Relaunched Moonshot "The Journeys of the Saturn"
- Thread starter brovane
- Start date
Apollo Part-22
Sorry this update took so long but things kept getting in the way. I hope readers enjoy it.
On October 19, 1975 the crew of Apollo-22 woke up on the lunar surface for their 3rd EVA. This was the EVA that the crew had been silently dreading for months. The crew quietly prepared breakfast and reviewed the EVA plan for the day. This day there was none of the usual wise cracking around the meal table between the crew members. The crew ate quickly and then after a quick trip to the bathroom went downstairs to start preparing for the EVA. As with yesterday Ed and Gordon went outside first. While Pete and Al suited up, they went and prepared the LRV including attaching the trailer to it and loading supplies for the EVA in it. The also retrieved a special case that contained the body bags, personal items and the carnations that would be left with the bodies. Once Pete and Al exited the LESA-base they quickly stepped into the trailer to ride in it as Ed and Gordon drove over to the Habitat. Once the crew arrived on site, they prepared a portable floodlight that would be used to light the interior of the Habitat. After reviewing the checklist again, the crew confirmed everything was ready. Houston switched over to the Encrypted channel for all communication at this point. Pete made his way over to the LK-habitat ladder and climbed up to the hatch. He opened the hatch and Al standing on the steps behind him, handed the floodlight that was then turned on and set inside. Al then set next to Pete on the LK-Habitat porch, a still camera, 16mm film camera and a portable TV camera that trailed a cord back to a transmitter on the LRV that was feeding the signal back to Earth.
In Houston, Mission Control was quiet as the controllers focused in on their jobs. Sitting in observation area was multiple representatives from the Soviet space program. Soviet Cosmonaut Alexy Leonov was sitting next to Deke Slayton on CapCom and Jim Lovell was sitting on the other side of Leonov. On the lunar surface Pete panned the TV camera inside of the LK-Habitat and to Pete with the better lighting the situation inside of the Habitat appeared less like a bad space horror movie. He then handed the TV camera to Al, so he could now record the inside with the 16mm film camera. Once this was completed he then set to taking still photographs of the interior of the habitat. He felt like a crime scene photographer, taking photos of a crime scene. After the visual documentation of the interior he radioed back to Houston requesting permission to enter the Habitat. Alexy nodded to Deke who then gave permission to Pete to proceed with his entry. This part Pete had trained with Al numerous times on a simulator in Houston. Al set the TV camera down so he would have both hands free to help Pete. Pete carefully put his arms inside of the door and then Al moved up to help guide him so his backpack would clear the door. Under ⅙ lunar gravity Pete found it awkward to enter the door than during his training on Earth. Pete was able to get all the way inside on his hands and knees. He then lost his balance because his backpack, through him off balance. He fell over on his side and his helmet smacked into Makarov face, who was laying on the floor. Up close Pete could see the skin on his face was drawn in and he could see dark splotches from bleeding under the skin. There was also dried blood around Makarov’s ears and nose and his eyes were wide open. Pete fought the urge not to vomit inside of his space suit, that would make a bad situation even worse. The Surgeon noticed Pete’s heart rate jump up suddenly and he started getting concerned and alerted the flight director. Al had not picked up the TV camera so Houston had no visual as to what was going on currently in the Habitat. However Al Bean had seen exactly what happened to Pete and was trying to help him as much as he could from the door.
“Surgeon, Flight we have noticed a rapid increase in Pete’s heart rate.”
“Flight, Capcom can you radio Pete and make sure he is ok. We have noticed a jump in Pete’s heart rate.”
“Houston, Everything ok Pete?”
Pete turned himself away from Makarov in his stiff spacesuit and worked to slow his breathing down and fight the urge to either panic or vomit. Seeing that had affected him more than he had thought it would.
“Yeah I fell over and I am on the fucking floor, Deke. Just give me a minute so I can figure out how to get myself up.”
Al picked up the TV camera and was now showing the interior of the Habitat again. Mission Control could could now see on the screen what was happening. Pete was laying on his side facing Makarov’s body on the floor of the Habitat. Everyone in Houston could see the cause for Pete’s distress. Deke looked over at Leonov and Jim.
Lovell turned back to the flight director Gerald Griffin “Lets give him a minute ok Gerald?”
Gerald nodded at Deke.
Deke keyed his mike. “Pete, this is Deke, you take all the time you need. We have TV signal again and we can see you.” Deke paused “Pete are you a turtle?”
Pete gave the proper response, “You Bet Your Sweet Ass I Am!!”
Pete rested for a minute and then slowly moved himself so he was no longer on his side and he was resting on both hands in a pushup position. With the limited mobility of the space suit this was the best position to get back on his feet. He pushed himself up with both hands so he could get his feet under him. However he forgot where he was and when he pushed himself up his helmet banged into the ceiling and he was now back on the floor.
“Well that didn’t work. I hope you guys are seeing a good show?”
“Roger Pete, we have you on the mains. Take the time you need.”
Pete moved himself across the floor to a wall. He could then reach up and use the wall for leverage pull himself onto his feet. He was glad to be off the floor and he moved onto the first item which was to to take close up pictures of the condition of the inside of the Habitat Pete worked to quickly finish this set of pictures. He was able to quickly locate the two cases that contained the Soviet lunar samples. The cases where in the exact location that the Soviets told him they would be in. He picked them up and handed them to Al, so they could be brought back to Earth. Al handed Pete a sample bag. Pete looked around the Habitat and picked up the several notebooks that he found, including some personal items and placed them in the sample bag. Pete also found a chess board that looked like had been made from items inside the Habitat.
“Deke, looks like someone was playing a little Chess on the moon.”
Deke looked over at Leonov.
“If they can Deke, please have them bring that back with them. “
“Roger that Pete, Why don’t you go ahead and retrieve the Chess set.”
“Ok sounds good Deke.”
Pete found some more personal items that he placed in the sample bag and he then handed it out the door to Al. He moved over to the depressurization valve that the Soviet’s thought had caused the issue. Just as he thought a lunar rock was jammed into the opening. He bent down onto one knee and took pictures of the rock and the valve. He then removed the rock and handed it over to Al to place into the sample bag. Pete was taking time to narrate what he was seeing as he went along. He took some more pictures but he could not get down far enough to look closer at the valve and he didn’t want to get on the floor again. He had a tool that could help maybe him. Pete asked Al for the inspection mirror. With the mirror in hand, Pete extended it and moved the mirror down to the valve opening. Pete spent several minutes looking but he just couldn’t see anything more as to what caused the failure. This really frustrated him because with the space suit on he just couldn’t get into a good position to see inside of the opening.
“Deke, Tell Leonov and his buddies, I am sorry but I just cannot get a clear view.”
Deke, looked over at Leonov.
“Deke, lets go ahead and move on to the final task so we can wrap this up. Pete has done all he can do.”
Deke nodded at Leonov. “Pete, Leonov and or Soviet guests thank you for your effort. Why don’t we move onto the final task items so we can wrap up this EVA.”
“Roger, Houston I am moving onto the final tasks.”
Al handed a body bag to Pete. Pete took it and opened it up and spread it out on one of the hammocks. Pete moved carefully over to Makarov and took the bottom part of the spacesuit and removed it from his body. Pete then knelt down as best he could and he was able to pick up Makarov and place him on top of the body bag. He maneuvered Makarov into the bag fairly easily under ⅙ gravity. Pete tried to close Makarov’s eyes but with his clumsy EVA gloves he couldn’t get them to close. Al then handed Pete the items from Makarov’s family and he placed them into the body bag. The last item was Makarov’s “Hero of the Soviet Union” medal that he placed carefully inside the body bag. At the request of the Family, Pete then took a final picture of Makarov before he closed the body bag. He then picked up the body bag and moved Makarov to the upper hammock. With Makarov’s body off the floor, Pete had more room inside the Habitat. Al handed Pete the second body bag and he spread it out on the hammock. Pete moved over to Popovich’s body and first removed the emergency breathing mask. He then moved the Popovich onto the hammock and placed him in the body bag. He placed a bag with personal items inside of the body bag and then added “Popovich’s “Hero of the Soviet Union” medal. As before Pete took a final picture before closing the body bag. He then placed the carnations on top of each body bag and then took another set of pictures.
Pete Conrad was now more than happy to get out of the Habitat, as it was a crypt now. He set the camera and the floodlights out the door to Al. Pete then carefully wiggled himself back out the small opening and he was now outside again. Pete and Al closed the door and mounted a small plaque on the outside of the door. The Habitat was now officially a crypt and final resting place for the two cosmonauts. Pete had to stop himself from saying out loud on the radio that the first permanent monument to the Soviet Space program was officially completed. The two Astronauts stepped back down onto the lunar surface.
The last task that remained to be completed was to play the Soviet national anthem. The two widows of the cosmonauts entered mission control and walked over to the CapCom area. Leonov was now on CapCom and he read a prepared statement from Brezhnev thanking the US for their efforts and especially the Apollo-22 crew in laying Makarov and Papovich to proper rest. Leonov then read a eulogy for the two Cosmonauts. Everyone stood up in Mission Control as the Soviet anthem was played. The Apollo-22 crew gave the Soviet Cosmonauts a final salute. After this was over the Apollo-22 crew could finally head back to the LESA base and rest. For Pete Conrad he was emotionally and physically exhausted from the EVA. The four astronauts of the Apollo-22 crew headed back to their lunar home. This set of a minor debate because Ed and Gordon who had spent most of the EVA watching Al and Pete wanted to stay out longer. They felt they could get some additional work done on the LESA-Base. After a minor discussion, permission was given for the two astronauts to have a 2-hour extension of the EVA for them. This would allow them to drive over to the LLV-LT and retrieve more mission supplies while Pete and Al headed inside to rest. Several hours later the entire crew was back inside and they went through a debrief. The next day was scheduled as a crew rest day after 3-days of back-back EVA’s for the entire crew. During the debrief Pete proposed that the crew be now divided into two EVA crews, blue and gold. The blue crew would be Al and Swann and the Gold crew would be Pete and Mitchell. The blue crew would start exploration of the local area and conduct the initial geological survey of the landing site. The gold team would concentrate on finished the setup of the LESA-base and moving any remaining supplies from the LLV-LT. They would also drive the MOLAB vehicle and conduct the initial tests to make sure the vehicle was functioning. Houston found this plan acceptable and agreed to Pete’s proposal since this would allow two astronauts to start the geological exploration of the area.
After the debrief the crew got a chance for each of them to test out the world’s first lunar shower. They had drawn straws for who go to use it first and Ed got the distinction of taking the first shower. Al who had experience trying to use the shower on Skylab-B, found the lunar shower with ⅙ gravity much more effective and easier to use than the Skylab shower. For the Apollo-22 crew the ability to take a hot shower after a week in space was wonderful, the only negative of the experience was Pete’s singing while he took a shower. The crew ate dinner and it was really quiet around the table after the day’s event. Pete didn’t want to see the grave detail with the Cosmonaut bodies bring down the rest of the mission or define the Apollo-22 mission either, a lot of great work was ahead for the crew. He was glad it was behind them and the mission could move on and get down to the work they really wanted to do on the lunar surface. After dinner the crew started to finally relax and the conversation started to pick up again. Pete could tell that Gordon was frustrated, he was a geologist and he had been on the lunar surface for 3-days and he hadn’t been able to do any geology. The crew headed off to bed after the long day. Al Bean laid on his bed trying to sleep. His thoughts kept drifting off to thinking about the crew of Zvezda-2. How they went to sleep on the lunar surface and woke up to the terrifying reality of the atmosphere escaping. For Al Bean he never forgot that literally right outside the window, death was waiting for them.
The next day the crew was allowed to sleep in and had no wake up call. The LESA base systems continued to work with no issues that needed the crew’s immediate attention. Pete finally had a chance to turn on the TV in the LESA Base for the first time. If the crew wanted to watch TV they had to contact Houston and ask for a specific channel. This channel was then transmitted to the LESA base where it was then viewable on the TV. NASA had a special agreement with TV stations to re-broadcast to the Moon. NASA could also as needed, feed pre-recorded TV shows and even movies to the LESA-base for the crew. This system also made a form of video conference possible by using a TV camera at either end. This morning Pete was just interested in watching the news back on Earth and just requested a feed from CBS. Mitchell was in the kitchen heating up pancakes and some sausage for the crew to enjoy. Several minutes later the crew was all gathered around the table and enjoyed a relaxing breakfast. After breakfast Pete was on cleanup duty while Ed checked on the LESA base. Gordon and Al headed downstairs to check on their spacesuits and then review the EVA plan for tomorrow with Houston.
After all the chores where done Pete finally had a chance to get the Magnavox Odyssey game console setup and a short time later both him and Ed were enjoying the shooting gallery game. After the last 3-days of landing and the stress of the EVA’s it was good to finally relax and have fun. Ed and Pete got so noisy at one point that Al had to shut the door in the stairwell because Gordon and him were trying to talk to Houston downstairs about the EVA tomorrow. Later after lunch the crew sat down and enjoyed a Movie that Gordon had picked out and asked to be broadcast to them, the Bruce Lee film “Enter the Dragon”. So a Hong Kong martial arts film, much to the chagrin of movie critics worldwide was the first movie viewed by humans on the lunar surface. The NASA astronauts back on Earth found it amusing to watch the NASA Public Affairs Officer trying to explain to the press why the movie was selected as the first film by the crew. He just finally threw his hands in the air and told them he had no idea why the movie was selected by the crew as the first one to watch. He didn’t tell the press that the next movie selected was “Blazing Saddles”, he had enough of a headache for one day. NASA had originally thought it would be difficult to get access to movies but once it was explained what NASA wanted them for, the movie studios were more than happy to accommodate NASA. As one studio executive said, it isn’t every day you get a call from NASA asking if they can borrow a movie so they can broadcast it to the lunar surface.
Sorry this update took so long but things kept getting in the way. I hope readers enjoy it.
On October 19, 1975 the crew of Apollo-22 woke up on the lunar surface for their 3rd EVA. This was the EVA that the crew had been silently dreading for months. The crew quietly prepared breakfast and reviewed the EVA plan for the day. This day there was none of the usual wise cracking around the meal table between the crew members. The crew ate quickly and then after a quick trip to the bathroom went downstairs to start preparing for the EVA. As with yesterday Ed and Gordon went outside first. While Pete and Al suited up, they went and prepared the LRV including attaching the trailer to it and loading supplies for the EVA in it. The also retrieved a special case that contained the body bags, personal items and the carnations that would be left with the bodies. Once Pete and Al exited the LESA-base they quickly stepped into the trailer to ride in it as Ed and Gordon drove over to the Habitat. Once the crew arrived on site, they prepared a portable floodlight that would be used to light the interior of the Habitat. After reviewing the checklist again, the crew confirmed everything was ready. Houston switched over to the Encrypted channel for all communication at this point. Pete made his way over to the LK-habitat ladder and climbed up to the hatch. He opened the hatch and Al standing on the steps behind him, handed the floodlight that was then turned on and set inside. Al then set next to Pete on the LK-Habitat porch, a still camera, 16mm film camera and a portable TV camera that trailed a cord back to a transmitter on the LRV that was feeding the signal back to Earth.
In Houston, Mission Control was quiet as the controllers focused in on their jobs. Sitting in observation area was multiple representatives from the Soviet space program. Soviet Cosmonaut Alexy Leonov was sitting next to Deke Slayton on CapCom and Jim Lovell was sitting on the other side of Leonov. On the lunar surface Pete panned the TV camera inside of the LK-Habitat and to Pete with the better lighting the situation inside of the Habitat appeared less like a bad space horror movie. He then handed the TV camera to Al, so he could now record the inside with the 16mm film camera. Once this was completed he then set to taking still photographs of the interior of the habitat. He felt like a crime scene photographer, taking photos of a crime scene. After the visual documentation of the interior he radioed back to Houston requesting permission to enter the Habitat. Alexy nodded to Deke who then gave permission to Pete to proceed with his entry. This part Pete had trained with Al numerous times on a simulator in Houston. Al set the TV camera down so he would have both hands free to help Pete. Pete carefully put his arms inside of the door and then Al moved up to help guide him so his backpack would clear the door. Under ⅙ lunar gravity Pete found it awkward to enter the door than during his training on Earth. Pete was able to get all the way inside on his hands and knees. He then lost his balance because his backpack, through him off balance. He fell over on his side and his helmet smacked into Makarov face, who was laying on the floor. Up close Pete could see the skin on his face was drawn in and he could see dark splotches from bleeding under the skin. There was also dried blood around Makarov’s ears and nose and his eyes were wide open. Pete fought the urge not to vomit inside of his space suit, that would make a bad situation even worse. The Surgeon noticed Pete’s heart rate jump up suddenly and he started getting concerned and alerted the flight director. Al had not picked up the TV camera so Houston had no visual as to what was going on currently in the Habitat. However Al Bean had seen exactly what happened to Pete and was trying to help him as much as he could from the door.
