29:36 Irwin: Like the jett bag and...

163:29:37 Scott: Yeah. (Long Pause) How you doing? Go easy. (Pause)

[Jim has probably closed the hatch partially so that he can get over to Dave's side of the cabin and open the hatch fully.]

163:30:09 Scott: Oh. (Pause)

163:30:16 Irwin: Okay, ... jett bag.

163:30:17 Allen: Jim, this is Houston. Could you verify for us, please, that one of the two dump valves is Open?

163:30:25 Irwin: Yeah, the forward one is Open, Joe.

163:30:28 Allen: Sounds good, Jim. Thank you.

[Houston wants to make sure that, if the door were to fully close and gas of some sort were released into the cabin, the gas would be able to vent. In principle, the crew could operate the dump valve from outside; but this simple check reduces the chance virtually to zero of problems later on.]

[Scott, from a 1996 letter - "Actually, the forward dump valve would not have been difficult to open from the outside on the porch. We probably tried it in the one-sixth-g airplane. It would have been much more difficult to open the top hatch dump valve from the outside!!"]

[I suppose that, in an absolute emergency, one of them could have climbed to the porch with a Rover deployment cable or an ALSEP cable tied to his suit, tossed the other end of the cable over the top of the spacecraft to his buddy who would then help him climb to the top of the spacecraft. Although they each weighed about 60 pounds - complete with backpack - and could have been pulled up on a cable, the consequences of a fall or a dislodged hose would have been severe enough that I can image such a thing being tried only as a last-ditch measure.]

163:30:36 Irwin: Send that and then I'll get you the ETB.

163:30:42 Scott: It's the world's biggest jett bag. (Long Pause)

[Dave probably drops the jett bag over the right porch rail, the side away from the MESA.]

163:31:18 Scott: Yeah, standing right by.

163:31:20 Allen: And, Dave, while you're waiting. A word about the polarimetric filter. We are going to ask you to pick that up from the MESA and put it on your camera from the very first. We've got a dandy spot for you to do some polarimetric photographs later on.

[A series of photographs taken with and without the polarimetric filter had been planned for the end of EVA-1, as per CDR-26 and 27. Because of the drilling problems, those activities were dropped.]

163:31:48 Irwin: I don't see the LEC out there. Where is it; down on the surface?

163:31:52 Scott: No; it's over here on the right.

163:31:54 Irwin: Okay; listen, when you get down, Dave, remember that LCRU battery is in that footpad.

163:31:59 Scott: Rog!

163:32:01 Allen: Good thinking, Jim.

163:32:02 Irwin: As soon as you get down, I'll come down, I'll getyour (PLSS/OPS antenna).

163:32:06 Scott: Oh, it's in the checklist somewhere.

163:32:10 Irwin: Sure. (Pause) Okay; if you're clear, I'll come down.

163:32:19 Scott: Yep. Clear.

163:32:21 Irwin: Okay.

163:32:24 Scott: Ohh! It's nice to be outside where you can stretch a little bit. (Long Pause)

163:33:23 Irwin: Okay, the hatch is closed, Joe.

163:33:27 Allen: Okay, Jim. Thank you. (Pause)

163:33:35 Scott: And, Joe, the LCRU Power is going to Internal now.

163:33:39 Allen: Okay, Dave. And could you check the LRV batt covers closed at the same time?

163:33:48 Scott: No, they're open and I will close them now.

163:33:54 Allen: Rog. Those automatic devices fail us every now and then.

163:34:00 Scott: Yeah. I reckon nothing's perfect. Okay, they're closed. (Pause)

163:34:11 Irwin: Okay, Joe. I'm on the surface.

163:34:13 Allen: Roger, Jim.

163:34:15 Irwin: I'll come over and get your (PLSS/OPS) antenna, Dave.

163:34:16 Scott: Okay.

163:34:17 Allen: Although it doesn't appear like you really need it.

163:34:19 Scott: Sure doesn't, does it? Why don't we just leave it there.

