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EVA-1 Close-out Debrief and Goodnight

 

Post-EVA-1 Activities

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 13 December 2012.

 

MP3 Audio Clip ( 2 min 00 sec )

126:07:08 Young: Okay, let's keep going here, Charlie.

126:07:10 Duke: Okay, (reading the last items on Card 2 Side 1.) "doff gloves; stow on comm panel; doff helmets with visors, lower shades, stow in (helmet bags)..." (Pause)

[Jones - "Do you remember anything about where the helmets were at various times? The 17 guys had some sort of a web bag they put the helmets in."]

[Duke - "Yeah, we did, too. We had the helmet bags. It was like a flying-helmet bag. And then there was a webbing that we had. And, I think, it was generally behind the ascent engine cover."]

126:07:19 England: And, Charlie, your cabin ECS looked good.

126:07:29 Young: Okay. I'm going to have some air in here.

[John's deflated suit may be pinching him.]
126:07:39 Duke: (Garbled) my hand's so tired I can't (unlock my gloves)... (Long Pause) John, can you help me?

126:08:00 Young: I think you may have some pressure in the suit there.

126:08:03 Duke: Right.

126:08:04 Young: Let me get this other glove and I'll get it.

126:08:08 Duke: I think my fingers are just tired. (Long Pause)

126:08:34 Young: (Probably referring to the dust in the cabin) What a mess, Charlie. (Long Pause) (Garbled). (Pause) There we go.

MP3 Audio Clip ( 0 min 30 sec )

[NASA Public Affairs mentions to the media that Ken Mattingly is currently passing over the landing site.]

[Readers should note that the times used at this point in the Journal differ from the GET being used in Houston because of an 11 minute 48 second update made to the clocks in Houston at 118:06:31.]

126:09:13 Duke: (Laughing) Sorry to get you so dusty. Okay. Here, let me do that one. I can do it, I'll just get this one off to...Okay. Thank you.

126:09:33 Young: Well, look at that, would you.

MP3 Audio Clip ( 6 min 45 sec )

126:09:35 Duke: Boy, mine are tired, too. I'll tell you.

[Young, from the 1972 Technical Debrief - "It was after EVA-1 that we noticed the wrist rings were getting clogged with dust. There should be some way to cover those wrist rings - the things that snap in and out - to keep them from getting full of dust, because it (meaning the dust) makes them practically impossible to work."]
126:09:39 Young: Okay. (Pause) Okay. And, it says to "doff helmets with visors; lower shades; stow in helmet bag". (Long Pause)
[Now that they have the gloves off, they will doff the helmets.]

[Young, from the 1972 Technical Debrief - "After EVA-1, we experienced a little stickiness with the helmets. Not a great deal, so we didn't pay any attention to it."]

126:10:37 Duke: (With his helmet now off) Boy, it feels good to be out of there. Man.

126:10:40 Young: Hey, that Moon dust don't taste half bad.

126:10:44 Duke: Is that what that is?

126:10:45 Young: Yeah.

126:10:46 Duke: I think it is just the ECS. (Long Pause) Whew.

[Jones - "This is the first time I've heard anybody comment on taste, rather than on smell."]

[Duke - "It was a little of both. To me, it was more of a smell. It had that gunpowder odor to me. I thought it might have been the ECS, you know, just coming up - with that oxygen in the lines. But I think it really was the lunar dust. It had to me a greasy (feel)...It really magnified your skin oils. As you got it on, it felt like it was a real greasy feeling. Oily dust. But what I think it was, it was picking up your skin oils - because there is no moisture in the stuff. And it did have that taste - to me, gunpowder - and a smell of gunpowder."]

126:11:03 Young: Okay. (Pause) "Stow in the helmet bags. Verify safety on dump valve." All right.

126:11:12 Duke: Get that.

[They are now at the top of the lefthand column on Card 2 Side 2.]
126:11:15 Young: First thing I want...

126:11:17 LM Crew: Is a drink of water.

126:11:19 Young: I'm going to take a break and get me a drink of water.

126:11:21 Duke: (Garbled) I finished mine long ago. (Pause)

126:11:30 LM Crew: (Garbled)

126:11:34 Young: Yes. I could have drank all of mine if I had a mouth behind my left ear. That's my only problem. It got lodged back there and I could never get at it. (Long Pause)

126:12:14 Duke: Old TELMU, Tony, should have seen the water quantity go down about 10 percent on that drink.

126:12:22 England: Okay. We saw it, Charlie.

126:12:28 Duke: Boy, it tasted good. Okay; "verify safety. Descent H2O valve, Open. Remove Purge Valve; stow in purse. Okay; disconnect OPS O2 hose." (Pause)

126:12:47 Duke: Have any?

[Charlie may be asking John if he got anything from the drink bag during the EVA.]
126:12:56 Young: That's why you saw me dogging it (meaning "going slow") out there. (Long Pause)

126:13:18 Duke: Okay, I'm turning my (PLSS LCG) pump off. (Garbled) Okay, now I've got to disconnect your O...(Correcting himself) purge valve.

126:13:32 Young: (Have I) still got a purge valve there?

126:13:34 Duke: Yeah, with a connector. (Pause)

[Jones - "I had been visualizing just a bare pin falling out on the surface and was amazed that you saw it. But the fact that's it's got that Red Apple on there means it was real easy to see."]

[Duke - "And it was real easy to get to in an emergency. Just pull the apple. It was a biggie. That's the only reason I saw it: because of the apple."]

126:13:40 Young: Try not to step on that bag. That one's got to go back to the...Okay. I can't believe this is so dirty. (Long Pause) Ah!

126:14:01 Young: (Laughing) Well it works good, when you (garbled) get around to it.

[John has probably gotten his drink valve back into reach and has finally gotten a drink from it.]
126:14:05 Young: Well, shoot, Charlie, let me get that thing. (Garbled) dusty. (Long Pause)
[They may have dropped something.]
126:14:48 Duke: Okay, why don't you turn and face me, and I'll get to your (LM) O2 (hoses connected). (Garbled) I've already got mine.

126:14:57 Young: You got yours?

126:14:58 Duke: You know, John, it would be a lot easier if you could come this way. There we go. Uh-oh.

126:15:06 Young: All right, how's that? That's fine, Charlie. I think that one's (garbled).

126:15:14 Duke: Okay. And just...I'll read the checklist. "Disconnect OPS O2 hose; connect LM hoses" - funny that we have to do that. "Suit Isol(ation Valve), both, Suit Flow; PLSS Pump, Off, and Fan, Off."

[Charlie is wondering why they have to connect the LM O2 and H2O hoses when, in about an hour and a half, they will doff the suits. The only explanation that comes to mind is that there is a concern about them overheating while they do the PLSS O2 recharge, the PLSS/OPS doffing, and other tasks on the remainder of Card 2 Side 2]
126:15:26 Young: Okay.

126:15:28 Duke: "Disconnect PLSS H2O from PGA; connect LM H2O."

126:15:29 Young: (Wanting some LM cooling) Now, that's the best thing we got to do. (Pause) Okay, I got a flag, a press flag (as expected, because his PLSS O2 is off).

126:15:45 Duke: Okay, let me get you your (LM) water (hoses). (Long Pause)

MP3 Audio Clip ( 2 min 48 sec )

[Readers should note that the times used at this point in the Journal differ from the GET being used in Houston because of an 11 minute 48 second update made to the clocks in Houston at 118:06:31. Note also, that there seems to be an inconsistency in the times on either side of this long pause.]
MP3 Audio Clip ( 0 min 21 sec )

126:17:02 Young: Okay.

126:17:03 Duke: (Garbled) Okay, there it is.

126:17:09 Young: Where's yours at?

126:17:10 Duke: I think it is on the wall. Here, wait. (Pause) Come around this way with it.

126:17:25 Duke: Okay.

126:17:26 Young: Yeah.

126:17:27 Duke: ... Okay ...

126:17:36 Young: Okay. "Connect LM H2O"; we did. "PLSS mode goes to Off, both."

126:17:42 Duke: Okay.

126:17:56 Young: Close. Okay. "Audio: Commander and LMP; VHF, Receive."

126:18:03 Duke: Okay. Go.

[John mis-read the instruction and should have said "Audio: Commander and LMP; VHF A, Receive".]
126:18:04 Young: "VHF B, Off."

126:18:05 Duke: Wait a minute. Start over again on that.

126:18:08 Young: "VHF A to Receive."

126:18:10 Duke: Okay.

126:18:11 Young: "VHF B to Off."

126:18:12 Duke: Okay.