“Surgeon, Flight we have noticed a rapid increase in Pete’s heart rate.”
“Flight, Capcom can you radio Pete and make sure he is ok. We have noticed a jump in Pete’s heart rate.”
“Houston, Everything ok Pete?”
Pete turned himself away from Makarov in his stiff spacesuit and worked to slow his breathing down and fight the urge to either panic or vomit. Seeing that had affected him more than he had thought it would.
“Yeah I fell over and I am on the fucking floor, Deke. Just give me a minute so I can figure out how to get myself up.”
Al picked up the TV camera and was now showing the interior of the Habitat again. Mission Control could could now see on the screen what was happening. Pete was laying on his side facing Makarov’s body on the floor of the Habitat. Everyone in Houston could see the cause for Pete’s distress. Deke looked over at Leonov and Jim.
Lovell turned back to the flight director Gerald Griffin “Lets give him a minute ok Gerald?”
Gerald nodded at Deke.
Deke keyed his mike. “Pete, this is Deke, you take all the time you need. We have TV signal again and we can see you.” Deke paused “Pete are you a turtle?”
Pete gave the proper response, “You Bet Your Sweet Ass I Am!!”
Pete rested for a minute and then slowly moved himself so he was no longer on his side and he was resting on both hands in a pushup position. With the limited mobility of the space suit this was the best position to get back on his feet. He pushed himself up with both hands so he could get his feet under him. However he forgot where he was and when he pushed himself up his helmet banged into the ceiling and he was now back on the floor.
“Well that didn’t work. I hope you guys are seeing a good show?”
“Roger Pete, we have you on the mains. Take the time you need.”
Pete moved himself across the floor to a wall. He could then reach up and use the wall for leverage pull himself onto his feet. He was glad to be off the floor and he moved onto the first item which was to to take close up pictures of the condition of the inside of the Habitat Pete worked to quickly finish this set of pictures. He was able to quickly locate the two cases that contained the Soviet lunar samples. The cases where in the exact location that the Soviets told him they would be in. He picked them up and handed them to Al, so they could be brought back to Earth. Al handed Pete a sample bag. Pete looked around the Habitat and picked up the several notebooks that he found, including some personal items and placed them in the sample bag. Pete also found a chess board that looked like had been made from items inside the Habitat.
“Deke, looks like someone was playing a little Chess on the moon.”
Deke looked over at Leonov.
“If they can Deke, please have them bring that back with them. “
“Roger that Pete, Why don’t you go ahead and retrieve the Chess set.”
“Ok sounds good Deke.”
Pete found some more personal items that he placed in the sample bag and he then handed it out the door to Al. He moved over to the depressurization valve that the Soviet’s thought had caused the issue. Just as he thought a lunar rock was jammed into the opening. He bent down onto one knee and took pictures of the rock and the valve. He then removed the rock and handed it over to Al to place into the sample bag. Pete was taking time to narrate what he was seeing as he went along. He took some more pictures but he could not get down far enough to look closer at the valve and he didn’t want to get on the floor again. He had a tool that could help maybe him. Pete asked Al for the inspection mirror. With the mirror in hand, Pete extended it and moved the mirror down to the valve opening. Pete spent several minutes looking but he just couldn’t see anything more as to what caused the failure. This really frustrated him because with the space suit on he just couldn’t get into a good position to see inside of the opening.
“Deke, Tell Leonov and his buddies, I am sorry but I just cannot get a clear view.”
Deke, looked over at Leonov.
“Deke, lets go ahead and move on to the final task so we can wrap this up. Pete has done all he can do.”
Deke nodded at Leonov. “Pete, Leonov and or Soviet guests thank you for your effort. Why don’t we move onto the final task items so we can wrap up this EVA.”
“Roger, Houston I am moving onto the final tasks.”
Al handed a body bag to Pete. Pete took it and opened it up and spread it out on one of the hammocks. Pete moved carefully over to Makarov and took the bottom part of the spacesuit and removed it from his body. Pete then knelt down as best he could and he was able to pick up Makarov and place him on top of the body bag. He maneuvered Makarov into the bag fairly easily under ⅙ gravity. Pete tried to close Makarov’s eyes but with his clumsy EVA gloves he couldn’t get them to close. Al then handed Pete the items from Makarov’s family and he placed them into the body bag. The last item was Makarov’s “Hero of the Soviet Union” medal that he placed carefully inside the body bag. At the request of the Family, Pete then took a final picture of Makarov before he closed the body bag. He then picked up the body bag and moved Makarov to the upper hammock. With Makarov’s body off the floor, Pete had more room inside the Habitat. Al handed Pete the second body bag and he spread it out on the hammock. Pete moved over to Popovich’s body and first removed the emergency breathing mask. He then moved the Popovich onto the hammock and placed him in the body bag. He placed a bag with personal items inside of the body bag and then added “Popovich’s “Hero of the Soviet Union” medal. As before Pete took a final picture before closing the body bag. He then placed the carnations on top of each body bag and then took another set of pictures.
Pete Conrad was now more than happy to get out of the Habitat, as it was a crypt now. He set the camera and the floodlights out the door to Al. Pete then carefully wiggled himself back out the small opening and he was now outside again. Pete and Al closed the door and mounted a small plaque on the outside of the door. The Habitat was now officially a crypt and final resting place for the two cosmonauts. Pete had to stop himself from saying out loud on the radio that the first permanent monument to the Soviet Space program was officially completed. The two Astronauts stepped back down onto the lunar surface.
The last task that remained to be completed was to play the Soviet national anthem. The two widows of the cosmonauts entered mission control and walked over to the CapCom area. Leonov was now on CapCom and he read a prepared statement from Brezhnev thanking the US for their efforts and especially the Apollo-22 crew in laying Makarov and Papovich to proper rest. Leonov then read a eulogy for the two Cosmonauts. Everyone stood up in Mission Control as the Soviet anthem was played. The Apollo-22 crew gave the Soviet Cosmonauts a final salute. After this was over the Apollo-22 crew could finally head back to the LESA base and rest. For Pete Conrad he was emotionally and physically exhausted from the EVA. The four astronauts of the Apollo-22 crew headed back to their lunar home. This set of a minor debate because Ed and Gordon who had spent most of the EVA watching Al and Pete wanted to stay out longer. They felt they could get some additional work done on the LESA-Base. After a minor discussion, permission was given for the two astronauts to have a 2-hour extension of the EVA for them. This would allow them to drive over to the LLV-LT and retrieve more mission supplies while Pete and Al headed inside to rest. Several hours later the entire crew was back inside and they went through a debrief. The next day was scheduled as a crew rest day after 3-days of back-back EVA’s for the entire crew. During the debrief Pete proposed that the crew be now divided into two EVA crews, blue and gold. The blue crew would be Al and Swann and the Gold crew would be Pete and Mitchell. The blue crew would start exploration of the local area and conduct the initial geological survey of the landing site. The gold team would concentrate on finished the setup of the LESA-base and moving any remaining supplies from the LLV-LT. They would also drive the MOLAB vehicle and conduct the initial tests to make sure the vehicle was functioning. Houston found this plan acceptable and agreed to Pete’s proposal since this would allow two astronauts to start the geological exploration of the area.
After the debrief the crew got a chance for each of them to test out the world’s first lunar shower. They had drawn straws for who go to use it first and Ed got the distinction of taking the first shower. Al who had experience trying to use the shower on Skylab-B, found the lunar shower with ⅙ gravity much more effective and easier to use than the Skylab shower. For the Apollo-22 crew the ability to take a hot shower after a week in space was wonderful, the only negative of the experience was Pete’s singing while he took a shower. The crew ate dinner and it was really quiet around the table after the day’s event. Pete didn’t want to see the grave detail with the Cosmonaut bodies bring down the rest of the mission or define the Apollo-22 mission either, a lot of great work was ahead for the crew. He was glad it was behind them and the mission could move on and get down to the work they really wanted to do on the lunar surface. After dinner the crew started to finally relax and the conversation started to pick up again. Pete could tell that Gordon was frustrated, he was a geologist and he had been on the lunar surface for 3-days and he hadn’t been able to do any geology. The crew headed off to bed after the long day. Al Bean laid on his bed trying to sleep. His thoughts kept drifting off to thinking about the crew of Zvezda-2. How they went to sleep on the lunar surface and woke up to the terrifying reality of the atmosphere escaping. For Al Bean he never forgot that literally right outside the window, death was waiting for them.
The next day the crew was allowed to sleep in and had no wake up call. The LESA base systems continued to work with no issues that needed the crew’s immediate attention. Pete finally had a chance to turn on the TV in the LESA Base for the first time. If the crew wanted to watch TV they had to contact Houston and ask for a specific channel. This channel was then transmitted to the LESA base where it was then viewable on the TV. NASA had a special agreement with TV stations to re-broadcast to the Moon. NASA could also as needed, feed pre-recorded TV shows and even movies to the LESA-base for the crew. This system also made a form of video conference possible by using a TV camera at either end. This morning Pete was just interested in watching the news back on Earth and just requested a feed from CBS. Mitchell was in the kitchen heating up pancakes and some sausage for the crew to enjoy. Several minutes later the crew was all gathered around the table and enjoyed a relaxing breakfast. After breakfast Pete was on cleanup duty while Ed checked on the LESA base. Gordon and Al headed downstairs to check on their spacesuits and then review the EVA plan for tomorrow with Houston.
After all the chores where done Pete finally had a chance to get the Magnavox Odyssey game console setup and a short time later both him and Ed were enjoying the shooting gallery game. After the last 3-days of landing and the stress of the EVA’s it was good to finally relax and have fun. Ed and Pete got so noisy at one point that Al had to shut the door in the stairwell because Gordon and him were trying to talk to Houston downstairs about the EVA tomorrow. Later after lunch the crew sat down and enjoyed a Movie that Gordon had picked out and asked to be broadcast to them, the Bruce Lee film “Enter the Dragon”. So a Hong Kong martial arts film, much to the chagrin of movie critics worldwide was the first movie viewed by humans on the lunar surface. The NASA astronauts back on Earth found it amusing to watch the NASA Public Affairs Officer trying to explain to the press why the movie was selected as the first film by the crew. He just finally threw his hands in the air and told them he had no idea why the movie was selected by the crew as the first one to watch. He didn’t tell the press that the next movie selected was “Blazing Saddles”, he had enough of a headache for one day. NASA had originally thought it would be difficult to get access to movies but once it was explained what NASA wanted them for, the movie studios were more than happy to accommodate NASA. As one studio executive said, it isn’t every day you get a call from NASA asking if they can borrow a movie so they can broadcast it to the lunar surface.
Just reread this from the beginning. I recently assembled a playlist on y/t of early NASA films of their missions and project planning, computers, etc and I thought the readers might be interested in watching them.
here
There is a free streaming music channel Mission Control on SomaFM that plays archived NASA radio traffic along with ambient music. It's pretty interesting and makes a great sound track to the writing here.
http://somafm.com/missioncontrol/
here
There is a free streaming music channel Mission Control on SomaFM that plays archived NASA radio traffic along with ambient music. It's pretty interesting and makes a great sound track to the writing here.
http://somafm.com/missioncontrol/
Apollo-Part-23
I't is back!!!
Moscow, Kremlin - October 20, 1975
Kerim Kerimov marched down the hallway in the Kremlin. After over a year with no manned spaceflights by the Soviet Union he was finally ready to formally present the reforms he had putting into place for the Soviet space program. He had over the last year since the Zvezda-2 crew loss cleaned up and streamlined the Soviet space program. He had formed a single design bureau, NPO Energia to bring all space program development under one agency. As promised General Secretary Brezhnev had given him a free hand to reform the Soviet space agency. The Soviet Union had been humiliated by the death of the Zvezda-2 crew. The Americans had been gracious and very cooperative but for him it was all done with a sense of smugness by NASA and the Kennedy Administration. The Capitalist technology had succeeded and the Communist technology had failed. He was now ready with a plan that would not only get the Soviet space program on track again but in the long run put the Soviet Union back in the lead again in the space race.
Kerimov was ushered into the Politburo meeting room. The stale tobacco smoke hung in the air and he could sense all eyes on him as he entered. He was well aware that several members of the Politburo were not favorable to the manned space program, especially the Soviet lunar program. They felt it took resources that would be better spent on Soviet military forces. He also was aware that Brezhnev’s health was deteriorating and couldn’t be counted on long term. Over the next several hours he presented what he considered was the best option for the Soviet space program. The Soviet manned program would focus on lunar operations using a N1 rocket that would incrementally improve in lift capacity. Too much was invested in the development of the N1 rocket as the Soviet Heavy Lift launch vehicle to simply discard it and develop a new HLV. For the short term the Soviet N1F would continue to be used for manned lunar exploration. Development of Cryogenic Hydrogen rocket engines for the upper stages of the N1 was a priority project for the space program and would result in a significant increase in launch capability to the Moon. The Soviet space program would also leverage the knowledge that NASA was gaining about the Moon from it’s Apollo lunar landings. The current US Apollo LESA program planned a series of 5 different landing sites on the lunar surface through the rest of the decade in addition to the 8 sites already explored during the earlier phase of the Apollo program. The Soviet space program would make us of the information from the Apollo program to help pick one site and establish a permanent lunar base. The key for success for the Soviet Lunar program was going to be finding a site that had lunar water and the Soviet’s had several good prospects, thanks to NASA.
Compared to the Soviet space program the US space program was very open and it was astonishing how much lunar data was published by NASA and the US university system. Detailed technical knowledge on US rocket engine design and US launch vehicles was kept secret. This wasn’t what the Soviet intelligence gathering efforts were focused on. The data coming out of the Apollo lunar explorations was distributed to the US university system and was not kept classified. The intelligence gathering was facilitated because it wasn’t difficult to find College facility that were sympathetic to the Communist cause. Recently the Soviet lunar scientists had learned from fellow colleagues in the West that the data from the Apollo-20 mission indicated possible concentrations of water in several deep craters that were permanently shaded. This meant to Kerimov that near these locations was the perfect place to set up a Soviet Lunar base. If the Soviet Union could get to these locations first this would give them an advantage over the US lunar program. Access to water on the lunar surface would allow a Soviet lunar base to be more self sufficient and not be totally dependent on supplies from Earth. This was extremely important because the N1 vehicle could never match the lift capability of the Saturn-VB. With the presence of water even Liquid Hydrogen and Liquid Oxygen could be manufactured on the lunar surface.
Two areas looked especially promising based on the data from Apollo-20 for lunar water. The first would be a unnamed crater, near the South Pole of the Moon that was 21 km in diameter and 4 km in depth. The second location was a smaller crater which was at the North Pole of the Moon and was 15 km in diameter and 3 km in depth. Each crater was permanently shadowed and based on the data returned from Apollo-20 it looked like ice possibly existed right below the surface. NASA had rejected a lunar landing at these pole sites as being too risky until the US space station at EML-2 was in operation. A polar lunar landing would require a insertion into lunar polar orbit. Because of the properties of a lunar polar orbit a return to Earth could only occur every 14-days without a enormous expenditure in Delta-V. A lunar landing from EML-2 wouldn’t have this problem. NASA administrators had determined that it was too risky for a crew to only have a opening for an Earth return trajectory every 14-days. The current information was that the first US lunar mission from EML-2 wasn’t planned until after 1979. This left the a opening for the Soviet Union to attempt a lunar landing at one of the poles. Technically under international treaty the Soviet’s couldn’t claim parts of the Moon. For Kerimov, he was depending on the saying that possession is 9/10th’s of the law. He would get the Soviet lunar program back on track and by 1979 the Soviet Union would have a permanent lunar base at one of the poles.
