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.