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Traverse to Station 6 Geology Station 7

 

Geology Station 6

Corrected Transcript and Commentary Copyright © 1995 by Eric M. Jones.
All rights reserved.
Scan credits in the Image Library.
Video credits in the Video Library.
Audio clips by Dave Shaffer.
Last revised 23 August 2014.

 

[The Station 6 boulder is actually comprised of five large pieces, as shown in a plan view (Figure 6-14) from the Apollo 17 Preliminary Science Report. The five fragments are pieces of a large rock which, long ago, tumbled down the North Massif. The story behind the alternate name of the boulder - Tracy's Rock - follows 165:28:58. A labeled version of Jack's pan frame AS17-141-21596 shows the fragments from the west.]
MP3 Audio Clip starting at 164:51:11 ( 13 min 25 sec )

RealAudio Clip ( 7 min 12 sec )

164:51:19 Cernan: Hey, Bob, how do you read?

164:51:21 Parker: Loud and clear, 17. How do you read?

164:51:24 Cernan: Okay. We're parked on a heading of 107. (Jack is laughing) Are you happy with that?

164:51:31 Parker: Roger. Sounds great.

164:51:33 Schmitt: (Laughing) You parked on a slope, too.

164:51:35 Cernan: There's no level...There's no level spot to park, here, though.

164:51:40 Schmitt: You want some help getting off? (Laughs)

[Because of the slope, neither Gene - who has to get off the Rover on the uphill side - or Jack - who has to get off on the downhill side - is having an easy time dismounting.]
164:51:42 Cernan: (Laughing) I've got to go uphill!

164:51:44 Schmitt: I just about ended up down at the bottom of the hill.

164:51:46 Cernan: Okay; (static) 192, 3.8, 3.1; 88 and 80; (static ends) 108 and 0 on the batteries. The forward motors are 220 and about 270, and the rears are off-scale low and 220.

164:52:14 Schmitt: You want me to block the wheels? (Both laugh) You got the brake on, I hope.

164:52:20 Cernan: You betcha! (Pause) I don't know if I can lean uphill enough (to get off)! (Hearty, playful Laughter) I can't. Holy Smoley! Boy, are we on a slope!

164:52:35 Schmitt: You okay?

164:52:36 Cernan: Yeah. Let me get this thing set again.

164:52:38 Schmitt: I don't think you can get a (gravimeter reading)...

164:52:40 Cernan: Boy, are we on a slope!

[Cernan - "Even the pan I took from up above Tracy's Rock doesn't really show you the slope; but the comments do. And we were parked cross slope, pointed roughly east, because they wanted us pointed 107. I had to get off uphill, and it was really pretty hard to get off. Jack said he almost rolled to the bottom of the hill. It was almost like parking in San Francisco, except we were parked side slope. Now, when we got back on, it was just the opposite: it was very difficult for him to get on and it was very easy for me. We might have wanted to park uphill or downhill, but we parked at their heading for battery cooling."]

[On Apollo 15, at Station 6a, Dave Scott and Jim Irwin also parked on a steep slope and, in that case, they decided to have Irwin stay with the Rover so that he could hold on to it in case it started to slip.]

[Cernan - "Working on hillsides wasn't something that you couldn't handle. Let's face it, you're on the Moon, it's a new environment, and all of a sudden you're on a hill. It wasn't something that you didn't expect. It's like you get on an airplane and you go to San Francisco and you sort of know what to expect. But you go and park on one of those hills and you still say "Wow"! In one sense, we were trying to relate to the people who were listening what we were confronted with, because they couldn't see any of it."]

164:52:44 Schmitt: Okay. I'm going to stay out from between the rocks. It's a beautiful east-west split rock. It's even got a north overhang that we can work with. (Pause) And let me see what it (the boulder) is! We're right at station 6. You wouldn't believe it.

164:53:08 Cernan: I would. Oh, man, what a slope!

164:53:11 Schmitt: And this boulder's got its own little track! Right up the hill, cross contour. It's a chain-of-craters track, and it looks like it stops (static) off where it started. It starts in, what looks to be, a lighter-colored linear zone. Trying to give you perspective, it's probably only about a third of the way up the North Massif. (Pause)

[TV on.]
Video Clip ( 3 min 21 sec 0.9 Mb RealVideo or 33 Mb MPEG )

164:53:44 Cernan: Bob, are you reading us?

164:53:45 Parker: Read you loud and clear; and we've got a picture.

RealVideo Clip by Mick Hyde (15 min 36 sec)

164:53:49 Cernan: Oh, man, I tell you, are we parked on a slope! I don't know whether your TGE's going to hack it.

164:53:57 Parker: Okay. It'll take up to 15 degrees.

164:53:59 Schmitt: Bob, this is a...

164:54:02 Cernan: (Working behind Jack's seat) Well, it's (the TGE) going to have it (that is, a slope of at least 15 degrees).

[At various places in the transcript and in post-mission documents, there are references to the slope being 11 degrees or 20 or more. Grant Heiken, editor of the Lunar Sourcebook, provides the following from a 2006 reading of the Apollo 17 Professional Paper: "Upper slopes of the massif, 20 to 30 degrees; lower slopes, including Station, 6 to 11 degrees. In and around the largest Station 6 boulder, slopes vary all over the place, from 11¡ over a broad area, to 20¡ where the regolith is pushed up around the boulder. I'm not sure what the rover was rated to do but 20 degrees is very difficult or even impossible for a vehicle on Earth, in spite of the SUV television commercials. Thought that would put a new slant on things."]

[As indicated in a 1972 Boeing document, Apollo 17 LRV Technical Information, the Rover was designed to handle slopes of up to 25 degrees. As all the Rover crews noted, speeds dropped considerably on slopes.]

164:54:06 Schmitt: It's a coarsely vesicular, crystalline rock...finely crystalline. Looks like, probably, an anorthositic gabbro. (I'm) trying to see the zap pits for glass color; I don't have a good one yet. (Pause)
[Jack discusses the evolution in his thinking about this boulder in a comment following 165:35:52.]
164:54:31 Cernan: Say, Bob, you want both the (SEP) recorder and the other switch off? On the SEP.

164:54:36 Parker: Roger. Both of those off, and dusted. (Pause)

[Gene backs a step or two from the Rover and has to lean about 20 degrees into the hill to stay erect. Fendell pans the TV counter-clockwise.]
164:54:44 Cernan: Oh, man, is it hard to get around here.

164:54:47 Schmitt: Bob, it looks like the glass is fairly light colored. It's not white. (Pause) Well, no; it's black. It's anorthositic gabbro, rather than gabbroic anorthosite (in composition), I think. Yeah, that's black glass in the pits.

[Schmitt - "I had worked out a rule of thumb that the glass color was indicative of composition. The glass in anorthosite - feldspar - was translucent white; and if you have any amount of mafic minerals at all, you're going to get darker color to black. I think that, right here, I'm mouthing off, getting my bearings, and don't really have things sorted out as yet."]

[Mafic minerals are usually dark colored and rich in magnesium and iron.]

164:55:10 Parker: Okay. And, Gene, did you happen to notice the temperature on the SEP when you dusted it?

164:55:17 Cernan: I didn't dust it yet.

164:55:19 Parker: Copy that.

164:55:21 Schmitt: Bob, some of the vesicles are...They're flattened. All of them are flattened. There's a strong foliation of vesicles in the rock. Most of them are flattened, and they are up to 15 or 20 centimeters in diameter and about 5 to 6 centimeters thick ...or wide.

[Schmitt - "The flattened vesicles indicate that the rock was flowing while it was molten, but was still too stiff to allow the vesicles to take a spherical shape." See AS17-141- 21629.]
164:55:50 Parker: Outstanding.
[Fendell pans by the boulders east of the Rover and finds Jack on the north side of the north boulder, dwarfed by it and standing in the shadow.]
164:55:56 Schmitt: And there's some beautiful north overhangs all around the block. Well, (laughs) on the north side of the block.

164:56:04 Parker: Okay. That's the best place to have north overhang; and I guess that means one of you guys might grab the SEC - the small can - before you leave the Rover.

[A north overhang offers a chance of sampling soil which has been continuously shielded from the Sun.]
164:56:15 Cernan: Okay, Bob. It's going to take me a while to dust. I tell you.

164:56:18 Schmitt: Okay,...

164:56:19 Cernan: Hard to get around here.

164:56:21 Parker: Roger on that.

164:56:23 Schmitt: Bob, let's get it straight. You want the north overhang sample in the SEC - or the short can? (Pause)

164:56:37 Parker: Miracle of miracles. They don't want the short can. I'm not sure I understand that, Jack, but they don't want the short can here, they say. (Pause) I guess they're looking for volcanics today (at Station 9).

164:56:49 Schmitt: Okay, we'll put them in bags.

164:56:51 Cernan: Oh, man...

164:56:52 Parker: They're looking for volcanics today, Jack.

164:56:55 Schmitt: Oh, they are, huh? We found those yesterday (at Station 4).

Video Clip ( 3 min 27 sec 0.9 Mb RealVideo or 34 Mb MPEG )

164:56:58 Parker: Well, they're hoping (to find volcanic material) again at Station 9 (and want to save the sealed "short can" for that possibility).

[Schmitt - "Because of Shorty, they were thinking that another fairly dark, fresh-looking crater (Van Serg) might have some volcanic material around it. Of course, when we got there, it was just another impact crater into a very thick regolith with some dark-mantle material in its wall. As I recall - and we'll see - we never used the short can there. I don't recall."]

[Jack is examining the west face of the north boulder.]

[Schmitt - "I was close to it to see better in the shadow, to keep my eyes out of the Sun."]

164:57:06 Schmitt: Now, that foliation I mentioned does not go all the way through the rock. There are variations in texture. One zone was strongly foliated. There's another; it almost looks like a large - it is - a large inclusion of non-vesicular rock within the vesicular rock. There may be some auto-brecciation involved in the formation of this thing. It really looks, mineralogically, like the light-colored (breccia) samples from the South Massif. But I tell you, that's only because it's light colored, and I...I can't give you anymore than that right now, until we get a fresh surface.
[Jack has moved around to examine the southwest face of the north boulder, which is in shadow because of an overhang. There is a spot of sunlight reflected onto the rock off of Jack's visor. He now moves south.]
164:57:59 Cernan: 110 degrees on the SEP and you want the cover closed, right?

164:58:04 Parker: Cover open, please. Cover open. Both (switches) off.

164:58:08 Cernan: Okay! Cover's open.

164:58:12 Parker: Okay. And did you get the batteries,...

164:58:14 Cernan: Oh, my golly.

164:58:15 Parker: ...the LRV battery covers open. We didn't copy that, Gene.

164:58:20 Cernan: No, I didn't copy that you wanted them open. I just got 107. I was about to ask you that.

164:58:24 Parker: Okay. We'd like them open. And, Jack, while I'm interrupting everybody here,...

164:58:27 Cernan: Oh, man!

164:58:27 Parker: ...how about a frame count, if convenient.

RealAudio Clip ( 5 min 46 sec )

164:58:36 Schmitt: Well, shoot! Bob. I gave you one at the (Turning Point) rock. It's now 68.

164:58:41 Parker: Okay. Copy that.

164:58:46 Cernan: Man, I never...(Laughing) You can't believe how tough it is getting around this Rover, on this slope!!

[Jack moves to the west face again.]
164:58:56 Schmitt: I think I'll...

164:58:58 Cernan: Man, that...I think we're probably pitched 20 and rolled 20!

164:59:08 Schmitt: I think I'll get over here and get a pan while we're waiting to sample. (Pause)

[Gene is dusting the left-side battery covers; Jack moves north west of the Rover to take the pan.]
164:59:13 Cernan: Oh, I got to dust those radiators. I can't leave them like that. I tell you, this is not a very good place to dust them, though. Let me try one time. (A bit exasperated) Oh, boy!
[Frame AS17-140- 21400 is a photo of the dusty LCRU mirror which Gene takes at about this time.]
164:59:30 Schmitt: Be careful, Geno. Need some help?

164:59:32 Cernan: Nope. I need a little finesse, though. (Pause)

[Jack has some trouble moving uphill.]
164:59:40 Cernan: It's one thing to reach over here and do this on level ground. (Pause) I don't know if I can do that without falling on the battery.

164:59:54 Schmitt: Well, I found a place to stand where I can take a pan. (Pause)

[This is the 'south pan' (assembled by Mike Constantine) as marked on the Station 6 plan map. The pictures are AS17-141- 21575 to 21603.]

[Frames 21592 and 21593 show Fragment 1 from which, later during the stop, Gene will collect a dust sample.]

[Frame 21594 shows Fragment 2, which is north of the split; and frame 21597 shows the Fragment 4 which is south of the split. As can be seen in the Station 6 plan map, Fragment 2 and Fragment 4 are the only two that are readily visible in the TV. David Harland has assembled frames 21589 to 21598 as a mini-pan.]

[Frames 21598, 21599, 21600, and 21601 show Gene emplacing the TGE, starting at about 165:00:58. As indicated in a detail from 21598, these pictures show Henry on the right, Shakespeare in the center, and Cochise on the left. Each of these three craters is about 500 meters across.]

165:00:00 Cernan: Bob, I'm going to have to give you a good battery brushing at the next site. I can't get...I can get half of them, but I can't get the other half. It's too slopey.

165:00:14 Parker: Okay. We copy that.

165:00:19 Cernan: But the covers are open. (Pause)

[Gene stows the dustbrush, gets his tongs and attaches them to his yo-yo with a small clip that fits onto the shaft. His yo-yo is attached to the hoses just above his left hip.]
MPEG Clip by Kipp Teague (53 sec; 5.4 Mb)

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165:00:25 Cernan: What are you working on, Jack?