Lunar Surface, Marius Hills Region - October 21, 1975
The Apollo-22 crew got back to work re-energized after their day off. The blue crew of Al Bean and Gordon Swann started the first scientific EVA of the mission. The crew drove the Lunar Rover over 10 miles across the surface and did a initial geological sweep of the area around the landing site. The blue team also used the IMAX camera to film on the lunar surface for the first time. At several stops along the way , the IMAX camera took sweeping shots of the lunar surface. For Al and Gordon it was tough because they wouldn’t know for months how the film turned out but they really had high hopes that the first lunar surface IMAX shots were just as spectacular as what they were seeing in person. The Lunar day was approaching it’s mid point and the surface temperature was now 250 degrees F. The water cooling inside the lunar spacesuits easily kept the astronauts cool despite the high surface temperatures. Through the rest of the “lunar day” of the Apollo-22 crew kept up a steady pace of exploration and construction. While the blue team did the exploration the gold team of Pete Conrad and Ed Mitchell completed all the assembly requirements for the LESA mission including the unloading of the supplies from the LLV-LT, preparation of the MOLAB vehicle, assembly of the lunar drilling rig. The crew was working so well they decided to skip the 2nd rest day and make use of the remaining daylight to conduct additional lunar exploration. As the Sun finally went down on October 30th on the lunar surface the Apollo-22 crew had almost 200 man hours of EVA time on the lunar surface and so far the crew had completed 14-EVA’s. With no more sunlight the LESA base fully switched from Solar Power to fuel cells and the crew prepared for the 14 day lunar night ahead of them. The crew was very much aware that this lunar night was what had killed the Zvezda crew but they had high confidence in the LESA base that it could survive without issue during the cold temperatures of the long lunar night.
On October 31st the crew took time from their rest day to conduct the very first live lunar press conference. The crew set up the TV camera and they all sat around the main table in the wardroom. The TV in the wardroom was showing to the astronauts the reporters back in Houston. The first lunar press conference was an outstanding success for NASA and the lunar program. The press enjoyed being able to question the astronauts on the surface directly. Now the crew prepared for the first EVA during the lunar night. The Blue crew of Bean and Swann would use lunar core drilling rig to take it’s the first deep core lunar sample. Compared to earlier drills that were hand-held and would only penetrate a couple of yards. The lunar core drilling rig was designed to penetrate up to 40 yards into the lunar surface. The rig had been extensively tested on Earth in simulated lunar regolith but nobody could know for sure how it would perform on the lunar surface. The first attempt at using this rig has been planned for the lunar night. During the lunar night, geological observation was extremely difficult with no light from the Sun. As was pointed out by scientists on Earth, field Geology is a daytime activity. The astronauts had lights mounted on their spacesuits and they had the light reflecting off the Earth which allowed some visibility. It was still very difficult to observe with detail anything beyond 20-30 yards away from the Astronauts. A benefits of the lunar night for the astronauts was how beautiful the lunar night sky was. During the lunar day it was impossible to see anything in the lunar sky because of how bright the Sun was. Now with the sun finally down they could really see the lunar sky for the first time. After first stepping outside, Gordon and Al turned off their suit lights and allowed their eyes to adjust to the darkness. They then took some pictures of the lunar nighttime sky. More serious astronomy would have to wait but they had some time to take some pictures. Compared to the EVA’s on the earlier missions, the LESA EVA’s schedule was not nearly as rushed. With the lack of atmosphere none of the stars twinkled. The astronauts had to pull themselves away because this EVA was not about stargazing.
Al and Gordon used the LRV to move the trailer with the drilling rig to the location that had been picked out by Gordon and the scientists back on Earth. The drilling rig was quickly setup and the drilling started. Within the first 15 minutes the rig started running into issues penetrating the lunar regolith. The drilling rig after the first couple of yards of penetration would stop and refuse to go further. Bean would have to stop the drilling and then reverse the rig a bit and then start it drilling again. The drill rig would then make a little more progress and then stop. After 4-hours of drilling the crew was only down a little over 10-yards and Bean and Swann were getting very frustrated with the rig. The astronauts were also exhausted because they had been constantly had to manhandle the rig to get it to drill a little deeper. As a Geologist, Gordon was well aware how important a deep core sample was but he was about ready to say “Fuck it” and walk away from this machine. They had been so focused on getting the drilling rig to work properly that they had not noticed their hands getting colder and colder. When they were 5-hours into the EVA they both realized that they had lost feeling in their hands and started realized the seriousness of the issue and told Houston. Both astronauts could just imagine the news headline, “1st Lunar nighttime EVA cut short because astronaut hands got cold”. They were becoming very concerned because of the lack of feeling in both hands. The astronauts had thought the lack of feeling in the hands was because of how hard they had been working their hands when using the drilling rig. The EVA was about to ended anyway and both astronauts were ordered back to the LESA base. Their hands refused to cooperate and they couldn’t unhitch the trailer with the drilling rig to drive the LRV back to the LESA base. After several frustrated minutes Houston ordered them to abandon the attempt and move back to the LESA base on foot. The drilling site was only ½ km from the base so they could reach the LESA base on foot without to much issue. After a tense 30 minutes Bean and Swann got back to the LESA base and cycled through the airlock. Once inside they had difficulty getting their gloves off and had to call for assistance from Pete and Ed. Once the gloves were removed both of their hands were pale with their fingertips almost white. Their hands were showing the classic symptoms of frostbite . Pete got on the radio and updated Houston on the condition of Al and Gordon’s hands.
The update from Pete set of an immediate contingency planning by the Flight Surgeon. The first item was to start treating both Al and Gordon’s hands for frostbite. Nobody at this point knew exactly how bad the case of frostbite actually was. Pete and Ed finished helping their fellow crew members out of their spacesuits and managed at the same time to get themselves coated in lunar dust. Houston who was watching the entire thing unfold on the TV camera in the EVA preparation area, ordered the crew to don dust masks to at least keep the lunar material out of their lungs. Once Al and Gordon had been helped out their spacesuits they could then be moved upstairs for further treatment. Pete made a command decision that every astronaut was going to strip and all leave all their clothing coated with lunar dust in the equipment room to prevent tracking lunar soil upstairs. Pete and Ed stripped and then help Al and Gordon out of their liquid cooling garments. With this completed Al and Swann could be helped up the ladder to the second floor. As directed by the flight surgeon each had warm water applied to their hands as blankets were wrapped around them. In Houston the Flight Surgeon had a diverse group of medical expertise to call both inside of NASA and outside. Immediately calls went out and within the hour doctors that had experience in dealing with frostbite had been called into consult. As the hands warmed up both Swann and Bean felt intense pain in both of their hands. NASA had to find out if the frostbite in their hands had progressed to the point that it actually started killing the skin. If that was the case, NASA could have a serious medical issue on the lunar surface.
The intense pain that both Gordon and Al had been feeling was actually a good thing since that meant the nerve damage wasn’t extensive. Ed set about taking photos of their hands and then went downstairs to develop the film. He would then put the developed pictures on a high resolution scanner and they would be transmitted to Houston for review. While Ed did this, Conrad setup the TV camera for a video conference with the doctors back on Earth. While all this was happening the press was going into a frenzy over the medical emergency, and peppering the NASA public affairs officers with questions. At the same time both astronaut’s wives wanted information from NASA about what was happening to their husbands. Several hours later the first specialist medical doctors with experience in frostbite touched down in a US Govt jet at Houston. A video conference was set up in a backroom at Mission Control to allow more privacy for the crew. The team of doctors first examined the pictures that had been taken by Ed and then asked both Al and Gordon questions to help them come up with a prognosis. It became apparent that the overall damage was relatively mild. It was apparent the astronauts hands had suffered from what was called “frostnip” and while the skin would be tender for the next several days no further issue was expected. What was more concerning was the astronauts fingertips. In the EVA glove a lot of pressure was on the fingertips and the astronauts nails. It looked like these areas might have experienced some actual frostbite damage. The most critical thing was the doctors expected that both astronauts would be able to make a full recovery if the affected areas were allowed to heal. This meant that they could no EVA’s until the skin healed. The astronauts would be evaluated each day to see how well the hands were healing and how serious the damage was. The skin on their hands was extremely sensitive right now and the EVA gloves would just do more damage at this time.
After the astronauts had been treated and stabilized, NASA had to now figure out what the next steps would be. NASA didn’t want to abandon all lunar nighttime EVA’s but they had to figure out a way to mitigate the cold or work around it. The issue also forced a rethinking of suit design for the lunar nights. A “Tiger Team” was formed to investigate what could be done for the current Apollo mission in progress and also the Apollo-23 mission that would lift off in May of 1976. NASA had to get more data around the night-time lunar temperature effects on the astronauts. Pete proposed a simple solution for the EVA that was planned for Ed and him tomorrow. They would do just a 2-hour EVA and then return back to the LESA base and gauge how their extremities had been affected by the low temperature. The conservative NASA mission planners were not real thrilled with this proposal but Pete won them over by emphasizing that at the first sign of problems Ed and him would come inside. Also in all the testing on Earth they had never encountered this issue. More data was needed and the only way to get it was to have the astronauts go back outside.
The next day Pete and Ed exited the LESA habitat and did the short 2-hour EVA. They first went over and worked on extracting the lunar drilling rig core from it’s hole. The core was really stuck and refused to back all the way out of the hole. Pete could get it to come up about 3 yards and then it was stuck again. They had issues with extracting cores on other lunar missions and it appeared this would be no exception. For Pete he thought the issue was all about Power. The motor on the drilling rig just wasn’t that powerful for the job they were asking it to do. Pete worked the drill up and down multiple times and finally was able to work free the drill and bring up the full 10-yard sample. This had taken over over 90 minutes and they were running out of time. Pete and Ed continued to check their hands and were feeling them getting cold but not to the point of losing feeling. The cores were taken apart and put into 1-yard long segments and each end was capped. The cores would be left with the drilling rig for now and the two astronauts drove the LRV back to the LESA base leaving the still set up drilling rig behind, they would take it down during another EVA. Once back inside the LESA base the two astronauts found their hands were ok but did feel cold. They reported these findings back to Houston during the debrief and Pete requested that they do another EVA tomorrow but for 2 ½ hours. After a discussion in Houston it was confirmed that Pete and Ed would do a 2 ½ hour EVA tomorrow. The science team would work on the EVA plan overnight and then they would go over it with the astronauts in the morning. For Al and Gordon it was very frustrating being stuck inside. The color had returned to their hands and even their fingertips didn’t look to bad with only some minor skin peeling. They reported back the healing of their hands twice a day to Houston. Gordon was hoping that they wouldn’t have to wait too long to resume EVA’s but he also knew how conservative NASA was.
I't is back!!!
Moscow, Kremlin - October 20, 1975
Kerim Kerimov marched down the hallway in the Kremlin. After over a year with no manned spaceflights by the Soviet Union he was finally ready to formally present the reforms he had putting into place for the Soviet space program. He had over the last year since the Zvezda-2 crew loss cleaned up and streamlined the Soviet space program. He had formed a single design bureau, NPO Energia to bring all space program development under one agency. As promised General Secretary Brezhnev had given him a free hand to reform the Soviet space agency. The Soviet Union had been humiliated by the death of the Zvezda-2 crew. The Americans had been gracious and very cooperative but for him it was all done with a sense of smugness by NASA and the Kennedy Administration. The Capitalist technology had succeeded and the Communist technology had failed. He was now ready with a plan that would not only get the Soviet space program on track again but in the long run put the Soviet Union back in the lead again in the space race.
Kerimov was ushered into the Politburo meeting room. The stale tobacco smoke hung in the air and he could sense all eyes on him as he entered. He was well aware that several members of the Politburo were not favorable to the manned space program, especially the Soviet lunar program. They felt it took resources that would be better spent on Soviet military forces. He also was aware that Brezhnev’s health was deteriorating and couldn’t be counted on long term. Over the next several hours he presented what he considered was the best option for the Soviet space program. The Soviet manned program would focus on lunar operations using a N1 rocket that would incrementally improve in lift capacity. Too much was invested in the development of the N1 rocket as the Soviet Heavy Lift launch vehicle to simply discard it and develop a new HLV. For the short term the Soviet N1F would continue to be used for manned lunar exploration. Development of Cryogenic Hydrogen rocket engines for the upper stages of the N1 was a priority project for the space program and would result in a significant increase in launch capability to the Moon. The Soviet space program would also leverage the knowledge that NASA was gaining about the Moon from it’s Apollo lunar landings. The current US Apollo LESA program planned a series of 5 different landing sites on the lunar surface through the rest of the decade in addition to the 8 sites already explored during the earlier phase of the Apollo program. The Soviet space program would make us of the information from the Apollo program to help pick one site and establish a permanent lunar base. The key for success for the Soviet Lunar program was going to be finding a site that had lunar water and the Soviet’s had several good prospects, thanks to NASA.
Compared to the Soviet space program the US space program was very open and it was astonishing how much lunar data was published by NASA and the US university system. Detailed technical knowledge on US rocket engine design and US launch vehicles was kept secret. This wasn’t what the Soviet intelligence gathering efforts were focused on. The data coming out of the Apollo lunar explorations was distributed to the US university system and was not kept classified. The intelligence gathering was facilitated because it wasn’t difficult to find College facility that were sympathetic to the Communist cause. Recently the Soviet lunar scientists had learned from fellow colleagues in the West that the data from the Apollo-20 mission indicated possible concentrations of water in several deep craters that were permanently shaded. This meant to Kerimov that near these locations was the perfect place to set up a Soviet Lunar base. If the Soviet Union could get to these locations first this would give them an advantage over the US lunar program. Access to water on the lunar surface would allow a Soviet lunar base to be more self sufficient and not be totally dependent on supplies from Earth. This was extremely important because the N1 vehicle could never match the lift capability of the Saturn-VB. With the presence of water even Liquid Hydrogen and Liquid Oxygen could be manufactured on the lunar surface.
Two areas looked especially promising based on the data from Apollo-20 for lunar water. The first would be a unnamed crater, near the South Pole of the Moon that was 21 km in diameter and 4 km in depth. The second location was a smaller crater which was at the North Pole of the Moon and was 15 km in diameter and 3 km in depth. Each crater was permanently shadowed and based on the data returned from Apollo-20 it looked like ice possibly existed right below the surface. NASA had rejected a lunar landing at these pole sites as being too risky until the US space station at EML-2 was in operation. A polar lunar landing would require a insertion into lunar polar orbit. Because of the properties of a lunar polar orbit a return to Earth could only occur every 14-days without a enormous expenditure in Delta-V. A lunar landing from EML-2 wouldn’t have this problem. NASA administrators had determined that it was too risky for a crew to only have a opening for an Earth return trajectory every 14-days. The current information was that the first US lunar mission from EML-2 wasn’t planned until after 1979. This left the a opening for the Soviet Union to attempt a lunar landing at one of the poles. Technically under international treaty the Soviet’s couldn’t claim parts of the Moon. For Kerimov, he was depending on the saying that possession is 9/10th’s of the law. He would get the Soviet lunar program back on track and by 1979 the Soviet Union would have a permanent lunar base at one of the poles.
Lunar Surface, Marius Hills Region - October 21, 1975
The Apollo-22 crew got back to work re-energized after their day off. The blue crew of Al Bean and Gordon Swann started the first scientific EVA of the mission. The crew drove the Lunar Rover over 10 miles across the surface and did a initial geological sweep of the area around the landing site. The blue team also used the IMAX camera to film on the lunar surface for the first time. At several stops along the way , the IMAX camera took sweeping shots of the lunar surface. For Al and Gordon it was tough because they wouldn’t know for months how the film turned out but they really had high hopes that the first lunar surface IMAX shots were just as spectacular as what they were seeing in person. The Lunar day was approaching it’s mid point and the surface temperature was now 250 degrees F. The water cooling inside the lunar spacesuits easily kept the astronauts cool despite the high surface temperatures. Through the rest of the “lunar day” of the Apollo-22 crew kept up a steady pace of exploration and construction. While the blue team did the exploration the gold team of Pete Conrad and Ed Mitchell completed all the assembly requirements for the LESA mission including the unloading of the supplies from the LLV-LT, preparation of the MOLAB vehicle, assembly of the lunar drilling rig. The crew was working so well they decided to skip the 2nd rest day and make use of the remaining daylight to conduct additional lunar exploration. As the Sun finally went down on October 30th on the lunar surface the Apollo-22 crew had almost 200 man hours of EVA time on the lunar surface and so far the crew had completed 14-EVA’s. With no more sunlight the LESA base fully switched from Solar Power to fuel cells and the crew prepared for the 14 day lunar night ahead of them. The crew was very much aware that this lunar night was what had killed the Zvezda crew but they had high confidence in the LESA base that it could survive without issue during the cold temperatures of the long lunar night.
