Traverse to Station 9

Return to the LM

 

Geology Station 9

Corrected Transcript and Commentary Copyright © 1997 by Eric M. Jones.
All rights reserved.
Scan credits in the Image Library.
Video credits in the Video Library.
Except where noted, audio clips by Roland Speth.
Last revised 1 May 2018.

[While John aligns the high-gain antenna, Charlie is probably scanning the Contact Surface Sample page in his cuff checklist, LMP-16, and the facing Station 9 page, LMP-17. Note that Station 9 is called the "Vacant Lot", and is supposed to be a site relatively free of South Ray ejecta. They plan to spend 25 minutes here.]

[Figure 7 from chapter D3 from the USGS Apollo 16 Professional Paper is a planimetric map of the Station.]

[Brian McInall has revised and elaborated the Planimetric Map using LROC image M175179080LR and the Hasselblad images taken at Station 9.]

147:55:39 Duke: Let's see, (these are pages for Station) number 8. Ha, ha! (Brief static; Long Pause)

[Charlie's "Ha, ha" is probably anticipation of John sneaking up on a boulder, as described below.]

[TV on.]

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147:55:57 Young: Good show. Getting pretty good at getting the old Earth in there. (Long Pause)

[The TV camera is pointing ENE. Note the foreground Rover tracks and the dip they reveal. Without the tracks in the picture, the dip would be all but invisible.]

147:56:23 Young: Sure it would.

147:56:26 Duke: This is some machine, I'll tell you.

147:56:33 Young: Can I turn your eyeball around and dust it out, Tony?

147:56:35 England: (Making a mis-identification) Say again, Charlie. (Pause)

[Tony was listening to a conversation about proposed changes in the Rover switch configuration and missed John's question. Without waiting for an answer, John comes around and uses the large dustbrush to clean the TV lens. After John finishes, Fendell starts a clockwise pan.]

[Charlie's Station 9 pan consists of frames AS16-108-17714 to 17739.]

[Frame 17724 shows the view toward North Ray Crater and Smoky Mountain, which are partially blocked by a foreground ridge.]

[Frame 17727 shows the back of the Rover.]

[Frames 17729 and 17730 show John wielding the dustbrush at the front of the Rover, probably just before he moves around to dust the TV lens.]

[The hammer in John's shin pocket is visible in 17731.]

[The inbound Rover tracks can be seen in the souhtern portion of the pan. As can be seen in AS16-108- 17737, John appears to have driven into the area of Station 9 from the SSE, passing west of Charlie's position, turned right and drove in a clockwise circle through about 180 degree until, as can be seen in 17733, he made a left-hand turn and drove outside his first set of tracks in the opposite direction (counter-clockwise) until he was up-Sun of his final parking spot where, as can be seen in 17728, he turned left again to a westerly heading and, finally, turned left to park on a southerly heading.]

[They are about to do some special soil sampling. As shown in the sketch on LMP-16, they will select a large rock and will do the sampling on the southwest side of the rock, away from the LM and the Rover. As indicated on page 185 in the Apollo 16 Lunar Surface Procedures volume, they want to collect samples of pristine surface materials and three potential types of contamination of the sampling site are the LM Descent Engine exhaust, water vapor given off by the PLSSs as John and Charlie work around the Rover, material John might kick onto the sample site as he approaches. These three types of contamination can be minimized by collecting the sample at a considerable distance from the LM (more than one kilometer was suggested by the PI); parking the Rover on the LM-ward side of a rock; approaching the rock carefully to avoid kicking soil over the rock; and, finally, reaching over the rock and collecting the samples on the far side. As suggested by the dialog over the next several minutes, there were also concerns about contaminating the business end of the sampling tool with either dust coming off the suits as John and Charlie moved around and by the water vapor exhaust of the PLSSs. Both sources could be avoided by not pointing the business end at either suit.]

[The 'Surface Samples' will be collected with a tool called the Contact Soil Sampling device, which is shown in Figure 1 in Judy Allton's Tool Book. The sampler head consists of two halves connected by a hinge, rather like the covers of a hardback book. As shown at the upper left of the figure, a handle is attached to what we might think of as the front cover. Once John is in position next to the rock, he will open the back cover and secure it to the handle with a strip of Velcro. This exposes the inside of the front cover, which is covered with a sample pad made of so-called "Beta cloth", which is woven from a Teflon-coated yarn. John will then reach across the rock and press the Beta-cloth pad on the surface and, in principle, will lift off particles making up the upper 100 micrometers of the surface. John will then close the Beta-cloth sampler, secure it with the Velcro strap - as shown in Figure 2 - and replace it with a sampler containing a pad made of white-nylon velvet. He will then reach over the rock a second time and press that sampler on a fresh spot and, in principle, will collect particles making up the top 1 mm of the surface. Training photo KSC-72PC-141 shows John practicing with the Contact Soil Sampler at the Cape.]

[John crosses the TV picture from right to left, going to the CDR seat.]

[John will approach the rock very slowly to avoid kicking soil on the sampling area on the far side of the rock. During training, this became known as "sneaking up on a rock." Training photo KSC-72PC-140 shows John has he reaches over a boulder at the Cape so he can press the sampler on the surface.]

[Jones - "I take it that you guys had an awful lot of fun with this in training."]

[Duke - "Oh, yeah. It was the biggest joke. (Laughing) We were just going to sneak up on that rock, you know. They wanted absolutely undisturbed surface, you see, so we were supposed to tippy-toe...When they first told us that, we just started giggling, so we made it into a joke where we were going to tippy-toe...So, in practice, we did like the Keystone Kops - you know, you sneak, sneak, in silent movies you always knew you were sneaking because you could watch..."]