165:00:26 Schmitt: I'm taking a pan.

165:00:28 Cernan: Very good. I'm coming right now. (To Bob) I bet you a dollar to doughnuts that you don't get a TGE reading.

165:00:35 Parker: Yeah. Gene, if it's easy enough to take it off, why don't you take it off the Rover; and we'll try and level it in the stuff (the soil).

[Gene moves to the rear of the Rover, uncovering Jack who is well up slope, taking the pan. In order to aim the camera for each exposure in the series, Jack bends his knees, his feet behind him, bounces up onto his toes, and arches his back.]
165:00:45 Schmitt: (Responding to Bob's suggestion about putting the TGE on the ground) Aw, come on. (Guffaws, wondering if they are serious)

RealVideo Clip (55 sec)

165:00:47 Cernan: I'm not sure there's any place to put it on the ground level.

Movie Clip by Peter Dayton (1 min 09 sec; 0.8 Mb)

165:00:53 Schmitt: No, you have to dig a place.

[Jack's visor is up and his face is clearly visible. Fendell zooms in on him. His feet are hidden by the near rim of the crater in which he is standing.]
165:00:58 Cernan: (Not convinced this is a good idea) Yeah, I'll do it. (Pause) Okay. It's coming off. Well, I'll set it right up here.

165:01:11 Schmitt: It's going to fall down the hill. You'd better stomp off a good place.

165:01:17 Cernan: Yep. (Pause) That looks level to me. (To Jack) Can you see it from there?

165:01:28 Schmitt: Well, I can see it.

165:01:30 Cernan: I mean, is it (level)...

165:01:31 Schmitt: I don't know. I have no perspective anymore.

165:01:33 Cernan: I don't either. Mark. Gravity.

165:01:37 Parker: Copy the mark.

165:01:38 Cernan: It's flashing. Okay; now let me get to work. (Pause) Okay. Straighten out my fender (which) got a little kinked here, which isn't going to help us.

[Jack moves farther away from the Rover, deeper into the crater. He is visible only from the waist up. He turns to the southeast.]
165:01:54 Parker: Hey, Jack. And we see your gold visor is up. You may want to put it down out here in the Sun.
[Jack climbs out of the crater and moves cross slope, angling uphill and to the east.]
165:02:02 Schmitt: Well, I think I might...I can't see with it down; it's scratched! Bob, I'll use it. I think I can monitor that one (meaning his visor). (Pause)

165:02:13 Schmitt: Hey, I'm standing on a boulder track. (To Gene) How does that make you feel?

165:02:17 Cernan: That makes me feel like I'm coming over to do some sampling. (Pause) Think how it would have been if you were standing there before that boulder came by.

165:02:33 Schmitt: I'd rather not think about it.

Rock buried deep beneath the surface are not exposed to cosmic rays and it is possible to use geochemistry techniques to estimate how long it has been since a rock was exposed since having been dug out by an impact or since it broke off an outcrop. In 1975, C.J. Morgan was able to determine that the Station 6 boulder had been exposed for about 22 million years.]

[Gene moves uphill and east.]

[Cernan - "It's not just walking uphill that's difficult, it's walking sidehill, too. In one-sixth gravity your stability changes and you need a new approach. You have to work at it a little harder."]

[Jack is standing in the middle of the boulder track, manipulating the scoop and a sample bag. In contrast with the problems he had at Station 3, Jack isn't having any particular difficulty doing solo sampling and pours soil into the bag with relative ease.]

[Schmitt - "(Laughing) My hands must not have been tired. And you learn how."]

165:02:36 Cernan: Okay, let's go. You got a spot picked while you're here?

165:02:39 Schmitt: Well, the big thing is, let's get the boulder and then get in that east-west split. Bob, I got an undocumented sample from the middle of the boulder track.

165:02:58 Parker: Copy that. Soil sample?

165:03:00 Cernan: Whew!

[Jack leans his stomach on the scoop handle. Gene is at the shadowed, northwest corner of Fragment 2, the boulder immediately north of the east-west split.]
165:03:03 Schmitt: Soil sample. (Pause) Gene, if you hit them off in there, it's going to be awful hard to find them, that's the problem.
[That is, it would be hard to see fragments that fall in the shadow area.]
165:03:14 Cernan: Did you pick a spot - a good spot - while you were over here?
[Jack has joined Gene at the north boulder; Jack puts his gold visor up, again.]
165:03:19 Schmitt: No, I didn't. I just was looking at it. I think we need to get in the light, though.

165:03:24 Cernan: I can see with my gold visor up.

165:03:26 Schmitt: Let me put a sample in your bag (SCB).

165:03:28 Cernan: Okay. Go ahead.

[Jack stands uphill of Gene and puts the sample in Gene's SCB.]
165:03:29 Schmitt: It's bag...(Quietly, to himself) Shoot. (To Bob) It's 534.

Video Clip ( 3 min 01 sec 0.8 Mb RealVideo or 30 Mb MPEG )

165:03:39 Cernan: This boulder looks fairly uniform from top to bottom.

165:03:42 Schmitt: We've got to get a reference sample of this soil.

165:03:45 Cernan: Let's get where we can get that 90-degree picture, too. So we really ought to get on the Sun side.

165:03:51 Cernan: (Pointing at a spot about shoulder height on the boulder) Let me get that slab right there, though, to start with. I can get that one off.

165:03:55 Schmitt: Well, there's no...Let's go over on the Sun side because we can't really photograph it.

165:04:00 Cernan: Okay. I got to get out of here first. Let's go through the split (between the boulders).

[Gene moves south; his gold visor is up also. Then, he pulls it down.]
165:04:04 Schmitt: Well, okay. Be careful, though. (Pause) Why don't we sample the split first so we don't...

165:04:14 Cernan: Look at that overhang. Man, I tell you, if you get your shovel down there, you'd have a (garbled).

[Jack follows Gene to the split.]
165:04:17 Schmitt: Yes, let's sample in the split first so that we don't get it too messed up. And then we can sample some of this stuff. Not...(Gesturing south) We want this overhang over here, Geno - the north facing one.
[Gene has been looking at the west face of the north boulder and Jack wants him to work the north face of the south boulder.]
MP3 Audio Clip ( 23 min 27 sec )

RealAudio Clip ( 4 min 17 sec )

165:04:30 Cernan: Right here?

165:04:32 Schmitt: Yeah. I got to sneak by over there. Whoops! Don't shuffle too much dirt in there.

165:04:39 Cernan: Okay. You by me so I can set the gnomon down.

165:04:41 Schmitt: Not quite. Don't think I can make it - without hitting you. I can't.

[At the surface, the two boulder fragments are separated by about three or four feet. Jack tries to pass Gene to the north. Gene takes a couple of small steps closer to the south boulder, rests his hand on it, and creates a space big enough for Jack to pass.]
165:04:46 Cernan: Okay. Now try it.

165:04:48 Schmitt: Okay. (Pause)

[Cernan - "The video of our work at this station really shows what it takes to work on a slope in the confines of a pressure suit. You can see that our movements are totally different than they were on the flat and level ground. If you start stepping downhill, your center of gravity shifts. You could hear me talking about leaning over the Rover to dust things. If you do it from the top side, you're going to fall down over the Rover. If you do it from the bottom side, you can't quite reach that far. And, if you do it cross hill, you've got a similar problem. I think this whole station is a good example of working in a sloped environment in one-sixth gravity. You don't have boulder fields to trip over, but you've got an undulating, sloped surface you're trying to work on. I haven't seen this in a long time. You look at the TV picture and the bodies are all cocked at 15 or 20 degrees. It's totally different from anything else we've seen. Now, granted, the Rover is on a slope as well and that probably accentuates it. But the combination of the TV and our comments really tell the story."]
165:04:54 Cernan: Ready?

165:04:56 Schmitt: Okay.

165:04:57 Cernan: Let me set the gnomon down...

165:04:58 Schmitt: Set it down just outside the shadow there. Right...Whoa. Right there. That's good. There's still some good clean ground there. Okay.

165:05:06 Cernan: (Dropping the gnomon) Okay. I can get back far enough to take these pictures. I want to go get a stereo pan around the corner anyway. Let's see if I can't start here with about (f-stop) 5.6. I'm so close. (Pause)

[Gene steps back to take the pictures, bumping his PLSS against Fragment 4, the north boulder. Gene's photos are AS17-140- 21401 to 21404. They show the gnomon from cross-Sun and the shadowed face of Fragment 4, the south boulder.]

[Jack's down-Sun is AS17-141 21604 while 21605 is his "locator" to the Rover. Note the dirt on Gene's feet and legs.]

165:05:21 Schmitt: I'll tell ya...I'll get a...

165:05:25 Cernan: I must have a boulder behind me.

165:05:26 Schmitt: I'll get it. Let me...

165:05:28 Cernan: I'm going to go around the cor(ner)...I got it now. (Pause)

165:05:37 Schmitt: Okay. You got a bag?

165:05:39 Cernan: All set.

[Gene briefly raises his gold visor and then puts it down again.]
165:05:42 Schmitt: Okay. I'm going to get the shadowed material. (Pause)
[Jack has moved a little east and now leans way under the north-facing overhang, supporting himself with his left hand on the boulder while he uses the scoop in his right hand and leans far forward.]

[Schmitt - "I was trying to get as far under the boulder as I could."]

165:05:51 Cernan: (Holding the sample bag) It's in bag 312, Bob.

165:05:53 Parker: Copy 312.

165:05:56 Schmitt: And it's...It's from...I think you saw where I got it. It's about a half a meter back of the limit of the overhang. (To Gene) Put it (the sample bag) down. Put it (lower) down.

[Gene is holding the bag while Jack tries to pour in soil from the scoop, a difficult operation because of the stiff suit arms. Jack wants him to hold the bag lower to make the pouring easier.]

[Cernan - "I wasn't holding it in a way to make it difficult for him, it was just suit restriction. You seek out the most convenient and least restrictive positions while reaching out far enough and low enough. From his point of view, it would have been most convenient if I got down on my knees and held the bag, but only if I could have stayed there for ten minutes. But you take a sample and then you move ten feet; you take another sample and then you move again. So, unless he's going to go back and forth, you have to move together and you both have to be on your feet. It's a compromise."]

165:06:08 Cernan: Okay. Can you reach it?

165:06:10 Schmitt: I will in a minute. You can turn it a little bit towards me. (Pause)

[Jack hops uphill to the east of Gene, while Gene turns to keep the sample bag in position.]

[Schmitt - "I'm surprised that, with me moving like that, the soil stayed in the scoop. And I was reaching upslope some, so it was a tough maneuver."]

165:06:19 Schmitt: Okay; 312. (Pause; presenting his SCB) And the soil outside the overhang will be next.

Video Clip ( 3 min 04 sec 0.8 Mb RealVideo or 30 Mb MPEG )

165:06:38 Cernan: Okay. Go get it. (Pause)

[Schmitt - "There is more TV coverage at this station than I thought. I had forgotten that we had sampled together for a while. What I remember is being alone, working on the contact between the two breccias (the vesicular and non-vesicular materials described at 164:57:06) while Gene was taking some pans."]

[Jack scoops a sample just outside the shadow, leaning on the boulder again with his left hand. The scoop mark on the ground is very reflective.]

165:06:45 Schmitt: And the first one is from the upper 2 centimeters.

165:06:52 Cernan: Bag 313.

165:06:55 Parker: Copy 313. (Pause)

165:07:00 Schmitt: (Pouring) And the second one is from probably 2 centimeters down to about 8 (centimeters).

[Jack collects the second sample, then stands still while Gene puts the bagged first sample in his SCB.]
165:07:12 Parker: Copy that.

165:07:17 Schmitt: Bob, it looks like the fragment - or the boulder - just to the south of us has some inclusions in it - light-colored inclusions.

[Jack pours the soil into the bag and presents his SCB.]
165:07:29 Cernan: Bag 472 on that.

165:07:33 Parker: Copy 472 on that. You mean the south half of the split boulder?

165:07:38 Schmitt: (Gesturing) Yeah. I haven't seen inclusions in the other half.

165:07:45 Cernan: Okay?

165:07:46 Schmitt: Okay. Now we need boulder stuff. You happy with that, Houston? (To Gene) Let's get (garbled, overlapping conversation).

165:07:53 Cernan: (Garbled)

165:07:55 Schmitt: (To Gene) Got your hammer?

165:07:57 Parker: Yeah, we're happy with that for an east/west split.

165:07:59 Cernan: (Garbled) (Pause)

[The gnomon staff is inclined about twenty degrees, pointing north and indicating just how much of a slope they are contending with. Gene is hammering on a protrusion on the south boulder at about shoulder height. He hits it a dozen times.]
165:08:09 Schmitt: It's a little hard, huh? (Pause) I think...

165:08:13 Cernan: (No longer hammering) I've got to find a corner I can get at.

165:08:15 Schmitt: Yeah.

165:08:18 Cernan: (Moving north, away from the boulder) Let me get an "after" picture down in this hole (that is, where they got the soil sample).

[Gene's "after" pictures are AS17-140- 21405, 21406, 21407, and 21408.]

[Frame 21409 is a "locator" to the Rover. Note the slope relative to the flat valley floor.]

165:08:21 Schmitt: Oh, that's right. You almost stepped on the...I forgot the "after", too. (Pause) Hey, there are chips up here on top, also. That's been spalled off.

165:08:40 Cernan: Yeah.

