April 16 1972 Apollo 16 Man's
fifth lunar landing sat silently on the
pad awaiting its mission inside the
astronaut quarters it's relaxed crew
eight Sunday breakfast John Young the
veteran of three previous space flights
was commander Ken Mattingly command
module pilot would conduct orbital
experiments around the moon while
Charles Duke explored the lunar surface
with young April 22nd young and Duke
would find themselves strapped into a
small electric car called the rover
bouncing across the lunar plateau known
as Descartes
as young and boot rode the bucking rover
to the lunar formation called Stone
Mountain NASA geologists Farouk Elbaz
wrote on a blackboard on earth there is
nothing so far removed from us to be
beyond our reach or so hidden that we
cannot discover it Rene Descartes as
John Young would later remark Apollo 16
would certainly help prove that Rene
Descartes yet less than two days before
it looked as though this would never
happen it was in Young's words a real
cliffhanger the Marshall Space Flight
Center team was working on a launch
vehicle gyroscope problem that
threatened to scrub the mission less
than an hour before liftoff their
advisory to the Kennedy Space Center
launch team was go
the liftoff had been perfect during the
three-day flight to lunar orbit the
problems encountered had been more
annoyances than critical such as paint
flaking off the lunar module and later a
jammed antenna in one of the lunar
modules several communication systems
all in all it had been a quiet flight
April 19th the burn into lunar orbit was
right on the subsequent maneuvers all
went without a hitch then the next day
April 20th young and Duke undocked the
lunar module preparatory to landing
leaving Mattingly in the command module
the next maneuver was for Mattingly to
burn the main engine of his spacecraft
to put it into a circular orbit but as
the lunar module emerged from behind the
moon no Cirque in preparing for the
circularization burn Mattingly had found
apparent uncontrolled oscillations in
the main engines backup control system
following mission rules he did not make
the burn how long do you think it's not
take him to get run over Gary I think
you're in a couple of rear is with the
backup system having trouble only the
primary system was known to be usable on
the engine needed to get the astronauts
out of lunar orbit and back to earth
however the lunar module engines could
be used if the two spacecraft were
docked the first step in the
problem-solving technique stabilized the
situation in the safest manner get the
two spacecraft which had separated close
enough together to dock if necessary
back together get things back if you
want
now don't take that input to ask me Fitz
on and out laughs now I want to okay I
don't see any way we can continue on at
that moment the chances for a landing
looked pretty slim but you look at a
problem step by step step one under way
you look at step two analyze the problem
as completely as possible within the
time frame machine make sure the test
problem is no way and in lunar orbit
Mattingly flew the command module to a
rendezvous as young talked him in the
team was coming up to speed not only at
the manned spacecraft Center but from
MIT in Massachusetts to North American
in Southern California isolate the
trouble simulated evaluated you can't
use it if you got broken wire you don't
know it's gonna come back again
not a cork apart beetle then you would
have no options I mean then it's full
speed ahead
I just don't let see how I get on this
next trip thank you guys I'll continue
to work good so you'd only do it if you
had a failure on the primary well how
would you ever get the damn thing
trimmed then
I had a failure in a primary I'd shut it
yeah you're gonna get here isolate
simulate evaluate the results were
coming in it was beginning to pay off
the simulator tests and other data were
showing that with the engine on the
oscillations would do no harm
despite the earlier pessimism it was
beginning to look pretty good okay when
you come up on a OS on the next Rev Rev
15 we'll give you a go or no-go for
another try
manned spacecraft Center director dr.
Christopher C Kraft jr. just came back
into the control center after having
attended a meeting by management people
in one of the back rooms and the
situation is go for landing well that is
a window car you do have a go for
another try here at the EDI on rep 16
once more they would pass behind the
moon
and on the next revolution John Young
and Charlie Duke would start their swift
descent to the Descartes Plateau
okay children inhalation looks good
okay
it's like we don't be able to make it
John it's not too many blocks up their
line you go for landing yeah right now
looks pretty good that comes a shadow
okay down at 350 feet that is for anyone
to pick up back to that slightly
stake sit down
stand by for contact from a letter down
to level off Center on down a step six
percent 20 fat back stop the original
plan had called for young and dupe to
get out and explore shortly after
landing however the near abort had
lasted six hours the tired astronauts
would sleep April 21 mission commander
John Young stepped onto the decart
formation 11:58 a.m. Eastern Standard
Time
while their activities were monitored by
Mission Control young and Duke were also
observed by scientists located across
the hall in the science support room
after unloading the rover from its
storage Bay in the lunar module they
planted the flag there we go young set
up an ultraviolet camera to provide the
first astronomical observations from the
moon he took pictures of the Earth's
upper atmosphere and magnetosphere and
their interaction with the solar wind
he also photographed the interstellar
gas present throughout space and the
ultraviolet halos that appear around
galaxies astronomers have long wanted a
telescope on the moon
perhaps this experiment would show the
moon an ideal base for future
astronomical observations you want to
pan deep drilled a hole into which a
heat flow probe was to be placed part of
one of the experiments attached to this
station as Duke drilled young set up the
Central Station and the remainder of the
experiments then what many considered
the biggest disappointment of the
mission crater we saw back there the
Lamb Charlie what don't a peer what
happened
oh there's a line at pullers oh I'm live
is it that's the heat flow pull it off
Carolyn sorry I didn't know tit
I didn't even know it well that means
you've got to got some eights all those
wires separate wires in there and have
him isolated from one mother and if that
doesn't occur one of the chances of
shorting out the Central Station well
that's another one that they're working
on earth they tried to figure a way to
fix the heat flow on the moon the
astronauts continued with the other
experiments young placed a series of
sensors in the soil then fired explosive
charges mapping the lunar subsurface