126:18:14 Young: "Mode, ICS/PTT."

126:18:16 Duke: Okay.

126:18:17 Young: "Relay to Off."

126:18:18 Duke: Okay.

126:18:19 Young: "Comm: VHF A transmitter to Off."

126:18:22 Duke: Okay.

126:18:23 Young: "A Receiver to On."

126:18:24 Duke: Go.

126:18:26 Young: "B Transmitter and Receiver, Off."

126:18:27 Duke: Go.

126:18:28 Young: Telemetry Biomed...No. Forget that one.

[To save power, they are not transmitting biomed data.]
126:18:31 Young: VHF Antenna to Aft.

126:18:33 Duke: Okay.

126:18:34 Young: Uplink Squelch to Off.

126:18:35 Duke: Wait a minute. Aft and Off. Go ahead.

[Next, they will do a PLSS O2 recharge, starting with Charlie's PLSS. They are at the top of the middle column on Card 2 Side 2, PLSS O2 Recharge.]
126:18:39 Young: Okay. "Verify Descent O2 greater than 56 percent. LMP first; connect your O2 for 10 minutes...(correcting himself) 4 minutes." It takes 2 minutes and 15...

126:18:49 Duke: Yeah, we got 80 percent (in the Descent oxygen tank number 2).

126:18:52 Young: Yeah. Well, I hope. Okay, Charlie. I don't know if I can...I keep hanging up on something back there. What...

126:19:00 Duke: Watch your hoses. Let me disconnect these because we don't need those dadgum things around like that.

MP3 Audio Clip ( 11 min 24 sec )

126:19:13 Duke: Okay; now can you spin around there?

126:19:15 Young: Yeah. Here comes all our checklists and cards.

126:19:18 Duke: Okay.

126:19:20 Young: (We) may need that one; it might be an APS card. (Pause)

[APS is Ascent Propulsion System, which they will use for the return to orbit.]

[I mentioned to Charlie that it was very unusual for the crew to be transmitting during this part of the mission. He noted that, in the next to last paragraph in the lefthand column of They are at the top of the middle column on Card 2 Side 2, they should have gone to "Mode - ICS/PTT". John did, indeed read that step out at 126:18:14.]

[Duke - "ICS:PTT. That meant, to transmit, you had to use the trigger, but we could talk between ourselves in that position. Like you could have an intercom. So, maybe we had the tape recorder running. I don't know how this got out, actually."]

[Jones - "Well, Ed comes on here in a little bit and says you are hot-miked."]

[Duke - "Well, then John didn't put the switch where it was supposed to be - or I didn't."]

[Jones - "I was also curious about the 'cards' comment here at 126:19:20."]

[Duke - "Oh. Well, he was going through this folder here."]

[Charlie had a bag with him at the 1992 mission review; it was made of the same Beta-cloth material as the SCBs.]

[Duke - "This is the one we had on board, and we had all our cards in here; and, so, he was going through 'em and one of 'em he just happened to pull out was the APS Card. He was looking for something else. See, here comes all the checklists and cards and he pulled out one, 'Okay, we're going to need that one.' And that might have been the APS Burn card and that was something we were going to use later."]

[Jones - "Would you have put the Lunar Surface Checklist in there?"]

[Duke - "I don't remember. Could have."]

[Jones - "And that bag was just basically to keep everything together and out of the way."]

[Duke - "Yeah. And it was a transfer bag. We brought everything over (into the LM); this was all in the Command Module. So we brought all that stuff over and, then, we Velcroed up what we needed."]

126:19:29 Duke: Okay. Can you turn...The other...

126:19:33 Young: Which way, Charlie?

126:19:35 Duke: Well, your hoses are coming from this side, so...You got to get to that valve behind you. (Pause) There you go.

126:19:47 Young: That's the valve I got to get to, it's behind me, Charlie. (Laughs)

126:19:51 Duke: Okay, "PLSS Mode (AR)"...Houston, how do you read? Over.

126:20:03 Young: Turn sideways, Charlie, and let me get you some oxygen.

126:20:10 Duke: We are still in Down-Voice Backup, (so) we should be hot miked.

126:20:14 Young: That's what I figured.

[Jones - "You were in down-voice backup because of the lack of steerable (antenna) and that wasn't push-to-talk. Is that right?"]

[Duke - "Right. It gave you a hot-mike."]

[Charlie then looked at the 2 Comm diagram in the Apollo 16 & 17 LM Systems Data Book.]

[Duke - "Looks like it goes right...(pause, looking at system diagrams) It goes to the speech processor and right on out to the amplifiers."]

[Jones - "Without going through the triggers."]

[Duke - "Yeah."]

[Jones - "Although there are other instances of down-voice backup in other missions and I imagine that I'll find they are not push-to-talk either. That'd be easy enough to check."]

126:20:15 Duke: Houston, how do you read? Over.
[Ed Mitchell, the Apollo 14 Lunar Module Pilot, takes over as CapCom. Tony England is probably conferring with people in the Backroom and returns as CapCom at 127:10:36.]
126:20:19 Mitchell: Orion, this is Houston. You're hot mike to us.

126:20:22 Young: Okay, you got to...(Stops to listen)

126:20:26 Duke: Okay, reading you 5 by. How us?

126:20:30 Mitchell: Loud and clear.

126:20:34 Duke: Okay, we're still in (garbled) PLSS.

126:20:41 Mitchell: (Making a mis-identification) Roger, John; we're following you through the checklist.

126:20:47 Young: (Laughing) Charlie. (Cackling)

126:20:51 Duke: They think I'm you!

126:20:54 Young: Okay, that's got it. Okay, now. Do you want...

126:20:58 Duke: Okay, I don't have a watch. Here, wait a minute; yeah, I do, too. Okay, go ahead; I'll start a mark.

[They will fill each of the PLSSs for four minutes.]
126:21:06 Young: (Trying to reach the fill valve) (Garbled) I can't make it. Wait a minute, Charlie, don't move. PLSS Fill (valve) going to Fill. Oh, listen to that old oxygen run in there.

126:21:21 Duke: You got it open?

126:21:22 Young: Yeah, can't you tell?

126:21:23 Duke: No.

126:21:24 Young: You don't hear nothing?

126:21:25 Duke: Uh-uh.

126:21:26 Young: Poor fellow. You better get your hearing checked.

126:21:28 Duke: You sure that's open?

126:21:30 Young: Yeah! Just about ran out of oxygen, too, while you were at it, didn't you? Hey, Houston, can you give us a mark at the end of 4 minutes?

126:21:39 Mitchell: Roger. Starting now.

126:21:42 Young: You're already...(Hearing Ed) Okay.

126:21:46 Duke: That Ed Mitchell?

126:21:47 Young: Yep. That you, Ed?

126:21:49 Mitchell: That's affirm. Tony has been here for 7 hours or so; he went to check out.

126:22:00 Duke: Oh. How's everything going?

126:22:03 Mitchell: Real great. Did a fine job.

126:22:07 Young: That's good. It's a lot of fun, I'll tell you that. By gosh, if it isn't.

126:22:13 Mitchell: You bet your life. (Pause) Just take her easy there and catch your breath; and I'll let you know when 4 minutes is up.

126:22:31 Young: That's what we're doing. (Pause)

126:22:45 Mitchell: Surprisingly enough, John, we have better comm now than before you went out, on the LM.

126:22:53 Young: I don't understand that. They must have a big dish still up.

[Apollo 16 was launched at 17:54 hours Greenwich Mean Time, April 16, 1972; and it is currently 00:17 hours GMT, April 22. It is just about sunset in Houston and communications from the LM and Command Module are being received through the NASA station at Goldstone California. There are both 85-foot and 210-foot antennas available at Goldstone and John is speculating that the 210-foot dish is in use.]

[Duke - "We had three 210s. There was one at Madrid and one in Australia, too."]

[Charlie is mistaken. Each of he three stations - Goldstone, Honeysuckle, and Madrid - each had an 85-foot-diameter antenna. Goldstone also had a 210-foot dish and, if needed, A 210-foot dish was available at the Parkes radio astronomy facility in Australia. The latter was used on Apollo 11 and during the Apollo 13 emergency.

126:23:00 Duke: Hey, Ed, it's really a spectacular place. And I know why you were so excited at Fra Mauro.

126:23:05 Mitchell: Roger, Roger, Charlie.

126:23:06 Duke: Boy, that is a...

126:23:07 Mitchell: And our comm is better because we have the 210 up now.

126:23:12 Young: Yeah.