[Jones - "Up on your toes..."]

[Duke - "Yeah. That's what we did in training. And the whole purpose was to reach over this rock so, as we walked up, we didn't kick dust on to the sample; so, by reaching over the rock - if we had walked up and kicked, the rock would have stopped it and we still would have had a pristine sample out there. And, so, to make sure we weren't kicking up any dust, we were going to sneak up on it, you see. So we just had a big kick out of it during training, so this was our sneak maneuver. And it was just a lot of fun."]

[Jones - "Well, let me tell you, the first time I heard this tape - or the first time I read this stuff - I had absolutely no idea what was going on."]

147:57:20 Young: Well, you got the pan.

147:57:24 England: Okay. And before you leave the Rover, we'd like you to pull the Batt 2 Bus D circuit breaker. We'll let you put it back in before you drive off.

147:57:31 Young: Batt 2, Bus B circuit breaker. Rog. (Pause) That's out.

147:57:41 England: Okay. (Pause)

[It is not clear whether John said "Bus B" or "Bus D". Someone in Houston thinks he heard John say "Bus B" and tries to call attention to the fact but, for the moment, is ignored. In Figure 1-22 in the LRV Operations Handbook, the circuit breakers on the left side under the heading indicator and Batt 2 has breakers only for Bus C and Bus D, making it likely that John actually pulled the Bus D breaker, a supposition which is confirmed at 148:28:59. Tony should have said "Dog" to avoid confusion, and John should have called him on it. Note, that just before John drives away from Station 9 at 148:28:11, Houston has him switch all the steering and the rear drive power to Bus B and, on that occasion, Tony uses proper procedure and refers to it as "Bus Baker".]

147:58:00 Young: What are you getting, Charlie?

147:58:01 England: (Responding to Charlie) Okay, understand.

147:58:02 Young: (Lost under Tony)

147:58:03 Duke: I'm going to get a shovel for the scoop (sample). And I thought we'd maybe...And I'll tell you what I got to do is fix up a...Start on a double (means "single") core for the CSVC. (Pause)

[The Core Sample Vacuum Container is shown in Figure 76 in Judy Allton's Tool Book. It is 41 cm long and will hold a single drive tube. The CSVC task is listed on LMP-17. Charlie has made several verbal errors during the last few minutes, a possible indicator of fatigue.]

147:58:26 Duke: Oh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

147:58:26 Young: ...(lost under Charlie) doing that

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147:58:28 Duke: Got to get this out of the way. (Pause)

147:58:31 England: And, Charlie, was that DAC off?

147:58:42 Duke: Yeah, I got the DAC off.

147:58:43 England: Okay. (Pause)

147:58:47 Duke: I think. Let me go check again.

147:58:52 Young: Okay.

147:58:53 Duke: Hey, pan left, Tony. Thanks for reminding me, Tony, (about the DAC). I had forgotten it.

147:59:00 England: Okay. (Pause)

[Fendell finds Charlie at the LMP seat. He is holding the scoop.]

147:59:12 England: (Joking) Don't scare it. (Pause)

[Despite Charlie's suggestion, Fendell continues the clockwise pan.]

[Fendell starts to pan counter-clockwise (left) while Charlie turns to his left to look toward John.]

147:59:23 Young: What?

147:59:24 Duke: Don't open that.

147:59:26 Young: It's between us and the LM! It's between the LM and us.

147:59:30 Duke: Oh, I know that; but they don't want you to open that thing (meaning the sampler) until you get right up next to the rock.

[By not opening the sampler head until the last minute, all forms of contamination can be minimized.]

[John could be asking about instructions from the experiment PI or about instructions from Tony he might not have heard.]

147:59:39 Young: Oh, yeah. Okay.

[Charlie seems to be talking about pre-flight discussions about procedures to avoid contamination.]

147:59:42 Young: Okay.

147:59:43 Duke: ...for you.

[Charlie is probably saying that he will get the skim and scoop samples after John finishes with the pad samples.]

[Fendell stops panning left and resumes the clockwise pan.]

147:59:55 Young: (Amused) Facing away from myself, huh? Okay.

[Although it is possible that Tony is telling John to have his back to the LM before he opens the sampler head, it seems more likely that he is telling him to avoid opening the sampler in such a way that the pads are pointed toward his own suit.]

[Fred Haise is the Apollo 16 backup Commander, who may be sitting with Tony. Tony's comment implies that dust coming off the suits is a major concern.]

148:00:12 Young: Yeah. Ahh!

[Fendell has stopped the clockwise pan. The view is across the left rear fender. As indicated below, Fendell is confused as to just where John is. John is actually on the other side of the Rover.]

[Fendell pans farther right, and gets a view of the LMP seat.]

148:00:26 Duke: You're just not watching him sneak, Tony.

148:00:29 England: I'd sure like to.

148:00:30 Young: (To the rock) I gotcha!

[In Houston, Fendell asks, "Which way did he go? He said I was going the wrong way, and I went the other way." Obviously, he missed Charlie's "If you'll pan left..." at 147:59:03.]

[Fendell pans left.]

148:00:48 Duke: Shh. (Conspiratorially) We're sneaking up on it, Tony. (Pause) Ah! Got him! Let me see, John.

148:01:01 Young: You can't see, Charlie, that's...

[John doesn't want to point the open sample pad toward Charlie.]

148:01:06 Young: Oh.