much as geologists on earth use
explosives to search for oil
they continue to sample the area and
activate the experiments then they
return to the rover and prepared for
their first trip away from the landing
site in search for geological samples
their first Traverse would take them
about 1 kilometre west of the landing
site they would make two stops to
collect samples and conduct experiments
yang used a portable instrument to
measure the local magnetic field he
would later record the most intense
magnetic field ever found on the moon
far higher than scientists ever
suspected rock in the near field on this
rim that had some height on the top of
it we'd like you to pick it up at the
grab sample there would be one more stop
before they got back to the lunar module
to close out this PDA with Guk acting as
photographer and young as driver they
put the rover through a full test
is he on the ground at all that
klompers huh
he's got about two wheels on the ground
skaters yard have notified a sharpie hey
ed break he's a big rooster tail out of
all four wheels and his heaters he
scared the backend
breaks loose just like on snow come on
back John and attack and run him then
out day and he's never seen a driver
like this okay when he hits the craters
it starts bouncing it's when he gets his
rooster tail make sharp turn then it was
back to their lunar base activate
experiments and closeout ETA one
be wise exercise their right physical
fitness in level hey that's right please
don't take pictures of the enjoy the
whole residue live protein diet on earth
the scientists took a break tomorrow
would be another busy day April 22nd the
lunar surface temperature in the Sun
should be around 135 degrees today today
they were headed a little over four
kilometres south to climb their Rover up
the side of Stone Mountain their first
station a crater 700 feet above their
lunar module we got certainly something
to go to one man sampling and maybe do
it they would make a total of six stops
on this Traverse collecting samples from
large rocks down through the
intermediates to the smallest soil
particles they would operate experiments
measuring the strength of local magnetic
fields to measuring the resistance of
the soil to compaction
and we come a long way
hey giant busy go straight across that
was fine I am a troll okay I'm walking
up there the sampling time used up it
was time to return to the rover we head
back to the lunar module they did it in
two minutes last travel time in free
play but with the limited oxygen and
water in the backpacks it was finally
time to close out Eevee a two
now I think they're realized that it's
not more well gee whiz like a frenzy
thrill but it's real exploration and
this is much more serious and much more
important for the future of mankind than
just a plain exploit too technical or
technological in supply
this is exploration Ray Bradbury claims
that what mankind sees in the
exploration of space is his first chance
at immortality since he's since he
invented religion April 23rd the
decision had been made not to try and
fix the broken heat flow experiment
because of the time and complexities
involved Traverse number three today
young and Duke would head north about
five kilometers to north ray crater the
largest lunar crater to be sampled by
men
outstanding hey Tony it seems to me this
is a more subdued surface over here than
going towards south break Oh spectacular
just spectacular Wow
start really beautiful I gotta keep my
own driving that's great Jake that's a
good point to remember all three crews
in our tendo's take their there before
they get back I remember and if this
thing has people off a 360 degrees now
I'd say I can't see to the bottom of it
now misquote the edges I'm gonna get
that now that I'm team if anything on
the moon can be called that test collect
photograph keep moving time is precious
on the moon how about rolling that one
over no way
then one of the most spectacular
discoveries of the mission look at the
size of it it is a big unit it may
be further away than we think because I
thought they were just right behind you
and we better press on for the big
boulder territory okay we're headed that
way you get the tongue stuck here in the
right big black dog
yes if we can see at the bottom we could
say for sure if the stick black rock is
right out of the bottom but uh my guess
from the old photograph there probably
is okay i curious what they're gonna
look like when they stand next to it we
can see how I get to it the bigger yet
yeah but look at the thermostatic part
Charlie on this side over here and as
our crew slowly disappeared into the
sunset
well Tony that's your half rock right
there
very good we'll get too near the air to
that they can fall off but look over
look over to right it falls off pretty
good
yeah no careful we got it Mikey Nina
okay let's go on back and we encourage
it just to look for some variety but now
it was time to head back to their base
and close out the EBA alright we think
you could just about to head south now
during the previous EBA a section of a
rear fender had come off the rover
causing the astronauts to receive
occasional showers of lunar dirt young
parked the rover then moved out to join
do enter the lunar module and prepare
for liftoff
smile FAO don't be mad
we'll get it up there feel nice and
leisurely it's been that's why it should
be getting ready for a soon
what a ride what a ride
it's over gone
together in orbit the two spacecraft
pirouette
each inspecting the other the
inspections complete the command module
and lunar module maneuvered for docking
John Young Ken Mattingly and Charlie
Duke reunited aboard the command module
settled down for tomorrow's tasks
jettisoned the lunar module and burn out
of orbit to come home
April 25 Ken Mattingly left the confines
of the command module cabin 173 thousand
miles from Earth as he orbited the moon
he had not only made visual observations
he had been operating a complex series
of experiments many of these had
returned instant data to Houston two had
taken thousands of high-resolution
pictures of the lunar terrain now
Mattingly retrieved the film canisters
and made his way back to the cabin with
them as Charlie Duke stood in the hatch
to help him work it had been quite a
mission in John Young's words
in ten days and most people say in ten
lifetimes April 27 the last day the crew
looked out their windows through the
5,000 degree fireball of reentry at
their native planet
they're blooming
follow Control Houston an observer on
that Ticonderoga estimates a distance
from the ship about to one mile
you saw an example of goal-oriented
teamwork in action the kind of thing
that made this country great and the
kind of thing that's going to keep it
that way
real smooth shot every bit of it Jerry
yeah protoman beautiful well done young
man
outstanding I cannot imagine that scar
anymore I cannot
yeah
you