163:34:23 Irwin: Okay. If we have marginal comm, I'll lower it.

163:34:25 Scott: Yeah.

163:34:27 Allen: Rog. And you're both loud and clear.

163:34:32 Scott: Good. (Pause)

[TV on.]

MP3 Audio Clip ( 9 min 54 sec ) by David Shaffer

163:34:46 Irwin: Did you get the LCRU battery already, Dave?

163:34:48 Scott: No, I haven't. (Pause) You're supposed to get that (as per LMP-23).

163:34:58 Irwin: Yeah. I know it. That's why I reminded you of it being down here.

163:35:07 Scott: Reminded me of what?

163:35:08 Irwin: It was in this (plus-Z) footpad instead of the plus-Y.

163:35:11 Scott: Oh, okay. (Pause)

163:35:19 Irwin: Might be a little dirty.

163:35:20 Scott: Really? Brush it off. (Long Pause)

[Fendell pans left, raises the camera, and finds Dave at his seat emptying the ETB as per CDR-25. The "P.O. Package" mentioned in the checklist is the postage-stamp cancellation kit he will use at the end of the EVA. Jim is at the back of the Rover.]

163:36:31 Allen: Roger. (Pause)

[Dave reaches across and puts the LMP camera on Jim's seat.]

[Comm Break]

[Dave removes the dark slide from Mag Whiskey, gets the 500-mm camera out from under his seat, and installs the magazine.]

[Scott - "The camera was one of the best geologic sampling tools we had. Learn more geology from one photo than almost any other one thing we got, except maybe a really good rock."]

163:37:52 Scott: And I'll check it out. (Long Pause)

[Dave turns to the north and appears to take a picture with the 500. There is, however, no such picture in the Apollo collection. The usual procedure was to expose two frames after installing a magazine and these were, of course, badly sunstruck.]

[Dave puts the lens cap on the 500 and puts the camera under his seat.]

163:39:02 Allen: Okay, Jim. And, Dave and Jim, we'll lose comm here perhaps. However, we'll get it back when the battery's changed, so don't worry.

163:39:16 Scott: Okay. Understand, Joe. And into the ETB go 16-millimeter Hotel, Juliett, and Golf. (Pause)

[Dave has mis-spoken. He is actually taking the 16-mm mags out of the ETB and putting them under his seat.]

[After Dave finishes with the 16-mm magazines, he puts what may be the stamp-cancellation kit on his seat and takes the EVA-3 maps out of the ETB.]

[Jim is attaching the BSLSS bag to the forward surface of the geopallet as per LMP-24. The BSLSS is a set of hoses and fittings that would allow Dave and Jim to share cooling water in the event that one of them had a cooling system failure.]

[Scott - "All this work on the BSLSS and nobody ever used it, fortunately. That would have been a call to arms. Can you imagine the (political) waves?"]

[Jones - "Jack and Gene noted that neither of them remembered any of the details about it. In fact, it took them a little while to remember they had one."]

[Scott - "Fortunately, all this stuff worked better than advertised. I might add that, when the BSLSS came up, we put a lot of time into it, similar to the time we put in on Apollo 9 for an EVA transfer from the LM to the Command Module, because nobody knew whether the docking probe would collapse. And I can remember spending hours on procedures for doing that transfer, outside. And I'll bet the last bunch of guys didn't even know they had that...They probably knew."]

[Jones - "They did. The reason being that they checked the OPSs before they jettisoned the PLSSs. And the primary reason they kept the OPSs was as a contingency in case they had to do an EVA transfer."]

[Scott - "But we only take one OPS (back to orbit), right?"]

[Jones - "I don't know."]

[They actually take both OPSs up to orbit.]