126:23:15 Duke: How long we gonna have that beauty? (No answer; Long Pause)

126:23:32 Mitchell: We'll only have it for a few hours here, but we're hoping to have it for a good portion of the other EVAs, but I don't have the exact numbers yet.

126:23:44 Duke: Thanks, Ed. (Pause)

[The following exchange between John and Ed is probably a private joke.]
126:23:50 Young: Hey, Ed; you're right; it was almost do-able.

126:23:57 Mitchell: Pretty close to the margin there, John.

126:23:59 Young: We only had a 100...(Stops to listen) Yeah, we only had 110 percent this time.

126:24:05 Mitchell: You're right. And belay my last (transmission). I don't guess we'll have that large antenna.

126:24:17 Duke: That's okay.

126:24:20 Mitchell: Well, the comm during the EVA was magnificent.

126:24:23 Duke: I guess for you guys the...(Stops to listen)

126:24:25 Young: Was it good, huh?

126:24:26 Mitchell: Yeah, really great.

126:24:30 Duke: Ed, you guys have been loud and clear to us every time on your uplink, regardless of the dish.

126:24:40 Young: That's right.

126:24:41 Duke: Sorry we're so bad to you.

[Houston can be heard easily because there are large dishes and plenty of power available at the three tracking sites: Goldstone, Honeysuckle Creek, and Madrid. Conversely, the LM has only a modest amount of energy available and, because of the LM high-gain antenna malfunction, only the omni antennas are usable.]
126:24:47 Mitchell: Okay. We've got about 50 seconds to go here...

126:24:48 Duke: I just can't get that steerable working. It just won't...(Stops to listen)

126:24:49 Mitchell: ...on the PLSS fill.

126:24:56 Duke: Okay. (Pause)

126:25:03 Young: Sock some (cooling) water to me, Charlie.

126:25:04 Duke: Okay, how about a little squirt?

126:25:08 Young: Man, this LCG pump cooling is the best thing they ever built.

126:25:13 Mitchell: That's pretty great, isn't it?

126:25:15 Young: That's enough. (Charlie laughs) Yeah.

126:25:21 Duke: (Still laughing) John says "sock some water to me," and I just get the breaker (closed), and he says "that's enough." Every time. Man, it really freezes you.

['Sock it to me' was a long running gag on the TV program, Laugh In, which was very popular at the time.]
126:25:28 Young: (Laughing) You can't take it any long length of time; you just have to turn it on to get your suit all cooled down in about 10 seconds and shut it back off again.

126:25:38 Mitchell: You're right. Okay, Mark, 4 minutes. You can go to the next one.

126:25:44 LM Crew: Okay.

126:25:49 Young: Okay, PLSS Fill coming Off.

126:25:53 Duke: You want me to reach that, John?

126:25:54 Young: Yeah, can you get it, Charlie?

126:25:57 Duke: Yeah.

126:25:58 Young: Yeah; that's a hard valve, isn't it?

126:25:59 Duke: Okay, it's Closed.

126:26:00 Young: It's hard from where I'm at.

126:26:02 Duke: Closed is clockwise, isn't it?

126:26:03 Young: Yeah. Okay. Let me get you out of this thing. Uh-oh. (Pause) Can you get up like this a little? There it goes. I knew that QD (Quick Disconnect) would come open. There it is. Okay, would you keep that hose out of the dust.

126:26:26 Mitchell: And we'll take your reading when you get to it there, John.

126:26:37 Young: Okay. (Pause) What you got, Charlie?

126:26:45 Duke: I don't know. Does it say turn the...

126:26:49 Young: I don't think it said...Did...(Looking at PLSS recharge section of the middle column on Card 2 Side 2.) Yeah, AR. (Pause)

[By switching the RCU Mode switch to AR, Charlie will be able to read his oxygen quantity.]
126:26:56 Duke: (Smugly) 95 percent.

126:26:57 Young: 95 percent!

126:26:58 Duke: (Laughing) Yeah.

126:26:59 Mitchell: Okay. Copy 95.

126:27:00 Young: (Lost under Ed)

[As indicated in the checklist, the expected reading after this first fill is 85 percent.]
126:27:01 Duke: Hey, Houston, I got...(Stops to listen) Yeah. Ain't that amazing!

126:27:06 Mitchell: That sounds like a good fill.

126:27:07 Duke: Four minutes. Okay. (Pause) Let me have that dadgum.

126:27:19 Young: Can you get mine? (Pause)

[Now, they have to do John's PLSS recharge.]

[Jones - "Do you remember why you filled the PLSS while you're still wearing them?"]

[Duke - "I think because we wanted to keep them hooked up with the RCU so we could tell what the gauges were (reading). I think that was the reason; so we could read what was going in. I'm not sure we did the water...No, we didn't do the water. I think we had a little water gauge (at the back of the PLSS) we could see. But you had to get that from behind. But the O2, I think we checked the quantity. So that was the reason. And then we topped it off later on."]

126:27:22 Duke: Where are we in the Checklist? Let me...

126:27:25 Young: O2 PLSS fill.

126:27:28 Duke: Okay.

126:27:30 Young: Okay, yeah. All you need to do is put that thing to my side there; and let me stand here for 4 minutes.

126:27:40 Duke: (Chuckles) Think you could do that, huh?

126:27:42 Young: Yeah. Give me a little water gun (photo by Mick Hyde) for a little water gun fill, too.

126:27:46 Duke: Okay, wait a minute. (Long Pause)

[John wants a drink of water.]
126:28:04 Duke: Okay, you'll have to move up (probably toward the front of the cabin), John, a little bit if you can. Can you?

126:28:05 Young: Up where?

126:28:09 Duke: Okay, Ed, on my mark. Mark. It's Open.

126:28:14 Mitchell: Roger.

126:28:16 Duke: (Probably giving John the water gun) Here you go. John?

126:28:21 Young: Okay, thank you. (Pause)

126:28:36 Duke: I can't believe it. (Long Pause) And I sucked that beauty dry.

[Charlie is probably talking about his drink bag.]
126:29:07 Mitchell: (Joking, deadpan) Say, Orion. We figure this 8 minutes of refill is enough rest. We'll start EVA-2 immediately.

126:29:19 Young: (Laughing) You better send a couple more guys up here. (Laughing) You better start them here in the next 5 minutes.

126:29:26 Duke: Yeah, I really think I could take another couple hours except for my fingers.

126:29:30 Young: Yeah, I think so too. I could do the running around; that would be a piece of cake.

126:29:35 Mitchell: Yeah, they start to get bloody stumps after while, don't they, Charlie?

126:29:40 Duke: That's exactly what they feel like, Ed. (Pause) But it's worth a bloody stub or two, I'll tell you. That was really an experience!

126:30:00 Young: Yeah, my suspicion was confirmed on the rocks. Some rocks had dust all over them, and some didn't have any. And still don't and still do.

126:30:09 Mitchell: Sounds familiar. (Long Pause)

MP3 Audio Clip ( 13 min 44 sec )

126:30:25 Duke: Boy, I tell you these little EMUs - (correcting himself) PLSSs - are really super-fantastic.

126:30:35 Mitchell: They do a pretty fine job.

126:30:36 Young: Next time you get a chance with the (TV) camera, look and see what we landed just beyond.

126:30:48 Mitchell: Okay.

[John is referring to the crater he overflew during the final approach.]
126:30:50 Duke: Ed, you won't believe the size of that hole back there. You just won't believe the size of that hole behind the LM.

126:30:57 Mitchell: Charlie, I believe anything.

126:30:58 Duke: (To John) I never saw that (crater they overflew).

126:30:59 Mitchell: I'm gullible. (Long Pause)

126:31:18 Duke: How's our time, Ed, (on Charlie's 4-minute PLSS recharge)?

126:31:20 Mitchell: Got about 50 seconds (to go).

126:31:25 Duke: Thank you. (Long Pause)

126:31:46 Duke: Don't hog all the water. (Long Pause)

126:32:01 Young: Houston, when we do a water recharge, if we set the PLSSs on the floor or on the midstep, is this thing (meaning the LM) level enough so that we won't have a tilted PLSS? As long as the PLSS is vertical? Or in my station?

126:32:24 Mitchell: Stand by on it, John, we think so. We'll have a good answer in a moment, and your 4 minutes is up. You can press on. Give us a readout.

126:32:32 Young: Okay.

126:32:3 Duke: Wait a minute. Let me turn that...beauty (meaning the refill valve) off. (Pause) Well, I just can't reach it. (Pause) Okay, it's off. (Pause)

126:32:59 Young: (Impressed) 94.5 percent. Houston, ninety-four and a half.