165:08:41 Schmitt: We can get some of those, but...

165:08:42 Cernan: Looks like somebody's been chipping up there.

165:08:44 Schmitt: Looks like there's been a geologist here before us.

RealAudio Clip ( 7 min 35 sec )

165:08:47 Cernan: Let me get the gnomon. I think I can get some of these pieces over here. I want to get that 90-degree angular flight line around this boulder, too.

[In order to reach down for the gnomon, Gene comes forward on his toes to keep his PLSS centered as he bends his knees.]

[Cernan - "It was just easier to bend my knees like a guy with a bad back might do. It was just easier to bend my knees to let my arms down low enough. You learn very, very quickly. The human being is very adaptable. You don't have to think about those things; you just do it. Somehow, that computer up above your neck just picks out the easiest approach."]

[They move off to the east behind the boulder, going gingerly and apparently downhill.]

165:08:56 Schmitt: Bob, the more I look at this thing...Now, here's the piece that fell off. Here's the piece that was knocked off up there.

165:09:04 Cernan: Yeah.

165:09:05 Schmitt: Look at that.

165:09:06 Cernan: We ought to bring a big piece of that home. That's obvious. It's obvious...

165:09:09 Schmitt: How about this one up here? Take your picture. I think we can just lift that off. See that?

165:09:15 Cernan: Stand by. (Pause)

[Gene comes into view, backing up to take pictures of the south boulder. His photos at this location are AS17-140- 21410, 21411, and 21412.]
165:09:22 Schmitt: I'd better get...

165:09:23 Cernan: I'll get a "locator" from here.

[Gene takes the last of the "before" photos, AS17-140- 21411 and then turns to take the "locator", 21412.]
165:09:25 Schmitt: Okay. I was going to get my down-Sun, but I'm afraid I'll...

165:09:31 Cernan: You may be down-Sun if you do.

[Jack's down-Sun is AS17-141- 21607. The frame shows Gene standing slightly closer to the Rover, having just taken his "locator", 21412.]
RealVideo Clip by Mick Hyde (13 min 18 sec)

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165:09:33 Schmitt: Yeah, we'll get some. (Can) you get it?

165:09:36 Cernan: Yes. Will it come off?

165:09:37 Schmitt: Let me see. (Pause) Yeah.

[Fendell pans up, then looks at the soil in the split.]
165:09:43 Cernan: Just throw it in my bag. It's broken, but it's "in place". That's a nice, big piece, too. It's about the size of a...

165:09:52 Schmitt: (Laughing) Why don't you put it in mine. I can't get up to you.

165:09:52 Cernan: (Garbled) okay?

165:09:54 Schmitt: Got it?

165:09:56 Cernan: Yeah, I got it. (Backing up to take a series of flightline photos) Don't move.

[The sample is 76015, a 2.8 kilogram piece of vesicular melt breccia.]

[Gene's flightline photos of the northeast faces of Fragments 4 and 5 are AS17-140- 21413 to 21433.]

165:10:02 Schmitt: Okay, Bob, there's a big spall lying on the ground here that has been knocked off up there, from right on top of the boulder. And, I tell you, the more I look at the south half of this boulder, the more heterogeneous in texture it looks. It looks as if it may be either a re-crystallized breccia of some kind, or you had a gabbroic anorthosite magma catch up an awful lot of inclusions. I guess I prefer the latter explanation (pause) because of the extreme vesicularity of the rock.

165:10:43 Parker: Okay; very interesting.

[Fendell tilts the TV camera up to watch Gene doing a flightline stereo in the split.]
165:10:47 Schmitt: Now, a few of the inclusions are. Well, they're all subrounded to rounded, and a few of them are very light colored. I'm going to try to get...

165:11:00 Cernan: I'm coming around the corner with a flightline stereo.

165:11:03 Schmitt: Are you going to do it now? Okay. Well, you know, I ought to get one shot back here with a black and white. I'll get this half black and white.

165:11:09 Cernan: Okay, if we could get...

165:11:12 Schmitt: I think we ought to pick up a piece of that spall there by the gnomon...

165:11:14 Cernan: (Thinking about getting a piece off the top of to south fragments) I can break it off. (Garbled) top.

165:11:17 Schmitt: There's one right by the gnomon we can just pick up. It's a finer-grained vesicular rock than...Wait...Where...Jeez...

[Gene moves behind the south boulder. Jack follows, using the scoop as a cane in his right, uphill hand. His PLSS remains visible until Fendell pans away. Otherwise they are both out of view for quite a while.]
165:11:26 Cernan: Oh, oh, oh, oh...

165:11:29 Schmitt: I thought I was going to get this half. Okay.

165:11:34 Cernan: I don't care. I started down, Jack.

165:11:36 Schmitt: Well, they like to have some of it in black and white, you know.

165:11:40 Cernan: I'll get that rock. (Pause)

[Gene's photos of the sunlit portion of Fragment 2 are AS17-140-21434 to 21440.]

[Frames 21436 and 21438 are examples.]

165:11:48 Schmitt: I forgot to look at the objectives for the station. I hope we're meeting them.
[The relevant checklist pages are LMP/CDR-10 and LMP/CDR-11. The fact that neither of them has even glanced at their checklists at this station - and rarely do so at most of the other stations as well - is an indication of just how well prepared the J-mission (Apollos 15, 16, and 17) crews were. None of them depended very much on the geologic portions of their cuff checklist because they understood the geologic objectives and also were prepared to make real-time decisions - with input from Houston - on the tasks to be performed. Only when they got to a station could they know what was going to be important and, when one compares the mode of operation of these crews versus the first three crews, the difference is striking. Of course, on the first three flights - particularly Apollos 11 and 12 - geology was of secondary importance compared with the main task of flying the LM. The J-mission crews all had the advantages of training as backup crews on a landing mission and then could devote as much as 40% of the training for their own missions to geology and the other scientific tasks. In addition, with three 7-hour EVAs at their disposal - compared with two 4-hour EVAs - and with the mobility of the Rover to give them a greater variety of geology stops to explore, real-time decisions made more sense. The mission planners recognized this by including only generic tasks in the checklists. Nonetheless, here at Station 6, Jack and Gene are operating more independently than they or any other crew operated during all of the Apollo surface operations. Houston is making almost no suggestions, confident that with 45 minutes budgeted for this station, Jack and Gene won't miss anything important. In a few moments, at 165:14:44, when Jack takes a moment to get his thoughts organized about what they want to do at this station, Bob will summarize for them the objectives listed on LMP/CDR-11; but, basically, Jack will ignore him.]
165:11:53 Cernan: Well, we want to get 500's of that boulder track. I know I want to get that. (Pause)

165:12:03 Schmitt: Okay. A piece of that spalled rock that was sitting by the gnomon...Ooh, watch out gnomon. How about that?...(The sample) is in bag 535.

[This sample is 76215, a 644 gram vesicular impact melt breccia. One side of the sample is the inner wall of a large vug or cavity. Figure 146 from USGS Professional paper 1080 shows the sample location at the east point of Fragment 6. A detail from Jack's down-Sun photo AS17-141-21607, taken at 165:09:25 shows the piece of spall next to the gnomon. At 165:10:02, Jack told Bob, "There's a big spall lying on the ground here (next to the gnomon) that has been knocked off up there, from right on top of the boulder. Figure 158 in the Professional Paper is a detail from Gene's photo AS17-140-21416, showing the source site for the 'big spall'. A high-resolution detail from the recent scan from the original film shows the same area circled and also highlights an adjacent, vertical face that looks like it might be associated with the "big spall' they found next to the gnomon. Mike Gentry at NASA Johnson has provided a high resolution scan of LRL photo S73-33506.]

[In the video clip, we see the gnomon rod next to the base of the boulder. The rod appears tilted about 20 degrees to the left because of the slope the Rover is sitting on. At about 2:08 after the start of the clip, Jack moves to our right, going out of sight from our vantage point. At 2:23 in the clip, we get a glimpse of what may be Jack's right hand, probably as he raises the scoop so he can grab the 'piece of that spalled rock that was sitting by the gnomon' with his left hand so he can get a bag open with his right hand. Jack clearly didn't collect all of the 'big spall'. Figure 159 in the Professional Paper identifies the in-situ location of 76215 as part of the 'big spall'.]

165:12:26 Cernan: You got one in there already?

165:12:27 Schmitt: Yup.

165:12:28 Parker: Okay. We copy that one, Jack.

165:12:30 Cernan: (To Jack, who is trying to get into position to put the sample bag in Gene's SCB) You won't be able to reach...You won't be able to reach my bag.

165:12:33 Schmitt: No, but you can put it in mine. (Pause) Can you reach it? (Pause)

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165:12:43 Cernan: Working at it.

165:12:45 Schmitt: Bob, one of the light-colored inclusions looks like it may be anorthositic...(Correcting himself) gabbroic anorthosite...Let me get my terms straight. The host rock has dark-enough zap pits that it's probably gab - ah - anorthositic gabbro, if I didn't say that. Some of the light-colored inclusions have slightly lighter-colored glass, and they may be the gabbroic anorthosite.

165:13:20 Parker: Okay, I copy that, Jack.

165:13:21 Schmitt: (To Gene) Inclusions like this one and that one.

165:13:24 Cernan: Yeah. Some of those inclusions get to be bigger than the size of a baseball. There's one here and a couple up there.

165:13:28 Schmitt: Let me borrow your hammer.

165:13:30 Cernan: Yeah. Jack, try a little higher. See that one right on the ...Right there. Right...(Pause) Well, that's a hard rock.

165:13:54 Schmitt: (Unable to break it loose) No.

165:13:55 Cernan: That's a hard rock.

165:13:56 Schmitt: You might be able to do it; I can't. (Pause)

[With the astronauts out of sight, Fendell makes a close-up examination of the shadowed west face of Fragment 4 and then does a site panorama. During his examination of the shadow, Fendell is looking directly up-Sun. Clearly, the amount of sunlight reflected off the surrounding regolith is sufficient that, once Fendell zooms in enough that all sunlit surfaces are excluded from the field-of-view, the camera's auto-iris has no trouble producing a good view of into the boulder face.]
165:14:01 Cernan: I can't get down there. (Pause) Okay, we need some of the soil outside the shadow here.

165:14:08 Schmitt: Yep. How about over where your bag went? Let's move around here...I think there is some...Oops! Get on this slope over here. Okay. How about out over here? Are we supposed to get a...(Glancing at LMP/CDR-11) Where are we here?

165:14:32 Cernan: I don't know. I'd like to get...(Pause) Well, when you face uphill, your camera faces down.

[That is, Gene is having to lean forward to maintain his balance and, as a result, his camera is pointing into the hill. In order to get a picture, then, he would either have to lean back or take the camera off the RCU bracket.]
165:14:39 Schmitt: We want to get a rake on the rim of that little crater down there, I guess. And...

165:14:44 Parker: Okay, 17. Roger. You were asking about objectives. (Reading LMP/CDR-11) Of course the primary objective is documented samples of the blocks; and then, also, we'd like to get some of the rake and soil sample out in the surface, namely, the rim crater there, if that's available. And one of the things, of course, we're looking for is the variety of rocks here, if there's more than just the one boulder. You can sample the boulder for a while, but we would be interested in seeing if there is more than just the single type of rock. Probably, also, samples from both sides...

165:15:11 Schmitt: (Trying to interrupt Bob's oration) Okay...

165:15:12 Parker: ...both halves of the rock...

165:15:14 Schmitt: (To Gene, speaking under Bob) Let's get working.

165:15:15 Parker: ...What we said this morning in terms of combining Stations 6 and 7 to an hour and 20 minutes...

165:15:18 Schmitt: Come on up here, Geno.

165:15:19 Cernan: (To Jack) Okay.

165:15:20 Schmitt: If you can.

165:15:21 Parker: And so it's sort of your option as to how much time you spend here and how much you go on to Station 7 and spend. If you feel that it's worthwhile, we could spend essentially all that hour and 20 minutes at this station. But if we did that, we'd like to get a fair variety of blocks, if they're available.

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165:15:39 Schmitt: (Responding to Bob, matter-of-factly) Okay.

[Schmitt - "It's fairly clear from the tape that, during this period when Bob was taking to us, it was the wrong time because he made it difficult for us to talk to each other and we were trying to get some sampling done. And that's probably why I was fairly short, responding with just an 'Okay'. Now, I suspect we continued to work while he was talking; I don't think we stood around. Of course, I'm not sure when would have been a good time to interrupt us. (Laughing) Even though we asked the question, we probably didn't want an answer."]

[Cernan - "I want to emphasize the point. We never stood around and listened. We never stopped doing what we were doing. We could listen while we were taking a pan or getting a sample or whatever it was."]

165:15:40 Schmitt: (To Gene) Geno, we can sample some of the light-colored group...As a matter of fact, this block looks different.

165:15:44 Cernan: Well, so does that big one...

165:15:45 Schmitt: It's grayer.

165:15:46 Cernan: ...That's why I've been photographing it.

165:15:49 Schmitt: What it is, I think...

165:15:51 Cernan: ...It's a blue-gray.

165:15:52 Schmitt: ...it's a big blue-gray rock, itself is crystalline, I believe. The inclusions are much more sharply defined, and it's non-vesicular; and it's included, or at least it's in contact with the very vesicular anorthositic gabbro. Right up there. See that?

165:16:13 Cernan: Yeah, a whole big one. I just...

[Jack is discussing Fragment 1. See the Station 6 plan view.]
165:16:15 Schmitt: Did you get some pictures of it?

165:16:17 Cernan: As I bounced around there, I took pictures of it.