On October 31st the crew took time from their rest day to conduct the very first live lunar press conference. The crew set up the TV camera and they all sat around the main table in the wardroom. The TV in the wardroom was showing to the astronauts the reporters back in Houston. The first lunar press conference was an outstanding success for NASA and the lunar program. The press enjoyed being able to question the astronauts on the surface directly. Now the crew prepared for the first EVA during the lunar night. The Blue crew of Bean and Swann would use lunar core drilling rig to take it’s the first deep core lunar sample. Compared to earlier drills that were hand-held and would only penetrate a couple of yards. The lunar core drilling rig was designed to penetrate up to 40 yards into the lunar surface. The rig had been extensively tested on Earth in simulated lunar regolith but nobody could know for sure how it would perform on the lunar surface. The first attempt at using this rig has been planned for the lunar night. During the lunar night, geological observation was extremely difficult with no light from the Sun. As was pointed out by scientists on Earth, field Geology is a daytime activity. The astronauts had lights mounted on their spacesuits and they had the light reflecting off the Earth which allowed some visibility. It was still very difficult to observe with detail anything beyond 20-30 yards away from the Astronauts. A benefits of the lunar night for the astronauts was how beautiful the lunar night sky was. During the lunar day it was impossible to see anything in the lunar sky because of how bright the Sun was. Now with the sun finally down they could really see the lunar sky for the first time. After first stepping outside, Gordon and Al turned off their suit lights and allowed their eyes to adjust to the darkness. They then took some pictures of the lunar nighttime sky. More serious astronomy would have to wait but they had some time to take some pictures. Compared to the EVA’s on the earlier missions, the LESA EVA’s schedule was not nearly as rushed. With the lack of atmosphere none of the stars twinkled. The astronauts had to pull themselves away because this EVA was not about stargazing.
Al and Gordon used the LRV to move the trailer with the drilling rig to the location that had been picked out by Gordon and the scientists back on Earth. The drilling rig was quickly setup and the drilling started. Within the first 15 minutes the rig started running into issues penetrating the lunar regolith. The drilling rig after the first couple of yards of penetration would stop and refuse to go further. Bean would have to stop the drilling and then reverse the rig a bit and then start it drilling again. The drill rig would then make a little more progress and then stop. After 4-hours of drilling the crew was only down a little over 10-yards and Bean and Swann were getting very frustrated with the rig. The astronauts were also exhausted because they had been constantly had to manhandle the rig to get it to drill a little deeper. As a Geologist, Gordon was well aware how important a deep core sample was but he was about ready to say “Fuck it” and walk away from this machine. They had been so focused on getting the drilling rig to work properly that they had not noticed their hands getting colder and colder. When they were 5-hours into the EVA they both realized that they had lost feeling in their hands and started realized the seriousness of the issue and told Houston. Both astronauts could just imagine the news headline, “1st Lunar nighttime EVA cut short because astronaut hands got cold”. They were becoming very concerned because of the lack of feeling in both hands. The astronauts had thought the lack of feeling in the hands was because of how hard they had been working their hands when using the drilling rig. The EVA was about to ended anyway and both astronauts were ordered back to the LESA base. Their hands refused to cooperate and they couldn’t unhitch the trailer with the drilling rig to drive the LRV back to the LESA base. After several frustrated minutes Houston ordered them to abandon the attempt and move back to the LESA base on foot. The drilling site was only ½ km from the base so they could reach the LESA base on foot without to much issue. After a tense 30 minutes Bean and Swann got back to the LESA base and cycled through the airlock. Once inside they had difficulty getting their gloves off and had to call for assistance from Pete and Ed. Once the gloves were removed both of their hands were pale with their fingertips almost white. Their hands were showing the classic symptoms of frostbite . Pete got on the radio and updated Houston on the condition of Al and Gordon’s hands.
The update from Pete set of an immediate contingency planning by the Flight Surgeon. The first item was to start treating both Al and Gordon’s hands for frostbite. Nobody at this point knew exactly how bad the case of frostbite actually was. Pete and Ed finished helping their fellow crew members out of their spacesuits and managed at the same time to get themselves coated in lunar dust. Houston who was watching the entire thing unfold on the TV camera in the EVA preparation area, ordered the crew to don dust masks to at least keep the lunar material out of their lungs. Once Al and Gordon had been helped out their spacesuits they could then be moved upstairs for further treatment. Pete made a command decision that every astronaut was going to strip and all leave all their clothing coated with lunar dust in the equipment room to prevent tracking lunar soil upstairs. Pete and Ed stripped and then help Al and Gordon out of their liquid cooling garments. With this completed Al and Swann could be helped up the ladder to the second floor. As directed by the flight surgeon each had warm water applied to their hands as blankets were wrapped around them. In Houston the Flight Surgeon had a diverse group of medical expertise to call both inside of NASA and outside. Immediately calls went out and within the hour doctors that had experience in dealing with frostbite had been called into consult. As the hands warmed up both Swann and Bean felt intense pain in both of their hands. NASA had to find out if the frostbite in their hands had progressed to the point that it actually started killing the skin. If that was the case, NASA could have a serious medical issue on the lunar surface.
The intense pain that both Gordon and Al had been feeling was actually a good thing since that meant the nerve damage wasn’t extensive. Ed set about taking photos of their hands and then went downstairs to develop the film. He would then put the developed pictures on a high resolution scanner and they would be transmitted to Houston for review. While Ed did this, Conrad setup the TV camera for a video conference with the doctors back on Earth. While all this was happening the press was going into a frenzy over the medical emergency, and peppering the NASA public affairs officers with questions. At the same time both astronaut’s wives wanted information from NASA about what was happening to their husbands. Several hours later the first specialist medical doctors with experience in frostbite touched down in a US Govt jet at Houston. A video conference was set up in a backroom at Mission Control to allow more privacy for the crew. The team of doctors first examined the pictures that had been taken by Ed and then asked both Al and Gordon questions to help them come up with a prognosis. It became apparent that the overall damage was relatively mild. It was apparent the astronauts hands had suffered from what was called “frostnip” and while the skin would be tender for the next several days no further issue was expected. What was more concerning was the astronauts fingertips. In the EVA glove a lot of pressure was on the fingertips and the astronauts nails. It looked like these areas might have experienced some actual frostbite damage. The most critical thing was the doctors expected that both astronauts would be able to make a full recovery if the affected areas were allowed to heal. This meant that they could no EVA’s until the skin healed. The astronauts would be evaluated each day to see how well the hands were healing and how serious the damage was. The skin on their hands was extremely sensitive right now and the EVA gloves would just do more damage at this time.
After the astronauts had been treated and stabilized, NASA had to now figure out what the next steps would be. NASA didn’t want to abandon all lunar nighttime EVA’s but they had to figure out a way to mitigate the cold or work around it. The issue also forced a rethinking of suit design for the lunar nights. A “Tiger Team” was formed to investigate what could be done for the current Apollo mission in progress and also the Apollo-23 mission that would lift off in May of 1976. NASA had to get more data around the night-time lunar temperature effects on the astronauts. Pete proposed a simple solution for the EVA that was planned for Ed and him tomorrow. They would do just a 2-hour EVA and then return back to the LESA base and gauge how their extremities had been affected by the low temperature. The conservative NASA mission planners were not real thrilled with this proposal but Pete won them over by emphasizing that at the first sign of problems Ed and him would come inside. Also in all the testing on Earth they had never encountered this issue. More data was needed and the only way to get it was to have the astronauts go back outside.
The next day Pete and Ed exited the LESA habitat and did the short 2-hour EVA. They first went over and worked on extracting the lunar drilling rig core from it’s hole. The core was really stuck and refused to back all the way out of the hole. Pete could get it to come up about 3 yards and then it was stuck again. They had issues with extracting cores on other lunar missions and it appeared this would be no exception. For Pete he thought the issue was all about Power. The motor on the drilling rig just wasn’t that powerful for the job they were asking it to do. Pete worked the drill up and down multiple times and finally was able to work free the drill and bring up the full 10-yard sample. This had taken over over 90 minutes and they were running out of time. Pete and Ed continued to check their hands and were feeling them getting cold but not to the point of losing feeling. The cores were taken apart and put into 1-yard long segments and each end was capped. The cores would be left with the drilling rig for now and the two astronauts drove the LRV back to the LESA base leaving the still set up drilling rig behind, they would take it down during another EVA. Once back inside the LESA base the two astronauts found their hands were ok but did feel cold. They reported these findings back to Houston during the debrief and Pete requested that they do another EVA tomorrow but for 2 ½ hours. After a discussion in Houston it was confirmed that Pete and Ed would do a 2 ½ hour EVA tomorrow. The science team would work on the EVA plan overnight and then they would go over it with the astronauts in the morning. For Al and Gordon it was very frustrating being stuck inside. The color had returned to their hands and even their fingertips didn’t look to bad with only some minor skin peeling. They reported back the healing of their hands twice a day to Houston. Gordon was hoping that they wouldn’t have to wait too long to resume EVA’s but he also knew how conservative NASA was.
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Thanks for putting this together.
Another really interested video is this one done on the Apollo-12 launch. It is also synched up with the Orbiter Simulator program. It is the On-board tape of the launch. It records what the Astronauts are saying during the launch, not just what is broadcast on the radio. The funny part for me is during the 2nd stage burn the crew is laughing about the entire lightning strike knocking the fuel cells offline. These guys are riding a Saturn-V into orbit and they are laughing between themselves. Just gives you a small peak into the close friendship shared between the members of the Apollo-12 crew.
Indeed. Hope this isn't dead
I hope that I can get more regular updates to at least once every 2-weeks now.
Imperator Maximilianius
Banned
I hope that I can get more regular updates to at least once every 2-weeks now.
I hope so too.
very good new part/chapter, its good to see that the timeline is not dead, i do wonder what tech jump in to spacesuits will be made , after the discoveries of the impact of the cold night on the moon . And And new Drill must be developed to be able to perform the operations needed . I suspect that what will be discovered on the ,moon will allow the construction later of Spaceships to explore fully our Solar System . Cant hardly wait for the next part .
I hope that I can get more regular updates to at least once every 2-weeks now.
Great to see that its back
Another great update as usual. I wonder how successful US/USSR's intelligence agency is at penetrating each others projects..
Great to see that its back
Another great update as usual. I wonder how successful US/USSR's intelligence agency is at penetrating each others projects..
Thank you.
The Soviet intelligence has more information on the US project's just because of how open the NASA and the US is. While the Soviet's don't have blue-prints on the F-1 engine or the Saturn-V. They do have information on the performance of the Saturn-V. If you look at a lot of the NASA documentation from that time period, a lot of it isn't even stamped secret/classified. Compared to old Military documents that have been marked for release. While the US is basically in the dark about large aspects of the Soviet space program. They are not even sure of the performance of the N1 rocket. Part of this has to do with NASA as a civilian agency. The CIA doesn't have a task to penetrate the Soviet Space Agency to see how their manned space program is doing. It just isn't considered critical to national security. The Soviet Space Program is all under a govt agency and no distinction that it is a civilian (non-military program). The most information NASA gets is what the Soviet's announce or what the CIA chooses to share from Satellite photos. The DOD has more information on the performance is of the Soviet ICBM's and Soviet satellites but the manned parts are just not a concern.
This gets even more pronounced for the scientific information. The return information from the Apollo program eventually gets categorized and make's it way into the scientific community and into the US university system. No special classification is considered. In OTL, A US scientist gave the Soviet's pictures of the area around were Luna-21 rover had landed from a Apollo Mission. These pictures were used by the rover operators. In this ATL the incredible flow of scientific information from the continued Apollo missions is finding it's way into the US scientific community and being disseminated world wide. One of the driving points of the Apollo program in this ATL is the scientific return and this information is not tightly controlled.
The problem for NASA is that nobody is really thinking about the importance of water from a stand-point of living off the land on the lunar surface. From a NASA viewpoint we have a big powerful rocket (Saturn-VB) and we can bring everything we need with us. The Soviet Lunar program has to economize on every Kg they carry to the lunar surface. The Soviet's look on the possible discovery of water as a prime location for a lunar base. The water can be used for a lot of different purposes and makes it much easier to sustain a long term base with minimal supplies from Earth. NASA is busy exploring the lunar surface and hasn't really thought to deeply about the advantage that using water on the moon would bring for a lunar base. Some people have at NASA but the senior management has not. We can see this in OTL with the original US Mars missions during the Bush 41 administration. The concept was to bring everything with you and no consideration was given to using any onsite resources. It just wasn't thought about. NASA is changing it's thinking now after realizing the advantages. In this ATL NASA could be in for a rude awakening, courtesy of the Soviet space program. Victory doesn't always go to the team with the best technology and the biggest rockets.
It's alive
Note on Lunar night
actually it's brightly illuminated by full Earth
that frostbite is caused by design of EVA glove and missing of glove for liquid cooling garments
there feet are cover by cooling garments, not there hands !
seems at NASA some one forgot that little detail how cold it get on Moon during nights...
Note on Lunar night
actually it's brightly illuminated by full Earth
that frostbite is caused by design of EVA glove and missing of glove for liquid cooling garments
there feet are cover by cooling garments, not there hands !
seems at NASA some one forgot that little detail how cold it get on Moon during nights...
It's alive
Note on Lunar night
actually it's brightly illuminated by full Earth
that frostbite is caused by design of EVA glove and missing of glove for liquid cooling garments
there feet are cover by cooling garments, not there hands !
seems at NASA some one forgot that little detail how cold it get on Moon during nights...
The best description I have seen for lunar night visibility on the lunar surface from Earth Shine is it is about equivalent to deep twilight on Earth. It certainly isn't daylight anymore, but it isn't completely dark like it would be at night on Earth with no lights.
The cause of the cold hand-hands issue will be revealed in the next chapter.
Apollo-Part-24
Lunar Surface, Marius Hills Region -November 3, 1975
Gordon Swann woke up in his small room in the LESA habitat. After the 1st week of lunar living the disorientation that he would first experience when waking up in ⅙ lunar gravity had passed. It started to feel very natural to work and live in lunar gravity. While his hands still hurt he could tell each day they were getting better and the tingling in them had mostly gone away. It was very frustrating for him to not be able to do EVA’s while allowing his hands to heal. However the scientist in him told him that it was the best thing to do. The gloves on the Apollo A8L lunar spacesuits were extremely hard to manipulate. He had spent countless hours on Earth building up his hand strength by squeezing a tennis ball just so he could be ready for this mission. He turned on the small overhead light in his bunk and checked the time. It was three more hours until it was time to get-up. He looked over at the pictures of his wife and two children that he had taped up in his bunk. The down times like this he hated the most, because he would start thinking about his family and how he missed them. Gordon reached over and picked up the latest message he had received from his wife. The astronaut’s could exchange text messages back and forth with Earth using the LESA base computer system. It was developed from a Mailbox system that was first pioneered on the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) to send messages back and forth within the department of defense. This system was borrowed by NASA for the LESA base to easily send text messages back and forth. His family would write up letters and a NASA employee would type them into a computer in Houston and send the message to his electronic mailbox on the LESA Base computer system. He really enjoyed logging into the system and finding messages waiting for him from his family. Usually he printed the messages out so he could read them in his room before going to sleep. Some of the NASA engineers were calling the system a electronic mail system or E-mail system for short.
Gordon sighed after he finished reading the message from his wife. Even after he had assured her in another message that he was ok, he could tell she was still worried about him. He really wasn’t that tired and today, Al and him would be stuck inside the base again. It felt like Al and him had been grounded by their disapproving parents back in Houston. He sat up and looked out the window in his room at the dark lunar landscape. Maybe today he could get down to the laboratory area and examine some of the lunar samples. He just felt that they were missing something, why did his hands get affected by the cold so much? The spacesuits with the low flow setting on the cooling garment shouldn’t have radiated that much heat. Gordon all of a sudden sat upright in his bed, of course. It wasn’t the surface temperature that caused the problem, it was the thermal transfer from the drilling rig that caused the issue. He got out of bed and put on his bath-robe and slippers. He quietly opened his door, he could hear very clearly Pete’s whistle like snore. He had a habit of sleeping with his mouth opened and that gap in his front teeth added a odd whistling noise when he snored. He Didn’t snore in Zero-G but on the lunar surface he would start snoring again. When they had done their first 2-week simulated mission together at the training facility in Canada, Pete had insisted that he didn’t snore. So Ed and him tapped Pete’s snoring and played it for everyone during the next briefing. Everyone had a good laugh at the recording, even Pete. He turned on a flashlight and slipped downstairs to the laboratory and put on a headset. Time to wake up Houston.