148:01:08 Duke: You don't have any (garbled) (Pause)

[Fendell finds John and Charlie southwest of the Rover and a few meters north of the meter-sized rock John snuck up on. As shown in Figure 3 in Judy Allton's Tool Book, there is only a small amount of soil on the pad, all of it along the right edge.]

MP3 Audio Clip ( 9 min 41 sec )

148:01:28 England: Gee! The first lunar Great Rock Hunt and we missed it.

[Fendell zooms in. John is trying to remove the Beta-cloth sampler, which he has undoubtedly closed already. Charlie plants the scoop and moves in to help.]

148:01:40 Duke: We can. (Pause)

[Charlie takes the sampler in his right hand and holds it steady while John frees the handle. Charlie then gives John the second sampling head, the one with the velvet pad.]

148:02:00 Young: The picture will show how I disturbed it.

148:02:02 England: Okay. It's important that you put this second one down in an area that wasn't...

148:02:06 Young: No, we didn't disturb it at all.

148:02:07 England: Okay, good.

148:02:10 Young: Yeah, we know that.

148:02:11 England: Okay. (Pause)

[Charlie helps John free the Velcro strap that is holding the sampler head closed. John turns to face the rock and Charlie backs off to the left.]

148:02:22 Young: Yeah. (To Tony) In an area that that (first sampler) didn't go in, right?

148:02:24 England: Right.

148:02:25 Duke: Tony, John...(Demonstrating) John was sneaking just like this. He really got up to it before it...It didn't even know he was coming.

[Charlie plants the left foot, picks up the trailing foot, brings it forward, well clear of the ground, by rotating his body to the left, and plants his right foot a foot or so in front of the left, and so on. It is a very deliberate, slow walk.]

[Although John has his back to us, it is apparent that he has been having trouble getting the sampler ready.]

148:02:36 Duke: Man, that thing flops open.

[John is finally ready and approaches the rock carefully, although not with quite the exaggerated motion Charlie demonstrated. Charlie goes around to the east side of the rock to watch. This suggests that PLSS exhaust is not a major concern.]

[John leans to his right as he reaches over the rock and tries to lower the pad vertically toward the surface on the far side.]

[John stands and swings the sampler head up to his right and rests the bottom part of the handle on his left hand.]

[Charlie now has a view of the pad.]

[Figure 3 from Judy Allton's Tool Book shows the Beta-cloth pad, which has lunar soil along the right edge. Figure 4 shows the velvet pad, which has soil adhering to a relatively large patch at the lower right. Journal Contributor Simon Atkinson notes that the two imprints John will make with the sampler can be seen in photos AS16-107- 17561 and 17562 that John takes at 148:07:43. An enhanced detail of 17561 gives us a view into the shadow. A comparison of the faint marks left by the sampling pads with the post-flight photos of the pads suggests that the sunlit imprint was made by the Beta cloth sample pad.]

148:03:13 Young: That's too bad. That's the way the ground is.

[John is saying that he wasn't able to find a smooth, level surface on the south side of the rock.]

148:03:17 England: Right. Man, you fellas have outstanding finesse.

148:03:19 Duke: I'd say about 20 percent of it's covered.

148:03:22 England: Twenty percent is pretty good. That's fine.

148:03:24 Duke: I think 20 percent...(Stops to listen) Okay, 20 percent of one corner is covered. I mean, 20 percent of the whole thing is covered.

[After John gets the sampler closed, he turns to his left to face Charlie, who steps in to help. Charlie grabs the sampler head and John removes the handle without difficulty.]

148:03:39 Young: I don't know. Let me take them back and put them under the seat. I don't know where they go.

[Charlie steps to his right so he can open John's SCB. Before opening it, he makes sure the sampler head is securely closed.]

148:03:48 England: They'll go in the SCB that doesn't go in the SRC (meaning the Sample Return Container, or rock box, which is on the MESA at the LM).

[Charlie tries to open John's SCB.]

148:03:53 Duke: Yeah, okay. We've already got that one collected. (Pause)

[As per LMP-21, the SCB which is currently on the Hand Tool Carrier at the back of the Rover is the one that is supposed to go in the SRC. Charlie is saying that that SCB is already full of samples.]

[Charlie is having trouble getting the SCB open.]

148:04:07 Young: What?

148:04:09 Duke: (I can't get the) top open, again. (Pause)

[Charlie finally gets John's SCB open, stows the samplers, closes the SCB, and then hops around John to get the scoop. He is going to collect a skim sample on the southeast side of the rock.]

[Charlie tries to position the scoop so he can plant it next to the east side of the rock to serve as a gnomon. It takes him a few seconds to get a position he likes and, during that time, it isn't obvious to John what he is doing.]

148:04:31 Duke: I didn't! I missed it.

148:04:34 Young: Okay. It's going to be hard to get because...(Pause) I need to...

[Charlie gets the scoop planted and backs up to get the down-Sun.]

[Charlie waves toward the south side of the boulder.]

148:04:49 Duke: We don't have to sneak anymore.

[John runs south between Charlie and the rock, carrying the UHT. Charlie turns to his right to get some light on his camera settings.]

148:04:58 England: Negative.

[Evidently, the sampler handle is one of the ALSEP Universal Handling Tools (UHT).]

148:05:00 Young: You got one back there?

148:05:02 Duke: Yeah, it's sitting in the heat flow. See how far you can throw that beauty.

[John was facing the rock and, with the UHT in his right hand, rapidly turns to his left and releases it. It sails out of the field-of-view to the left.]

148:05:11 Young: Clean across the crater!!

[There is a sizable crater in the middle distance.]

[Charlie's down-Sun "after" is AS16-108-17740.]