126:33:10 Mitchell: John, say again your number.

126:33:15 Young: 94.5.

126:33:17 Mitchell: Roger; 94.5. And, John, setting it (meaning the PLSS) on the floor will be fine, if the hose is long enough so it doesn't tilt.

126:33:29 Young: Okay. On the midstep is where we're thinking about doing it.

126:33:36 Mitchell: That's really the best place.

126:33:38 Duke: Okay, stow the supply hose (the last item before 109:55 PLSS/OPS Doffing) which is...(Pause) You can't move? No, that's the wrong way. I want...They want us to stow this thing, but I guess we could leave that out.

126:33:53 Young: What's that?

126:33:54 Duke: That the supply hose.

126:33:56 Young: Oh, I'll stow it.

126:33:57 Duke: Okay. (Pause)

126:34:02 Young: Shoot, Charlie. All you gotta do is ask. I'll admit I ain't paying any attention, but you might as well ask anyhow. (Both Laugh)

126:34:19 Young: That (EVA) was really something else. (Long Pause)

126:34:35 Duke: Okay. "Disconnect OPS actuator from RCU; disconnect RCU from PGA."

126:34:41 Young: There you go. (Pause) It's that thing right there.

126:34:54 Duke: Wait a minute, John. Before I do this, I got a wet rag over here. I'm gonna wipe that RCU off before I put it anywhere.

126:35:02 Young: That's a good idea. (Pause) In fact, I'd like to wipe off the front of your suit in a couple of places. The only place you haven't got dirt is on your neckring. (Long Pause)

126:35:42 Duke: Sorry I gave out of (PLSS feed)water there. We'd have gone another hour. Man...

126:35:49 Young: You were really huffing and puffing on the drill.

126:35:51 Duke: Yeah. Well, when I was really huffing is when I went over and got that rock and fell down. That's how I got so dirty.

126:35:58 Young: Oh.

126:36:03 Duke: Because I had the camera on, and I couldn't get close enough to spring up, so I backed into a crater.

126:36:11 Young: Oh. (Both laugh) (Pause)

[Jones - "I don't think I understand what you meant here at 126:36:03."]

[Duke - "(When) you fall on your stomach with the camera on..."]

[Jones - "Ah!"]

[Duke - "It sticks out there six/seven inches or so and you couldn't get down close enough (to the ground) to push off hard with your hands. And I'd fallen down and there was a little crater behind me and what I did was just back up and got my feet down in it which gave me enough angle up that I could push; and then I was up. And then I just hopped out of the crater."]

[There is TV coverage of Jack Schmitt performing a similar maneuver at the Apollo 17 Station 4 stop at Shorty Crater at about 145:28:39.]

126:36:21 Duke: Hey, that's going to work neat, John. We can wipe our PGAs with something like that. Okay, disconnect RCU - that's this thing - from the PGA.

126:36:32 Young: Okay, there's mine. Here. (Pause) Okay.

126:36:37 Duke: Okay, wait a minute; let me read on.

126:36:40 Young: "Verify Fan, Off; Pump, Off."

126:36:41 Duke: Yeah, everything off; "Mode Select, 0"; and then...

126:36:42 Young: "Mode Select, 0."

126:36:43 Duke: ...disconnect it (meaning the RCU) from the PLSS.

126:36:45 Young: PLSS. Okay.

126:36:46 Duke: (Garbled) (Pause)

126:36:52 Young: Okay, that's yours, Charlie.

126:36:54 Duke: Okay, yours goes in (the LCG bag) first. Let me get my (garbled) connected. (Pause)

[They will stow the RCUs in the bag that held the Liquid Cooled garments.]
126:37:02 Young: Okay, babe. (Pause) Okay. That's one. (Long Pause)

126:37:30 Young: It occurs to me when we suit up tomorrow, we're going to have to wash our hands before we can put our gloves on, or we'll get a lot of dirt in the suit loop.

126:37:37 Duke: Yeah, I agree.

[Duke, from the 1972 Technical Debrief - "You know all that Velcro on the floor; it just gets caked with dirt. You can't stand on the floor. I guess it didn't hurt anything; but I know, when we donned the suit, we had our jettison bag down to stand on like everybody said; but our feet and hands and our arms were all full of dust when we put the suit on. So it was all going into the suit. And it didn't seem to bother anything."]

[As John indicates here, the concern is that some of the dust could be picked up by the oxygen stream flowing back in to the PLSS and, possibly, could damage something.]

[Duke, from the 1972 Technical Debrief - "You don't know how much it's going to bother. You don't have a feel for whether it's going to give you a problem or not. There's just no way to avoid it. The second EVA, we had in place (demonstrating) that much dirt and dust on the floor; and that's after cleaning each other real good (at the end of the first EVA)."]

[Young, from the 1972 Technical Debrief - "The place where most of the dirt came from - the place you can't clean - was the strap-on pockets we had."]

[Duke, from the 1972 Technical Debrief - "We got smart after EVA-1 and, before we got in (on EVA-2 and EVA-3), we closed the (pocket) flap. But, the first time, I got in with that flap open; and my pocket caught on the hatch sill and when I came in with that right leg, the dust just flopped out. You had a pocket full. You had a contingency sample right in your pocket."]

126:37:43 Young: Well, that's got it. It ain't going anywhere.

126:37:48 Duke: Okay. "Disconnect PLSS O2 hoses; doff PLSS and OPS, mine first. Stow LMP PLSS on floor, and yours on the midstep."

126:38:01 Young: Okay. (Pause)

126:38:13 Duke: How'd I get so dirty?! (Pause)

126:38:24 Young: Let me get some of this off down here, Charlie.

126:38:27 Duke: Okay. (Pause) Put that (hose) around here. (Pause)

126:38:33 Young: Yeah, that's okay.

126:38:35 Duke: Okay. (Long Pause)

126:38:49 Duke: Here, let me have this. I want to get this connector clean right here. (Long Pause)

[They are probably using a damp cloth to clean the connectors.]
126:39:14 Young: Dadgummit! I knew I was going to do something I'd forget again. I was going to cut my fingernails. Look at those fingers.

126:39:22 Duke: Yeah. Mine are the same way, and I cut mine. I don't think it has anything to do with that. (Pause)

[Duke - "You were jammed into the gloves so that you'd have dexterity at the end of your fingers. And, if your fingernails were long, it would tend to hook up and it would tear 'em loose and you'd get blood blisters underneath your fingernails. So, by cutting 'em back, it would eliminate that tendency to hang up and snag. But it didn't seem to have any effect, because we ended up black and blue at the end of the finger tips; and I think it was just pressing hard against the suit and working against the suit that caused it."]
126:39:38 Duke: Okay, you're free, and I'm free. Let me doff mine first, and I'll put mine against the...

126:39:45 Young: Okay. (Pause) Got it, Charlie.

[Charlie probably has his back to John, who takes hold of the PLSS as Charlie frees it.]
126:39:55 Duke: Hold onto it.

126:39:56 Young: I got it.

126:40:00 Duke: Okay, I got it.

126:40:02 Young: You got one side of it. I got the other side.

126:40:03 Duke: Okay, let it go, I got it.

126:40:07 Young: You're hung up on something.

126:40:08 Duke: It's your hoses, I think. (Pause) Either that or my hoses. (Pause) Yeah, my hoses. (Pause) Agh! (Pause) Okay. OPS is reading six thousand (psi)! Yeah, that's right; that's where it started. Hmm.

126:40:45 Young: (Garbled), Charlie. Don't cut yourself on that...Okay, now that...I couldn't put it in here.

126:40:49 Duke: Okay. (Pause) Okay. "Report OPS pressure." Okay. Let's get your PLSS off and then I'll stow...Let me stow this stuff, okay?

126:41:03 Young: Okay. That's a good idea. (Long Pause)

126:41:39 Duke: Okay. Now, I want to stick that beauty right up under there for now. Okay. Now, we're ready to get yours off. Yours goes to the midstep. (Long Pause)

126:42:20 Duke: Can you pick up on it (with the self-doffing straps)?

126:42:21 Young: Oh yeah. (Pause)

126:42:29 Duke: Okay.

126:42:31 Young: Got it?

126:42:32 Duke: Okay. Okay; to the midstep with that one, and look at your OPS pressure. (Pause)

126:42:43 Young: Yeah, oh...Let me tell you.

126:42:47 Duke: It's a bucket of worms, isn't it?

126:42:49 Young: What the bucket of worms is, is old dumb-dumb here is turning the wrong direction.