“Houston, this is Gordon.”
At Mission Control in Houston, astronaut Angela Greene who was working the overnight shift at CapCom put down the manual she was reading and sat quickly upright in her chair. The wake up call wasn’t for another 3-hours so this call from Gordon was very unexpected. Everybody else in Mission Control also became alert.
“This is Houston, go ahead Gordon.”
“Hey Angela is that you?”
“Yes Gordon it is me. Is everything ok?” At the same time members of Mission Control were busily rechecking the telemetry readings on the LESA base to make sure they hadn’t missed a problem.
“Yeah everything is fine, except I woke up and wasn’t able to get back to sleep and I was laying in room thinking. I think I know what caused the issue with Al and my hands.”
“Ok Gordon, does it have anything to do with magazines that we left for you?”
Gordon chuckled to himself, he knew exactly what she was referring to “No it wasn’t the Geological Society of America magazines you left for me. I think maybe it was thermal transfer from the drilling rig. The drilling rig would get extremely cold in the lunar night and Al and I were fighting that thing during most of the EVA and we constantly had or hands on it. The drilling rig before we moved it had spent several days in the shadow of the LESA base after it was assembled and that would have cold soaked it even more. I think the extreme coldness of the rig transferred through or gloves and into our hands. ”
Angela looked around Mission Control and she did see several nodding of heads at their control stations.
“Ok, Gordon that does make sense. I am not sure how much the team looking into the problem had thought about that. I don’t think they realized how much you had your hands on the drilling rig.”
“I don’t really remember Al and I emphasizing during or debrief how much we had been gripping the drilling rig trying to get it to work. The metallic structure of the drilling right would be fairly good at transferring cold to or hands.”
“Yeah that makes sense Gordon, and the A8L gloves don’t have very thick material compared to other parts of the spacesuit.”
“Angela, can you make sure to pass that along. I really think that might be the issue. As long as we remain aware of what we are touching and for how long we should be ok working on the surface during the lunar night.”
“Gordon, I will be sure to pass that along. We are taking notes right now.”
“Thanks Angela. Did I wake you up?”
“No Gordon, I was just reviewing some documentation. It was a little bit of a surprise for us to hear from you. You heading back to bed?”
“No I think I am up for good. I am going to review some of the samples we have already taken.”
“Now you are getting me jealous Gordon. Well pick out some good ones to bring back.”
“I will, Angela.”
Gordon sat back in the laboratory chair for a moment and stared at the ceiling. He put some lotion on his hands and then put some gloves and a filter mask on. Ok it was time to look at some of those lunar samples so he could help the Geologic team back home figure out what was worth bringing home and what wasn’t. He put in one of his tapes of Led Zeppelin and turned the volume down and started to get to work with the samples. Several hours later he was completely engrossed in his work when Ed poked his head in.
“Hey there you are. Pete thought you might have wandered off. I take it your hands are feeling better?”
“Yeah my hands are feeling a lot better. I couldn’t sleep and I thought I would get some work done. I also had a idea about what caused the issue with our hands.”
“Oh really?”
“Yeah I think it was thermal transfer. Al and I were really manhandling that drilling rig. Or hands were all over it and we had a lot of constant contact. The metallic drilling rig must have been extremely cold. It even sat for several days in the shadow of the LESA base before the sun went down. I think if we measured the surface temperature of the rig it would be easily around -150 degrees C. The gloves on or EVA suits are only so thick and that cold would have transferred to or hands because of the contact with the metal.”
Mitchell nodded his head. “Well now that I think about it, it makes a lot of sense. I thought yesterday that Pete and I hands would get colder when we touched the drilling rig but I thought maybe I was imagining it. “
“When I woke up a couple of hours ago, that thought came into my head. I came down here and told Houston, so the engineers back in Texas have been thinking about it for a couple of hours.”
“Ok great. Pete got breakfast already started. So why don’t you come up stairs in a couple of minutes.
“Sure, just let me wrap up what I am doing.”
Later at Breakfast the crew talked over what Swann’s idea and they all agreed it made sense. In Houston a team was already taking a replica drilling rig and was going to put it in a vacuum chamber and then chill it to -150 C and run tests on thermal transfer through the space suit gloves. Conrad and Mitchell would also take the temperature of the drilling rig before they brought it back over to the LESA base. Houston also agreed to increase the EVA time to 3-hours today also long as the crew kept careful track of how cold their hands were feeling and minimize contact with the drilling rig or another other metallic items. A couple of hours later Pete and Ed were back outside and drove back to the lunar drilling rig. The surface temperature of the drilling rig was taken and it was -151 Centigrade. This confirmed part of Gordon’s theory.
Pete and Ed attached the drilling rig to the LRV and moved it back near the base. They then set up a 6 inch telescope to start another experiment. The crew took a series of images using a Ultra-violet camera that was attached to the telescope. After this was completed the crew closed out the EVA and went back inside. After the EVA both of their hands felt fine and didn’t seem to be affected by the cold. With this success the crew was cleared for a 4-hour EVA the next day. They would rig up a winch and lower a camera into the “Marius Hills Hole” to start the US exploration of this feature.
While Pete and Ed had been busy outside, Gordon and Al hadn’t been lounging around. Each astronaut had two full 2 AL8 spacesuits, 2 Primary Life Support System (PLSS) units and additional sets of gloves and extra fishbowl helmets. The astronauts had worn one of the A8L spacesuits when they first landed and a extra one was stored for each astronaut in equipment lockers in the LESA base. So far Gordon and Al had only worn the spacesuit they had landed with. They took this spacesuit and gave it a good cleaning including oiling of all the suit rings. While the suits would never be pristine white again, they did manage to remove a fair amount of lunar dust from the suits with the heavy duty vacuum. For Al, the suit cleaning included replacing the cover for the pressure indicator on his suit. The pressure gauge cover had been scratched by him putting his fingers on the gauge while covered in lunar regolith, the abrasive nature of the regolith had scratched the cover so much he could hardly read it. This type of wear and tear on the spacesuits had been anticipated and spare’s had been provided. After the cleaning, they carefully stowed away their landing suits and got out their second suit and made sure the space suit was ready for use when they when the surgeon would give them clearance to go EVA again. They then moved onto the PLSS units, they first overhauled the PLSS units they had been wearing and ran checks on them and did preventive maintenance. These units were put away and they then got out the unused PLSS units and did a full check out these unit also. For the astronauts, literally their lives depended on these units functioning.
The next day Pete and Ed prepared to go out again. This would be the third day in a row that Pete and Ed had done a EVA and they were both a little weary. The next day would be a rest day. With Al and Gordon barred from conducting EVA’s it was up to them but they were reaching their personal limits. They started the EVA off with attaching the trailer to the LRV and then loading it with the supplies they would need. They then drove the 1.5 km to the “Marius Hills Hole” location. The first task was to set up a work light so they could see better and so could Houston through the LRV TV Camera. They then started assembling the A-frame derrick that would be erected next to the hole. They first looked over the harnesses that the previous Cosmonaut visitors had left at the hole. While the appeared to still be secure NASA didn’t want them to be re-used so they had to pound into the lunar surface new stakes to secure NASA approved safety harnesses to. Once this was done they could then approach the hole and start assembling the A-frame. The actual A-frame derrick was fairly simple but had a swinging boom on it and a electric winch. The derrick was assembled almost like an erector set by the astronauts. Once assembled they would push it into place. For ballast they would use lunar regolith. The equipment cases that the derrick came in had been designed to also be attached to the derrick frame to hold the regolith. They would fill up a bucket and weigh it with a hand scale before dumping the regolith into a equipment case. Through steady work the astronauts managed to fill up the equipment cases and now the derrick was fully assembled with it’s ballast and both astronauts spacesuits were covered in lunar dust. Pete and Ed stopped to brush each other off some before getting back in the LRV to drive home.
Once the astronauts had gotten back inside the LESA base, they spent considerable time in the equipment room vacuum to remove as much lunar dust as possible. The primary vacuum became clogged from all the lunar dust and they switched over to the backup vacuum. After the two astronauts removed as much dust as possible, the exhausted astronauts could finally exit their spacesuits. The spacesuits would need to be cleaned more but that could wait as both Pete and Ed removed all the EVA gear and plugged in the PLSS backpacks to re-charge them. Once that was done they could finally head upstairs. They were both greeted to the smell of meat and Gordon and Al were just finishing up preparing hamburgers and french fries for dinner. The crew spent the next hour answering Houston’s questions about the EVA in between bites of hamburgers and french fries. Pete made the recommendation to Houston that Beer needed to be on the menu for the next mission for days like this. After dinner Pete and Ed went through the lunar shower and cleaned themselves thoroughly after their 3-days of back to back EVA’s. For the crew the shower was a great way to feel refreshed after several hard days of lunar EVA’s.
The next day Pete and Ed relaxed while Al and Gordon attended to maintenance duties on the LESA base including fixing vacuum that Pete had broken yesterday. Ed convinced Pete that they should do the first lunar experiment in ESP. Ed Mitchell was fascinated by paranormal phenomena and he had decided to conduct some of his own ESP experiments while on the lunar surface. For the first test, he would use a deck of Zener cards that he had brought along with him to see if Pete could read them. Ed felt that spending so much time with Pete on the lunar surface that they shared a special energy between them that would facilitate the ability of Ed and Pete to communicate telepathically. Ed also felt that being on the lunar surface away from Earth would heighten a person’s empathic abilities. Pete knew about Ed’s interest in ESP but didn’t share his enthusiasm. He would humor Ed and do his lunar ESP experiments since he didn’t have much to do at the moment. Pete felt at the very minimum it would make for an interesting drinking story when he got home. Pete did the experiment and Ed was happy about the results. Pete was still dubious and told Ed to keep any mention of it off the radio.
Gordon was anxious to get back to EVA’s and explore the “Marius Hills Hole”. Pete could tell that being stuck inside on the lunar surface was really getting to Gordon and he wanted to get back outside.
“Hey Gordon let me look at your hands?”
“They feel a lot better Pete. The skin is healing fine.”
“They do look at lot better, I think you are just about ready to go back out. Let’s go talk to the flight surgeon.”
The Apollo-22 crew sat down and talked things over with the flight surgeon. The doctors back in Houston had been monitoring the recovery of Bean and Swann and had been extremely pleased with how well their hands had recovered. It hadn’t been possible to tell before how extensive the damage was but since their hands had not blistered the two astronauts had avoided any serious damage. It seemed that both men had just suffered from the first stage of frostbite. However the rapid pace of healing surprised the doctors still and some wondered if it was something to do with the high Oxygen environment of the LESA habitat that facilitated the rapid healing of their hands. The doctors would clear Bean and Swann for EVA’s again. Now that the medical issues were dealt with Pete wanted to discuss with the Scientists about Mission planning for the rest of the lunar night and for the start of the 2nd lunar day. Mission Control spent the next several hours going over the plan for the rest of the lunar night and the next lunar day. They would finally get a chance to really explore this area of the “Ocean of Storms”. Conrad and Swann would take the MOLAB vehicle out for a cross country Geological traverse. They would drive the MOLAB almost 200km over the lunar surface to the Marius crater. On the way to the crater they would stop and survey several lunar domes along that route that were suspected to be of volcanic in origin. They would also stop and survey a satellite crater of Marius called Marius E that was 6km in diameter. The actual Marius crater was 41 km in diameter, with a depth of 1.7 km and had a crater floor that was smooth and flat. The rim of the crater was low and the scientific team had prepared a route that would come from the North side of the crater and would allow the MOLAB vehicle to enter crater so the crater floor could be surveyed. For Swann it was going to be a dream geological trip.
To facilitate the healing of Bean and Swann’s hands the Mission planners decided to have two rest days in a row. The crew would spend their 20th day on the lunar surface having a “Field Day” for the LESA habitat. This included cleaning and disinfecting every surface inside the Habitat. Conrad and Mitchell took their space suits from the last EVA and completely cleaned them inside and out. Including the cleaning the oiling of all locking rings and replacement of any worn parts. They then partially dismantled their PLSS backpacks, replaced any worn parts and reassembled them. The space suits could then put away and their second spacesuit was removed from their lockers and made it ready to wear on the next EVA. The each conducted fit checks on the second EVA space suits and tested pressurization on them. The 2nd set of A8L lunar spacesuits had been stored for several months on the LESA base. The space suits were one of the last items loaded in the LESA base shortly before final closeout. On Earth the astronauts had the advantage of a team of highly skilled technicians to check out the space suits before launch. On the lunar surface they had to depend on their own skills to check out the space suits and repair any issues that came up with the space suits or backpacks. They could always call for assistance from Houston but it would be the astronauts themselves that would be making any adjustments or repairs. Mitchell found after pressurization that the Oxygen suit valve for his second space suit was not operating correctly. After consulting with Houston the valve was swapped out with a spare on board. The suit was then repressurized and passed all the tests without issue. This activity took up most of the day and Conrad would remark that despite no EVA tha day you could hardly call it a rest day. Conrad also switched members of the Blue and Gold crews, Gordon would now be with him on the Gold crew and Ed would be on the Blue crew with Al.. That night Gordon had a hard time sleeping because for tomorrow’s EVA he would be lowered into the ‘Marius Hills Hole” and he would finally get to do a geological survey of this unique feature.
Lunar Surface, Marius Hills Region -November 7, 1975
That morning Gordon about lept out of bed. The crew quickly ate and cleaned up and used the bathroom before getting suited up. For a change this next EVA would be a four person EVA. The Mission planners had debated back and forth on how to handle the lowering of an astronaut into the Marius Hills hole. It had been discussed to send one astronaut down into the hole while the second remained on the surface to work the A-frame derrick. With only one astronaut down in the hole this would violate NASA’s two man rule for EVA’s were each astronaut would be in easy supporting distance of the other. Obviously if one man was on surface and one person was in the hole the person on the surface couldn’t easily help the astronaut below if a problem arose. So for this EVA all four astronauts would go out on the surface. The Gold Crew of Pete and Gordon would descend while Al and Ed supported them on the surface. The four astronauts got quickly suited up. They were now becoming experts in getting into their lunar spacesuits. Compared to on Earth, getting into the suits under ⅙ lunar gravity was easy. The crew was also going to bring the IMAX camera out to film in the lunar night. By the time the entire crew had cycled through the airlock they were 20 minutes ahead of schedule. The trailer was quickly attached to the lunar rover and equipment was then loaded into it. From previous EVA experience the astronauts used several empty equipment cases to form a makeshift elevated table near the LESA base. On this table they would leave equipment that was used often. This not only placed it at a easy height for the spacesuit astronauts to retrieve it also kept the equipment out of some of the lunar dust.
The crew journeyed the 1.5 km to the Marius Hills hole. The crew all helped each other get into safety harnesses. Al and Ed connected their harnesses to the stakes into the ground and Pete and Gordon setup the worklight again. Then they were finally ready to proceed. Houston had left it up to Conrad who would go first down the hole. Pete did know that Gordon wanted to go first but he also had known that as commander that he could also go down the hole first. He hadn’t told Gordon who would go first and he could see him looking over at Pete expectantly.
“Well Gordon, lets settle this the old fashion way. I'll roshambo you for it.”
Back in Houston the flight controllers could hardly believe what they were hearing. The crew was going to decide who was going down the hole first with a game of “Rock-Paper-Scissors”.
“Ok on three Gordon, one-two-three” Pete put out two fingers for scissors and Gordon put a clenched EVA glove for a rock.
“Well you win Gordon, you are going down first.” Pete smiled at Gordon.
Gordon bounced up and down and let out a “Woop” of excitement.
“Houston, it is official Gordon and then myself will be going down the hole.”
Astronaut Anthony England who was on CapCom was shaking his head.
“Well Pete, I am glad you guys have settled that important decision.”