[Scott - "That's another story. That's the story of the little flags. Have I told you about that? Some guy stowed some small American flags inside the OPS, on a plate that separated the oxygen bottles. A plate this big (about six inches on a side). And he got fifty small American flags and snuck 'em on board. Name to remain unidentified, 'cause it doesn't really matter. And, when the OPS got back, it was opened by a different guy. The first guy was in charge and he sort of figured he'd open them. But he didn't; somebody else did. And I got a call from McDivitt one day, the Program Manager, 'Come over here.' And he says, 'Look at this, you ever seen one of these?' And he handed me one of these plates. 'Where'd it come from?' I said, because I wasn't even familiar with the inside of the OPS. So he told me the whole story. And they kept 'em at JSC to give to people over the course of years."]

["In fact, I got one and gave it to somebody who really helped us a lot. They're real cute, made out of Beta cloth, so they're fireproof and all that stuff. So they got this guy and they told him he was a naughty boy and let him go on his way. That's why I remember we only brought one OPS back."]

[Al Worden used one of the OPSs when he retrieved film canisters from the SIM Bay on an EVA performed during the trip home. If that was the one that was brought home, the other one may have been stowed in the LM prior to LM jettison and it is an open question as to whether or not the OPS would have survived the LM impact.]

[Scott, from a 1996 letter - "Somebody may find these flags when they sample the LM crater - someday!"]

163:40:48 Irwin: (Garbled)

163:40:47 Scott: ...My arms are longer. Just a second.

163:40:51 Irwin: Okay. (Pause)

Video Clip  2 min 29 sec ( 0.6 Mb RealVideo or 22 Mb MPG )

163:40:56 Scott: I'll give you your maps so you can put them on. (Pause)

[Dave takes the ETB and the maps around the front of the Rover to Jim's seat. During the following, Dave and Jim are just off-camera to the left.]

[At 163:31:20, Joe told Dave that they wanted him to put the polarization filter on his camera. At 164:01:09, Dave will report that the filter won't fit over the lens.]

163:41:21 Irwin: It's hard to get into the lock, Dave. I think if you have any difficulty just let me stand up. I can lean over and get it. (Pause) Down. We have to swing that lock on the left side forward to lock it in there. (Pause)

163:41:47 Scott: Oh, yeah. (Pause) I'm not sure you're going to get to that at all.

163:41:54 Irwin: I could get it if I could stand up and lean over.

163:42:00 Scott: You can try. Be careful. (Long Pause)

[Journal Contributor John Pfannerstill notes that, at this point, Dave affixes the LRV commemorative sign to the righthand side of the console, smoothing it down several times with the back of his glove. Jim will take two photos of the sign at 163:58:27. Dave leaves the field-of-view to the left, probably going to the MESA.]

[Fendell pans right.]

163:43:02 Allen: Okay, Dave, and just plug it on to your camera at your convenience. You'll want to change the exposure time to 1 over 125, and you might call out the filter position.

Video Clip  2 min 52 sec ( 0.7 Mb RealVideo or 26 Mb MPG )

163:43:17 Scott: Okay. Let me get to it later, Joe.

163:43:19 Allen: Rog; no hurry. (Pause)

163:43:27 Scott: Is that the BSLSS lock on the...(Did) you said the left side or right? Oh, it is. I see it.

163:43:32 Irwin: Left side.

163:43:33 Scott: I can get it.

163:43:34 Irwin: What?

163:43:35 Scott: I can reach that.

163:43:36 Irwin: If you can reach around the...If you want, I could...

163:43:38 Scott: No, I can get it.

163:43:42 Irwin: You can't reach the strap, the bag's too wide.

163:43:51 Scott: Up or down?

163:43:52 Irwin: Forward.

163:43:53 Scott: It was already in forward. Must have got it. No, it's got to go aft, Jim.

[Fendell reaches the clockwise pan limit and has a close-up view of Jim's right shoulder. When Fendell pulls back on the zoom, we see Dave at the back of the Rover.]

163:44:21 Scott: All done. (Pause) I think I'd see what the problem is. (Pause) It is forward. No, that's aft; that's right. Locked. (Long Pause) Huh. Well...

163:45:08 Irwin: If there's any question, Dave, let's put it under my seat, rather than lose it.

163:45:13 Scott: We're not going to lose it, Jim.