126:42:52 Duke: Okay, Ed. John's OPS is 5900 (psi) and mine is about 6050.

126:43:02 Mitchell: Okay. I copied that, Charlie. (Pause)

126:43:10 Duke: We've got the PLSS doffed now. We're stowing the OPS hoses (at the bottom of Surface 3-2).

126:43:16 Mitchell: Roger. (Long Pause)

126:43:34 Duke: Okay. There we go. "Install LM O2"...(reading item just up from the bottom of the middle column on Card 2 Side 2) "Install gas connector plugs in purse and (install) electrical dust cap." (Long Pause)

MP3 Audio Clip ( 2 min 20 sec )

126:44:08 Young: Better do something about that, Charlie.

126:44:10 Duke: What? (Pause) About what, John? (Pause)

126:44:24 Young: Where's the electrical dust cap go?

126:44:27 Duke: I don't know. (Garbled) We can get a piece of (gray duct) tape and put over it.

126:44:30 Young: Yeah. (Pause) "PLSS" electrical dust cap.

[John has had a momentary mental block and didn't understand the instruction about the 'electrical dust cap']
126:44:36 Duke: Oh, that's these things.

126:44:38 Young: (Garbled) covers.

126:44:40 Duke: Yeah. (Long Pause)

126:45:02 Duke: Okay; done. (Pause) Done. "Insure PLSS LiOH cartridges and batteries numbered 1 and 2 replaced with 3 and 4." Okay. (now at the top of the righthand column on Card 2 Side 2) "Change PLSS batt, stow in Buddy SLSS bag. Put a cable to battery; stow PLSS hoses and straps." Okay?

126:45:26 Young: Okay. Where are the PLSS batts at?

126:45:29 Duke: Right up here. (Pause) You got number 1?

126:45:41 Young: Yeah.

126:45:42 Duke: You get number 3. (Pause)

[They are taking PLSS battery No. 1 out of John's PLSS and are replacing it with No. 3, which they just brought up from the MESA.]
126:45:57 Young: Okay. There's number 1, and it's being replaced by number 3.

126:45:02 Duke: Old number 1! It's hot, too, boy.

[Jones - "Was the PLSS battery hot to the touch?"]

[Duke - "You know, it's like any battery. You use it and it gets hot. I just felt it in my hand."]

[Jones - "Did you notice anything - like the RCU, maybe - being warm from having been out in the Sun?"]

[Duke - "Uh-uh. No. The only thing I could feel was at the end of the last EVA, the cosmic ray detector. We had to get it out of it's frame; and I held the frame while John pulled and I could feel the heat of that thing in my hands."]

[Jones - "And that had been out in the Sun through three EVAs."]

[Duke - "Yeah. And it was probably 250 degrees - or hotter."]

126:46:06 Young: Put this cover on it, so we can make sure (we know) it's been used.

126:46:08 Duke: Okay.

126:46:12 Young: Well, that really ain't too good of a clue, is it? (Long Pause)

MP3 Audio Clip ( 0 min 29 sec )

[NASA Public Affairs commentator reports that there is a shift change taking place in the Mission Control Operations Room (MOCR) with Flight Director Gerry Griffin and his team replacing the Pete Frank team.]

[Readers should note that the times used at this point in the Journal differ from the GET being used in Houston because of an 11 minute 48 second update made to the clocks in Houston at 118:06:31.]

126:46:32 Duke: Boy, I know what I'd like right now.

126:46:34 Young: They want the PLSS battery connected?

126:46:36 Duke: Yes.

MP3 Audio Clip ( 4 min 55 sec )

126:46:51 Young: Okay. That's connected.

126:46:52 Duke: Okay, now we connect (means "stow") your (PLSS) hoses. All of them.

126:46:58 Young: Oh. (Chuckles) Okay, let me see that diagram one more time. (Pause) "Y" is this one.

126:47:17 Duke: Thank goodness for those (dust) covers. You didn't get it, John.

126:47:24 Young: Yeah, I did.

126:47:26 Duke: It didn't go all the way in. No, see, it pops out on you. There.

126:47:29 Young: Oh. One, two is the...

126:47:35 Duke: Looks like the water (hose).

126:47:37 Young: Yeah, it's the water. (Long Pause) Okay. That's got it. Three is the electrical. (Garbled) electrical.

126:48:05 Duke: That's this one. (Pause)

126:48:14 Young: (Garbled) what it really is. (Long Pause)

126:48:29 Young: Oh, man! You're right. It keeps popping out.

126:48:36 Duke: There, you got it.

126:48:40 Young: Three and four is this. (Pause) And that should have been 1.

126:48:51 Duke: (Laughs) Okay. Okay; "Disconnect left end of PLSS tool harness. Change LiOH cartridge, temp less than 130. Read cartridge decal. Stow used LiOH cartridge inside canisters. Stow canisters in Buddy SLSS bag. Install PLSS tool harness." Okay?

126:49:13 Young: Okay. (Long Pause)

[Jones - "With the PLSS up on the midstep, was it high enough that you could work on it standing? Or did you have to crouch down."]

[Duke - "Yeah, you could do it standing up, by bending over just a little bit. I remember the LiOH thing was down in the bottom section of the PLSS but, leaning it on the step, you could do it."]

[Jones - "Which raises a curiosity question. Down here on Earth, if you bend over something long enough and try to straighten up, you can feel it."]

[Duke - "Didn't have a problem up there in the one-sixth gravity. And, of course, you could really hold the PLSS up or put it on the Ascent Engine cover if you wanted to. I don't remember it being a problem to change that out. We had to get this tool harness thing out of the way, first, so we could open the cover and get at it."]

126:49:27 Young: Need another shot of agua, Charlie.

126:49:29 Duke: Agua coming up. (Pause)

["Agua" is Spanish for "water", and John probably wants Charlie to turn on the LM LCG pump for a moment so they can get some cooling.]
126:49:36 Young: I don't know how we're going to take this thing down.

126:49:41 Duke: Well, let's undo the bottom and just slide it up, how's that?

126:49:44 Young: Okay.

126:49:45 Duke: See, the bottom's already loose. (Pause)

126:49:50 Young: That's got it.

126:49:52 Duke: Okay, I'll get you a (LiOH) canister.

126:49:54 Young: Okay.

126:49:55 Duke: If I can reach it. (Pause)

126:50:01 Young: (It) happened to be number 1. (Hissing sound) I believe it was in a vacuum! (Pause)

126:50:11 Young: Okay, Charlie. That's got me.

126:50:13 Duke: Okay you got 1? Okay. That's the wrong one.

126:50:15 Young: No, wait a minute. Yeah, this is 1.

126:50:18 Duke: That you got out already?

126:50:19 Young: Yeah.

126:50:20 Duke: Okay. Whew. Oh man!

126:50:25 Young: Dadgum it! (Pause)

126:50:42 Duke: Man, I'd thought I'd had it out there with that LCRU (installation at 119:45:32). I couldn't get that Astromate connector done. The thing is, the cable's just too stiff. I'd push down on it...

126:50:53 Young: Yeah?

126:50:54 Duke: ...and the cable would push me back.

126:50:55 Young: (Laughing) I know it. (Still giggling) I had a heck of a time setting up the Central Station, for some reason. Never had any problem with that before.

126:51:02 Duke: Yeah, me either. Same thing with that connector. Never had had a problem before. (Pause)

126:51:18 Young: You know, that's the kind of thing you want to push on just as hard as you need to do to get it, but you don't want to push on it hard enough to booger it.

126:51:23 Duke: I know it.

126:51:24 Young: And the question is how hard is that in one-sixth gravity? I don't know. (Long Pause)

[On the audio tape, we can hear the sound of equipment being manipulated as they replace John's PLSS LiOH canister. Readers should note that Apollo 16 is the only mission during which we get to hear substantial portions of the crew conversations during these post-EVA activities.]

[Jones - "As I said previously, this is the first time I've ever heard anybody go through this part of the procedures; and you two sound very relaxed, comfortable, confident. Is that the way it was?"]

[Duke - "Yeah. We'd gone through it a jillion times, it seems like, and we were just going through the checklists. And, then, we're making comments about other stuff, here, while we're getting the work done. Yeah, we're winding down. Just real loose."]

MP3 Audio Clip ( 8 min 33 sec )

126:51:39 Duke: Well, you can put a lot of...That old jack, John, just brought that core stem right out of there. Sure wish we could have had that...(Pause)

126:51:52 Young: Okay. That's got it; it's in and locked.