[When John released the UHT, it started rotating rapidly around it's midpoint and Tony's reference is to the behavior of Australian boomerangs which, of course, depend on airflow over their curved bodies to achieve curved flight.]

[While John takes a cross-Sun stereopair from the south, AS16-107- 17558 and 17559, Charlie runs around behind him and takes a locator, AS16-108- 17741.]

[Charlie is probably pleased that he got John in the picture.]

[John has backed up about two meters and leans back to raise his camera for AS16-107- 17560. The LM may be the object just above and to the left of the flat-topped boulder which is on the near horizon above and slightly to the left of the scoop handle.]

148:05:57 England: Hey, good show!

148:05:58 Duke: You can barely see the LM over there. (Pause)

148:06:03 Young: That fills that square.

[John thinks they are finished with the soil sampling.]

[Jones - "Can you tell me where the phrase 'that fills that square' comes from?"]

[Duke - "Well, in the military, you have a set of requirements you've got to do to, like, stay current in an airplane. You need so many landings, you need so many approaches, you need so many whatevers. So they have a matrix, you know; and across the top you have columns and the horizontal axis it might be the dates or something like that. And when you get one, you filled the square; you'd make a check mark and that was called 'filling the square'."]

[Charlie gets the scoop.]

148:06:19 England: Okay, we'd like to skim next to it.

[Charlie backs away from the rock to the south a meter or two and then hops sideways to his left around to the west side of the rock.]

148:06:23 Young: You can't see any of that, there.

[Charlie is getting the sample in the shadow of the rock and John is pointing out that the area won't show up well in the photographs.]

148:06:30 Young: Okay. (Long Pause)

[John gets a bag ready while Charlie raises the skim sample and starts pouring it in.]

[In Houston, Flight is told that Charlie, in particular, isn't using his cooling water and oxygen nearly as fast as during EVA-1 and that a 7-hour 35 EVA can be done comfortably.]

148:06:53 England: Okay, that's pretty good.

148:06:55 Young: That's a pretty good little skim there. What setting should I open this up to show you these (sampler) prints we got in the vacuum here? (Correcting himself) I mean in the shadow?

148:07:09 England: Okay, I'll get you a number on that. Why don't you go ahead...

148:07:10 Young: (Lost under Tony)

148:07:10 England: ...and get the deep sample.

148:07:16 Duke: Okay. I can hardly see in there, again. Okay, I'm going to widen...

148:07:23 Young: That's going into bag 376? Did you give them that?

148:07:25 Duke: Yeah. No, I didn't.

148:07:26 Young: Okay.

148:07:27 Duke: Okay, I got to widen this area.

148:07:28 England: Okay, 376.

148:07:30 Duke: Okay. (Long Pause) Okay, (I'll) get a scoop.

148:07:43 England: And, John, (f/)5.6 at a 250th. (Pause)

[John takes a stereopair from the south, AS16-107- 17561 and 17562, stepping to his right between frames. Enhanced details of 17561 and 17562 give us views into the shadow.]

148:07:52 Young: (To Tony) Okay. I'll get you a little flightline of that.

[John steps farther to his right and takes a third picture of the area, AS16-107- 17563. A "flightline stereo" is a sequence of pictures taken while the astronaut moves sideways, step-by-step and frame-by-frame. Each pair of successive frames forms a stereopair.]

[Next, John gets a bag ready while Charlie gets and raises the sample.]

[John is having trouble getting a bag loose. Note that John still has the skim sample bag in his left hand.]

[Charlie pours the deep sample.]

[Jones - "It looks like you had to shake the scoop to get the soil to go into the bag. Did it tend to stick?"]

[Duke - "Sometimes; yeah. Well, if you'll notice there, that angle where I had it, it wasn't enough gravity to pull it out; so you had shake it. Normally, if you could turn it over (demonstrating by raising an imaginary scoop past vertical) like that, it would all fall out, because there was nothing to cause it to stick; but (there was) surface tension between the soils and the shovel, even though it was polished aluminum. There was some tension there and, so, at that little low angle that I had there, you needed to shake it out. But, generally, you didn't have to."]

148:08:29 Duke: Okay, there you go.

148:08:30 Young: That's going in bag 377, Houston.

[Charlie presents his SCB and, after sealing bag 377, John stows both 376 and 377.]

148:08:43 Duke: Okay, Tony. We can turn this rock over. If you want us to get that sample in, we need an (time) extension.

148:08:54 England: Okay, we understand. We'll work on that.

148:08:59 Duke: Yeah, I'll go get the CSVC then.

[In Houston, Jim Lovell, the Backroom spokesman, tells Flight that they want the CSVC next.]

148:09:03 Duke: John, you want to start sampling while I do that? (Listens to Tony) Okay, I'm going.

[While Charlie heads for the Rover, John takes a stereopair of the rock from the south, AS16-107- 17564 and 17565. David Harland has assembled a mosaic consisting of frames 17560, 17564, and 17573. The first two are post-sneak pictures of the rock showing John's footprints and the sampler imprints, and the last shows the boulder after John tips it over.]

[John takes a stereopair from the northeast, AS16-107-17566 and 17567.]

148:09:30 Young: Yeah, I was going to give it a go.

[John reaches down and gets the hammer out of his shin pocket.]

[John takes a position south of the rock and hits the rock at least ten times. While he does so, Fendell zooms in on a rock in background that is sitting on top of nearby ridge.]

[We see the top of John's PLSS as he crosses from left to right, presumably in pursuit of a fragment he chipped off the rock.]

[In Houston, Flight tells Fendell that he wants to watch John turn over the rock. Fendell pulls back on the zoom.]