163:45:14 Allen: That sounds good to us, Jim. It's not worth the trouble.

163:45:21 Irwin: Yeah.

163:45:23 Scott: There. I got it. It's locked. Huh! (Long Pause)

[Irwin, from the 1971 Technical Debrief - "We had trouble getting the BSLSS bag locked. I think that's because the bag was larger than the collection bags, and you just couldn't get your finger in there with a suit on to get it locked."]

[Jim gets an SCB from under his seat and, once Dave moves out of the way, takes it to the back of the Rover. Dave gets the LCRU battery from Jim's foot pan, and pounds it with his right fist to knock the dust off.]

163:45:59 Scott: Okay, Joe, I'm going to change the LCRU battery.

163:46:01 Allen: Roger. Just in time.

163:46:06 Scott: Okay, (LCRU) power's going (Off).

[TV off.]

[Motion picture film shot during training shows Dave installing a LCRU battery.]

163:46:18 Allen: Jim, we...We copy that...

163:46:21 Irwin: And I'm wondering whether we should leave...

163:46:23 Scott: Leave it there.

163:46:22 Allen: ...if it's easy to do just keep bag 2 under the seat and follow your checklist normally. Bag 2 is just an extra bag for us. (Long Pause)

[Cuff checklist page LMP-24 indicates that they had planned to have bags 7 and 8 on the back of the Rover.]

163:46:55 Scott: Okay. Why don't you tell them when they come back up here.

163:46:57 Irwin: Yeah.

163:46:58 Allen: Dave and Jim, do you read Houston? (No answer)

163:47:07 Scott: Okay, LCRU (power) is on Internal. Blankets are 100 percent open. (Long Pause)

163:47:32 Scott: Get new sample collection bags for us, Jim?

163:47:36 Allen: Jim this...

163:47:37 Irwin: Yeah, I (garbled under Joe)

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

163:47:38 Allen: . ...is Houston. We prefer bag 2 under your seat shelf and bag 7 on the Hand Tool Carrier, instead.

[TV on. Jim is at his seat.]

[Jim has gone to the back of the Rover.]

163:48:03 Irwin: Okay, and you want bag 2 under the seat?

163:48:05 Allen: That's right, exactly. And then we can follow the checklist exactly from here on in.

163:48:13 Irwin: Okay. (Long Pause)

[Jim brings SCB-2 to his seat. Fendell zooms in on the area under the Descent Stage near the north footpad. The ALSEP deployment tapes are hanging down from the far side of the LM.]

163:48:34 Allen: Right on. (Long Pause)

163:49:02 Irwin: Got a lot of sample bags, Dave. I'm going to put the extra ones under my seat.

163:49:05 Scott: Okay, good idea. (Pause)

[Scott - "If you listen to this and didn't know all the stuff we had to deal with, you would think we were totally disorganized. I mean, we couldn't have had more than a couple of film mags for the pair of cameras. How come we couldn't keep track of them? Couldn't keep track of a half dozen things, right?"]

[Jones - "I wouldn't be surprised if you told me there was a hundred separate items you had to keep track of."]

[Scott - "Oh yeah, and it changed, dynamically, as we went through the mission. But, if you listen to this stuff, you say 'I'm tired of hearing all this bag stuff! Why don't you get on with the mission? Take your bags, throw 'em under the seat and get on with it.'"]

[Scott - "This goes back to what we talked about last time, relative to all the careful (photo) documentation, which we probably didn't have to do. Get to a crater, document a couple of samples, sweep the rest. I mean, do good photos before and after, and pick up everything you can pick up and put 'em all in one big bag. And, then, for twenty years people can sort them out. But, for twenty years, you're not going to get any more. Hindsight is real easy."]

163:49:24 Scott: It came out of the LMP's footpan was where I picked it up.

163:49:32 Irwin: The one that was in the plus-Z footpad. (Pause)

163:49:43 Allen: Okay, Dave. Thank you. (Long Pause)

[At maximum zoom, Fendell examines the north foot pad and, beyond it, the minus-Z (east) strut.]