126:51:56 Duke: Okay, now we got to reinstall the tool harness (as per Surface 3-3).

126:51:58 Young: Okay. (Pause) Well, I don't know. Man, I never even saw that thing (meaning the heat flow cable) until all of a sudden I turned around, and there it was following me.

126:52:18 Duke: Okay, let's do this. Pull this down, John. (Pause) Okay. Now wait a minute; slide it under here. (Pause) Tell you what, let me undo it a little bit.

126:52:39 Young: Okay. Mine was already slid under.

126:52:41 Duke: Mine wasn't on this side. Okay; now I'll tighten it up for you.

126:52:47 Young: Okay. Whoa, whoa, Charlie. I'll never stow it, now. You got to let it up.

126:52:52 Duke: Okay.

126:52:55 Young: It's down over this beam.

[John will stow the PLSS on the wall at his left shoulder and he is concerned that he won't be able to get it secured in place with the tool harness too tight.]
126:52:57 Duke: No need to get it too tight; we've got to get in here anyway for...

126:53:00 Young: That's right. We've got to...

126:53:03 Duke: ...for the refill.

126:53:04 Young: ...for the refill (on Surface 3-5).

126:53:05 Duke: Okay.

126:53:06 Young: One more...

126:53:07 Duke: Boy, is that the lunar dust that smells so funny?! You think?

126:53:08 Young: No. No, I don't know what it is. (Pause)

126:53:15 Duke: Okay. (In the middle of the top section of the righthand column on Card 2 Side 2) "Disconnect OPS antennas to remove OPS and stow antenna lead."

126:53:21 Young: Okay.

126:53:22 Duke: "Stow commander's OPS on engine cover. Stow commander's PLSS in recharge station." (Pause) Whew! (Pause) We're gonna have to hook that back up, because we're going to do a checkout again tomorrow.

126:53:52 Young: And hook it into here.

126:53:53 Duke: Yeah.

126:53:55 Young: That's right. (Pause) Well, I hate to tell you this, but it's just not long enough.

[They may be stowing John's OPS on the engine cover.]
126:54:06 Duke: Well, I'll have to...

126:54:07 Young: (Garbled) hose.

126:54:08 Duke: Okay, wait a minute. (Pause) Okay, that ought to do it. (Pause) (Does it) reach?

126:54:23 Young: Yeah. In and locked. It's locked. (Pause)

126:54:33 Duke: "Rope finger on PLSS."

[Charlie may have accidentally tied his finger down. Next, they will put John's PLSS in the recharge station on the wall and secure it.]
126:54:37 Duke: Okay, now comes our major chore. Getting that beauty into that...
[Jones - "Tell me a little bit about getting John's PLSS up on the wall."]

[Duke - "It was hard to get the pins in right."]

[Jones - "There were hard point attachments?"]

[Duke - "Yeah; three or four. And they were on the PLSS frame, plus the hard points that had to go into the wall. And I don't remember which was the male and the female; but you had to get it all lined up and all four had to be in. And you were doing it blind and you couldn't look around and see into the side. So it was tough to do. And we'd had problems in training and we knew we were going to have problems; and that's why we commented on it."]

126:54:41 Young: Let me show you something. How easy it is in one-sixth gravity. Well, lend me your flashlight.

126:54:50 Duke: It's in the purse.

126:54:53 Young: In the purse, huh? (Pause)

[The purse is hanging under Panel 5, which is directly in front of John, to the left of the hatch.]

[Young, from the 1972 Technical Debrief - "One of the toughest things we did was stow the PLSS with the tool harness on it in the Commander's station and get it to lock. There's no way to guide that thing in there. There should be some way to guide it into the stow position. You do not have any idea (how difficult that was). It's a blind connector into that pin. It's just by hit-and-miss that you get it in there and stow it. What should be a minute job, if you could see what you're doing, takes 5 to 10 minutes. It's necessary because you want to get that thing up and out of the way and make sure it's secured. The Apollo 15 crewmen were continually turning around and knocking it off the bulkhead, and that's no good."]

[John wants to use the flashlight to try to get some light on the connector so he can better guide his PLSS into position.]

126:54:58 Duke: Man, you looked beautiful standing out there by Flag Crater, but you are ugly now. (Long Pause) (Doing his W.C. Fields imitation) Ah, it's a panoramic scene of beauty. (Pause)
[Apollo 17 CapCom Bob Parker quotes this line at 118:40:47 in that mission.]

[John is still trying to secure his PLSS.]

126:56:04 Duke: (You) might have too much junk sticking out there, John.

126:56:10 Young: That ain't the problem. (Pause) Okay.

126:56:22 Duke: Do you want me to slide around on this side and help? (Pause)

126:56:31 Young: I need that flashlight again, Charlie.

126:56:33 Duke: What did you do with it? Put it back in here? (Pause)

126:56:44 Young: Okay.

126:56:46 Duke: Let me help.

126:56:48 Young: Okay. (Long Pause)

126:57:02 Duke: Well. One reason you didn't (get it in)...This thing wasn't hanging over here.

126:57:10 Young: Okay. Okay?

126:57:12 Duke: Okay. Now. (Pause)

126:57:17 Mitchell: Orion, Houston. When you get a moment, give us normal voice.

126:57:25 Young: (Responding to Mitchell) Okay. (To Charlie) Look, Charlie, it's not making it.

126:57:31 Duke: (Chuckling) I know it's not making it! You got too much...The hoses are sticking out too far. I could get this side right now.

126:57:42 Young: You could?

126:57:43 Duke: Yeah.

126:57:44 Young: I've almost got it over here. (Pause) Great. Can you raise up on it a hair?

126:57:51 Duke: Yeah, this way?

126:57:52 Young: No, the other way. There you go! Okay. Now, push toward the wall.

126:57:55 Duke: Okay.

126:57:56 Young: There you go. Push toward the wall.

126:57:58 Duke: Okay.

126:57:59 Young: Okay, now, screw it in.

126:58:03 Duke: Okay. (Laughing) Wait a minute. Give me the flashlight, now. (Pause) Okay. Down a little bit.

126:58:20 Young: Okay. (Pause)

[Readers should note that they are both still wearing their suits.]
126:58:33 Duke: There we go.

126:58:34 Young: You got it.

126:58:35 Duke: Yeah.

126:58:36 Young: Ahh. (Pause) Houston, that was accomplished in only...It only took us 10 minutes to stow the PLSS.

126:58:47 Mitchell: Well, that's about 2 minutes better than usual.

126:58:59 Young: Oh. (Pause)

[Jones - "Is this one of the things that would have been a lot easier with a little bit more elbow room in the cabin?"]

[Duke - "No. It was just that the design was bad. You know, the hoses stayed real flat when it was initially stowed; but then, when you get the connectors in and re-connect it, it was just looser. And it just didn't have any play in there and you really had to push it to get it on. I remember all that now; and it was terrible."]

126:59:03 Duke: Okay. (Pause) Okay. (Three lines above 110:25 on Card 2 Side 2) "Commander's PLSS...(Correcting himself, but getting tongue-tied) LMPlee's...LMP's PLSS to the midstep".

126:59:10 Mitchell: And, Charlie, we'd like that Normal Voice when you get a second.

126:59:13 Young: Stow the hose. (Static; Long Pause)

MP3 Audio Clip ( 10 min 36 sec )

127:00:03 Young: (Improved comm) Houston, how do you read us on Normal Voice? Over.

127:00:06 Mitchell: Okay, reading you loud and clear on Normal Voice. And also check (on) panel 16, (that the) Comm Display circuit breaker closed. Verify it for us, please.

[This is the 10th circuit breaker from the left in the third row of Charlie's panel. See Surface 1-5.]
127:00:19 Duke: No, sir. It was open.

127:00:21 Mitchell: Okay. It's open. Please close it.

127:00:26 Duke: (Much improved comm quality) It's closed now, Ed.

127:00:28 Mitchell: Okay, Charlie. Thank you. Okay, and give us High Bit Rate now, Charlie.

127:00:40 Duke: Okay, you got High Bit Rate.

127:00:43 Mitchell: Okay, Charlie. Since you are off of hot mike now, when you get to the battery management portion, coming up next on your checklist (110:25), skip it and we'll pick it up at 128 hours. (Pause)

127:01:13 Duke: What time is the GET (Ground Elapsed Time) now, Ed?

127:01:16 Mitchell: Okay. Your GET now is 127:13.

127:01:23 Duke: Okay.