148:10:14 Young: Yeah.

148:10:15 Duke: Good. (Long Pause)

[John drops to his right knee and grabs the fragment. He nearly loses his balance as he gets up. He grunts with the effort and, then, as he walks forward, the pack of sample bags falls off his camera.]

148:10:29 England: John, you lost a bag.

148:10:32 Young: Yeah; lost my whole set of bags. Oh, shoot. (Long Pause)

[John backs away from the bags and then runs forward, drops to his right knee with his left foot forward, grabs the bags, and rises without difficulty. He heads for the Rover.]

148:10:56 Duke: May I borrow your hammer, John? This core...I think I might be able to push it in, but...

148:11:03 Young: Okay.

[Charlie has run out to get the hammer. He comes into view at the right side of the picture.]

[While Charlie goes west away from the Rover to find a spot to drive the core, John stops and tries to re-attach the bag dispenser to his camera.]

148:11:18 England: Rog. We're watching you, Charlie. (Pause)

148:11:25 Young: Tape came loose.

[John gets the dispenser attached, gets a bag, and bags the sample he picked up at 148:10:15. In the background, Charlie pushes the core partway into the ground.]

[Charlie backs up and takes a cross-Sun stereopair from the south, AS16-108- 17742 and 17743.]

148:11:44 Young: (Garbled) top of that...(Stops to listen)

148:11:45 Duke: Yeah, yeah. Got you.

[While Charlie takes his pictures, John takes the boulder fragment to the Rover.]

[This is sample 69935, a 128-gram breccia shown in Figure 93C in the Professional Paper.]

148:11:59 England: Okay; did you have a bag number?

148:12:00 Young: Huh?

148:12:01 Duke: Is it in a bag?

148:12:03 Young: 373.

148:12:04 England: Okay, 373. (Pause)

[Journal Contributor David Harland notes that the Apollo 16 Preliminary Science Report states that sample 69935 is in bag 378 and bag 373 has been used already for sample 60075, which Charlie collected at the ALSEP site prior to the traverse to Station 1. Here at Station 9, John has previously used bags 376 and 377 and, even though he has just dropped the bags and then retrieved them, it is likely that he has misread 378 as 373. Readers should also note that bag number 373 also appears briefly in the Station 1 dialog at123:33:12, where John tells Tony that he and Charlie are using 373, only to be corrected by Charlie, who notes that the bag is really 372.]

[John crosses the screen from left to right, headed for the boulder. Charlie hits the extension handle four times with the flat of the hammer. On the fourth blow, the hammer twists in his hand. He stops, re-aligns the hammer, delivers four more blows, and steps back.]

148:12:19 England: Looks good to us.

148:12:25 Duke: Feels good to me, too, to get that (garbled).

148:12:29 England: Rog. It looks good.

[Charlie pulls the core out with his left hand and then rotates the tip up to his right and balances it on his right hand with the tip pointing up to keep the soil from running out.]

[Off-camera, John has taken a series of photos of the boulder.]

[AS16-107- 17566 and 17567 are a stereopair from the northeast.]

[Frames 17568 and 17569 are a stereopair from the north.]

[Frames 17570 is from the east.]

[John then raised his camera to take 17571.]

[Next, he will take a picture from the southwest, 17572, that shows the sample location on the top of the rock.]

[Charlie heads for the back of the Rover. Fendell pulls back on the zoom and follows.]

[Jones - "While you're running, here, you catch your toe on little ripples on the surface. Did you get a feeling that you'd start to rotate forward?"]

[Duke - "No; not then. You had to hit something a little bit more substantial. If you hit a rock like that, of course, you'd stumble; but the dust, you didn't even feel it, really."]

[Jones - "So, it was too loose to really have much of an effect?"]

[Duke - "Yeah."]

148:13:11 Duke: He got it!

148:13:12 England: Outstanding, John.

148:13:14 Duke: He did it, Houston! He turned...(Pause)

[Fendell finds Charlie at the back of the Rover.]

[Fendell pans left, looking for John.]

148:13:41 England: Okay.

148:13:43 Young: Before I stomp all over it, Charlie, sneak over here and let's get some of this soil.

148:13:46 Duke: Okay.

148:13:47 Young: (Lost under Tony)

148:13:47 England: Right. A chip off the bottom and the soil will probably do it.

148:13:54 Young: "A chip off the bottom." (Chuckles) I see a place where we can get a chip off the bottom, Houston.

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148:14:04 England: Evidently you found the right boulder.

148:14:09 Duke: Right. That was a real good boulder.

148:14:12 Young: Son of a gun's been laying out here all this time.

148:14:17 England: Just waiting for you.

[Fendell finds John taking the first picture, a down-Sun stereopair of the tipped boulder, AS16-107- 17575. He then moves to his right and takes 17576. He has already taken a cross-Sun stereopair consisting of frames 17573 and 17574. In the down-Suns, note that, because of the low Sun angle, it is all but impossible to pick out the boulder imprint.]

[John runs toward the back of the Rover.]

148:14:35 Young: I need the hammer.

148:14:36 Duke: I got it. (Pause)

[As Charlie heads out to join him, John stops, turns, and runs toward the boulder.]

148:14:44 Young: Okay, you want to just sort of sneak up so you don't sprinkle any dirt down in the bottom of this place (meaning the boulder imprint) where we turned it over.

148:14:50 Duke: Yeah, okay.

[As Charlie runs toward the boulder, using a loping stride for a change, he gets good elevation and speed. His form is similar to the form he showed early in the ALSEP deployment. He is showing no signs of fatigue.]