163:49:58 Scott: Yeah, I guess we're both going out there.

163:50:00 Irwin: Okay, let me meet you out there.

163:50:02 Scott: Are you all done?

163:50:03 Irwin: Yeah, I'm done here.

163:50:04 Scott: You haven't got the tools on. How could you be done?

163:50:08 Irwin: Put them on here; okay. (Pause)

[Details of the tool-loading on the PLSSs can be found on LMP-24 and CDR-26. Fendell briefly examines the MESA and then pulls back on the zoom. Jim goes to his seat, carrying the scoop.]

Video Clip  3 min 04 sec ( 0.8 Mb RealVideo or 27 Mb MPG )

163:50:24 Scott: Sure, Joe. Stand by. I'll get that.

163:50:27 Allen: And we're asking because we may have a chilly battery on our hands. We've got good TV picture, but the voltage is not quite up to par.

[The plus-Z (west) footpad is shaded by the LM.]

[Fendell pans counter-clockwise until Silver Spur is in view.]

163:50:46 Scott: Let me go take a look at that. Wait. Oh, gosh, let's get dressed up here first.

163:50:52 Irwin: Yeah, I'll stand by here.

163:50:59 Scott: Okay, take a look at this here. (Pause)

[Fendell reverses direction and zooms in on the north footpad. Note that the east footpad is out of view in the crater behind the LM.]

163:51:13 Allen: AGC (Automatic Gain Control) first, Dave. (Pause)

163:51:21 Scott: All righty. 3.4.

163:51:28 Allen: Copy. Now we need Power.

163:51:34 Scott: Okay. I guess you want all three, and that saves us some transmissions.

163:51:39 Allen: Go ahead.

163:51:45 Scott: Okay; Temperature is 2.0; the power is 1.0.

163:51:57 Allen: Okay, Dave; we copy. Thank you. And, Dave and Jim, as you move out to the core site, we're going to ask you, Jim, just to help Dave with the core removal.

[Fendell pulls back on the zoom.]

="1635216">163:52:16 Scott: That shouldn't take him more than a half an hour. I might just let him do the whole thing. He needs some experience. (Long Pause as Dave loads Jim's PLSS) Okay, the hammer's on. (Pause) Rammer's on.

[Fendell has panned right and we see parts of Dave and Jim at the back of the Rover.]

163:52:54 Scott: Okay. (Pause) Now, wait a minute here. (Pause) Got another cap (dispenser)? This one doesn't fit.

163:53:16 Irwin: Doesn't fit?

163:53:18 Scott: Doesn't fit.

163:53:19 Irwin: Yeah, I probably have another one under my seat.

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

163:53:22 Scott: Okay. Yeah, it won't go in at all. (Long Pause)

[Jim gets a core-cap dispenser from under his seat. Dave joins him.]

163:53:38 Scott: Yeah. (Pause)

[Jim trades dispensers with Dave and, while Dave installs the new one on the left side of his PLSS, Jim drops the unsuitable one in his seat pan.]

[Dave goes to the back of the Rover while Jim tries to close his seat.]

163:53:55 Scott: Yeah.

163:53:56 Irwin: The seat's hung up a little bit. (Pause)

[Jim re-arranges things under his seat, closes it, puts his scoop down, and joins Dave at the back of the Rover.]

163:54:12 Irwin: This bag on me first. Put this bag on me so I'm configured.

163:54:16 Scott: Yeah. I will. Give you bag number 8. I'm just closing the top on this one. Come on out here a little ways. Okay. (Pause)

[Jim presents the right side of his PLSS.]

163:55:48 Allen: Jim, when it's convenient for you, I guess we're going to need Dave's PLSS antenna deployed.

Video Clip  3 min 15 sec ( 0.8 Mb RealVideo or 29 Mb MPG )

163:55:57 Irwin: Okay. (Long Pause)

163:56:28 Scott: Can you move away just another step, Jim?

163:56:30 Irwin: Okay.