[Readers should note that the times used in this part of the Journal differ from the GET being used in Houston because of an 11 minute 48 second update made to the clocks in Houston at 118:06:31.]
127:01:24 Mitchell: And we'll be changing the procedure slightly, Charlie, so let us know...Well, we'll call you when it's time to do that battery management.

127:01:34 Duke: That's fine. We don't have any tick-tock, so if you'll just call us, we'll appreciate it.

[The mission timer is off to conserve power.]
127:01:38 Mitchell: Okay. And let me advise you of something that's coming up. Before you get your PGAs doffed and over the engine cover (as per Surface 3-4), we want to stow that extra (ECS) LiOH canister back in the bracket there.
[The replacement ECS canister they brought up at the end of the EVA will be stowed behind the ascent engine cover, just below the aft corner of the ECS cabinet. the stowage location is currently empty because, at wake-up they removed the used ECS Primary cartridge and replaced it with the one that had been stowed behind the ascent engine cover. They took the used canister out with them at the start of the EVA. See a detail from an Apollo 16 LM-close-out picture]
127:01:51 Duke: Okay, yeah; we'll get that. (Pause)

127:02:05 Mitchell: And Orion; Houston. We're showing your Suit Disconnect valves in Disconnect.

127:02:17 Duke: That's affirmative. We don't have the hoses hooked up. I'll hook up...I'll turn on the air. (Pause while Houston watches the telemetry)

127:02:32 Mitchell: Good enough. Thank you, Charlie. (Pause)

127:02:41 Duke: Ed, we're in...Here's our configuration, Cabin Gas Return (Valve) is Open; Suit Circuit Relief (Valve) to Auto; Suit Gas Diverter (Valve), Push Cabin; the Suit Isol(ation) Valves are in Suit Flow; and the hoses are hooked up to the wall.

127:02:58 Mitchell: Okay, Charlie. Fine.

[Long Comm Break]

[In this configuration, oxygen is flowing from the ECS into the cabin and then back into the ECS via the Cabin Gas Return Valve. They do not have the LM oxygen hoses hooked up to the suits.]

[During this Comm Break, Tony England returns to the CapCom console.]

MP3 Audio Clip ( 10 min 09 sec )

127:10:31 Duke: Okay, Ed we're on the Lunar Surface Checklist, page 3-4. Over.

127:10:36 England: Okay, Charlie. We copy that.

[Long Comm Break]

[Since getting back in the cabin, they have been using the Prep & Post Cards. Now, they have gotten out the Surface Checklist and have started the procedures at the top of Surface 3-4.]

127:14:06 Duke: Okay, Houston. SCB number 5 is in sample containment bag (that is, cover bag) number 5, and it weighs 14 (terrestrial) pounds.
[Sample Containment Bags were flown on the J missions to help reduce the amount of dust in the cabin. The Sample Collection Bags were put inside the Containment Bags. Photos of containment bags in the National Air & Space collection courtesy Allan Needell. After weighing the bag, John and Charlie record the weight on page 2-2 of the LM Lunar Surface Checklist.]
127:14:17 England: Okay. We copy that. SCB bag (5) in bag 5, and it weighs 14 pounds.

127:14:28 Young: Of which at least 10 pounds (4.5 kg) must be the SCB. (Tony chuckles)

[John is joking that much of the weight must be the dust on the SCB. As indicated in Table 6 in Judy Allton's Catalog of Apollo Lunar Surface Geological Sampling Tools and Containers, SCB-5 weighs 565 grams (1.2 pounds) empty.]

[The scale they are using to weigh the sample containers is shown in Figure 58 from Judy's Tool Book. It is calibrated to give readings in terrestrial pounds.]

127:14:32 England: Oh, you collected a lot of rocks out there.

127:14:44 Duke: That was only one rock, and that was a grab sample that I got (at about 125:08:40) about 30 meters in front of the LM. Over.

127:14:51 England: Right. That's right. (Pause)

[This sample is 60015, a 5.6 kg piece of glass coated rock. The combined weight of the SCB and the sample is 6.1 kg or 13.5 pounds. Because the scale is marked in 5-pound increments, this weight is indistinguishable from the 14 pounds Charlie read out to Houston. Sample 60015 is a cataclastic anorthosite (cataclastic means that the rock has been deformed under pressure. On Earth, cataclastic rocks are ususally associated with fault zones. In this case, impact stresses are the likely cause. All surfaces except the bottom are thickly coated with glass. The overall cosmic ray exposure age of the rock is about 2 million years, suggesting that the rock was ejected in the South Ray impact. The glass coatings have a micrometeorite-exposure age of about 100,000 years, suggesting that, for most of the time since ejection, only the bottom surface was been exposed. Micrometeorite impacts cleaned much of the glass off that surface before the rock turned over - presumably by a small, local impact - about 100,000 years ago.]
127:14:55 Duke: Okay. SRC number 1 weighs 42 (terrestrial) pounds.

127:15:01 England: Okay. We copy.

127:15:07 Duke: And that's all the rocks we got.

127:15:11 England: Okay. (Long Pause)

[The empty SRC weighs 6.6 kilograms or 14.5 pounds.]
127:15:47 England: Okay. I don't know how factual it is, but I remember getting a note the last week before launch that you had your rock control weight up to 215 pounds. (Pause)

127:16:01 Young: Okay, Tony. We'll get 215 pounds of rock.

127:16:04 England: I bet you will.

127:16:05 Young: How much have we got now?

127:16:10 England: Oh, you have 56 pounds you called back, including the weight of the SRC, which is about 12 pounds. So that would make it about 44 pounds. (Pause) I bet the "Muley Special" down there will double your weight.

127:16:40 Young: I'm sure it will. (Joking) It gave Charlie a hernia. (Long Pause)

[Big Muley is sample 61016 ( 175k ) and weighs 11.7 kg or 25.7 terrestrial pounds. Its lunar weight is 4.3 pounds.]

[When Charlie collected the rock at 124:08:29, he immediately associated it with Bill Muehlberger when he said, "If I fall into Plum Crater getting this rock, Muehlberger has had it." Later, when he was back at the LM at 125:24:09 during the closeout, he referred to the sample in the following way: "And I got a great big rock: a muley." A little while later, at 125:24:53, he referred to it as "that rock we picked up (next to the Rover at Station 1), the big - the muley...". In 1996, I asked Tony if, prior to the mission, Bill Muehlberger was known as "Muley" and, if not, whether the double meaning of "Muley" - referring to Muehlberger and to the size of the rock - was obvious at the time.]

[England, from a 1996 letter - "I never heard anyone call Bill M. 'Muley', but I was aware that it referred to him. Charlie played with words a lot so he probably invented the association with the rock on the spot. We would have all understood it. Bill is not only big, but he is a little stubborn. The 'Muley' played on his name, his size, and, just a little, on his being stubborn. Of course, I'd never say that when I was within Bill's reach."]

[Muehlberger, from a 1996 letter - "My nickname in college was 'Mully' - short version of Mull-(as it is pronounced)-berger. There were times when 'Mule-y' was also used! So, with Lee Silver and Dallas Peck, both part of my team, always around and also college friends using that nickname, it became my nickname for all. I guess it was a short step for the crew to bless the largest rock - I was 210 lbs and 6'1 - 'Big Muley'."]

[Readers should also note that when Ed Mitchell serves as CapCom after EVA-2, he refers to the rock as "Mully" at 151:09:14, a clear indication that he knows it was named for Bill Muehlberger.]

127:17:09 England: Okay, and that SCB-5 we'd just like you to stow behind the engine cover, if you can still get to it behind the suits there. We can't give you a permanent location, because we don't have the c.g. (center of gravity) yet, without the rest of the rocks.

127:17:24 Young: Understand. It doesn't make much difference right now.

127:17:27 England: Okay. (Long Pause) Hey, I thought you might be interested up there (that) all the orbital science is working fine. The only problem Ken's had is with the laser altimeter. It only keys about 80 percent of the time, so he's losing about 20 percent of the data, but it's still working fine, and everything else is outstanding.

127:18:39 Young: Yeah, well what's he say Descartes (is) made out of?

127:18:45 England: Okay, that's a...

127:18:46 Duke: Is he getting it in real time like he did last time?

127:18:48 England: I'll get back there and find out. I'll get back up to you with that.

127:18:55 Duke: I was just curious as to what the sensors were saying about our area right here.

127:19:00 England: Yeah, I'd like to know that, too.

[Comm Break. John and Charlie are probably stowing the core tubes, SRC, CDR OPS, and SCB-5 as per the left-hand column of Surface 3-4.]
MP3 Audio Clip ( 8 min 21 sec )

127:20:32 Duke: Houston, 16.