Gordon got himself hooked into the A-frame Derrick and turned on his suit lights. Al worked the controls and swung Gordon out over the pit. He then started the winch and lowered Gordon down the pit. At 10 meter intervals Al would stop the winch so Gordon could take photos and samples of the side wall. The hole was 80 meters deep and it took Gordon almost 20 mins to reach the bottom with all the stopping. He couldn’t believe that he was finally here, something that he had dreamed about ever since Apollo-17 had discovered it. He was standing inside an ancient lava tube on the lunar surface. He first confirmed what Popovich and Makarov had reported that it was a lava tube and it branched off in both directions as far as he could see. He unstrapped himself from the rope and radioed to Al that he could take it back up. Pete was then strapped in and was then lowered down the hole. This went much quicker since Pete didn’t stop to take photos and samples of the side wall. Pete had with him a second work light that he setup and he unhooked himself and the rope was wenched backup. Then Al sent down a equipment case and Ed lowered another cable to them but this one was for communication. Gordon opened up the equipment case and placed into it the samples he had already taken and got out a TV camera which was hooked into the communication cable that was sent down. The astronauts could now broadcast a TV signal from the lava tube. The scientific backroom stopped talking and all eyes focused on the TV set showing the picture of the inside of a lunar lava tube.
Lunar Surface, Marius Hills Region -November 3, 1975
Gordon Swann woke up in his small room in the LESA habitat. After the 1st week of lunar living the disorientation that he would first experience when waking up in ⅙ lunar gravity had passed. It started to feel very natural to work and live in lunar gravity. While his hands still hurt he could tell each day they were getting better and the tingling in them had mostly gone away. It was very frustrating for him to not be able to do EVA’s while allowing his hands to heal. However the scientist in him told him that it was the best thing to do. The gloves on the Apollo A8L lunar spacesuits were extremely hard to manipulate. He had spent countless hours on Earth building up his hand strength by squeezing a tennis ball just so he could be ready for this mission. He turned on the small overhead light in his bunk and checked the time. It was three more hours until it was time to get-up. He looked over at the pictures of his wife and two children that he had taped up in his bunk. The down times like this he hated the most, because he would start thinking about his family and how he missed them. Gordon reached over and picked up the latest message he had received from his wife. The astronaut’s could exchange text messages back and forth with Earth using the LESA base computer system. It was developed from a Mailbox system that was first pioneered on the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) to send messages back and forth within the department of defense. This system was borrowed by NASA for the LESA base to easily send text messages back and forth. His family would write up letters and a NASA employee would type them into a computer in Houston and send the message to his electronic mailbox on the LESA Base computer system. He really enjoyed logging into the system and finding messages waiting for him from his family. Usually he printed the messages out so he could read them in his room before going to sleep. Some of the NASA engineers were calling the system a electronic mail system or E-mail system for short.
Gordon sighed after he finished reading the message from his wife. Even after he had assured her in another message that he was ok, he could tell she was still worried about him. He really wasn’t that tired and today, Al and him would be stuck inside the base again. It felt like Al and him had been grounded by their disapproving parents back in Houston. He sat up and looked out the window in his room at the dark lunar landscape. Maybe today he could get down to the laboratory area and examine some of the lunar samples. He just felt that they were missing something, why did his hands get affected by the cold so much? The spacesuits with the low flow setting on the cooling garment shouldn’t have radiated that much heat. Gordon all of a sudden sat upright in his bed, of course. It wasn’t the surface temperature that caused the problem, it was the thermal transfer from the drilling rig that caused the issue. He got out of bed and put on his bath-robe and slippers. He quietly opened his door, he could hear very clearly Pete’s whistle like snore. He had a habit of sleeping with his mouth opened and that gap in his front teeth added a odd whistling noise when he snored. He Didn’t snore in Zero-G but on the lunar surface he would start snoring again. When they had done their first 2-week simulated mission together at the training facility in Canada, Pete had insisted that he didn’t snore. So Ed and him tapped Pete’s snoring and played it for everyone during the next briefing. Everyone had a good laugh at the recording, even Pete. He turned on a flashlight and slipped downstairs to the laboratory and put on a headset. Time to wake up Houston.
“Houston, this is Gordon.”
At Mission Control in Houston, astronaut Angela Greene who was working the overnight shift at CapCom put down the manual she was reading and sat quickly upright in her chair. The wake up call wasn’t for another 3-hours so this call from Gordon was very unexpected. Everybody else in Mission Control also became alert.
“This is Houston, go ahead Gordon.”
“Hey Angela is that you?”
“Yes Gordon it is me. Is everything ok?” At the same time members of Mission Control were busily rechecking the telemetry readings on the LESA base to make sure they hadn’t missed a problem.
“Yeah everything is fine, except I woke up and wasn’t able to get back to sleep and I was laying in room thinking. I think I know what caused the issue with Al and my hands.”
“Ok Gordon, does it have anything to do with magazines that we left for you?”
Gordon chuckled to himself, he knew exactly what she was referring to “No it wasn’t the Geological Society of America magazines you left for me. I think maybe it was thermal transfer from the drilling rig. The drilling rig would get extremely cold in the lunar night and Al and I were fighting that thing during most of the EVA and we constantly had or hands on it. The drilling rig before we moved it had spent several days in the shadow of the LESA base after it was assembled and that would have cold soaked it even more. I think the extreme coldness of the rig transferred through or gloves and into our hands. ”
Angela looked around Mission Control and she did see several nodding of heads at their control stations.
“Ok, Gordon that does make sense. I am not sure how much the team looking into the problem had thought about that. I don’t think they realized how much you had your hands on the drilling rig.”
“I don’t really remember Al and I emphasizing during or debrief how much we had been gripping the drilling rig trying to get it to work. The metallic structure of the drilling right would be fairly good at transferring cold to or hands.”
“Yeah that makes sense Gordon, and the A8L gloves don’t have very thick material compared to other parts of the spacesuit.”
“Angela, can you make sure to pass that along. I really think that might be the issue. As long as we remain aware of what we are touching and for how long we should be ok working on the surface during the lunar night.”
“Gordon, I will be sure to pass that along. We are taking notes right now.”
“Thanks Angela. Did I wake you up?”
“No Gordon, I was just reviewing some documentation. It was a little bit of a surprise for us to hear from you. You heading back to bed?”
“No I think I am up for good. I am going to review some of the samples we have already taken.”
“Now you are getting me jealous Gordon. Well pick out some good ones to bring back.”
“I will, Angela.”
Gordon sat back in the laboratory chair for a moment and stared at the ceiling. He put some lotion on his hands and then put some gloves and a filter mask on. Ok it was time to look at some of those lunar samples so he could help the Geologic team back home figure out what was worth bringing home and what wasn’t. He put in one of his tapes of Led Zeppelin and turned the volume down and started to get to work with the samples. Several hours later he was completely engrossed in his work when Ed poked his head in.
“Hey there you are. Pete thought you might have wandered off. I take it your hands are feeling better?”
“Yeah my hands are feeling a lot better. I couldn’t sleep and I thought I would get some work done. I also had a idea about what caused the issue with our hands.”
“Oh really?”
“Yeah I think it was thermal transfer. Al and I were really manhandling that drilling rig. Or hands were all over it and we had a lot of constant contact. The metallic drilling rig must have been extremely cold. It even sat for several days in the shadow of the LESA base before the sun went down. I think if we measured the surface temperature of the rig it would be easily around -150 degrees C. The gloves on or EVA suits are only so thick and that cold would have transferred to or hands because of the contact with the metal.”
Mitchell nodded his head. “Well now that I think about it, it makes a lot of sense. I thought yesterday that Pete and I hands would get colder when we touched the drilling rig but I thought maybe I was imagining it. “
“When I woke up a couple of hours ago, that thought came into my head. I came down here and told Houston, so the engineers back in Texas have been thinking about it for a couple of hours.”
“Ok great. Pete got breakfast already started. So why don’t you come up stairs in a couple of minutes.
“Sure, just let me wrap up what I am doing.”
Later at Breakfast the crew talked over what Swann’s idea and they all agreed it made sense. In Houston a team was already taking a replica drilling rig and was going to put it in a vacuum chamber and then chill it to -150 C and run tests on thermal transfer through the space suit gloves. Conrad and Mitchell would also take the temperature of the drilling rig before they brought it back over to the LESA base. Houston also agreed to increase the EVA time to 3-hours today also long as the crew kept careful track of how cold their hands were feeling and minimize contact with the drilling rig or another other metallic items. A couple of hours later Pete and Ed were back outside and drove back to the lunar drilling rig. The surface temperature of the drilling rig was taken and it was -151 Centigrade. This confirmed part of Gordon’s theory.
Pete and Ed attached the drilling rig to the LRV and moved it back near the base. They then set up a 6 inch telescope to start another experiment. The crew took a series of images using a Ultra-violet camera that was attached to the telescope. After this was completed the crew closed out the EVA and went back inside. After the EVA both of their hands felt fine and didn’t seem to be affected by the cold. With this success the crew was cleared for a 4-hour EVA the next day. They would rig up a winch and lower a camera into the “Marius Hills Hole” to start the US exploration of this feature.
While Pete and Ed had been busy outside, Gordon and Al hadn’t been lounging around. Each astronaut had two full 2 AL8 spacesuits, 2 Primary Life Support System (PLSS) units and additional sets of gloves and extra fishbowl helmets. The astronauts had worn one of the A8L spacesuits when they first landed and a extra one was stored for each astronaut in equipment lockers in the LESA base. So far Gordon and Al had only worn the spacesuit they had landed with. They took this spacesuit and gave it a good cleaning including oiling of all the suit rings. While the suits would never be pristine white again, they did manage to remove a fair amount of lunar dust from the suits with the heavy duty vacuum. For Al, the suit cleaning included replacing the cover for the pressure indicator on his suit. The pressure gauge cover had been scratched by him putting his fingers on the gauge while covered in lunar regolith, the abrasive nature of the regolith had scratched the cover so much he could hardly read it. This type of wear and tear on the spacesuits had been anticipated and spare’s had been provided. After the cleaning, they carefully stowed away their landing suits and got out their second suit and made sure the space suit was ready for use when they when the surgeon would give them clearance to go EVA again. They then moved onto the PLSS units, they first overhauled the PLSS units they had been wearing and ran checks on them and did preventive maintenance. These units were put away and they then got out the unused PLSS units and did a full check out these unit also. For the astronauts, literally their lives depended on these units functioning.
The next day Pete and Ed prepared to go out again. This would be the third day in a row that Pete and Ed had done a EVA and they were both a little weary. The next day would be a rest day. With Al and Gordon barred from conducting EVA’s it was up to them but they were reaching their personal limits. They started the EVA off with attaching the trailer to the LRV and then loading it with the supplies they would need. They then drove the 1.5 km to the “Marius Hills Hole” location. The first task was to set up a work light so they could see better and so could Houston through the LRV TV Camera. They then started assembling the A-frame derrick that would be erected next to the hole. They first looked over the harnesses that the previous Cosmonaut visitors had left at the hole. While the appeared to still be secure NASA didn’t want them to be re-used so they had to pound into the lunar surface new stakes to secure NASA approved safety harnesses to. Once this was done they could then approach the hole and start assembling the A-frame. The actual A-frame derrick was fairly simple but had a swinging boom on it and a electric winch. The derrick was assembled almost like an erector set by the astronauts. Once assembled they would push it into place. For ballast they would use lunar regolith. The equipment cases that the derrick came in had been designed to also be attached to the derrick frame to hold the regolith. They would fill up a bucket and weigh it with a hand scale before dumping the regolith into a equipment case. Through steady work the astronauts managed to fill up the equipment cases and now the derrick was fully assembled with it’s ballast and both astronauts spacesuits were covered in lunar dust. Pete and Ed stopped to brush each other off some before getting back in the LRV to drive home.
Once the astronauts had gotten back inside the LESA base, they spent considerable time in the equipment room vacuum to remove as much lunar dust as possible. The primary vacuum became clogged from all the lunar dust and they switched over to the backup vacuum. After the two astronauts removed as much dust as possible, the exhausted astronauts could finally exit their spacesuits. The spacesuits would need to be cleaned more but that could wait as both Pete and Ed removed all the EVA gear and plugged in the PLSS backpacks to re-charge them. Once that was done they could finally head upstairs. They were both greeted to the smell of meat and Gordon and Al were just finishing up preparing hamburgers and french fries for dinner. The crew spent the next hour answering Houston’s questions about the EVA in between bites of hamburgers and french fries. Pete made the recommendation to Houston that Beer needed to be on the menu for the next mission for days like this. After dinner Pete and Ed went through the lunar shower and cleaned themselves thoroughly after their 3-days of back to back EVA’s. For the crew the shower was a great way to feel refreshed after several hard days of lunar EVA’s.
The next day Pete and Ed relaxed while Al and Gordon attended to maintenance duties on the LESA base including fixing vacuum that Pete had broken yesterday. Ed convinced Pete that they should do the first lunar experiment in ESP. Ed Mitchell was fascinated by paranormal phenomena and he had decided to conduct some of his own ESP experiments while on the lunar surface. For the first test, he would use a deck of Zener cards that he had brought along with him to see if Pete could read them. Ed felt that spending so much time with Pete on the lunar surface that they shared a special energy between them that would facilitate the ability of Ed and Pete to communicate telepathically. Ed also felt that being on the lunar surface away from Earth would heighten a person’s empathic abilities. Pete knew about Ed’s interest in ESP but didn’t share his enthusiasm. He would humor Ed and do his lunar ESP experiments since he didn’t have much to do at the moment. Pete felt at the very minimum it would make for an interesting drinking story when he got home. Pete did the experiment and Ed was happy about the results. Pete was still dubious and told Ed to keep any mention of it off the radio.
Gordon was anxious to get back to EVA’s and explore the “Marius Hills Hole”. Pete could tell that being stuck inside on the lunar surface was really getting to Gordon and he wanted to get back outside.
“Hey Gordon let me look at your hands?”
“They feel a lot better Pete. The skin is healing fine.”
“They do look at lot better, I think you are just about ready to go back out. Let’s go talk to the flight surgeon.”
The Apollo-22 crew sat down and talked things over with the flight surgeon. The doctors back in Houston had been monitoring the recovery of Bean and Swann and had been extremely pleased with how well their hands had recovered. It hadn’t been possible to tell before how extensive the damage was but since their hands had not blistered the two astronauts had avoided any serious damage. It seemed that both men had just suffered from the first stage of frostbite. However the rapid pace of healing surprised the doctors still and some wondered if it was something to do with the high Oxygen environment of the LESA habitat that facilitated the rapid healing of their hands. The doctors would clear Bean and Swann for EVA’s again. Now that the medical issues were dealt with Pete wanted to discuss with the Scientists about Mission planning for the rest of the lunar night and for the start of the 2nd lunar day. Mission Control spent the next several hours going over the plan for the rest of the lunar night and the next lunar day. They would finally get a chance to really explore this area of the “Ocean of Storms”. Conrad and Swann would take the MOLAB vehicle out for a cross country Geological traverse. They would drive the MOLAB almost 200km over the lunar surface to the Marius crater. On the way to the crater they would stop and survey several lunar domes along that route that were suspected to be of volcanic in origin. They would also stop and survey a satellite crater of Marius called Marius E that was 6km in diameter. The actual Marius crater was 41 km in diameter, with a depth of 1.7 km and had a crater floor that was smooth and flat. The rim of the crater was low and the scientific team had prepared a route that would come from the North side of the crater and would allow the MOLAB vehicle to enter crater so the crater floor could be surveyed. For Swann it was going to be a dream geological trip.
To facilitate the healing of Bean and Swann’s hands the Mission planners decided to have two rest days in a row. The crew would spend their 20th day on the lunar surface having a “Field Day” for the LESA habitat. This included cleaning and disinfecting every surface inside the Habitat. Conrad and Mitchell took their space suits from the last EVA and completely cleaned them inside and out. Including the cleaning the oiling of all locking rings and replacement of any worn parts. They then partially dismantled their PLSS backpacks, replaced any worn parts and reassembled them. The space suits could then put away and their second spacesuit was removed from their lockers and made it ready to wear on the next EVA. The each conducted fit checks on the second EVA space suits and tested pressurization on them. The 2nd set of A8L lunar spacesuits had been stored for several months on the LESA base. The space suits were one of the last items loaded in the LESA base shortly before final closeout. On Earth the astronauts had the advantage of a team of highly skilled technicians to check out the space suits before launch. On the lunar surface they had to depend on their own skills to check out the space suits and repair any issues that came up with the space suits or backpacks. They could always call for assistance from Houston but it would be the astronauts themselves that would be making any adjustments or repairs. Mitchell found after pressurization that the Oxygen suit valve for his second space suit was not operating correctly. After consulting with Houston the valve was swapped out with a spare on board. The suit was then repressurized and passed all the tests without issue. This activity took up most of the day and Conrad would remark that despite no EVA tha day you could hardly call it a rest day. Conrad also switched members of the Blue and Gold crews, Gordon would now be with him on the Gold crew and Ed would be on the Blue crew with Al.. That night Gordon had a hard time sleeping because for tomorrow’s EVA he would be lowered into the ‘Marius Hills Hole” and he would finally get to do a geological survey of this unique feature.