[As John and Charlie approach the boulder, they slow to a walk and then stop to look at the imprint.]

148:14:54 Young: Yeah, it is. (Pause) Okay.

148:15:01 Duke: Let me get the soil before you start whacking. Okay?

148:15:04 Young: Oh, yeah!

[Charlie takes the hammer out of his shin pocket.]

148:15:14 Young: Yeah, white glass.

[Charlie gives the hammer to John.]

148:15:21 Young: Yeah, yeah. Well, that part of it is.

148:15:24 England: Very good. (Pause)

[Charlie digs deeply into the boulder imprint.]

[John puts the hammer on the boulder and gets a bag ready while Charlie raises the scoop.]

148:15:53 England: Very good. (Pause)

[Charlie stuck the tip of the scoop head in the bag and then rotated the handle up to pour. Evidently, some of the sample wouldn't come off the scoop because John uses his free hand to grab the scoop head and shake it.]

[Jones - "The two of you never seem to have any particular trouble getting these soil samples in the bags with you manipulating the scoop, John holding the bags. That all seemed to go fairly well."]

[Duke - "Yeah; right."]

[Jones - "Gene and Jack sometimes had a bit of trouble. Jack was the one who used the scoop; he's the shorter one. And it sometimes got a little awkward."]

[Duke - "Well, I was the taller one; so, when I used the shovel, it was easier."]

148:16:05 Young: 379.

148:16:06 England: Okay, bag 379. (Long Pause)

[John takes a cross-Sun stereopair from the south, AS16-107- 17577 and 17578. He then folds the bag shut and turns toward Charlie, who has forgotten to present his SCB. He does so now. After stowing the sample, John turns toward the boulder and gets the hammer. Charlie turns to watch.]

148:16:30 Young: (Lost under Tony) place right there.

148:16:31 England: And, Charlie, your SCB is open, so a rock might come out.

148:16:33 Duke: (To John) Yeah; that's a good place. (Answering Tony) Okay. (Pause)

[John kneels on the north side of the rock and delivers sideways blows to the edge of a light-colored piece that appears to project off the northeastern face. He hits the rock eight times without success.]

148:16:49 England: Now you found a real rock.

[The thirteenth blow breaks off a piece. The fragment flies off the boulder, but straight toward the ground. John stands.]

[John backs away to the north to get his shadow off the fragment.]

148:17:10 Young: (Chuckling) (Garbled), Charlie. (Pause)

[Charlie plants the scoop near the sample and, holding the handle in his left hand, walks around it and then backwards until his feet are extended well behind him and he has most of his weight on the scoop. He reaches down slowly and carefully to grab the fragment.]

148:17:12 Duke: I didn't want to get it too dirty. (Pause)

[As he forces himself lower, Charlie finally rests his right knee on the ground and begins to lift his left knee so he can get some rotation down to the right.]

148:17:21 Duke: Ah!

[Charlie finally has a grip on the fragment. He pushes back on the scoop and gets his full weight on both knees. Before the suit pitches him forward, he pulls the scoop out of the ground and then re-plants it just in front of his knees. In the process, he gets some soil on his legs.]

[Charlie pushes back on the scoop and rises without trouble.]

[Jones - "This is a real nice example of the advantages of having a little support and making use of a slope."]

[Duke - "Yeah, it sloped away. I sort of put my feet down below the shovel, and so I could push back on it. Once you got up over your knees, the bend in suit gave you more spring and you were able to spring up easier."]

[Jones - "And did the slope also help you get down into the kneeling position?"]

[Duke - "Yeah. Yeah; it did."]

148:17:30 England: Okay, that sounds good. Just get some photos of it and I think we've done it.

[While John gets a bag out, Charlie examines the fragment.]

[This is sample 69955, a piece of crystalline rock with an included vein of glass. It is shown in Figure 95C in the Professional Paper.]

[John puts his left foot back, leans forward so he can see his shin pocket, opens it, and stows the hammer. He then holds the bag out for Charlie.]

148:18:03 England: Okay, 380.

148:18:07 Young: (Examining the fragment) It looks to me like it's a (pause) shocked rock with a lot of - and this is a guess - a lot of black glass in the fracture patterns.

148:18:20 England: Okay.

[Because John is the one who has color film and takes the cross-Sun "afters", Charlie holds the scoop against the rock face to provide scale.]

148:18:24 Duke: Okay, I'll hold it (next to the rock). (Pause)

148:18:25 Young: Wait a minute, I got to reset...(Pause)

[John adjusts his camera settings and then takes a stereopair, AS16-107- 17579 and 17580. As Charlie mentions in a moment, John is about 5 feet from the rock.]

148:18:45 Duke: Okay, that was about a 5-footer, Tony. A little down-Sun, and the shovel is right where the...

148:18:52 Young: Frag was.

148:18:53 Duke: Frag was.

[Charlie presents his SCB.]

[While John stows the sample and secures the top of Charlie's SCB, Charlie straightens the scoop head.]

148:19:03 Young: "Thermal cover to"...(Stops to listen to Tony's "rear left") Yeah; okay. Charlie, your old rear left OPS is open.

148:19:10 Duke: (Joking) Oh, heavens. I can feel the heat leak.

148:19:19 England: Right. We caught you with your fly open.

148:19:23 Duke: (Giggling) Yeah.

[Houston's concern is that, when they get back in the LM, the OPS will be hot to the touch. Charlie plants the scoop and leans forward but the flap is still out of reach for John. Charlie bends his knees, but it is still a reach for John.]

[Once they are back in the cabin and John is taking his gloves off at 150:05:56, Tony reminds John of the possibility. John reports that Charlie's OPS is 'cool as a cucumber'.]