127:20:33 England: Go ahead, Charlie.

127:20:38 Duke: Okay. We just picked up a pretty high-pitched hum in the ECS loop. Would you have them take a look?

127:20:46 England: Okay. We'll do that. (Long Pause) Okay, Orion, we have High Bit Rate, and we don't see anything out of the ordinary right now.

127:21:47 Duke: Okay. Thank you.

127:21:51 England: Incidentally, whenever you happen to get your data book there, I have some new block data for you.

127:22:01 Young: That'll be a while, Tony.

127:22:03 England: Okay. No hurry.

[Long Comm Break]
127:25:40 Duke: Okay, Tony. John's taking his PGA off (as per the top right-hand column of Surface 3-4).

127:25:44 England: Okay. (Long Pause)

127:26:06 Duke: In fact, Tony, I think this high-pitched hum is how the (ECS suit) loop should sound, if I remember our (vacuum) chamber test. This is exactly what it sounds like, and it hadn't been doing that (up to this point in the mission).

127:26:17 England: Okay. Very good. (Pause) You're trying to tell us you don't know what normal sounds like.

[Very Long Comm Break]

[Jones - "Did you do very many vacuum chamber tests?"]

[Duke - "Yeah; we did two or three, if I remember."]

[Jones - "Full up?"]

[Duke - "Yeah, we had our suits on a couple of times. We did one or two at the Cape and, if I remember, one up at (Grumman, Bethpage) before they shipped it (meaning the LM) down (to the Cape)."]

[Jones - "How much of the operation did you do?"]

[Duke - "It was cabin operation. We didn't do any of this stuff. We just sat there and flipped switches. They had test procedures that we followed, so you just flipped switches as you listened to the test director. They had various things they wanted to do in the loops. So we got on board just to get familiar with the machine and how it works in a vacuum."]

[Jones - "So, other than yourselves and the suits, you didn't have much in there. Did you go through a number of other types of tests with the LM fully equipped where you went through these routines?"]

[Duke - "Not in the chamber, nor in the actual spacecraft. We did it in the simulator. We had a simulator - which was not the real simulator that we flew in to learn the flight procedures - but let's call it an EVA procedures simulator. It was just a mock-up. It had an oxygen system and it had a little comm, I think, and then the stowage was right. And so we'd go through the donning and doffing exercises in real time. I don't now how many times we did it, but a bunch. Most of these procedures we had committed to memory, but we followed the checklist. We'd done it a lot of times."]

[Jones - "Those would be the training exercises where the PLSSs were heavier..."]

[Duke - "They were lightweight ones but they were still heavy. I think they were maybe like ninety pounds, or maybe it was lighter than that; but it was still heavy compared to what we had up on the Moon. And it was in our regular training suits. So it was an actual spacesuit and there were gloves and all that stuff. And the connectors were real connectors. I guess they had a lighter weight PLSS; they didn't have all the stuff in it. And we would change out batteries and LiOH canisters and charge 'em - or simulate charging them. It was real good training."]

[Jones - "Was it a Comedy of Errors the first few times through it?"]

[Duke - "Oh, yeah. You know, just rattling around in there like a bull in a china shop. And, you know, it never got any fun...I mean, we got better at it, of course. But it was always a pain in the rear; you just hated doing it because it was so hard, and you got hot and cooling wasn't right. But we knew we had to do it to learn it. So we did it."]

[Young, from the 1972 Technical Debrief - "Every time we took the suit off...It's real handy that the thing (meaning the suit) is standing up by itself in one-sixth gravity. It's really handy for you to close the zipper up to lube the pressure zipper and get those connectors (clean) before you put the thing away for the night On the second and third EVA, because everything was really getting dirty - and I don't know whether it's a real problem of not, or an imaginary problem - we were really getting concerned about whether we were going to be able to do things like fasten the connectors. So we were taking special care to lube everything and, therefore, we ran out of lube."]

[Duke, from the 1972 Technical Debrief - "We had one (container of lube) left for the zipper on EVA-3."]

[Young, from the 1972 Technical Debrief - "I think you should have some more lube in case you do get to a situation where, as you're doing your last donning, something is not working right and you need to go back and lube it again to make sure."]

[Duke, from the 1972 Technical Debrief - "Not only did we use the lube, but we used water and the towels to wipe around the outside of the connectors. And the wrist rings. It wasn't the O-ring part that was so stiff; it was the mating surface between the suit and the sliding ring."]

[Young, from the 1972 Technical Debrief - "Yes. That's been remarked on before. Somebody said they taped their wrist ring; but that seems to be like a kluge. I think they should come up with something that keeps the dust out of the wrist ring. Maybe an overflap that you Velcro on the other side of it to keep the dust out of there, because I just don't think you should have a problem donning and doffing. We really got a lot of dust; and I don't see really any way out of it when you're holding a (sample) bag and Charlie's dumping dirt in there. The dust goes all over the place and it's just as easy for it to go down your shirtsleeve as not. The fact is, we had both dirt and rocks underneath the flap that you raise to get the glove open."]

MP3 Audio Clip ( 0 min 33 sec )

[Readers should note that the times used at this point in the Journal differ from the GET being used in Houston because of an 11 minute 48 second update made to the clocks in Houston at 118:06:31.]
MP3 Audio Clip ( 1 min 24 sec )
[John's next transmission comes when he reaches the bottom of the second paragraph at the top of Surface 3-5. Because NASA Public Affairs was using the CSM feed, the tape used to compile audio for the ALSJ does not include this brief exchange. Except for the first few seconds of the following clip does not contain any comm.]
MP3 Audio Clip ( 12 min 33 sec )

127:45:46 Young: Hello, Houston. I'm up on comm. How do you read? Over.

127:45:49 England: Okay. You're 5 by there, John.

127:45:56 Duke: Okay. Coming out of my suit, now, Tony.

127:45:59 England: Okay.

[Very Long Comm Break. Both John and Charlie sound like they've got clogged sinuses.]

[Jones - "Jack had a bad allergic reaction to the dust, at least after their first EVA. Did you?"]

[Duke - "No. Uh-uh. I read your comment here on the next page, 'Sounds like clogged sinuses.' That's true. Sinuses just don't drain well, up there, because of the low gravity. And, in zero-gravity, it seemed like you didn't drain at all. Plus, the low pressure gave you this nasally sound in your voice, (you see)? And it felt like, a lot of times...You know, the sinuses were all full. Then I think I had a little twang in my voice from the five-and-a-half psi versus the fourteen-and-a-half we're speaking at now. So, occasionally you'd feel like you had a squeaky voice."]

[Young, from the 1972 Technical Debrief - "As we said before, we lubricated the zipper when we got the PGA off; and then fastened the zipper and pulled the seals down tight. When we took the suits off, they were all covered with dust, up to our knees, even though we kicked our boots off (that is, stamped them on the ladder to knock dust off) as we came up the ladder. We took the suits off and put them into a jettison bag, pulled the jettison bag up over the legs, and laid them on the couch (meaning the ascent engine cover) like everybody else has done. We put a bag down on the floor to stand on, but that did not keep us from getting dust all over the place. One of the problems was that we had dust on the bottom of the PLSSs even though we wiped them off, and dust on the side of the OPSs for some reason. They were lying on the floor. As a result, when we got into our LCGs (John probably means CWG - Constant Wear Garment - rather than LCG), we were sort of standing around...Like, I had one foot on an OPS and one foot on the midstep and was sort of leaning back against the shelf on my side. Charlie was sort of standing with his foot on the ETB and one foot on the midstep, and we were up out of the dirt. Our hands were black when we started taking each other's wrist rings off. We got our hands dirty and I didn't get the dirt off my hands until after we'd landed (on Earth at the end of the mission). Washed them up good. I don't think Charlie did (get his hands clean), either. We managed to get dirt on the bottom of the LCGs, on our sleeves, and on our hands (and all of) that got into the suits. It was just a little dust. I don't know what problem it entailed, but it sure looked like it might become a problem. The only thing I can say is we stayed out of the dirt as best we could. It was all over the floor. Just (not) hardly any way to get out of it. We even had some on the midstep where we'd laid the ETB up there. It was dust covered, too, from dropping in the dirt because the LEC was too long to keep it off the ground."]

[Duke, from the 1972 Technical Debrief - "Another eight ounces on the stowage list in the form of a jett bag would be an outstanding addition to the LM stowage."]

 

EVA-1 Close-out Apollo 16 Journal Debrief and Goodnight