Lunar Surface, Marius Hills Region -November 7, 1975
That morning Gordon about lept out of bed. The crew quickly ate and cleaned up and used the bathroom before getting suited up. For a change this next EVA would be a four person EVA. The Mission planners had debated back and forth on how to handle the lowering of an astronaut into the Marius Hills hole. It had been discussed to send one astronaut down into the hole while the second remained on the surface to work the A-frame derrick. With only one astronaut down in the hole this would violate NASA’s two man rule for EVA’s were each astronaut would be in easy supporting distance of the other. Obviously if one man was on surface and one person was in the hole the person on the surface couldn’t easily help the astronaut below if a problem arose. So for this EVA all four astronauts would go out on the surface. The Gold Crew of Pete and Gordon would descend while Al and Ed supported them on the surface. The four astronauts got quickly suited up. They were now becoming experts in getting into their lunar spacesuits. Compared to on Earth, getting into the suits under ⅙ lunar gravity was easy. The crew was also going to bring the IMAX camera out to film in the lunar night. By the time the entire crew had cycled through the airlock they were 20 minutes ahead of schedule. The trailer was quickly attached to the lunar rover and equipment was then loaded into it. From previous EVA experience the astronauts used several empty equipment cases to form a makeshift elevated table near the LESA base. On this table they would leave equipment that was used often. This not only placed it at a easy height for the spacesuit astronauts to retrieve it also kept the equipment out of some of the lunar dust.
The crew journeyed the 1.5 km to the Marius Hills hole. The crew all helped each other get into safety harnesses. Al and Ed connected their harnesses to the stakes into the ground and Pete and Gordon setup the worklight again. Then they were finally ready to proceed. Houston had left it up to Conrad who would go first down the hole. Pete did know that Gordon wanted to go first but he also had known that as commander that he could also go down the hole first. He hadn’t told Gordon who would go first and he could see him looking over at Pete expectantly.
“Well Gordon, lets settle this the old fashion way. I'll roshambo you for it.”
Back in Houston the flight controllers could hardly believe what they were hearing. The crew was going to decide who was going down the hole first with a game of “Rock-Paper-Scissors”.
“Ok on three Gordon, one-two-three” Pete put out two fingers for scissors and Gordon put a clenched EVA glove for a rock.
“Well you win Gordon, you are going down first.” Pete smiled at Gordon.
Gordon bounced up and down and let out a “Woop” of excitement.
“Houston, it is official Gordon and then myself will be going down the hole.”
Astronaut Anthony England who was on CapCom was shaking his head.
“Well Pete, I am glad you guys have settled that important decision.”
Gordon got himself hooked into the A-frame Derrick and turned on his suit lights. Al worked the controls and swung Gordon out over the pit. He then started the winch and lowered Gordon down the pit. At 10 meter intervals Al would stop the winch so Gordon could take photos and samples of the side wall. The hole was 80 meters deep and it took Gordon almost 20 mins to reach the bottom with all the stopping. He couldn’t believe that he was finally here, something that he had dreamed about ever since Apollo-17 had discovered it. He was standing inside an ancient lava tube on the lunar surface. He first confirmed what Popovich and Makarov had reported that it was a lava tube and it branched off in both directions as far as he could see. He unstrapped himself from the rope and radioed to Al that he could take it back up. Pete was then strapped in and was then lowered down the hole. This went much quicker since Pete didn’t stop to take photos and samples of the side wall. Pete had with him a second work light that he setup and he unhooked himself and the rope was wenched backup. Then Al sent down a equipment case and Ed lowered another cable to them but this one was for communication. Gordon opened up the equipment case and placed into it the samples he had already taken and got out a TV camera which was hooked into the communication cable that was sent down. The astronauts could now broadcast a TV signal from the lava tube. The scientific backroom stopped talking and all eyes focused on the TV set showing the picture of the inside of a lunar lava tube.
whoa , amazing update, lets see what fantastic discoveries will be made in the lava tube , What will Gordon and Al discover , And NASA/ESA should Lunch some Probes to the moon to search for Water , It will Be essential for a Future Permanent Moon Base . Cant hardly wait for the next chapters .
Apollo-Part-25
Lunar lava tube, Marius Hills Region -November 7, 1975
Gordon still couldn’t believe where he was. He was standing 80 meters below the lunar surface in an ancient lava tube. He quickly started gathering samples from the floor of the cave. He then put all the samples that had been gathered so far and put them in the equipment bucket that had been lowered down. Pete set up a repeater station and plugged it into the communication cable that was running up to the surface. Pete looked each direction and to him both branches of the lava tube looked the same.
“Gordon, which direction should we go?”
Gordon paused for a second and looked around “Lets go left Pete, I think up ahead the cavern should bend some.”
“Ok, sounds good to me. Houston you copy that?”
“Roger Pete, you guys are heading off to your left.”
Gordon and Pete started moving off. They could see some disturbance from the previous Cosmonaut visitor. It wasn’t practical to carry the camera with the trailing communication cable so it had been left behind, turned on and pointing down the lava tube in the direction that Pete and Gordon were heading. They moved off down the cavern, about every so often the astronauts stopped and took samples from the inside of the lava tube as they worked their way down. Soon they passed the farthest point that Papovich had journeyed and kept going. After 400 yards the lava tube started curving and this started affecting radio communication. When they reached 560 yards they could hardly hear Houston anymore because of all the static.
“Gordon, we shouldn’t go much further. I think Houston is going to have a fit.. Move another 20 yards and take some samples and pictures. I am going to stay here and take some pictures and then we should start moving back.”
“Ok Pete, sounds good.”
Gordon moved forward and up ahead he could now see a smaller branch of this main tube. He took some pictures and took a sample from the floor. He then moved back to the Pete and told him about the smaller branch up the main tube. The two astronauts moved back into better radio range with Houston as they moved to the lava tube entrance. They still had enough EVA time remaining to go the other direction now. They made their way along the tube in the new direction and continued to document the condition of the lava tube. The tube had a good sloop to it after the had moved about 100 yards. They then encountered a smaller side branch. The smaller side branch wasn’t big enough to fit an astronaut in a spacesuit. Gordon kneeled down and shined his light down the tube. The tube went as far as he could see. They continued another 100 yards down the tube but because of the slope the communication kept getting worse and worse. Pete didn’t want to press things anymore and they were running short on EVA time. They both headed back up the slope and that is when Pete fell. He had been walking up the slop in the lava tube and some of the rocks gave away and he fell and smacked the front of his helmet right into a rock. The astronaut bubble helmet was made from high strength polycarbonate. When Pete fell, Gordon watched his helmet smack into a rock and Gordon’s heart skipped a beat.
“Houston, Pete just fell down.”
“Pete you ok?” Gordon moved closer to Pete who was now laying on the sloop.
“Yeah I am ok, the footing really sucks on this slope. Can you help me up Gordon?”
“Apollo 22, this is Houston, can you confirm that last?”
“Yeah Pete.” Gordon offered his hand to Pete and he was able to use it to get himself upright again. Once Pete was upright, Gordon looked at his helmet.
“Pete, let me look at your helmet.”
“Well my suit pressure looks good, Gordon.”
“Apollo 22, this is Houston, are you receiving this?”
“Houston, this is Pete. I lost my footing on the slope in this tube and I smacked my helmet into the rocks. However the integrity of the suit is not compromised.”
“Pete I can see some type of knick on your helmet.”
“Ok, I cannot see it Gordon, does it look deep?”
“It doesn’t look to deep but we should get back to base.”
“Gordon, this is Houston, can you confirm that Pete’s helmet is nicked and if so how big?”
“Yes it is nicked and the mark is about maybe a 1/4 inch long, I cannot tell how deep and there is no secondary cracking.”
“Apollo 22, we want you to get back to the LESA base as soon as possible.”
Pete rolled his eyes “Copy that Houston, we were in the process of getting out of this lava tube when I fell.”
Pete and Gordon made their way slowly up the slope and back up to the entrance.
“Pete, this is Houston are you at the lava tube but entrance?”
“Yes Houston, I am here and we are getting the equipment together to send up”
“Pete you need to stop what you are doing, you will go up now and then as soon as you are up Ed will drive you back to the LESA base so you can get inside.”
“Houston, this is Pete don’t you think we are over reacting a little bit. It is just a small nick and I cannot even see it. I should stay here with Gordon until we are ready to bring up the equipment.”
“Pete the flight director says get back inside.”
“Ok Roger that Houston, I am getting buckled in now”
Gordon buckled in Pete and radioed to Al to haul him up. Within 10 minutes Pete was back on the Surface and Ed drove him back to the LESA base. While they were gone Al pulled up all the lunar samples and the equipment and then last he pulled up Gordon from the “Marius Hills Hole”. By then Ed was back with the LRV to pickup Al, Gordon and the lunar samples. The crew got into the LRV and drove away. For Gordon it had been a great EVA but a lot of the mystery of the “Marius Hills Hole” had gone away. He could report that no secret alien base was below or any gigantic burrowing creatures. It was just a plain old lava tube and there was a lot more to still explore on the lunar surface. He also felt a little frightened about the environment in the lava tube. Seeing Pete fall and hit his head really drove home to him again how dangerous it was. He felt that he had come close to watching one his friends die right in front of him. Pete brushed it off as no big deal, the helmet did it’s job and didn’t shatter. For Gordon he felt it was mostly just test pilot bravado from Pete.
Lunar Surface, Marius Hills Region November 8, 1975
The Apollo-22 crew woke up the next day for what would be their 21st day on the lunar surface. After the excitement of yesterday this day would be a lot more sedate, with the crew staying inside. For Gordon he had all the lunar samples retrieved from yesterday’s trip to the lava tube to review and catalog them. He would then need to pick what samples to bring back. The lunar ascent vehicle had a cargo capability of 1,200kg to lunar orbit. The issue was there was only so much room in the Apollo command module. It was Gordon’s job as the mission specialist to review all lunar samples using the equipment in the LESA base and prioritize what would be brought back. While he didn’t have advanced equipment like a Mass Spectrometer he did have equipment to do a fairly good analysis to help make sure that what was brought back would be useful. As a scientist and a Geologist he was starting to get really annoyed by the science team back on Earth constantly second guessing his conclusion about a lunar sample or asking for more information. While they did photo every rock before retrieval from the lunar surface. The scientists wanted him to take photos of the samples back in the lab. This took hours since he had to not only photo the lunar sample, then develop the film, create photos from the negatives, scan them in and transmit everything back to Earth. He heard that engineers were working on a digital camera that would speed up this process, but that didn’t help him at this moment. Gordon was a highly trained Geologist, with a PHd from Stanford. Yet he was feeling like the mission scientists back on Earth treated him like just another astronauts that was trained to do Geology. The thing was the scientists back on Earth had really no idea how difficult field Geology was in a SpaceSuit. Some lunar samples looked interesting on the surface but when looked at in the LESA lab he could tell by just using his trusty 10x Loupe that the sample wasn’t worth further investigation. This seemed to start a argument whenever he decided on a specific sample to discard. Somebody back on Earth was apparently already attached to that sample and he would have to photo the sample so somebody back on Earth could check his decision. It was getting tiring the constant back and forth over samples to keep and samples to discard.
After the rest day, the crew headed back to the Marius Hills hole again. This time Gordon got lowered down into the hole with Ed. Gordon and Ed spent almost four hours in the hole while Al and Pete waited for them on the surface. The two astronauts gathered an extensive amount of geological samples in the lava tubes that hopefully would answer a lot of questions once returned to Earth. After the 5-hour EVA the crew was back in the LESA base with another successful EVA completed. The next day the crew would have another rest day. After that they would start to prepare the MOLAB vehicle for the lunar cross country trip that Pete and Gordon would be taking.
The next day the first order of business was for Al and Ed to work on the water recycler that was part of the ECLSS (Environmental Control and Life Support System). The water recycler was a brand new piece of equipment that had never been used before on a manned flight. It’s job was to take the wash water for the astronauts or what was called grey water and filter the water and make it so it could be used again. The system was supposed to recycle 80% of the grey water so it could be continually re-used. Without this system the astronauts wouldn’t have the generous amount of wash water, 26-liters per day per person that was allocated for the mission. Water was one of the heaviest items that was brought to the lunar surface. The recycler was one of the first attempts by NASA to re-use water like this on a space mission. Even then the system was very conservatively designed to only recycle 80% of the grey water. Already NASA had development contracts for even more advanced systems that would not only recycle the wash water but would also recycle the sweat and urine from the astronauts.
All that was in the future, right now Al and Ed had a water recycler that was not performing properly. Over the last several days the systems output had kept dropping. The two astronauts lifted up the floor panels on the first level to gain access to the water recycler and quickly discovered a very clogged filter in the recycler. Despite the best efforts of the astronauts to keep lunar dust in the EVA Prep room the dust was still on the astronauts skin when they washed. The lunar dust clung stubbornly to anything and even logged under fingernails, which was painful. The astronauts based on feedback from earlier missions had brought along an extensive array of fingernail care products. Conrad had even arranged for a off the books training session with the astronauts wives on how to properly clean fingernails. The crew had been sworn to secrecy about this training session. More lunar dust than the designers had planned for was getting into the grey water system. The astronauts removed the filter and replaced it. The old filter was caked full of grey sludge that was wet lunar regolith. The astronauts also suspected that at the bottom of the tanks was a another layer of this sludge. The base had two primary tanks for storage of grey water and they reconfigured the valves to put tank-A into bypass so all water was flowing to tank-B now. They then pumped all the water from Tank-A into Tank-B. Ed was extremely familiar with the LESA base and it’s systems, since he had been involved in the design for the last several years. As Tank-A was pumped dry, Al went and got the portable vacuum that could handle both wet and dry conditions. They also secured several plastic bags since both astronauts realized that this was going to be messy. NASA should have provided some type of coveralls for this type of work. Ed stripped down to his underwear and then taped some plastic bags around his feet and legs. Finally Tank-A was empty and they could see the grey goo that coated the bottom. It wasn’t as bad as Ed feared but it still need to be vacuumed out. The problem was the system needed some type of settling tank to get some of the regolith out of the water before it went into the primary tanks for filtering. Well that would have to be saved for the debrief. Over the next several hours Ed and Al cleaned all the goo out of both tanks with the vacuum. After this was completed they then had to clean the vacuum with wet wipes and the work area. They then put everything in a couple of plastic bags that were tightly sealed. The plastic bags were then placed in a jettison bag that on the next EVA would be thrown on the growing trash pile outside the LESA base. At least the water recycler was working again at and was now filtering water at it’s full capacity.
The next day both crews ventured outside but this time they were fueling the vehicle from the LESA base with Liquid Oxygen and Liquid Hydrogen and the packing the MOLAB vehicle full of supplies. The vehicle was launched without supplies and needed to be loaded with everything that Pete and Gordon would need for the next 2-weeks. NASA had sent up a detailed list last night and the crew started loading the vehicle with everything that was on the list with careful attention to it’s location in the vehicle and making sure that everything that was listed was loaded. Usually back on Earth a special team would do this type of work and would spend days meticulously packing and even documenting how all the supplies the astronauts would need was packed. On the surface it was up to the crew to make sure that everything was correct. Compared to his usual joking self, Pete was all business and got the transfer of supplies completed and double checked. That was the thing about Pete, he knew when to have fun but he also knew when it was time to put your head down and focus on the task at hand. That was one of things in Al’s opinion made Pete such a great commander to work with and set him apart from a lot of the other senior astronauts at NASA. Some other senior astronauts like Cernan, Lovell or Stafford were more polished and had more of a command presence than Conrad but nobody else would have as much fun getting the job done like Conrad’s crews. Fellow Apollo-13 crew members, Gordon and Cunningham always regretted that the Apollo-13 flight ended in a abort in the Atlantic.