165:16:18 Schmitt: Look, we can get some of that light-colored stuff in there, along with the blue-gray.

165:16:21 Cernan: We ought to get as big a piece of that inclusion as we can. There's...

165:16:24 Schmitt: See it up in there.

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165:16:25 Cernan: Yep. (Pause) I think we're out of line-of-sight with them. We're behind a boulder.

165:16:32 Schmitt: Yeah, sorry about that. But...

165:16:34 Parker: We can hear you loud and clear. We're just looking at rocks right now.

165:16:37 Schmitt: (Garbled)

165:16:39 Cernan: Okay, Bob, the boulder downslope (that is, Fragment 2) is more of a light-gray, vesicular boulder. The one Jack just talked about (that is, Fragment 1) with some of the larger white inclusions is less vesicular, and it's more of blue-gray rock. And if I don't fall on my tail here, I'll get...

165:17:01 Schmitt: The "locator" is of Henry.

[Being high up the slope, they can easily distinguish craters on the valley floor.]

[Jack's photos of the inclusions at the southeast corner of Fragment 1 are AS17-141 21608 and 21609. Fragment 1 is on the righthand side of 21608 and Fragment 2 is beyond Gene. See the Station 6 plan view. Note that they have note positioned the gnomon color chart and grey scale pointing up-Sun but, rather, toward Jack.]

[Frame 21610 is the "locator" to Henry.]

[Gene's photo of Fragment 1 is AS17-140- 21441.]

165:17:06 Parker: Copy that. (Pause)

165:17:10 Cernan: Okay, let me try and get up there. (Pause) Henry? We must be high enough to see something. I haven't even looked back.

165:17:22 Schmitt: Let me get a close-up before you start pounding.

[Jack's close-ups are AS17-141- 21611, 21612, 21613, and 21614.]
165:17:27 Cernan: I might go from this angle too. (Pause) That will give them something. (Pause) A little different up in there too, Jack.

165:17:44 Schmitt: Yup.

[Fendell is looking at Henry Crater. There are boulders clearly visible in the south wall. Gene is taking a series of close-ups, which are AS17-140- 21442 to 21455.]
165:17:46 Cernan: We ought to try and sample that. (Pause)

165:17:49 Schmitt: Okay. Let's get the...You want me to get my scoop under there? Probably will fall out.

[That is, the sample would fall out of the scoop.]
165:17:56 Cernan: Okay. (Let's) get as many of these pieces as we can. I don't know how many are going to come out. (Long Pause)

165:18:17 Schmitt: (Hearty laugh)

165:18:18 Cernan: Outstanding! Outstanding! (Laughing) This whole thing will come out here in a minute. (Pause)

[Fendell is looking at the South Massif. The tilt of the horizon gives a good indication of the extreme Rover tilt.]
165:18:25 Cernan: I'll watch it. I'll watch it.

165:18:27 Schmitt: Got it?

165:18:28 Cernan: Move your arm up or down. (Pause) Okay. I got it in case we don't get another one. (Long Pause) Hey, we're getting good at that.

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165:18:56 Schmitt: Yeah. Can't hold that much longer.

165:19:00 Cernan: Yeah. Let me get up on this...Up here. Oh.

165:19:03 Schmitt: Why don't we get a bag out. Let me put these in a bag.

165:19:06 Cernan: That's why I'm getting up here so I can...

165:19:07 Schmitt: Oh, okay.

165:19:08 Cernan: ...just get my balance. Bob, 556 is one of the light-colored inclusions in the blue-gray rock.

165:19:17 Schmitt: It's chips.

165:19:18 Cernan: Chips of it.

165:19:21 Parker: Okay. Copy that.

165:19:22 Schmitt: I think we lost that other one. That's good enough.

165:19:26 Cernan: I got it; I know where it is.

165:19:27 Schmitt: That's all right. It's not a lot of sample, but it's representative, I think. It looks a lot like that sugary rock I sampled yesterday (at Station 2), doesn't it? Found in the...That we sampled in the...

165:19:43 Cernan: Yeah, it's pretty easy to break up; it's really not very coherent (means "cohesive") at all.

[Jack is referring to the last boulder he sampled at Station 2.]
165:19:45 Schmitt: You know, I thought last night, Bob, that I should use the word "aplitic" for a texture that we saw in that inclusion yesterday on the South Massif.
[Schmitt - "A good layman's translation of 'aplitic' is a coarse, sugary texture - like raw sugar."]
165:19:54 Cernan: If I could keep from falling on my tail.

165:19:56 Schmitt: Can you get a...

165:19:57 Cernan: I want to...(Pause)

[Jack may take AS17-141- 21615 about here.]
165:20:06 Schmitt: (Garbled). (Pause) Okay, you going to get some of that?

165:20:07 Cernan: Yeah, that's a different kind; that's a more beat up inclusion of some sort. (Pause) Oh, there's a nice piece coming out. Oh, wait a minute...Don't lose it.

165:20:21 Schmitt: I got it. I've got it.

165:20:23 Cernan: Got it.

165:20:25 Schmitt: Okay. (Pause)

165:20:29 Cernan: Okay. We have another inclusion that, on the surface, has a more reddish-brown texture (means "color"). Interior looks pretty much the same; it's a very light gray.

165:20:40 Schmitt: This looks like a piece of breccia. Looks like a fragment breccia that got caught up in this thing.

165:20:46 Cernan: Yeah, well, the whole thing is obviously a breccia. I'd sure like to get that...

165:20:50 Schmitt: Well, I'd say...I'm not sure (that) it's obviously a breccia. I think it may be an igneous rock with breccia inclusions.

165:20:56 Cernan: Well, okay, but look at all these things...

165:20:58 Schmitt: Which is sort of in the same class.

165:21:00 Cernan: (That) sort of makes a breccia...

165:21:01 Schmitt: Well...

165:21:01 Cernan: ...out of the big rock.

165:21:02 Schmitt: Okay.

165:21:03 Cernan: Except you can...

165:21:04 Schmitt: I can't get in there, Geno, you'll have to.

165:21:05 Cernan: Okay.

165:21:06 Schmitt: (Trying to fit a sample in Gene's SCB) No way...

165:21:07 Cernan: Let me...

165:21:09 Schmitt: Watch it. Hold still. Oops. (Pause) I think it's easier for you (to put the sample bag in Jack's SCB). Did I give them a number on that? No.

165:21:20 Parker: Negative.

165:21:22 Cernan: It's 536.

165:21:28 Schmitt: Squash it...Cramp it a little bit, if you can; a little more. (Pause)

[Schmitt - "I was trying to get a sample in Gene's SCB and he must have been upslope of me. So I probably handed it to him so that he could put it in my SCB."]
165:21:35 Cernan: Did you get that 536, Bob?

165:21:37 Parker: Roger. 536 for the last one.

[The last sample taken - at 165:19:08 - was put in bag 556 and the one prior to that - at 165:12:03 - went in 535. There is discussion in Houston about the possibility of a misread bag number.]

[Schmitt - "They would have asked us if it wasn't right but, probably, one bag came from one side of the pack and one from the other."]

165:21:39 Cernan: Let's get a...

165:21:40 Parker: And...

165:21:42 Cernan: Okay. Let's go get the host rock here.

165:21:44 Schmitt: How about that...How about that...Whew. How about that piece?

165:21:50 Cernan: How about this one, with the inclusion? Maybe I can get this one.

165:21:53 Schmitt: Okay.

165:21:55 Parker: Okay; and, 17, we'd like...

165:21:57 Cernan: That may have been a little optimistic.

165:22:01 Parker: Do you guys have a feeling that the two halves of the big boulder are different rocks? Or is it the same rock split?

165:22:10 Schmitt: No, they were all one boulder, I think. They are just two major rock types in wherever they came from. And I tried to describe that to you. We have the contact in the central boulder (Fragment 2). There're really three big boulders (Fragments 1, 2, and 4+5). The central boulder had the contact between the light-gray rock - or the blue-gray rock - and the vesicular anorthositic gabbro.

[Schmitt -"The boulder didn't split along the contact, largely because the vesicular breccia (which is referred to here as 'vesicular anorthositic gabbro') was intruded as partially-molten material. It was hot enough to metamorphose about a meter of the blue-gray breccia it intruded. You could tell that because there were small vesicles - which indicate some partial melting - in that contact zone which then died out as you got away from the contact."]
165:22:37 Parker: Okay. And you guys have that pretty well photo-documented, right?

165:22:42 Schmitt: Yeah, it's in pretty good shape. We're working on it still.

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165:22:45 Parker: Okay. Copy that.

165:22:49 Schmitt: Try going on the side there, Geno.

165:22:52 Cernan: Just went from the side, Jack.

165:22:54 Schmitt: That's enough. You got a piece of the...

165:22:56 Cernan: (Garbled) host rock.

165:23:00 Schmitt: I think you can get this one up here, can't you?

165:23:01 Cernan: I wanted that one 'cause it had that inclusion wrapped in it. (Pause) Let me go to high (cooling) here for a minute. (Pause)

[The combination of a high Sun angle and the difficulty of working on the hillside makes this one of the few times that either of them uses the high cooling setting.]
165:23:16 Cernan: Which one are you talking about? This one here?

165:23:18 Schmitt: Yeah, I just...(Pause) It's about to come. (Pause) Oh, oh, oh, okay. I've got it. I've got it.

165:23:38 Cernan: Okay.

165:23:39 Schmitt: Okay. I need this in a bag.

165:23:41 Cernan: They're both host rocks; we can put them in the same bag.

165:23:43 Schmitt: No, let's don't. No, they're different places. 537...

165:23:47 Cernan: (Garbled)

165:23:48 Schmitt: ...is a chip of the blue-gray rock; and the blue-gray host rock...(Pause) And let me get that other one. (Pause) Ahh!

RealAudio Clip ( 7 min 11 sec )

165:24:10 Cernan: Oop. Be careful. (Pause) Pick the rock up while you're there. It's right at your hand.

[Jack has probably fallen.]
165:24:21 Schmitt: I will. (Pause) Okay.
[Fendell finds Earth by panning to the low-gain antenna on the Rover and then following its pointing.]
165:24:40 Cernan: (Let me put) my little hammer somewhere.

165:24:44 Schmitt: Okay. And 538 is another sample of that material...a little dustier (sample). (Guffaws)

165:24:53 Parker: Okay. We copy that.

165:24:57 Schmitt: That's the blue-gray, Bob, with the inclusions in it. Now the blue-gray, the more you looked at it, it looks like a...

165:25:04 Cernan: Give me your left...(correcting himself) Your right hand.

165:25:05 Schmitt: Huh?

165:25:06 Cernan: Give me your right hand. Turn it over. Turn it over. Turn it over.

165:25:12 Schmitt: Well, I did. How do you want it over?

165:25:14 Cernan: You kept turning it over in the same direction. Like that, so I can fix that.

[Schmitt - "I don't know what this was, unless my watch band was coming loose or something like that."]
165:25:19 Cernan: Okay. Now give me your bag, and I'll get it in there. (Pause)

165:25:24 Schmitt: (To Bob) The blue-gray rock, on closer examination, looks like a partially re-crystallized fragment breccia. It's very hard. (Pause)

165:25:40 Cernan: And I'm going to...

165:25:41 Schmitt: Are you going to get the "afters" in there?

165:25:42 Cernan: Yeah, I'll get them. I want to do a little bit better documentation on this thing. (Calling) Bob...

165:25:46 Schmitt: I'm going to go over and look at that contact.

165:25:48 Cernan: ...I got a few close-up stereos of the inclusion that we tried to sample, and I'm going to see if I can't give you a little flightline stereo around this thing. If I can stay on my feet. (No answer; long pause) Do you read me, Jack, okay?

Video Clip ( 3 min 56 sec 1.0 Mb RealVideo or 39 Mb MPEG )

165:26:35 Schmitt: Yeah, I hear you.

[Fendell finds Jack east of Fragment 2.]
165:26:37 Parker: And Houston reads you loud and clear, also. (Pause)
[Gene's flightline of Fragment 1 consists of AS17-140- 21456 to 21481.]

[Frame 21475 shows the soil on the upslope shelf of fragment 1, which Gene will sample at about 165:28:42. A labeled version identifies Fragments 1 and 2.]

165:26:47 Cernan: (To Bob) You can see where we've been pounding on this rock. We didn't succeed in getting samples everywhere. (Pause) And I'm giving you a "90-degree corner".
[Jack is looking at the southeast corner of the north boulder, almost "treading" sand to keep his balance on the slope. He may be taking photos AS17-141- 21616 to 21620.]
165:27:02 Schmitt: Bob, it looks to me like there are inclusions of blue-gray in the gabbro...(correcting himself) in the anorthositic gabbro.

165:27:11 Parker: Positively outstanding.

165:27:13 Cernan: Are you saying you think this whole big...You think this whole big blue-gray thing is an inclusion?

165:27:18 Schmitt: Yes, sir. And there's some little ones over here.

165:27:21 Cernan: Yeah, but then within the blue-gray, we've got all these other fragments.

[Someone in Houston notices that the bottom of Jack's SCB seems to be loose.]
165:27:24 Schmitt: Well, that's right. It's just several generations of activity; and it looks like the gabbro, though, picked up the fragmental breccia as inclusions. (Pause) Bob, It really looks that way right now. There's a small one here in the...

[Journal Contributor Dean Eppler calls attention to a work ( 270k ) by Pulitzer Prize winning Newsday political cartoonist Tom Darcy (1933-2000) which sums up the problem that some journalists had covering the first lunar visit by a professional geologist.]
MP3 Audio Clip ( 21 min 43 sec )

165:27:49 Parker: Okay, Charlie (Duke) is here mumbling something about it looking just like House Rock.