163:56:31 Scott: Bend over good, here. (Pause) Okay. Whew. That bag is all folded up so much, I can't get to it. Now you can get my antenna. (Pause)

[Dave faces Jim and bows low so that Jim can get at his PLSS/OPS antenna.]

163:56:49 Scott: Okay. My bag. Top's not closed. (Long Pause)

[Dave closes the top of Jim's SCB and then presents the left side of his PLSS. Only Dave's head is visible at the right edge of the TV image.]

[Fendell pans left.]

163:58:02 Scott: Okay. And, let me talk you through pulling that core out, because I think we finally figured it out last week, how to do it.

[This is a reference to two half-hour training sessions Dave did with the drill at the Cape on July 21 and 22, the week before the July 26 launch. At the time of the mission review, I did not have the Apollo 15 training log ( 0.3Mb ). I asked Dave if he remembered any sessions with the drill in the week before launch.]

[Jones - "It sounds like you were in training, working with the people down at the Cape or wherever on how to extract that core, almost right up to launch. What do you remember?"]

[Scott - "Nothing. I can't imagine we'd spend too much time on the core during the last weeks of training. There are too many more important things. The big things - like landing, rendezvous, launch aborts, and all that stuff. At some point you have to (drop the less important things). Which is one of the problems. At some point you have to turn each of the things off in some orderly priority. You can't discuss everything the day before you go, so you stop discussing certain things at some point. And I would guess that geology probably got stopped fairly early."]

[With regard to other aspects of geology training and planning, they had their last geology field trip on 25-26 June; a last, one-hour session with Gerry Lofgren examining lunar rocks on 28 June, a 4 1/2 hour run-through on EVAs 2 and 3 and a 2 1/2 hour session on orbital geology with Farouk El Baz, both on 19 July; and a final 2 1/2 hour traverse planning session with Swan, Silver and others on 22 July]

[Jones - "This line in the dialog suggests that there was something going on with the core."]

[Scott - "It could have been a ten-minute discussion with somebody. I remember one thing we did a lot of the last week was driving the Rover in the LM simulator, on the map (L&A). We thought we could learn something about navigating, so we got the television camera right down on the surface, and rigged up the simulator so we could sort of drive it. Did a lot of that. Pretty interesting. (Chuckling) Didn't help much."]

[Dave and Jim did a 45-minute simulated drive on July 15th; Jim did a 1-hour drive on July 19th and again on the 22nd and the 23rd. Dave joined him for a 1-hour drive on 24th, and, finally, for a 2 hour 40 minute session on the 25th, the day before launch. Training photo 71-H-1175 shows Dave and Jim using the Landing and Ascent facility in rover mode, with Joe Allen going along for the ride.]

[Jones - "Gene said he did some of that and that, while it was useful in some ways, but you couldn't get your viewpoint down on to the deck. It was like you were 200 feet up, and that was the best you could do."]

[Jim is reminding Dave that they haven't taken each other's pictures with color film.]

163:58:26 Irwin: I've got the color.

163:58:27 Scott: I know it! (Long Pause)

[Before taking Dave's picture, Jim takes two photos of the Rover. In AS15-88-11861, Jim is using his scoop to get his camera at the proper distance from the side of the Rover console for a close-up of a sign affixed to it. Note the SCB on the floor boards on the left and the footrests on the right. An enhanced detail of the area covered by the shadow of Jim's helmet shows Dave's camera with the label "CDR". For 11862, Jim has raised his aim to get a photo of the sign, which reads "Man's First Wheels on the Moon, Delivered by Falcon, July 30, 1971." The signatures of the three crewmembers are at the bottom. In the background, we can see Dave's RCU and, on the top of it, the small warning-flag windows and the large Mode switch. He is not wearing his camera. Note the "Red Apple", below the RCU, with which he would open his purge valve in the case of an emergency requiring use of the OPS. As note by Journal Contributor John 'Eagle-Eye' Pfannerstill, Dave affixed the sign at 163:42:00. Pfannerstill also notes that, by the time we get our next good view of the righthand side of the console, when Dave and Jim reach Station 9a at Hadley Rille, the sign has fallen off.]