The crew spent November 12 inside the LESA base with Pete and Gordon making final preparations for the MOLAB traverse. The TV camera was set up and each astronaut got time to talk with their family. For some privacy the camera was set up in the lab area downstairs and each astronaut took turns visiting with their family back on Earth. After this the crew then settled down to watch “Jaws” broadcast to them from Earth. The comment from Gordon after the movie was that the director “Steven Spielberg” was really talented and should have a great career ahead of him. The crew then played some “poker” before dinner and then turned in for the night. On November 13 Pete and Gordon packed some last minute personal items and then suited up to transfer to the MOLAB. Al and Ed were didn’t show that they were worried but Al wondered if he would see Pete and Gordon again as they closed the airlock hatch. The MOLAB vehicle had no airlock and was cramped compared to the LESA base. In a lot of ways the condition inside the vehicle were similar to the conditions inside the Lunar Module during the earlier missions. The crew was back to using bags for a toilet and the only entertainment was each other or a book. At least the vehicle had a small container to warm food in and could make hot water. For sleeping Pete and Gordon would rig hammocks in the small cramped interior space. Pete and Gordon carefully removed and stowed their spacesuits. They then could get the MOLAB vehicle ready to depart. In the distance they they could see the lunar morning as Sun light was spread across the lunar surface. The direction of their travel would take them towards the lunar terminator and after almost 14-days of darkness they would be in sunlight again. Pete had named the MOLAB vehicle the same name he had selected for the Apollo-13 Lunar Module “Intrepid”.
“Well Gordon let’s roll out and see what this thing can do.”
“Sounds good Pete, ready to do some serious exploration.”
“Houston, this is Intrepid we are ready to depart on the first leg of the MOLAB traverse.”
“Roger that Intrepid, you are cleared to start.”
“Thank you Houston, Intrepid is now departing.” Pete had used his tape recorder to record the theme song from the “Jaws” movie yesterday. He keyed his Mic and Houston heard the Jaws theme song as Intrepid started rolling to start it’s traverse of the lunar surface.
Lunar lava tube, Marius Hills Region -November 7, 1975
Gordon still couldn’t believe where he was. He was standing 80 meters below the lunar surface in an ancient lava tube. He quickly started gathering samples from the floor of the cave. He then put all the samples that had been gathered so far and put them in the equipment bucket that had been lowered down. Pete set up a repeater station and plugged it into the communication cable that was running up to the surface. Pete looked each direction and to him both branches of the lava tube looked the same.
“Gordon, which direction should we go?”
Gordon paused for a second and looked around “Lets go left Pete, I think up ahead the cavern should bend some.”
“Ok, sounds good to me. Houston you copy that?”
“Roger Pete, you guys are heading off to your left.”
Gordon and Pete started moving off. They could see some disturbance from the previous Cosmonaut visitor. It wasn’t practical to carry the camera with the trailing communication cable so it had been left behind, turned on and pointing down the lava tube in the direction that Pete and Gordon were heading. They moved off down the cavern, about every so often the astronauts stopped and took samples from the inside of the lava tube as they worked their way down. Soon they passed the farthest point that Papovich had journeyed and kept going. After 400 yards the lava tube started curving and this started affecting radio communication. When they reached 560 yards they could hardly hear Houston anymore because of all the static.
“Gordon, we shouldn’t go much further. I think Houston is going to have a fit.. Move another 20 yards and take some samples and pictures. I am going to stay here and take some pictures and then we should start moving back.”
“Ok Pete, sounds good.”
Gordon moved forward and up ahead he could now see a smaller branch of this main tube. He took some pictures and took a sample from the floor. He then moved back to the Pete and told him about the smaller branch up the main tube. The two astronauts moved back into better radio range with Houston as they moved to the lava tube entrance. They still had enough EVA time remaining to go the other direction now. They made their way along the tube in the new direction and continued to document the condition of the lava tube. The tube had a good sloop to it after the had moved about 100 yards. They then encountered a smaller side branch. The smaller side branch wasn’t big enough to fit an astronaut in a spacesuit. Gordon kneeled down and shined his light down the tube. The tube went as far as he could see. They continued another 100 yards down the tube but because of the slope the communication kept getting worse and worse. Pete didn’t want to press things anymore and they were running short on EVA time. They both headed back up the slope and that is when Pete fell. He had been walking up the slop in the lava tube and some of the rocks gave away and he fell and smacked the front of his helmet right into a rock. The astronaut bubble helmet was made from high strength polycarbonate. When Pete fell, Gordon watched his helmet smack into a rock and Gordon’s heart skipped a beat.
“Houston, Pete just fell down.”
“Pete you ok?” Gordon moved closer to Pete who was now laying on the sloop.
“Yeah I am ok, the footing really sucks on this slope. Can you help me up Gordon?”
“Apollo 22, this is Houston, can you confirm that last?”
“Yeah Pete.” Gordon offered his hand to Pete and he was able to use it to get himself upright again. Once Pete was upright, Gordon looked at his helmet.
“Pete, let me look at your helmet.”
“Well my suit pressure looks good, Gordon.”
“Apollo 22, this is Houston, are you receiving this?”
“Houston, this is Pete. I lost my footing on the slope in this tube and I smacked my helmet into the rocks. However the integrity of the suit is not compromised.”
“Pete I can see some type of knick on your helmet.”
“Ok, I cannot see it Gordon, does it look deep?”
“It doesn’t look to deep but we should get back to base.”
“Gordon, this is Houston, can you confirm that Pete’s helmet is nicked and if so how big?”
“Yes it is nicked and the mark is about maybe a 1/4 inch long, I cannot tell how deep and there is no secondary cracking.”
“Apollo 22, we want you to get back to the LESA base as soon as possible.”
Pete rolled his eyes “Copy that Houston, we were in the process of getting out of this lava tube when I fell.”
Pete and Gordon made their way slowly up the slope and back up to the entrance.
“Pete, this is Houston are you at the lava tube but entrance?”
“Yes Houston, I am here and we are getting the equipment together to send up”
“Pete you need to stop what you are doing, you will go up now and then as soon as you are up Ed will drive you back to the LESA base so you can get inside.”
“Houston, this is Pete don’t you think we are over reacting a little bit. It is just a small nick and I cannot even see it. I should stay here with Gordon until we are ready to bring up the equipment.”
“Pete the flight director says get back inside.”
“Ok Roger that Houston, I am getting buckled in now”
Gordon buckled in Pete and radioed to Al to haul him up. Within 10 minutes Pete was back on the Surface and Ed drove him back to the LESA base. While they were gone Al pulled up all the lunar samples and the equipment and then last he pulled up Gordon from the “Marius Hills Hole”. By then Ed was back with the LRV to pickup Al, Gordon and the lunar samples. The crew got into the LRV and drove away. For Gordon it had been a great EVA but a lot of the mystery of the “Marius Hills Hole” had gone away. He could report that no secret alien base was below or any gigantic burrowing creatures. It was just a plain old lava tube and there was a lot more to still explore on the lunar surface. He also felt a little frightened about the environment in the lava tube. Seeing Pete fall and hit his head really drove home to him again how dangerous it was. He felt that he had come close to watching one his friends die right in front of him. Pete brushed it off as no big deal, the helmet did it’s job and didn’t shatter. For Gordon he felt it was mostly just test pilot bravado from Pete.
Lunar Surface, Marius Hills Region November 8, 1975
The Apollo-22 crew woke up the next day for what would be their 21st day on the lunar surface. After the excitement of yesterday this day would be a lot more sedate, with the crew staying inside. For Gordon he had all the lunar samples retrieved from yesterday’s trip to the lava tube to review and catalog them. He would then need to pick what samples to bring back. The lunar ascent vehicle had a cargo capability of 1,200kg to lunar orbit. The issue was there was only so much room in the Apollo command module. It was Gordon’s job as the mission specialist to review all lunar samples using the equipment in the LESA base and prioritize what would be brought back. While he didn’t have advanced equipment like a Mass Spectrometer he did have equipment to do a fairly good analysis to help make sure that what was brought back would be useful. As a scientist and a Geologist he was starting to get really annoyed by the science team back on Earth constantly second guessing his conclusion about a lunar sample or asking for more information. While they did photo every rock before retrieval from the lunar surface. The scientists wanted him to take photos of the samples back in the lab. This took hours since he had to not only photo the lunar sample, then develop the film, create photos from the negatives, scan them in and transmit everything back to Earth. He heard that engineers were working on a digital camera that would speed up this process, but that didn’t help him at this moment. Gordon was a highly trained Geologist, with a PHd from Stanford. Yet he was feeling like the mission scientists back on Earth treated him like just another astronauts that was trained to do Geology. The thing was the scientists back on Earth had really no idea how difficult field Geology was in a SpaceSuit. Some lunar samples looked interesting on the surface but when looked at in the LESA lab he could tell by just using his trusty 10x Loupe that the sample wasn’t worth further investigation. This seemed to start a argument whenever he decided on a specific sample to discard. Somebody back on Earth was apparently already attached to that sample and he would have to photo the sample so somebody back on Earth could check his decision. It was getting tiring the constant back and forth over samples to keep and samples to discard.
After the rest day, the crew headed back to the Marius Hills hole again. This time Gordon got lowered down into the hole with Ed. Gordon and Ed spent almost four hours in the hole while Al and Pete waited for them on the surface. The two astronauts gathered an extensive amount of geological samples in the lava tubes that hopefully would answer a lot of questions once returned to Earth. After the 5-hour EVA the crew was back in the LESA base with another successful EVA completed. The next day the crew would have another rest day. After that they would start to prepare the MOLAB vehicle for the lunar cross country trip that Pete and Gordon would be taking.
The next day the first order of business was for Al and Ed to work on the water recycler that was part of the ECLSS (Environmental Control and Life Support System). The water recycler was a brand new piece of equipment that had never been used before on a manned flight. It’s job was to take the wash water for the astronauts or what was called grey water and filter the water and make it so it could be used again. The system was supposed to recycle 80% of the grey water so it could be continually re-used. Without this system the astronauts wouldn’t have the generous amount of wash water, 26-liters per day per person that was allocated for the mission. Water was one of the heaviest items that was brought to the lunar surface. The recycler was one of the first attempts by NASA to re-use water like this on a space mission. Even then the system was very conservatively designed to only recycle 80% of the grey water. Already NASA had development contracts for even more advanced systems that would not only recycle the wash water but would also recycle the sweat and urine from the astronauts.
All that was in the future, right now Al and Ed had a water recycler that was not performing properly. Over the last several days the systems output had kept dropping. The two astronauts lifted up the floor panels on the first level to gain access to the water recycler and quickly discovered a very clogged filter in the recycler. Despite the best efforts of the astronauts to keep lunar dust in the EVA Prep room the dust was still on the astronauts skin when they washed. The lunar dust clung stubbornly to anything and even logged under fingernails, which was painful. The astronauts based on feedback from earlier missions had brought along an extensive array of fingernail care products. Conrad had even arranged for a off the books training session with the astronauts wives on how to properly clean fingernails. The crew had been sworn to secrecy about this training session. More lunar dust than the designers had planned for was getting into the grey water system. The astronauts removed the filter and replaced it. The old filter was caked full of grey sludge that was wet lunar regolith. The astronauts also suspected that at the bottom of the tanks was a another layer of this sludge. The base had two primary tanks for storage of grey water and they reconfigured the valves to put tank-A into bypass so all water was flowing to tank-B now. They then pumped all the water from Tank-A into Tank-B. Ed was extremely familiar with the LESA base and it’s systems, since he had been involved in the design for the last several years. As Tank-A was pumped dry, Al went and got the portable vacuum that could handle both wet and dry conditions. They also secured several plastic bags since both astronauts realized that this was going to be messy. NASA should have provided some type of coveralls for this type of work. Ed stripped down to his underwear and then taped some plastic bags around his feet and legs. Finally Tank-A was empty and they could see the grey goo that coated the bottom. It wasn’t as bad as Ed feared but it still need to be vacuumed out. The problem was the system needed some type of settling tank to get some of the regolith out of the water before it went into the primary tanks for filtering. Well that would have to be saved for the debrief. Over the next several hours Ed and Al cleaned all the goo out of both tanks with the vacuum. After this was completed they then had to clean the vacuum with wet wipes and the work area. They then put everything in a couple of plastic bags that were tightly sealed. The plastic bags were then placed in a jettison bag that on the next EVA would be thrown on the growing trash pile outside the LESA base. At least the water recycler was working again at and was now filtering water at it’s full capacity.
The next day both crews ventured outside but this time they were fueling the vehicle from the LESA base with Liquid Oxygen and Liquid Hydrogen and the packing the MOLAB vehicle full of supplies. The vehicle was launched without supplies and needed to be loaded with everything that Pete and Gordon would need for the next 2-weeks. NASA had sent up a detailed list last night and the crew started loading the vehicle with everything that was on the list with careful attention to it’s location in the vehicle and making sure that everything that was listed was loaded. Usually back on Earth a special team would do this type of work and would spend days meticulously packing and even documenting how all the supplies the astronauts would need was packed. On the surface it was up to the crew to make sure that everything was correct. Compared to his usual joking self, Pete was all business and got the transfer of supplies completed and double checked. That was the thing about Pete, he knew when to have fun but he also knew when it was time to put your head down and focus on the task at hand. That was one of things in Al’s opinion made Pete such a great commander to work with and set him apart from a lot of the other senior astronauts at NASA. Some other senior astronauts like Cernan, Lovell or Stafford were more polished and had more of a command presence than Conrad but nobody else would have as much fun getting the job done like Conrad’s crews. Fellow Apollo-13 crew members, Gordon and Cunningham always regretted that the Apollo-13 flight ended in a abort in the Atlantic.
The crew spent November 12 inside the LESA base with Pete and Gordon making final preparations for the MOLAB traverse. The TV camera was set up and each astronaut got time to talk with their family. For some privacy the camera was set up in the lab area downstairs and each astronaut took turns visiting with their family back on Earth. After this the crew then settled down to watch “Jaws” broadcast to them from Earth. The comment from Gordon after the movie was that the director “Steven Spielberg” was really talented and should have a great career ahead of him. The crew then played some “poker” before dinner and then turned in for the night. On November 13 Pete and Gordon packed some last minute personal items and then suited up to transfer to the MOLAB. Al and Ed were didn’t show that they were worried but Al wondered if he would see Pete and Gordon again as they closed the airlock hatch. The MOLAB vehicle had no airlock and was cramped compared to the LESA base. In a lot of ways the condition inside the vehicle were similar to the conditions inside the Lunar Module during the earlier missions. The crew was back to using bags for a toilet and the only entertainment was each other or a book. At least the vehicle had a small container to warm food in and could make hot water. For sleeping Pete and Gordon would rig hammocks in the small cramped interior space. Pete and Gordon carefully removed and stowed their spacesuits. They then could get the MOLAB vehicle ready to depart. In the distance they they could see the lunar morning as Sun light was spread across the lunar surface. The direction of their travel would take them towards the lunar terminator and after almost 14-days of darkness they would be in sunlight again. Pete had named the MOLAB vehicle the same name he had selected for the Apollo-13 Lunar Module “Intrepid”.
“Well Gordon let’s roll out and see what this thing can do.”
“Sounds good Pete, ready to do some serious exploration.”
“Houston, this is Intrepid we are ready to depart on the first leg of the MOLAB traverse.”
“Roger that Intrepid, you are cleared to start.”
“Thank you Houston, Intrepid is now departing.” Pete had used his tape recorder to record the theme song from the “Jaws” movie yesterday. He keyed his Mic and Houston heard the Jaws theme song as Intrepid started rolling to start it’s traverse of the lunar surface.
Talk about a Near-Miss
Out of curiosity, are the EVA Suits still operating at ~3.8 psi and 100% O2? That would help to explain why the helmet visor held after that slight crack.
And that MOLAB? Real cramped but given it's only meant for short-duration runs, I can see why they'd pare down on luxuries for that at least.
Out of curiosity, are the EVA Suits still operating at ~3.8 psi and 100% O2? That would help to explain why the helmet visor held after that slight crack.
And that MOLAB? Real cramped but given it's only meant for short-duration runs, I can see why they'd pare down on luxuries for that at least.
those Space Suits based on A7L of Apollo mission, only feature another entrance system like Shuttle space suits.
the Helmet had interesting safety feature: twin hull, if outside bubble is crack, the second inner bubble remains intact
the Original MOLAB was design with weight of 3810 kg and carry two men for 14 day mission on 1000 km round trip
brovane, got the crew of Apollo 22 any LFV on board ?
Yes - The Apollo A8L spacesuit has a pressure of 3.7 psi and incorporates more hard components that the A7L. The addition of more hard components is made possible because the Astronauts don't wear the spacesuits at launch. The additional hard components allow greater mobility.
This section covers spacesuits more - https://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showpost.php?p=9483853&postcount=100