[John Young and Charlie Duke visited House Rock at the rim of North Ray Crater on EVA-3 of Apollo 16. It was the largest lunar boulder sampled by any of the crews. It was literally the size of a good-sized house, being about 12 meters high, 25 meters long and about 20 meters thick. The Station 6 boulder consists of five large fragments of what was once a single boulder about 6x10x18 meters. For comparison, Turning Point Rock is about 6 to 7 meters high and Geophone Rock is 3 meters high.]
165:27:56 Schmitt: It's very crystalline. I'll tell you, it's not a breccia, not like House Rock. Not to take anything away from House Rock, though.

165:28:05 Cernan: Hey, Bob, there's a lot of mantling on a very shallow slope of a fracture here on one of the upslope blocks (Fragment 1). I would assume it's just part of the talus picked up as it's rolled down. But if it's worth sampling, you might think about it. (Pause)

[Bob waits to get a recommendation from the Backroom but, getting no prompt answer, makes the decision himself.]
165:28:34 Parker: Okay, Gene, if you can get that fairly readily, why don't you...You can perhaps just scoop it up with the bag.

165:28:42 Cernan: That's exactly what I can do.

165:28:44 Parker: If you can get up to the rock there.

165:28:45 Cernan: It will be in my flight line stereo, and it's going to be bag 557. And I'll take an "after" and show you where it came from.

165:28:58 Parker: Okay. Copy that.

[Out of sight of the TV camera, Gene gets the sample and takes the "after", which is AS17-140- 21482. As indicated in a labeled version of the "after", Gene stepped to the northeast corner of fragment 1, put his left hand on the dust-covered shelf to support himself, and reached out as far as possible toward the center of the dusted area and swept the bag twice from his right to his left, leaving furrows and, at the lefthand end of each furrow, a small mound of dust where he stopped. Later, at about 165:33:38, Gene will take a panorama from higher up the hill which will also show the mark left in the dirt where he took the sample. A labeled detail from frame AS17-140-21496 shows the sample location, the area on the shelf probably disturbed by his left hand, and the area on the ground between fragment 1 and the foreground rock that he disturbed while taking the sample and earlier, at about 165:25:48, the flightline.]

[Cernan - "I haven't seen the rock from this perspective in nearly nineteen years. My hand print really shows you how big the rock is and, in 21482, you can see across to the South Massif and the Scarp. The Scarp looks small in this photo, but I remember how big it was (80 meters) because we went up it."]

[The patch of dirt on the north face of the boulder is the subject of a painting by Apollo 12 astronaut Alan Bean. Bean took up a career as a professional artist after he left the Astronaut Corps and, in the years since, he has developed a considerable reputation as a space artist. As a result of the particular painting in question, those who know the story call the Station 6 boulder "Tracy's Rock". Tracy is Gene's daughter, who was nine years old at the time of the mission.]

[Cernan - "It was on this part of the rock that Al Bean wrote "Tracy", my daughter's name, in one of his paintings. After we came home I started to see a picture of the boulder in lots of places. It was the picture of Jack going past the corner of the rock (21496), one of the pictures from my pan. It became very popular. One day Al Bean came by and said he was doing a painting of it. And it was a big painting, six feet by three feet or something like that. Al likes to have stories in his paintings and he wanted to talk about it. So we talked about the slope and how hard it was to climb up there and I said that, if I'd known the picture was going to get so much notoriety, I wished I would have done something that I hadn't even thought of at the time. And that is to have printed Tracy's name in the dust. Al's daughter Amy and Tracy had grown up together and he asked 'How would you have done it'. So I wrote it out on a piece of paper and, some time later, he called and wanted me to come over and look at what he'd done. He had erased the place where I'd taken the sample and had put in Tracy's name, instead. And in the little story he put with the picture, he said that he'd done it to save me the trouble of going back to do it myself, and to save the taxpayers the expense of sending me back."]

[Jack leaps upward about a foot, kicking his heels back briefly before he lands.]

[Schmitt - "I was having trouble getting up to exactly where I wanted to be to look at the boulder."]

[Cernan - "I can't see why a geologist would jump up and down in the air like this except to show his enthusiasm over finding a new and different rock. And, all joking aside, it really looks like he's trying to get closer to the rock and the slope made it hard to move."]

165:28:59 Cernan: This is the easiest part of the rock in the world to work. Man, here's a big white clast. There's one on top about a foot and a half across, and here's one. (It) must be 2 feet across...3 feet. And that's in the blue-gray. (Pause) Feel like a kid playing in a sandbox. (Pause)

165:29:30 Schmitt: (Balancing on his downhill leg) Well, Bob, I think I've done the best I can. I'd say that they're pretty clearly inclusions of blue-gray in the anorthositic gabbro here near the contact.

[Jack walks slowly uphill, leaning into it, knees dramatically bent. His SCB is clearly loose. Bob makes a misidentification.]
165:29:45 Parker: Okay. And Gene, your bag is hanging by one hook there. Be careful, if you can...(Correcting himself) Or, LMP...

165:29:53 Cernan: Okay. I gave you 557, I believe. Didn't I?

165:29:57 Parker: Roger. We have that one. (Pause) And whoever is giving us 557...

165:30:02 Cernan: Okay, I'll have Jack fix my bag.

165:30:03 Parker: Yup.

[While facing more or less north, leaning into the hill, and using the scoop in his left hand as a cane, Jack leans far enough forward that he can grab a fist-sized rock off the ground.]
165:30:07 Schmitt: Okay, Bob, by accident...I didn't think I could do it, but I got a sample of the inclusion. And it's in bag 539.

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165:30:20 Cernan: Hey, Jack, that's your bag (SCB) that's hanging by one hook. Let me go get it.

165:30:23 Schmitt: Oh, they're talking to me, huh?

165:30:24 Cernan: Yeah, because I didn't...

165:30:25 Parker: Yup.

165:30:26 Cernan: I didn't think they could see me. I'm way up on top! (Pause)

[While Jack examines the bagged sample, Gene hops into view from behind Fragment 2. Jack seals the sample bag by grasping the ends of the metal sealing strip, flipping the bag over it, and then folding in the ends of the strips.]
165:30:33 Schmitt: And it's blue-gray with light colored...

165:30:39 Cernan: (Presenting his SCB) Put these in my bag.

165:30:40 Schmitt: ...inclusions in it. (To Gene) All right. (To Bob) But the whole thing (Fragment 2) seems to be pretty well altered or metamorphosed...compared to the major rock (Fragment 1) we just sampled...(compared) to the other blue-gray rock. (Pause) This bag (Gene's SCB cover) is terrible. I can't...It won't latch.

165:31:00 Cernan: Man, there's a dark hole in there where you...

165:31:02 Schmitt: Don't let me...(Pause) Ah! I'm not...

[Jack is having a difficult time reaching Gene's SCB. Because of the slope, if Jack is to reach the top of Gene's SCB, they have to be standing on virtually the same hill contour. Gene can stand facing uphill, leaning into the hill, but Jack has to face him and lean sideways into the slope. Jack's right leg is fully extended downhill, and his left leg is bent at the knee.]

[Schmitt - "Plus, he's taller than I am. That was always a problem."]

165:31:13 Cernan: Here's another bag to put in there before you go away.

165:31:14 Schmitt: (Taking a full sample bag from Gene) Oh, okay. (Pause, grunting) It won't latch.

165:31:22 Cernan: Well...

165:31:23 Schmitt: Not at this angle.

165:31:25 Cernan: Just put the thumb on one side, and I'll...

165:31:29 Schmitt: It's bent or something. There, that's pretty good.

[Jack presents his SCB by turning to face uphill and using the scoop as a cane.]
165:31:31 Cernan: Now let me fix your bag. (Pause)

RealAudio Clip ( 6 min 33 sec )

165:31:41 Parker: And, 17...

165:31:42 Schmitt: Okay, Bob, I think that inclusion will give you an example of what...

165:31:49 Cernan: That'll stay on.

[Whatever adjustments Gene mad to Jack's SCB, he didn't secure it at the bottom.]
165:31:50 Schmitt: ...what the anorthositic gabbro did to the blue-gray breccia.
[Gene moves east of the Fragment 2; Jack examines Fragments 4 and 5 while he listens to Bob.]
165:31:57 Parker: Okay. We copy that. And we're ready for you guys to leave this rock and press on and either get the rake soil and cores near that crater down below the rock just a shade (that is, a short distance), or else go on to some other different variety rocks in the area.

165:32:20 Schmitt: Well, I tell you, going down to that crater is not a problem. Getting back up is.

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165:32:28 Parker: Okay, well, find a decent area to get the rake soil from and a couple of cores.

165:32:30 Schmitt: Tell you what, Gene, I could go down there and start a rake, and you could come down there.

165:32:34 Cernan: Okay. Yeah, I don't think you ought to try and walk back up, Jack. Let me get a pan from right here where I got this sample; (that is, upslope of Fragment 1).

165:32:40 Schmitt: Okay. I'm going to come over and...I'll go get the rake and get the gnomon.

165:32:43 Parker: 17, it's not that vital to get to that crater. We just need a good place for a rake soil and a double...(correcting himself) a single core.

165:32:50 Schmitt: (Standing in the split, examining Fragment 2 and not facing Gene) Hey, get uphill a little bit, if you can, for the pan, so that you don't...so you see my other pan station.

165:32:59 Cernan: Where was it?

165:33:00 Schmitt: It was over there in that crater, just uphill from the Rover.

165:33:03 Cernan: I'm going up there.

[Jack moves west, going downslope a little and out of the TV picture.]
165:33:05 Parker: Hey, and, 17, we aren't all that gung-ho about that particular crater, if it's that much of a job to get down to it and back up. We just need a decent place for a rake soil sample and a single core.

165:33:18 Schmitt: Okay.

[According to my Merriam-Webster, "gung-ho", meaning "extremely or overly zealous or enthusiastic" came into use by U.S. Marines in about 1942 and was derived from the short version of the Chinese name for the Chinese Industrial Cooperative Society.]
165:33:19 Cernan: Bob, we don't move around from here too much. I tell you, these slopes are something else.

165:33:23 Parker: Yeah. We agree with that, from what we see on the television. So use your judgment, and get them where it's the best place

165:33:30 Cernan: Well, you might take a look at me walking up. But I don't think I can get to the top. (Pause)

[Fendell finds Gene beyond Fragment 2 and, out of sight, Fragment 1.]
165:33:38 Cernan: I just got to get a place I can get a pan from. Right here. Right in this little hole. (Pause) (Gesturing) Okay, now I left the gnomon down there.

165:33:50 Schmitt: Okay. I'll have to go get it. (Pause) I think we'll setup right here near the Rover.

165:33:55 Cernan: I think I'll go and save some water, back on Intermediate. Okay.

165:34:01 Parker: Copy that.

[Gene switches his cooling and then starts the pan. Jack crosses the TV picture, headed east to get the gnomon. This is the reason he appears in Gene's pan. This pan (assembly by Chris Wells) , which is marked 'north pan' on the Station 6 plan map, consists of frames AS17-140- 21483 to 21509.]

[This superb set of pictures shows Jack going back to the Rover with the gnomon in frames 21496 and 21497.]

[The lightened area around the LM is visible just over the summit of Tracy's Rock in 21495. A detail from the pan was assembled by Chris Wells.]

[In frame 21493, we see the rake sitting out, ready to be used, to the right of the Traverse Gravimeter, which Gene put on the surface not long after he and Jack arrived at Station 6. See, also, a labeled detail.]

[Yuri Krasilnikov has combined AS17-141-21493 and 94 in an animated GIF ( 412k ) showing the TV camera in motion.]

[In frame 21496 we see Jack headed for the Rover with the gnomon, which he has just retrieved for use at the rake site.]

[Patrick Vantuyne has used portions of 21494 to 21497 to create a red-blue anaglyph ( 474 ).]

[David Nathan has combined 300 DPI scans of 21493 and 21496 into a detail of Jack returning to the Rover with the gnomon.]

[Journal contributor Bob Fry notes that 21498 shows Van Serg and its dark ejecta blanket on the far side of Shakespeare. Compare with a detail from Pan Camera frame 2309.]

[In frame 21501 we get a good view up-Sun into the gap between the Sculptured Hills and the East Massif.]

[Frame 21504 shows the view toward Station 7. However, as indicated in an accompanying discussion, the Station 7 boulder is hidden by intervening terrain and/or boulders.]

165:34:03 Cernan: Hope my lens is clean. (Pause) Bob, from up here, the light mantle is not evident until you see the angular reflection up on the scarp. Very thin, light patches might be evident out on the valley, but not nearly as pronounced as I might have thought from this altitude. (Long Pause)
[Cernan - "You really had to lean to get the horizon in the pan. And I don't think I was able to get the uphill pictures."]

[Fendell pans clockwise away from Gene to look for Jack. Frame 21489 shows the Scarp.]

165:34:53 Cernan: Oh, and there's Challenger! Holy Smoley! (Pause) You know, Jack, when we finish with Station 8, we will have covered this whole valley from corner to corner!

165:35:18 Schmitt: That was the idea.