148:19:37 Duke: (Standing) Well, let's forget about it.

148:19:38 Young: Let's go back to the...(Pause) to the Rover.

[Charlie heads for the Rover and John follows.]

148:19:51 Young: Fair enough. (Pause)

[John stops and turns to face the boulder again.]

148:19:56 England: Okay, we'd like you to pack up, John, if you could help Charlie. I think we'll have to get on.

[John heads for the Rover and Fendell pans left. Note that John struggles a bit as he comes out of a shallow depression. Although he and Charlie have plenty of reserve energy, they are both showing occasional signs of fatigue. Figure 10-4(a) in the Apollo 16 Mission Report shows John's EVA-2 heart rate and 10-4(b) shows Charlie's. Both of them are currently showing heart rates of about 90 beats per minute.]

148:20:05 Duke: He can't help me with it.

148:20:06 Young: Okay.

148:20:07 Duke: Unless you could get...Well, you could get the top of that CSVC. (Pause)

148:20:23 Young: Where is it? (Pause)

148:20:32 Duke: It's in this SCB number 2.

148:20:34 Young: Okay. (Pause) I'll get it. Just stay there.

148:20:43 Duke: I am. I just wanted to get...I got to plunge...(Pause) Okay, the plunger went right down, Tony. It's about 4 centimeters from the top.

148:21:06 England: Okay. And before you stick it in there (meaning in the CSVC), could we have the core tube number?

148:21:12 Duke: Oh, yeah. I keep forgetting that. (Pause) Thirty-four.

148:21:18 England: We copy.

[Fendell zooms in on a flat rock that is sticking up, diagonally, out of the soil east of the Rover.]

148:21:26 Duke: Slid right in. I never would have believed it.

148:21:28 Young: I wouldn't have thought it, either.

148:21:29 Duke: I never would have believed that. Hope it's down in far enough to lock it, though.

[Charlie is concerned that he won't be able to seal the top of the CSVC, which is shown in Figure 76 in Judy Allton's Tool Book. Like the Special Environmental Sample Container (SESC), which is shown in Figures 92, 93, and 94 in Judy's Tool Book - the CSVC is designed to hold a vacuum so that the sample can be analyzed for volatile content.]

148:21:37 Duke: Huh?

148:21:38 Young: Push the bottom shield off. I mean, pull that off.

148:21:40 Duke: Ahh!. (Pause)

[As Fendell pulls back on the zoom and resumes the counter-clockwise pan, note the northbound Rover tracks in the foreground. John made these as he approached the Station. Station 9 is roughly a kilometer west of the path John followed on the southbound trip to Stone Mountain.]

148:22:14 Young: I laid it over there on the bench (meaning the seats).

148:22:17 Duke: Okay.

148:22:18 Young: Yeah. (Long Pause)

[Fendell stops the pan and zooms in on a small, steep-walled crater northeast of the Rover.]

148:22:54 England: All right, Charlie, that CSVC goes in the SRC.

148:22:55 Young: (Before hearing Tony) That goes in the SRC, Charlie

148:23:00 Duke: Yeah; that's right. (Hearing Tony) Rog. Okay. That's what I thought.

[As Fendell pulls back on the zoom, we see John at the back of the Rover. We know this is John because he has his SCB on the left side of his PLSS.]

148:23:09 Young: Okay. (Looking at his cuff checklist) Back to Station 10, Charlie.

148:23:11 Duke: Okay.

[They are planning to do Station 10 midway between the LM and the ALSEP site.]

148:23:22 Duke : All righty-rooty! (Long Pause)

[John goes to the CDR seat and then stops and looks up at Stone Mountain.]

148:23:42 Duke: I wouldn't have believed it. This is a real beauty. (Pause)

[John goes off-camera to the right, probably intending to turn the TV off.]

148:23:55 Duke: Okay...(Stops to listen) Okay, Tony, I'm leaving with about 161.

148:24:02 Young: I got 165. I probably ought to change this mag.

148:24:09 Duke: Do you want me to change the mags, Tony? (Pause)

148:24:16 England: Yeah, let's both change.

148:24:21 Duke: (To John) Did he say both change?

148:24:23 Young: Yeah.

[John returns to the CDR seat and raises it.]

148:24:34 Young: Okay. (Pause)

[Charlie takes AS16-108- 17744, which shows the handcontroller and John standing on the far side, and 745, a lightstruck picture of Stone Mountain. The frame will become lightstruck when Charlie changes magazines.]

[John turns toward the TV camera and takes AS16-107- 17581, an excellent picture which shows the dustbrush, the closed battery covers, the uncovered LCRU mirrors, and the TV. He then turns and takes a picture or two toward Stone Mountain. Frame 17582 is lightstruck.]

148:24:44 England: Okay.

148:24:45 Young: How about that?

148:24:47 Duke: Okay, magazine Bravo's got something in it; a few frames. You used about 50 on it yesterday. And we can use magazine Delta. Both put color on. Is that okay, Tony?

[The last frame taken on magazine Bravo was AS16-114- 18441, a picture of the LM shadow in the area of the UV camera taken just before the end of EVA-1. Delta (115) is a fresh magazine.]

148:25:05 Duke: Okay. (Pause)

[John has been trying, without success, to remove the used magazine from his camera.]

[John lifts the used magazine (107/C) out of his camera and puts it in his seatpan. The new magazines are also in the CDR seatpan.]

148:25:21 Young: Which one, Charlie?

148:25:25 Duke: Delta (115/D) for me and Bravo (114B) for you. (Pause)

[John hands magazine Delta across the seats to Charlie.]