[Jim bounds into view, using an easy, loping stride. Fendell stops the pan to watch Jim take a picture of Dave, 11863. Compare the appearance of Silver Spur at the upper left with its appearance in AS15-87- 11748, which is a frame from Dave's SEVA color pan taken at 106:58:27.]

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163:59:01 Scott: He's always thinking.

163:59:05 Allen: Ain't he though. (Long Pause)

[Dave trades place with Jim and takes three photos, AS15-88- 11864 to 11866.]

[Few Apollo photographs have been reproduced more often than 11866, which shows Jim, the flag, the Rover, and the LM, with Mt. Hadley Delta in the background.]

[Note the bright, rectangular pattern on the high-gain antenna. The pattern is produced by sunlight reflected by the mirrored tiles on the top of the TV camera.

[Jones - "We're looking at 11866, and it looks like you were standing in a hole when you took it."]

[Scott - "I just think that's the way the slope goes."]

[Dave bounds to the Rover and gives Jim the camera. Jim seats the camera in the RCU bracket with a noticeable push.]

163:59:42 Scott: Okay. (Pause) Hope you took a couple, because the first one was probably exposed. (Pause) Oh, by the way, why don't you put this mag on here...(on the) 16, we forgot to do that. (Long Pause)

[Fendell resumes his counter-clockwise pan.]

164:00:28 Irwin: (Garbled) Mag.

164:00:29 Allen: ...do not push in the Nav circuit breaker. We'll do the initialization out at the drill site.

164:00:39 Scott: Okay. You mean pull out the Nav circuit breaker.

164:00:45 Allen: Roger.

[Fendell zooms in on the ALSEP site.]

164:00:54 Allen: Got it.

164:00:59 Scott: Joe, there's so much dust on the (16-mm) camera that...By the way, Jim, let me get your camera lens while we're at it.

164:01:08 Irwin: Okay.

[Dave doesn't have the lens brush at this moment. Jim will get it out and they will clean each other's Hasselblad lens at 164:02:07.]

164:01:19 Allen: Roger, Dave. We copy, and it's worth only a few-seconds try.

[Fendell pulls back on the zoom and resumes the pan.]

164:01:43 Allen: Your judgment, Dave. If it's not going on, give it a toss.

164:01:49 Scott: Well, I think maybe it's so sticky (that), when we get to where we need to do it, why, maybe I can just stick it on there, because it's sticking pretty good.

[Fendell reaches the counter-clockwise pan limit and shows us Dave as he puts the filter under his seat.]

164:02:02 Allen: Okay.

164:02:03 Irwin: ...hold it on for you, Dave. It'll be a little easier.

164:02:05 Scott: No, you couldn't. It's not going to help any, Jim.

164:02:07 Irwin: Dave, I've got the lens brush here, if you want me to clean your lens.

164:02:10 Scott: Yeah. (Pause)

[Dave turns to face Jim and presents his Hasselblad lens.]

[Dave takes the brush and cleans Jim's lens.]

164:02:30 Irwin: Okay. I'll meet you out there. (Pause)

[Rather than struggle with the seatbelt, Jim is going to walk out to the ALSEP site. Dave reaches across to the upper right corner of the console.]

Dave grabs the handhold on his side of the console and pulls himself up and on to the edge of his seat, with his legs still hanging on the outside.]

Dave hops off his seat and goes to the front of the Rover to turn the LCRU off.]

164:03:06 Allen: Thank you.

[TV off.]

164:03:35 Allen: Roger. And Nav circuit breaker should be out.

164:03:40 Scott: It's out. Right. (Pause) Okay. Go!

[Before Jim leaves the LM, he may take five photos, AS15-88-11867 to 11871, showing a number of items he left on the Moon. Alternatively, he may have taken the pictures on the way out to the ALSEP site or even near the Station 8 trench before taking trench documentation photos. See the caption for 11867 to 71 for more detail.]