[A portion of Pan Camera frame AS17-2309 shows the South Massif at the upper right and the Sculptured Hills at the lower left. The North Massif is at the bottom right and Henry Crater is the rightmost of the three large craters in a triangular pattern at the foot of the mountain. South is up and Station 6 is on the flank of the North Massif slightly north and east of Henry.]
165:35:20 Cernan: Yeah, but I didn't think we'd ever really quite get to that far corner. Not (Station) 2, but this other one (Station 8). And we're going to make it!
[Cernan - "I wish I'd climbed to the top of the mountain to get even a better view. But, even where we were it was a much better panorama than we got from the Scarp. We couldn't see much from the Scarp. Over here, we could see everything: Challenger, the Scarp, the Sculptured Hills, and everything. I do remember this. It was fantastic - like coming over a hill and getting a look into a great big valley somewhere in the middle of Idaho."]

[Fendell pans back to Gene, who is leaning way back to shoot uphill photos.]

[Schmitt - "In order to find a level place, Gene went to a crater and stood, not in the bottom, but on the downslope wall which would be nearly level."]

165:35:31 Schmitt: (Having taken another opportunity to examine the boulders) Bob, that blue-gray rock near the contact with the anorthositic gabbro does get some vesicles in it. I think they'll show up in Gene's pictures. (Pause)

165:35:52 Parker: Okay. We have that too, Jack. (Pause)

[Schmitt - "This examination of the boulder shows the evolution of my thinking as I was getting new information. The final impression that I had - which was born out by the samples - was of a blue-gray breccia intruded by - or enclosed by, we don't know which - vesicular, tan-gray material which also turned out to be a breccia. Now, when I first approached the boulder, the vesicles and crystals I could see in the matrix around them led me down the path of thinking that I was looking at a truly igneous rock. And it had not occurred to me yet that I might be looking at an impact breccia that got hot enough to melt. And it took the whole time of examining it - until right at the last - before I came to the correct conclusion. At the last, I saw the vesicles in the contact zone which pretty well confirmed it all. It took a while to work that through and to get away from thinking that I was looking at an igneous, anorthositic gabbro that had caught up pieces of other things. Normally, a field geologist would sort all those multiple working hypotheses as you go along and then eventually come to a conclusion. And that's what you write down. But here, what we see is a large part of my thinking process being verbalized. If we had had to stop after the first few minutes, we would have had all the wrong answers."]

["My guess is that the vesicular breccia was produced in the Serenitatis impact, that it was injected downward into the crust and then migrated back up along fractures in the ejecta. And, in that context, the blue-gray breccia may be pre-Serenitatis - who knows, perhaps Tranquillitatis ejecta or something like that. We'd seen the same blue-gray rock at Station 2. There was tan-gray breccia at Station 2 but that wasn't vesicular. Probably, the first place we saw the tan, vesicular breccia was at Turning Point Rock and, again, I was thinking there in terms of it being igneous."]

RealVideo Clip by Mick Hyde (24 min 08 sec)

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165:35:58 Cernan: (To Bob) Okay. I just ran out of film at 160. And I'm about two pictures short of the pan, and they (the missing frames)'re upslope. I think I can cover most of that with the 500. (Pause)

165:36:20 Parker: Okay, Gene. (Are) you going to go to the Rover and change your mag now?

165:36:26 Cernan: Well, Jack's going to need some help from me.

165:36:29 Parker: Okay. Let me know when...

165:36:31 Schmitt: I'm starting to rake.

[Gene moves downhill, going down into the boulder track and then back out. He uses a hopping gait, but with his right foot forward about six to ten inches.]
Movie Clip by Peter Dayton (48 sec; 0.6 Mb)

165:36:33 Parker: Let me know when you get to the Rover to change the mags after you get done with that, and I'll tell you what mag to change.

165:36:40 Cernan: Jack, if you got...

165:36:40 Parker: But press on and help Jack with those first.

165:36:41 Cernan: Jack, if you got enough film, I'll just come and help you.

165:36:43 Schmitt: Okay. (Pause)

[Gene trips and falls to his hands and knees, apparently without hitting the camera on the ground. He came over a small mound - possibly a crater rim - and, as he came off the mound, caught his trailing left foot, started to tilt sideways over his right foot and lost his balance.]

[Cernan - "I had some speed coming down, even though I was coming cross slope. It was so hard to get up there and so easy to come down, so I was moving. I was coming cross slope because, to come straight down, I probably would have gone head over heels. You couldn't come straight down that hill very fast. It's like skiing. If you go straight down, you're really going to motor. So you've got to shallow up the slope. But I got off balance, got on one leg, and fell into the hill. When I was watching this just now, I thought I was going to roll; but I didn't. I kept my balance pretty well. And I've got to tell you, agility goes along with the responsibility of command; and, to prove the point, I can only refer you to the help I received in getting that deep core out of the ground back on EVA-1."]

[Gene is, of course, reminding us of Jack's spectacular fall at 121:01:05.]

165:36:54 Schmitt: (Having seen the fall) (Are you) okay?

165:36:55 Cernan: Yup. (Pause) (Calling to Bob) Remind me to dust my camera, too, will you?

165:37:02 Schmitt: Don't forget to dust your camera.

[Schmitt - "(Laughing) That's a bad habit of mine. When people ask me to remind them to do something, I'll say it right then so I'm not held responsible for remembering."]

[Gene shifts position so that his feet are downhill. He then pushes back with his hands to get up on his knees and, as his PLSS rotates past the point of his knees, he rises to his feet.]

165:37:04 Parker: Okay. We'll keep track of that for you, Gene.
[Gene continues on his way, using the same gait at the same speed. Fendell does not follow him and, rather, starts a clockwise pan of the site.]

[Schmitt - "By this third EVA we were very confident. We didn't worry about falling. Maybe we should have, but we didn't. What I want to know is how come he didn't get kidded about that fall like I got kidded about the fall at Ballet. That's just as spectacular."]

165:37:10 Cernan: (To Jack) Okay. Did you get any "before" pictures?

165:37:12 Schmitt: I'm getting them now.

165:37:13 Cernan: Okay.

[AS17-141- 21621, 21622, and 21623 are cross-Sun "befores" of the rake site and 21624 is a down-Sun.]
165:37:16 Schmitt: (Laughing) 'T ain't easy, McGee.
[Schmitt - "This was an expression out of the old 'Fibber McGee and Molly' radio program."]
165:37:18 Cernan: Man, I tell you, these slopes are great. I wouldn't mind being up on top coming down, but...Hey, that boulder track is quite a trench!

165:37:24 Schmitt: Yes, sir.

165:37:26 Cernan: That thing must be a meter or 2 deep, huh!?

165:37:29 Schmitt: Okay; the big rake. Well, I think I'll try...

165:37:36 Cernan: Wouldn't it be easier to (pull the) rake downhill.

165:37:37 Schmitt: It would, but the stuff wouldn't stay in. (Laughs) Right? (Pause)

165:37:43 Cernan: Well, I don't know. It's a thought. (Pause) Make sure you get that one by the...

165:37:52 Schmitt: Yeah, I will. (Long Pause) We're not really supposed to be selective about raking.

165:38:14 Cernan: No you're not (being selective), you're just covering the area.

165:38:18 Schmitt: That's why I set up there. (Long Pause)

165:38:33 Cernan: A selective sample is better than no sample at all.

165:38:39 Schmitt: Let me put some in there (meaning, in the bag Gene is holding). Okay. (Pause)

165:38:47 Cernan: Bag 558.

165:38:50 Parker: Copy 558.

165:38:55 Cernan: Bob, most of them are...

165:38:57 Schmitt: Let me go another couple of swipes.

165:38:58 Cernan: Okay. There's one(rock) a couple of inches (across). Most of them are an inch or so or smaller. They're angular to subrounded fragments. Some of them look like the inclusions. As a matter of fact, the ones that are broken open look like some of the light-colored inclusions we saw in the big boulder. The others are too dust covered to say anything about.

165:39:17 Schmitt: A couple of them look fairly coarsely crystalline. (To Gene) Okay. Put these in there.

[One of the larger rocks in this rake sample is Sample 76535, a 155 g piece of Troctolite. On page 137 in the Catalog on Apollo 17 Rocks, Volume 4 - North Massif, published in August 1994, Charles Meyer comments that "Troctolite 76535 is without doubt the most interesting sample returned from the Moon. It is a colorful, pristine, coarse-grained, plutonic rock that has had a slow cooling history ... Heroic effort have been made to date troctolite 76535, Most recently, Fremo and Tatsumoto have ... concluded that it was formed between 4.23 and 4.26 b.y. (billion years)." In an article published in in the 19 January 2009 issue of Science, a team of MIT researchers report clear evidence that, at the time, 76535 formed, it was imprented with a strong magnetic field produced by a rotating, liquid lunar core. According to an MIT press release, the field was about 1/50th the strength of the Earth's current magnetic field.]

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165:39:24 Cernan: Big deal! (Laughs) We ended up with three more.

165:39:34 Schmitt: Let me get an "after," such as it is. Oh, we want the...

165:39:37 Cernan: They want the soil here.

165:39:38 Schmitt: Soil, that's right.

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165:39:40 Parker: That's affirm. (Pause)

165:39:46 Schmitt: Okay. You want to put that in (Jack's SCB)?

165:39:47 Cernan: Yeah, I'd better put it in before I...(Pause) Okay. Let's try for the soil. (To Bob) 559's the soil.

165:40:02 Parker: Okay. Copy that. And, 17, our present plans from the (Backroom) are (that) we'd like to get the single core, the 500 millimeter shots - and, I guess, maybe one could do one, and one could do the other. And then we'd like to press on and do a short Station 7, unless you think you have got a fair variety of rocks here. The feeling is that you have (garbled) significant variety of rocks.

165:40:21 Schmitt: (To Gene) Here. Little more, little more, little more. (Pause)

[Fendell's pan crosses the back of the Rover. Neither Jack nor Gene is in sight. They are probably due west of the Rover, hidden by the gate.]
165:40:28 Cernan: Okay, Bob. I'll get the core and let Jack get the 500's.
[Cernan - "(Smiling) I didn't want to let Jack use the hammer because I was afraid he'd hurt himself."]
165:40:30 Cernan: 559 is the kilogram of soil. I think we've pretty much covered the general variety we've seen here. I think we're seeing most of them in that boulder.

165:40:41 Parker: Okay. And so we'd like to go on to Station 7 then - when you get the 500 and the core - in hopes of finding a variation of boulders along the front. (Pause)

[There is a discussion in Houston about having Gene do the 500-mm photography because of his longer arms. Jack apparently had had some trouble handling the 500-mm during training.]
165:41:02 Cernan: (To Bob) Okay. (To Jack) Let me know when you get it. (Pause)

165:41:09 Schmitt: Okay. "After".

165:41:12 Cernan: Okay, why don't you get the 500, and I'll get the core.

165:41:14 Schmitt: And the LMP's on (frame count) 120.

[AS17-141- 21625, 21626, and 21627 are Jack's cross-Sun "afters". Note the tongs in 21625.]
165:41:16 Parker: Copy 120 there. And, Gene, if you want to change, we recommended magazine Foxtrot or Fran (Magazine 146), as the case may be.
[Fendell begins a counter-clockwise site pan.]
165:41:24 Cernan: Okay. Will try Foxtrot Franny. (To Jack) Don't forget to get (a 500 photo of) that boulder track.

165:41:29 Parker: (Talking through Jack's following remark) And while you're at it, Gene, ...

165:41:30 Schmitt: This once, I'm going to have to lean against the Rover to do it.

[That is, Jack will have to brace himself in order to steady the 500-mm camera to shoot upslope.]
165:41:31 Parker: ...you might remember to dust your camera when you're leaning over the seat. (Pause)

165:41:38 Schmitt: Let me look at your camera. (Pause)

165:41:47 Cernan: Oh, man. If this Rover wasn't here, we'd roll downhill.

165:41:50 Schmitt: Hey, Bob. I think we could use an "upper" (drive tube) here if you want to save the lowers.

165:41:56 Cernan: I think so, too.

[The 'lower' core sections have reinforced tips but, at this site, the soil is soft enough that one of the 'upper' sections could be used without fear of damage, thereby conserving the supply of lowers.]

[Schmitt - "Obviously, I didn't remember what the core tube count was."]

165:41:57 Schmitt: Whichever you want. (To Gene) Do you want your...

165:41:59 Cernan: No, I'll get it. Why don't you get your 500, and I'll...

165:42:01 Schmitt: Okay. But do you want a core? Watch the fender.

[Gene rounds the front end of the Rover, apparently in a controlled skid.]

[Cernan - "I was just sidestepping as I was coming around the Rover, sidestepping to slow down and turn. By this time I was long familiar with operating in the suit, and I appreciated the slope I was on. So I just turned and sort of sidestepped into where I wanted to stop."]

165:42:03 Cernan: The core's in there, isn't it?

165:42:04 Schmitt: Well, there's some under my seat if you want to use those.

165:42:05 Cernan: I'll use those.

165:42:06 Parker: Standby, Jack. We have three lowers and two uppers, so we'd just as soon use the extra lower here in the single core. That'll give us two uppers and two lowers left...

165:42:16 Schmitt: Okay.

165:42:17 Parker: ...for doubles. (Pause)

165:42:19 Schmitt: There should be a lower in there, Geno.

165:42:20 Cernan: Yeah. Bob, any special place you want that? Just out here on the slope?

165:42:26 Parker: That's affirm...

[Fendell finds Jack at Gene's seat, 500 mm camera in hand. The rammer and core caps - among other things - are visible on the left side of his PLSS.]
165:42:27 Schmitt: Should have put the gnomon up. Well...

165:42:30 Parker: Just out there on the slope. (Pause) (Talking through Jack's following remark) I guess if you saw a crater you might look at that,...

165:42:33 Schmitt: (To Gene) You don't have any film to document, either.

