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Station 1 at Plum Crater Station 2 at Buster Crater

 

Traverse to Station 2

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 6 April 2014.

 

MP3 Audio Clip ( 7 min 46 sec )

124:14:10 Duke: Okay, Tony, we're just about underway. (Pause)

124:14:18 Young: Okay; we're going to follow our footsteps back.

124:14:21 Duke: Okay, that's a good idea. (Pause) Tony, did you read?

124:14:29 England: Yeah, we sure did.

124:14:30 Young: (Lost under Tony)

124:14:31 England: Okay, and we're looking at...

124:14:32 Duke: Okay; we're underway.

124:14:38 England: And, we're looking at a few changes there at Spook. We're going to cut that station down to about 19 minutes.

[Pre-mission planning assumed they would leave Flag Crater at an EVA elapsed time of about 4+57. The EVA started at 118:53:33 and, consequently, they are 5 hours 21 minutes into it and about 24 minutes behind schedule. They had planned to make a 5-minute drive back to Spook and then a 56-minute stop.]
124:14:45 England: And if you get there in time, (As per CDR-34 and CDR-35) we'll have John go ahead, as nominal, and do the LPM (Lunar Portable Magnetometer). And then we'll end (with) the LPM site measurement. And Charlie, you can do your 500-millimeter (photos) near the edge of Spook, and do a pan near the rim of Spook. And run over and do a couple of samples of Buster if you have time left. And that'll be our Station 2.

124:15:09 Duke: Okay, why the cutback?

124:15:17 England: Okay; it's your (cooling) water consumption there, Charlie.

124:15:23 Duke: Ah, rats! Okay.

[Although Houston is concerned about Charlie's use rate of PLSS feedwater, the fact that they are about a half-hour behind schedule is also a consideration.]
124:15:25 England: That's all right. You're getting some really good geology there. Don't feel bad. (Pause)

124:15:39 Duke: Okay; we're making good time going back, and it's easier going up-Sun. You can see the craters a lot better. The characteristics of the regolith are the same.

124:15:52 Young: Are you using the 16 (mm movie camera), Charlie?

124:15:55 Duke: No. (Pause)

[Charlie does not take any photos during the drive back to Spook but does during the drive from Spook back to the LM.]
124:16:00 Young: Well, it ain't easier (driving) for me. If I wasn't following these tracks, it would be bad. Up-Sun or down-Sun, it's bad for driving.

124:16:06 England: Roger. We figured it probably would be.

124:16:09 Duke: You're making great time, John. We're doing 11 clicks.

124:16:13 England: Outstanding!

124:16:14 Duke: Super!

124:16:15 England: The Grand Prix driver is at it again.

124:16:20 Duke: Barney Oldfield.

124:16:22 Young: I can follow a road.

[Jones - "I'm afraid I'm a little too young to be absolutely certain who Barney Oldfield was."]

[Duke - "He was a great race car driver back in the 20s or so. As a kid, I can remember everybody talked about Barney Oldfield. I don't even think he was driving when I was a kid."]

[Journal contributor Brian Lawrence supplied the following information. "Oldfield was born in 1878 and began driving for Henry Ford in 1902. Among other distinctions, he set a speed record of 131.275 mph over a measured mile at Daytona, Florida, in a German Blitzen Benz on March 16, 1910. He competed in the Indianapolis 500 twice (1914 and 1916) and retired from racing in 1918. Oldfield drove the Indy pace car in 1920 and 1922 and died in 1946."]

124:16:25 England: Back to the on-off switch mode.

124:16:30 Duke: (Lost under Tony)

[This is probably an inside joke, possibly a reference to John's ability to change jobs - from Rover driver to geologist and back - without a moment's pause.]
124:16:30 England: John, did you dust that TV lens?

124:16:35 Young: I dusted it somewhere.

124:16:38 England: Okay, fine.

124:16:40 Young: I don't remember if it was that station or not. (Pause)

124:16:47 England: Okay, I guess we'll need it dusted again at this next stop.

124:16:52 Young: All righty.

124:16:56 Duke: Okay, Tony. As I look up-Sun here, going back through (pause), you can see these lineations, mostly furrows, I'd call them, with random orientation. And they're definitely (due to) the Sun casting shadows on unconsolidated regolith.

124:17:19 England: Right.

124:17:21 Duke: You can't believe how up and down this is, Tony.

124:17:26 England: How about when you're driving across rays? You noticed any difference in the Rover tracks?

124:17:35 Young: (Chuckles) I notice an increase in block population. But the tracks you can't see; they're behind you.

124:17:42 England: Okay; I thought maybe you could see them behind the front wheel there.