148:25:36 Young: (Looking for the other magazine) Bravo.

148:25:38 Duke: Right in the corner, there. (Pause) ... (Pause) (Garbled) (Pause) Okay! Magazine Delta is working, and I'm starting with frame count number, oh, about 1.

148:26:09 England: Okay, Delta 1. (Pause)

[Charlie got two useful frames as he advanced the film. AS16-115- 18471 is a lightstruck picture of the handcontroller. John is on the other side of the Rover changing his film magazine. In 18472, we see John putting a film magazine (114/B) in his camera. Note the other film magazines in the cloth-enclosed storage area under John's seat. The magazines are quite large because they each hold 170 frames of 70mm film. Under John's camera, we can see his sample bag dispenser and, also, the Red Apple he would pull to activate his purge valve in an emergency.]

[In the TV record, we see John putting magazine Bravo in his camera.]

[In Houston, Flight tells the Surgeon, "We're looking at an EVA capability, here, of 7 plus 35 (7 hours 35 minutes) on the PLSS. What do you think of that?" The Surgeon responds, "Well, I think they're pretty tired. They're showing a lot of fatigue. I just wonder if it's advisable to push 'em that long." Flight responds, "Well, okay, it's not a matter of adding anything here; it's just giving them a little more time to finish up what we've got scheduled. I'm not going to add other tasks. I just don't want them to think they've got to rush through what we've got left." The Surgeon's response is lost under Charlie, but Flight tells him to think about it during the drive to Station 10. The EVA will actually end at 7 hours 24 minutes.]

[John turns to his left so he can advance the film and get some pictures of Stone Mountain in the process. As he turns, the sample-bag dispenser falls off his camera]

148:26:20 Young: Yeah. (The) tape came off, Charlie.

148:26:22 Duke: Aw, that thing did come off, didn't it?

148:26:25 Young: Yeah.

148:26:28 Duke: Okay. Let me come around and help you put it on. (Pause)

[John kneels to get the bags and appears to be steadying himself by holding on to the Rover. He rises with them after a few seconds. As he holds up the bags, note that they are orange in transmitted light. Charlie has joined him and takes the bags.]

148:26:41 Duke: Yeah. The tape's still there. This thing just peeled off under the tape. (Pause) Oh, boy; I almost...

148:26:59 Young: Only happens in training. You got it.

[Charlie finishes attaching the bags to John's camera and goes off-camera to the right, headed for the LMP seat.]

148:27:04 Duke: Turn into the Sun. (Pause as John turns toward the southeast) Okay.

148:27:09 Young: Got your finger...

[Apparently, Charlie is just off-camera to the right and has used his finger to raise John's lens to get a good look at it.]

[While Charlie goes to the LMP seat, John takes a picture of Stone Mountain, AS16-114- 18444.]

148:27:22 England: Okay; that sounds good. (Pause)

[Previously, Charlie ran the 16-mm camera at 1 frame per second. At 12 frames per second, he doesn't want to waste film by turning the camera on now.]

148:27:29 Young: Okay, and I'm...(Stops to listens)

148:27:30 Duke: Yeah, we're mounting up right now.

148:27:34 Young: Frame Bravo of number 66.

148:27:39 England: Okay. We copy 66.

148:27:40 Duke: You get the TV, John?

148:27:47 Young: I'll get it. (Pause) Okay. (LCRU) Mode switch to 1. (Pause)

[TV off.]

[John may be referring to the fact that the TV camera is already pointed aft.]

148:28:05 Young: There's a glass (garbled).

148:28:11 England: And, John, we have a small configuration change. We'd like both the (Rear) Steering and the Rear Powers to Bus Baker.

148:28:20 Young: Okay. (Pause)

[At 147:57:31, shortly after John and Charlie arrived at Station 9, Houston asked John to pull the Battery 2 Bus D circuit breaker and there was some possible confusion caused by the fact that Tony said "Bus D" rather than "Bus Dog". Here, Tony avoids confusion, at least in this regard, by saying "Bus Baker".]

148:28:31 England: That's affirmative, the rear steering.

[Charlie's confusion is caused by the fact that, while the rear steering can be on either Bus B or Bus D, the forward steering can only be on Bus A or Bus C. It is impossible to have "all the steering" on Bus B. See the accompanying MSFC photo.]

148:28:34 Duke: I know it. See, when you...(Stops to listen) Okay.

148:28:40 Duke: Man, I'm glad that you're driving this thing. I can't reach those buttons down there at the bottom. You ought to get that before you get in. (Pause)

148:28:51 Young: What's that?

148:28:55 Duke: Drive...Rear Steering to Bus Baker.

148:28:57 England: Ah...

148:28:59 Duke: Okay, you got all Batt 2 CBs (Circuit Breakers) out, Tony.

[This is confirmation that John pulled the Batt 2 Bus D breaker at 147:57:31.]

148:29:10 Duke: Okay.

148:29:11 Young: Say again what he wants. Did you get it, Charlie?

148:29:17 Duke: No, I can't reach it; Steering, Rear, Bus breaker (means Baker).

148:29:20 England: Roger.

148:29:21 Young: Steering Rear to Bus Baker.

148:29:22 Duke: And what else, Tony?

148:29:23 England: The Drive Power to Bus Baker; Rear Drive Power.

148:29:30 Young: Rear Drive Power to Baker. Okay, you got it.

148:29:33 England: Okay. (Pause)

[Houston wants to use Battery 1 exclusively. This means that the Forward Steering and Drive Power are on Bus C and the Rear Steering and Drive Power are on Bus A.]