165:42:33 Parker: ...but primarily we're looking at the crater.

165:42:35 Cernan: I'll get it. I'll get it, Jack. Don't worry. (To Bob) Okay. (Pause) We have a couple of dents in our wheels. That's better than having a flat tire. (Long pause)

[Jack goes east from the Rover; the lens cap is off.]
Video Clip ( 3 min 36 sec 0.9 Mb RealVideo or 35 Mb MPEG )

165:43:19 Cernan: (To Jack) Did he say "in a crater"? (No answer; pause)

165:43:27 Schmitt: I'm not sure what he said. Thinking...

165:43:32 Cernan: How do I get this doggone...(Garbled) turn to come off? (Pause)

[Fendell pans the TV clockwise. Off-camera, Gene is taking the scoop off of the extension handle so that he can attach the handle to the core.]
165:43:39 Schmitt: You got to unlock it.

165:43:41 Cernan: Yeah, it is unlocked.

165:43:43 Schmitt: Okay. Now push down and turn.

165:43:46 Cernan: Okay. I got it.

165:43:48 Schmitt: How am I going to see up there to shoot this thing?

165:43:52 Cernan: Well, why don't you lean against the rock? Go over there and lean against it.

[Cernan - "It was difficult to shoot uphill, because you couldn't lean back very far. So I suggested that Jack lean against the rock."]
165:43:57 Schmitt: Well, I have to do something. I was trying to get so I could lean against the Rover, but that ain't going to work.

165:44:04 Cernan: The Rover isn't steady enough for you to lean against.

165:44:07 Schmitt: Well, it's steady enough. There's just no place to lean.

[Jack passes in front of the south-looking TV; he is going east. Fendell reverses direction to follow him.]
165:44:09 Parker: Okay. And, Jack, and if you'll listen for a minute, I'll tell you some possible 500-millimeter targets the people have in mind. One, the LM, if you can see it from there. Two, Nansen, if you can see it from there. Three, Lara; and four, Shorty. In other words, I guess they're talking about looking along your traverse from yesterday. It would be mostly the back shots, apparently. And then, also, the South Massif, and I don't know what you can get of boulder tracks leading up the North Massif. And most of those will be looking downhill towards the LM, Stations 2, 3, and 4. Over. Nansen, Lara, and Shorty.

165:44:48 Schmitt: I got you, Bob.

165:44:50 Cernan: Yeah, the LM is visible by the way. (Long Pause)

[Fendell finds Jack against the west face of the north boulder, leaning his PLSS against it for stability while he aims the 500 uphill to the northwest. His SCB is loose again. Jack's first series of pictures, of the source outcrop for the Station 6 boulder, consists of frames AS17-139- 21186 to 21193. Comparison with photos taken at the LM allow identification of individual boulders in the source region and, in an enhanced portion of the mini-pan, the upper part of the boulder track.]
165:45:27 Schmitt: Okay. I got a set of (pause) what looks like the outcrop from which the boulder came. (Long Pause)
[Jack adjusts the camera and then takes a few more pictures.]

RealAudio Clip ( 7 min 34 sec )

165:46:10 Schmitt: I'm afraid they're moved a little bit. (Long Pause)

[Jack tries to point the camera higher.]
165:46:26 Schmitt: No, I can't; that's it. I got a few pictures looking up the boulder track and then off to the left a little bit; and one off to the right. And I think...I'm not sure how well they overlap; that's just an awful hard shot.
[Journal Contributor Syd Buxton has used frames AS17-140-21490-93 from Gene's pan to create a locator (7 Mb or 0.7 Mb) for the four sets of 500-mm images Jack is about to take toward the west and south.]

[Frame 21195 is undoubtedly an accidental shot showing the near surface. Frames 21194 and 21196 show Shorty Crater (Sta. 4). Note the out-of-focus rake head, sticking up from the back of the Rover, at the lower left in both frames. The prominent boulder on the fllank of the South Massif beyond the center of Shorty has been indentified in a detail from LROC image M104311715L. See a discussion in the 21194 caption in the A17 Image Library. Like the Station 6 boulder, the 21194 boulder came to rest when it encountered a much shallower slope near the base of the mountain. Buxton has combined 21194 and 21196 with 21206 and 21207 to create a mini-pan (7 Mb or 0.3 Mb showing both Shorty Crater and Lara Crater. Station 3 was done a short distance east of the near rim of Lara.]

[]

[Frames 21197 to 21202 were shot in the direction of Station 2. Buxton has created a mini-pan (7 Mb or 0.3 Mb. ]

Video Clip ( 3 min 36 sec 0.9 Mb RealVideo or 35 Mb MPEG )

165:46:46 Parker: Okay; good on that. (Pause) And if you're done with that, have you got a frame count - or, you're still taking them, I guess, it looks like.

165:46:58 Schmitt: Yeah. (Pause)

165:47:08 Cernan: Okay. My camera is clean. Magazine Foxtrot is on about frame 2, and I cycled through it. And I've got the core all set, and I'm going to go get it. And I didn't hear where you said to put it, Bob.

165:47:31 Parker: Anywhere.

165:47:36 Cernan: Oh, man, you're easy.

165:47:39 Parker: And did you get your camera...

165:47:40 Cernan: Anywhere. Not the bottom of a small crater, huh? (Pause)

165:47:47 Parker: Any place. And did you get your camera dusted?

165:47:52 Cernan: Yeah. I got it all dusted and the mag's changed.

165:47:56 Parker: Good.

165:47:58 Cernan: It's core 48.

165:48:01 Parker: Copy that. (Pause)

[Fendell pans the TV counter-clockwise, away from Jack who is still shooting pictures west toward Stations 2, 3, and 4.]
165:48:06 Cernan: Okay. I'll even get you a picture of it. (Pause) Oh me, oh my. (Long Pause)
[Fendell reaches the counter-clockwise stop without finding Gene. Fendell reverses direction and pans clockwise. He finds Jack, now shooting pictures toward the south.]
165:48:23 Cernan: Can you get the LM from there?

165:48:27 Schmitt: Yep.

[They are two hours and fifteen minutes into the EVA. AS17-139- 21203, 21204, and 21205 are Jack's pictures of the LM. Station 6 is about 3.1 kilometer from the LM, which is about 7 meters tall. The two craters beyond the LM with prominent rim boulder fields may be the east (left) and west (right) components of Trident.]
165:48:30 Cernan: That core went in very easy, Bob. I pushed it in about a quarter of the way. And about another five or six whacks, and it's in all the way. (Long Pause as he takes two pictures of the core tube) Okay. Come on out now, baby. (Pause)
[Gene's core tube photos are AS17-146- 22291 and 22292.]
165:49:31 Schmitt: Okay, Bob. Shorty, and Station 3, and Station 2, and what else?
[AS17-139- 21206 and 21207 are two additional pictures of Shorty and the Ballet Crater area.]

[Fendell finds Gene downslope of the Rover. He has the core in hand and is leaning forward into the slope. He has taken a couple of pictures of Jack, still taking 500's from against the rock. These are 22293 and 22294.]

165:49:45 Parker: And any sort of outcrop you see in the South Massif.

165:49:52 Schmitt: I thought we shot those.

165:49:54 Parker: Okay. If you got those, fine.

165:49:58 Schmitt: No, I mean the other day.

165:50:01 Parker: Well...

165:50:01 Schmitt: I'll try again.

[Jack's portrait of the South Massif summit includes frames AS17-139- 21208, 21209, 21210, and 21211.]
165:50:02 Parker: Stereo is stereo is stereo, I guess.

165:50:03 Cernan: Okay, and I got you a little soil mech(anics)...(Stops to listen to Bob)

165:50:10 Schmitt: (To Bob) Well, but it's not stereo; it's right along the same line.

165:50:13 Cernan: ...little soil mechanics of the hole, which stayed intact; very nice and round.

[Gene climbs to the Rover, taking short, choppy steps; it is a difficult climb. His picture of the empty hole is 22295.]

[Cernan - "I didn't have to go very far, so I came straight up. It would have been really tough in Earth gravity, but in one-sixth gravity at least we could hop and get fairly good distance. I'm getting maybe a foot with each hop, just like hopping up some steps on two feet, step by step by step."]

Video Clip ( 3 min 30 sec 0.9 Mb RealVideo or 35 Mb MPEG )

165:50:18 Parker: Okay. We copy that.

165:50:23 Cernan: Okay! (Pause)

165:50:32 Schmitt: Oh, man!

165:50:33 Cernan: (Reaching the gate) Yes, sir, we got a couple of dented tires!

165:50:39 Schmitt: Okay. My hands have had it.

165:50:42 Parker: Okay; good enough.

165:50:43 Schmitt: You aren't going to get anything else out of me if I keep taking pictures.

165:50:46 Parker: And, Gene, what's a "dented tire"?

165:50:51 Cernan: A dented tire is a little, oh, a little golf-ball size or smaller indentation in the mesh. How does that sound to you? Doesn't hurt anything.

165:51:03 Parker: That sounds like a dented tire; that's how it sounds.

165:51:04 Schmitt: Frame 31 (on the 500 mm magazine), Bob.

165:51:05 Parker: Copy frame 31.

165:51:08 Cernan: That's sort of like what it is. (Pause)

165:51:14 Schmitt: Okay. LMP('s camera) was what? 120? I guess we can get to the next station with that.

165:51:21 Parker: Roger.

165:51:22 Cernan: Yeah, I got a brand new mag on.

165:51:23 Parker: And we'd like to get you guys rolling as soon as feasible there.

165:51:29 Schmitt: Yes, sir. It's our policy.

[Gene takes the extension handle off the core; then turns north to see what Jack is doing.]
165:51:31 Cernan: Okay. I'll need your rammer, so if you'll just turn right. (Pause) Good timing. (Making a seismic-charge joke) Pin's out; core tube is safe. (Pause) And full! I knew it was. (Pause)
[Gene replaces the rammer on the left side of Jack's PLSS.]
165:51:59 Cernan: Okay. You take this and put this under your seat, if you want, Jack. And I'll get the TGE. (Pause) Oh, let me put your shovel back on (the extension handle) for you. I'll get it.

165:52:08 Schmitt: Get that?

165:52:09 Cernan: Yeah.

165:52:11 Schmitt: (Going to his seat, carrying the core tube) Don't lose that (scoop). (Garbled, but probably meaning "I wouldn't know") what to do (without it). (Pause)

[Gene is re-attaching the scoop to the extension handle.]
RealVideo Clip by Mick Hyde (1 min 29 sec)

165:52:27 Schmitt: Okay. Did you give them the (core tube) number?

165:52:28 Cernan: Yeah, they got the number.

165:52:29 Parker: Roger, we've got it.

165:52:30 Schmitt: Under the LMP's seat.

165:52:33 Parker: Copy that; under the LMP's seat.

165:52:34 Cernan: (Laughing) I'm sneaking up on the TGE.

165:52:41 Schmitt: You need some help?

165:52:42 Cernan: No. No, I was just sneaking up, that's all.

[Jack steps back and uncovers Gene, who is leaning far forward, into the hill, to punch the TGE button. "I'm sneaking up" is a joking reference to one of the Apollo 16 experiments. At one of the stops on their second EVA, Young and Duke collected a soil sample with a tool that looked a bit like a man's wallet mounted at the end of a meter-long handle. The wallet-like part could be opened, exposing a patch of cloth. The idea was to approach a meter-high boulder from the direction of the LM, moving as slowly as possible to avoid kicking soil onto the sampling site, and then reach over the boulder and press the cloth patch on the surface beyond the rock. In principle, the very top layer of soil, protected by the rock from LM effluents, would be caught on the cloth. The final step was to close the wallet to protect the sample. Duke had a great deal of fun describing the scene to Houston as Young was "sneaking" up on the chosen boulder; and this is Gene's reference.]
165:52:46 Schmitt: (I'll) come and let you lean on me.

165:52:47 Cernan: No, I got it. 670, 109, 801; 670, 109, 801.

165:52:58 Parker: Okay. We copy that. (Pause)

165:53:07 Schmitt: I wish we...The one thing I didn't do. While you're doing that...

165:53:18 Cernan: What didn't you do?

165:53:21 Schmitt: (Going around the front of the Rover) Didn't get pictures of those foliated vesicles. I don't think the ones you had were in that kind of rock. (Pause)

[Here, Jack goes to take a quick series of close-up pictures of the flattened vesicles. These are AS17-141- 21628 to 21630.]
MP3 Audio Clip ( 8 min 36 sec )

165:53:34 Cernan: I don't want to lose that thing (the TGE), so I guess...

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165:53:36 Parker: Okay, 17, when you get back on here, we don't need any charges, and we'll leave the SEP turned off.

[Fendell pans the TV clockwise.]
165:53:53 Schmitt: I'm not sure...Did you turn it off, Gene?

165:53:55 Cernan: Yeah, I turned it off. (Pause) I turned it off. Okay. Let me see. We want to move on to (Station) 7 here. (Reading LMP/CDR-11) Rake; talus; documented core; you got your stereos; we got two pans; TGE; camera. (Looking at the traverse map on LMP/CDR-12) Okay, we're going to head east and look for Station 7. (Reading LMP/CDR-15) block variation; contact change; and get a different sample of rocks. Okay, I sure want to get one or two of those nice ones in the big bag while you're over there.

165:54:28 Parker: Okay...

165:54:29 Schmitt: Open the gate, and I'll bring one.

[They have to open the gate to get at the big bag.]
165:54:30 Parker: ...Seven(teen)...Okay. And let me know when you get ready to get back on the Rover there, 17. (Pause)

165:54:43 Cernan: (To Jack) Guess what isn't opening again. (Pause) Should, though. It's all set right.