124:17:49 Young: (Laughs)

124:17:52 Duke: It's a cloud of dust, Tony.

124:17:54 England: Okay; we copy. (Long Pause)

124:18:12 Young: (To Charlie) That's Spook, isn't it? That big one right there?

124:18:19 Duke: Yeah; I think it is. (Probably indicating another crater) That's the one we called Buster. Okay. We got to go up north if you're gonna...(Pause)

[If, indeed, they are approaching Spook, they need to turn northeast to park the Rover at a point on the rim of Spook nearest Buster. See the Descartes EVA-I, III 1 of 3 map.]
124:18:32 Duke: Okay, Tony. We're in a real blocky boulder field here. It's probably thrown out from Spook. What we originally called Spook was not Spook. I think this blocky one is Spook. And we're coming up from the south side of it.
[As indicated below, they are probably northwest of Spook and south of Buster. Charlie seems to be mistaking Buster for Spook.]
124:18:52 Young: (Thinking about where he landed) Yeah, I'd say, Houston, that I was farther past...I guess that I was farther past Double Spot...(Pause)

124:19:07 Duke: But we got 0.8 mile (means 0.8 km), John, and Spook is supposed to be a mile (means 1 km) from the LM, as per the map. That's got to be it right down there.

[If they are 0.8 km from the LM, which is near CB.1/80.6, and have been following their outbound tracks, they are south of Buster near CA.7/76.6.]
124:19:15 Young: Buster?

124:19:16 Duke: No, that's Spook.

124:19:19 England: Okay...

124:19:20 Young: (Lost under Tony)

124:19:20 England: ...Spook should look about the same size as Flag.

124:19:23 Duke: Nope; that doesn't.

124:19:25 Young: Does it look the same size?

124:19:29 Duke: No, this is the biggest crater right over here to the right.

124:19:32 Young: Okay; well, this is Buster (on the left).

124:19:34 Duke: Okay, that's what I thought. It's a blocky crater.

[Finally, they have it sorted out.]
124:19:36 Young: Let's stop the Rover halfway between them?

124:19:39 Duke: Yeah.

124:19:40 England: No, near the edge of Spook.

124:19:41 Duke: Buster is a lot bigger than...(Responding to England) Yeah, okay, it (meaning Buster)'s about 50 meters or so. We're bearing 089 for 0.8.

124:19:54 England: Okay.

[This readout puts them near CB.0/76.6.]
124:19:55 Duke: We're supposed to park 180 about halfway, John, (as per LMP-24). Don't...We're in a big hole back over here, Could you...Go forward (lost under Tony)?

124:20:00 England: Little bit nearer to the end of Spook so we can see into Spook.

124:20:06 Duke: What you really want to see into is Buster. Buster is about the same size as what we called Spook here. In fact, it's a more impressive crater!

124:20:17 England: Okay, whatever turns you on, there.

124:20:19 Duke: John, that thing's...(Stops to listen) That, that's got to be...Tony, is there a big crater to the south of...

124:20:29 Young: Spook?

124:20:30 Duke: Spook?

124:20:31 Young: Cove is.

[As shown in Figure 3.6.1-1 in the Lunar Surface Procedures volume, Cove is about 1 kilometer in diameter and about 2 kilometers southwest of Spook. Cove was one of John's landmarks at pitchover.]
124:20:33 England: That'd be quite a ways. Red Rose looks about like 0.8 kilometer.

124:20:44 Duke: No. (Pause)

[As is shown in the Descartes EVA-I, II 1 of 2 map, Red Rose is a 200-m crater which is 0.8 km south of Spook at BW.2/76.5.]
124:20:47 Duke: Okay; well, let's park here, John. This is great sampling. We've got plenty of boulders and everything.

124:20:52 England: All right. Let's do it right here. We concur.

124:20:59 Duke: Buster is a lot bigger than Plum is. The one we called Plum.

124:21:04 England: Right, it should be.

124:21:06 Young: Yeah, it sure is.

[See the Descartes EVA-I, III 1 of 3 map.]
124:21:10 Duke: Okay, then we got the right place then, if it should be. Okay, we're stopped and we're 180 (heading), 087 (bearing to the LM), 2.8 (km total distance driven), 0.8 (km from the LM), 115, 115, 72, 72, 100,100, off-scale low, off-scale low.

124:21:31 England: Okay, we copy. (Long Pause)

[This readout puts them near CA.9/76.6. Figure 6-29 from the Preliminary Science Report shows their actual location, which is very close to the planned stopping place at CA.7/76.7. Clearly, the Rover Nav system is still giving very small errors.]

 

Station 1 at Plum Crater Apollo 16 Journal Station 2 at Buster Crater