[Gene is having trouble opening the gate. The latch is fouled with dust.]
165:54:53 Parker: You could put them under Jack's seat if it's easier. (Pause)

165:55:09 Cernan: Okay. What do you want done to the SEP while I'm here? Do you want the blanket left open?

165:55:13 Parker: Negative. We'd like the blankets closed and taped down again, if possible, and both switches left off. We won't touch it again until Station 8.

165:55:25 Cernan: Oh, the tape's not going to stick anymore, I'm afraid.

165:55:28 Parker: Well, try.

165:55:29 Schmitt: Big bag open?

165:55:30 Cernan: Yeah, it's all open. All set.

[Jack's sample is 76055, a 18x20x25 cm, 6.4 kg, tan-grey breccia. See post-flight photo S73-15713.]
165:55:32 Schmitt: I need a normal sample bag for one here. It's pretty fragile.
[While Jack puts 76055 in the big bag, he is asking Gene for a sample bag to hold another, smaller sample, 76335.]
165:55:37 Cernan: Okay. (Pause) Oh, that doggoned thing's not going to...That tape is full of dust now. (Pause) Okay. Wait a minute, Jack.

165:55:45 Schmitt: Here, let me get this big one (meaning 76055). I'm about ready to drop it. (Pause) It looks like a gabbro.

165:55:56 Cernan: Here's sample bag 560.

165:56:01 Parker: Copy 560.

165:56:02 Schmitt: And 560 has an undocumented, except by the pans, very white...(It) looks like a crushed anorthosite. It looks like some of the inclusions in the breccia...(correcting himself) gray, re-crystallized breccia.

165:56:20 Parker: Okay. We copy that.

[This is sample 76335, a very friable (breakable), 500 gram anorthosite. By the time the sample got back to earth, the largest piece was 8 x 6.5 x 5 cm. The approximate locations from which Jack collected 76055 and 76335 are shown in Figure 4 from the Apollo 17 Sample Catalog, Part 4 ( 30 Mb PDF ).]

[Fendell finds the LM; the lighter-gray surface discoloration caused by the descent engine is obvious and the LM is a black and white dot at it's center. The dot is black on the west; white on the east.]

165:56:22 Cernan: Jack, when you get around, and we close this gate, you might try and hit that top of that SEP down again.

165:56:26 Schmitt: I will. (Pause)

165:56:30 Cernan: Hey, Bob, you're staying keyed an awful long time. We can hear a lot of what's going on back there. (Pause) (To Jack) Wait a minute. Let me get this out of the way. (Pause) Okay. Close it. (Pause) Yeah. That's got it.

[Parker has a foot switch so that he can speak to Gene and Jack. Normally, he releases the switch when he is talking with the Flight Director but, here, is leaving the switch depressed.]
165:56:47 Schmitt: Okay, that's tight.

165:56:49 Cernan: That's got it. Okay.

165:56:50 Schmitt: Oop, oop, oop. Why'd that come off?

165:56:52 Cernan: Well, because it (the gate)'s not locked. It's (garbled) that never was locked.

Video Clip ( 3 min 38 sec 1.0 Mb RealVideo or 36 Mb MPEG )

165:56:59 Schmitt: (Laughing) We lucked out. (Pause)

[Fendell finds Jack, who is raising his seat so that he can stow the drive tube. Had the gate swung open, they might have lost some tools. Later in the EVA, during their drive back to the LM from Station 9, that is exactly what will happen. The gate will swing open and they will lose both extension handles along with the rake and scoop. Gene takes a couple of pictures of Jack. These are 22296 and 22297. Note that Jack's gold visor is up and, therefore, we can see him in the suit. The seismic charge transporter is at the top of the geopallet, directly above the rear wheel. We can see the LRV sampler on the far side of the console and Gene's seatbelt stowed against the near side.]
165:57:10 Cernan: (To Bob) Okay. We're moving (meaning "busy").

165:57:12 Schmitt: Sort of.

165:57:14 Parker: And, before you get on, remember to close the battery covers if they...

165:57:21 Cernan: Yeah. (Pause)

[Jack gets his seat belt out of the way by draping of it over the Rover SCB.]
165:57:30 Schmitt: Your camera lens looks all right, Geno.

165:57:32 Cernan: Yeah, I dusted it already.

165:57:33 Schmitt: Oh. (Pause) Okay. Cover closed...(Going to the SEP receiver behind his seat) Okay. Do they want it on or off? Leave it off, huh?

165:57:43 Parker: Off.

165:57:43 Cernan: Leave it off, but try and close that cover as best you can.

165:57:47 Schmitt: Well, I'm afraid the tape has had it.

165:57:49 Cernan: I know it.

165:57:51 Schmitt: (Leaning across his seat) You want us to tape it again, Bob? (To Gene) What did you do with the tape?

165:57:56 Parker: If you can grab the tape right off, but don't spend a lot of time on it.

[Schmitt - "I think we're both sounding tired after working on this slope. There isn't as much joking as when we first got there. We're quieter."]
165:57:59 Schmitt: (To Gene) What did you do with that tape?

165:58:05 Parker: Let's worry about it at Station 7, if we're going to worry about it. Press on.

165:58:09 Schmitt: Okay.

165:58:11 Cernan: Yeah. Let's forget it now. It's too hard to work on here, and it's not going to take just a minute. It's going to take too much time.

165:58:15 Schmitt: I'm not sure I can get back on here.

[The Rover is rolled about 20 degrees - with Jack's side down.]
165:58:18 Cernan: Well, let me give you a hand.

165:58:20 Schmitt: We need any a...We don't need any...

165:58:22 Cernan: No.

[As noted previously, Jack's gold visor is up. His helmet remains facing the TV camera through all of this, but he turns his head about 60 degrees to look downhill to the south.]
165:58:23 Schmitt: Nothing. As a matter of fact...

165:58:24 Cernan: I can drive, Jack.

165:58:26 Schmitt: Why don't you drive down and get so you're not...You can get on...

165:58:29 Cernan: You can go downhill very easy.

165:58:30 Schmitt: Yeah.

165:58:31 Cernan: Okay. Let me get the TV; The battery covers are closed.

165:58:35 Schmitt: Let me carry...

165:58:36 Cernan: Why don't you just go down there.

165:58:37 Schmitt: ...I'll carry the Rover sampler, just in case.

[Jack extracts the sampler, which is stowed vertically next to the control panel.]
165:58:40 Cernan: Got it? Okay. I'll get that out of your way, too.

165:58:47 Schmitt: Okay. I'll head down to that...Actually, I'll sidehill over to those boulders right over there and then see if that's any change (in rock type).

[Jack starts downhill; Gene leans over the right-side battery covers.]
165:59:01 Cernan: Okay. You might, if you get another sample, a large sample, you might grab it, and we'll throw it in the footpan here.
[Gene wants to get a large rock that they can use in the close-out ceremonies back at the LM. The plan is to split the rock into dozens of pieces for distributions to museums around the world. See 169:43:06.]
165:59:09 Cernan: And I'll see if I can't find a level spot to...

165:59:11 Schmitt: I sort of ought to have my scoop, too.

165:59:13 Cernan: ...help you get on. No, don't take too much; just take that (LRV Sampler). That's all you need.

[Gene goes around the front of the Rover; Jack has only gone a few feet to the southeast.]
165:59:17 Schmitt: How about letting me have your hammer, then?

165:59:20 Parker: Okay; and, 17, can you verify that the gnomon is back in the Rover?

165:59:29 Cernan: Gnomon is on the Rover. The TGE is on the Rover.

[Fendell finds Gene standing a few feet south, examining the Rover. Jack is beyond him, moving diagonally across the slope and toward the southeast.]

[Schmitt - "One of the things that bothered me physically was doing a lot of sidehill traversing at Station 6. On going east on the south-facing slope for some distance, the inside ligament on my left leg began to feel fatigued because the right leg was so much down and the left leg was so much up. Most of the stress was on the left leg, and it is the same ligament that I had damaged skiing years before in '58 or '59; and I suspect that that was the reason for that. It was a pretty bad pull and, after it recovered, I never felt it again except for going sidehill right in this part of the traverse. I started to tire and I could feel that ligament. It wasn't bad, but I could tell it wasn't normal."]

[Cernan - "About five or six weeks before the flight, we were playing softball and I pulled my planteres (a small calf muscle associated with the Achilles tendon). I was running between second and third base and I thought somebody had hit me in the bottom of the right leg with a machete. And I just doubled up. I was on crutches for about a couple, three or four days. If it was ripped, I was done (that is, off the flight). It was strained or pulled but not ripped, I guess, and I had some great concern as to whether the doctors would consider it recovered enough for me to fly. But I guarantee you that, less than a week after I was off the crutches I was in a suit doing EVA training. Hurting like hell. And I really wondered how it would be on the Moon. When we did go, I could feel it the whole time I was doing some of these things, but never to the extent that it either hobbled me or cut down my mobility. It just hurt. It had healed very, very quickly and I'm not so sure...And it sounds a little crazy; but I think part of your physical well-being depends on your mental well-being. And I'm not so sure that, mentally, I didn't want to fly that flight so bad that it either healed faster or I didn't know it hurt. There were times during the surface activities that I did feel it; but I don't remember feeling a thing during the stuff we've just gone through at Station 6. Also, it's possible that, subconsciously, the injury may have influenced my choice of hopping and skipping rather than Jack's long, loping stride. When you were hopping, you had to plan on maintaining a special kind of balance each time you came down, but you had two feet supporting you all the time. I'm not sure, but maybe I did hop to make my leg feel more comfortable."]

165:59:32 Schmitt: The rake.

165:59:33 Cernan: The rake is on the Rover. The scoop's on the Rover. We got the...You put the core under your (seat) pan, right?

165:59:38 Schmitt: Yep, that's right.

165:59:39 Cernan: Okay. I'm going to power up and see if I can't come down and get you. (Pause) It's fun walking downhill! Boy, that boulder track is impressive.

[Gene moves the TV to its stowed position.]
165:59:56 Parker: Okay; and, 17, when you get moving...

165:59:58 Cernan: (The track is) very symmetrical.

165:59:58 Parker: ...we want to get, and I quote, "a maximum variety of hand samples with a minimum amount of documentation, in a minimum amount of time at Station 7". It's just an attempt to see what kind of variety we can get along the face of the front. Over.

166:00:17 Cernan: Roger. (Pause; static)

[The remainder of this EVA was reviewed with Gene and Jack, together, in Santa Fe, New Mexico in September 1991.]

[Cernan - "I'd like to reminisce with Jack - a little bit - because, for what it's worth, we're sort of authenticating history, nineteen years later. It wasn't until Eric and I sat down in my office and watched the films and listened to our voices that I recalled the steepness of that slope at Tracy's Rock. Because Al Bean painted the picture, I've seen the hill a million times; but, in the years since we were there, I've never fully appreciated that you and I were walking at an angle on the side of the hill and that getting on and off the Rover was typical of the problems it caused."]

[Schmitt - "I think it was one of the USGS (U. S. Geological Survey) guys who said that it was a twenty degree slope where we were parked. And there was a break there. The boulder probably hit and broke when it hit that break in slope and, above us, it was probably 25 or 26 degrees."]

[Cernan - "I recall climbing up there to do that pan, and being way above you. And I think this is important so that people can know what your ability is to maneuver around on slopes. And I don't think anyone else ever really encountered...I don't know what they did on Apollo 14 when they went up Cone Crater..."]

[Schmitt - "Apollo 14 didn't have a twenty degree slope. They had enough to make them work (about 10 degrees), but they didn't have as good a suit. They didn't have the new waist joint."]

[Cernan - "I just wanted to mention this. It was the one thing that impressed the devil out of me when we reviewed it. The still pictures and a lot of the TV don't show it, but it was really steep."]

[Schmitt - (Laughing) "That's because the camera was always tilted twenty degrees."]

[TV off. In the copy of the audio tapes used to prepare the journal, the next five lines are buried under static and remarks by the Public Affairs commentator.]

166:00:29 Cernan: Okay. Well, I'm not sure I can get on without ending up in your seat.
[Gene's side of the Rover is the upslope side.]
166:00:32 Schmitt: Need some help?

166:00:34 Cernan: No (garbled).

166:00:38 Schmitt: I shouldn't have left.

166:00:40 Cernan: No, no. I don't need any help. I'll get on.

[Cernan - "For Jack to have gotten on that downhill seat, even if he'd jumped up there he probably would have fallen back off. For me, it was much easier to get on the uphill side but it was steep enough that it really did feel like I was going to end up in Jack's seat."]

[Schmitt - "It wasn't worth the effort for me to try to get on. By this time, we didn't have any problem with walking some distance."]

[Cernan - "The only thing about it is that Jack really did enjoy riding on the downhill side."]

[Schmitt - "(Laughing) That might have influenced my decision as well."]

MP3 Audio Clip ( 14 min 16 sec )

166:00:49 Cernan: (Static clears) I probably ought to turn my water off of Max if that's where it is. It's cold. I don't want to run out today. (Long Pause) Well, the roll indicator says 15 degrees; and the pitch indicator says about 12 (giving a total slope of nearly 20 degrees). I don't know if I believe all that. Bob, you with us?

166:02:08 Parker: Go ahead. Right. We're with you.

166:02:10 Cernan: Okay. I'm rolling.

166:02:11 Parker: Copy that. (Long Pause)

 

Traverse to Station 6 Apollo 17 Journal Geology Station 7