Despite this, the crew discovered that the spacecraft's systems were performing nominally. LM activation This image does not show Aldrin, but rather Charles M. Duke, Jr., the lunar module pilot who crewed the Apollo 16 mission in 1972, collecting lunar samples near the rim of Plum Crater. [101], About 1hour and 22 minutes after arriving at the North Ray crater, they departed for Station 13, a large boulder field about 0.5km (0.31mi) from North Ray. traveled in the lunar rover vehicle was 2.3 n mi (4.2 km), vehicle drive time [44] Scientist Dan Milton, studying photographs of the highlands from Lunar Orbiter photographs, saw an area in the Descartes region of the Moon with unusually high albedo that he theorized might be due to volcanic rock; his theory quickly gained wide support. The return route was past Elbow Crater and directly across the mare to the lunar module. Apparently, on this mission they had trouble keeping loose material from falling out of the cores. The systems were found to be functioning as expected. The EVA lasted approximately 6 hours, 33 minutes, ending at 3:46 p.m. measures were taken and equipment changes and additions were made to control mission was 1,208,746 n mi. [91][92], For the rest of the two crafts' passes over the near side of the Moon, Mattingly prepared to shift Casper to a higher, near-circular orbit, while Young and Duke prepared Orion for the descent to the lunar surface. lunar surface expedition (AS16-122-19533). Apollo 14: July 1970: Crater Censorinus highlands: Apollo 15: November 1970: Littrow volcanic area: Apollo 16: April 1971: Crater Tycho (Surveyor VII impact area) Apollo 17: September 1971: Marius Hills volcanic domes: Apollo 18: February 1972: Schroter's Valley, riverlike channel-ways: Apollo 19: July . The apogee and perigee were based upon a spherical The crew first was accomplished as planned. After a change in switch configuration, the LRV was working properly. After returning to the LM to wrap up the second lunar excursion, they climbed back inside the landing craft's cabin, sealing and pressurizing the interior after 7hours, 23 minutes, and 26 seconds of EVA time, breaking a record that had been set on Apollo 15. The following conclusions were made from an analysis of gimbal lock indication during critical periods. At this point the SaturnV rocket's three stages were powered up, and drinking water was pumped into the spacecraft. 102:30:00 and the platforms were realigned at 102:40. Apollo 16 is gonna change your image. The third total distance traveled in the lunar rover vehicle was 14.5 n mi (26.9 km), They When asked to summarize the results for a general audience, Dr. George Carruthers of the Naval Research Laboratory stated, "the most immediately obvious and spectacular results were really for the Earth observations, because this was the first time that the Earth had been photographed from a distance in ultraviolet (UV) light, so that you could see the full extent of the hydrogen atmosphere, the polar auroris and what we call the tropical airglow belt. could be used to study the nature of the lunar interior structure. translunar and transearth coast phases for all detailed objectives and with ingress and repressurization of the LM cabin at 150:02:44. extravehicular activity lasted 7 hours 11 minutes 2 seconds. item of particular interest was the crews description of Guyot Crater, which drove to the rim of North Ray Crater where photographs were taken and samples [73] The instrument was placed in the LM's shadow and pointed at nebulae, other astronomical objects, the Earth itself, and any suspected volcanic vents seen on the lunar surface. the Sun and Moon. pounds (35.4 kg) of samples were collected. central Florida. [49] Following the decision, the Alphonsus site was considered the most likely candidate for Apollo 17, but was eventually rejected. could be accomplished. The panels would be bagged for return to Earth. [119][122] The Laser Altimeter, designed to accurately measure the spacecraft altitude, slowly lost accuracy due to reduced power, and finally failed just before it was due to be used for the last time. The next day, NASA astronauts John W. Young and Charles M. Duke separated their Lunar Module (LM) Orion from Thomas K. "Ken" Mattingly, who remained in orbit aboard the Command Module (CM) Casper. constraints while wearing the pressurized suits. It was decided that Young and Duke would visually inspect the boom after undocking the LM from the CSM. Thus, Apollo 16 was postponed to April 16. [80][131], Scientific analysis of the rocks brought back to Earth confirmed that the Cayley Formation was not volcanic in nature. [96][97] After the pair donned and pressurized their space suits and depressurized the lunar module cabin, Young climbed out onto the "porch" of the LM, a small platform above the ladder. These culminated with a problem with the spaceship's main engine that resulted in a six-hour delay in the Moon landing as NASA managers contemplated having the astronauts abort the mission and return to Earth, before deciding the problem could be overcome. in aeronautics and deorbit, it was not possible to activate the subsatellite until 20 hours after central Florida. This brought the total About four hours after the beginning of EVA-1, they mounted the lunar rover and drove to the first geologic stop, Plum Crater, a 118ft-wide (36m) crater on the rim of Flag Crater, about 240m (790ft) across. . Duke handed Young a jettison bag full of trash to dispose of on the surface. The crew performed the Apollo light flash experiment, or ALFMED, to investigate "light flashes" that were seen by Apollo lunar astronauts when the spacecraft was dark, regardless of whether their eyes were open. At 078:33:45.04, He A 7.14-second CSM plane 9.9 knots at 256 from true north. did apollo 16 visit st george crater. The only astronaut to achieve that distinction. [71] Measurements after the mission found that "soft" magnetism had returned to the sample, although at a lower intensity than before. velocity of 25,605.1 ft/sec. The crew compared their observations with There, they dug a double core and conducted several penetrometer tests along a line stretching 50m (160ft) east of the ALSEP. Following their stop at Buster, Young did a "Grand Prix" demonstration drive of the lunar rover, which Duke filmed with a 16 mm movie camera. The splashdown site was estimated to be latitude 0.70 station 8, a rear-drive troubleshooting procedure was implemented. Additional data would be returned by the use of the Lunar Portable Magnetometer (LPM), to be carried on the lunar rover and activated at several geology stops. 214:35:02.8 to achieve the desired entry interface conditions with Earth. At 152m (499ft) above the valley floor, the pair were at the highest elevation above the LM of any Apollo mission. checks were normal. (USN). In order to point the high gain antenna, panel 51 was rotated out of sunlight Sadly, David Scott and Jim Irwin did not reach St. George crater. As the countdown began, the crew of Apollo 16 was participating in final training exercises in anticipation of a launch on April 16. flash phenomena experiment started at 049:10. that the S-IVB impacted the lunar surface at 075:08:04. on the light pole 60.0 feet above ground at the launch site measured 12.2 knots the flashes left no after-glow, were instantaneous, and were white. and 203:12, good quality television pictures were transmitted from inside the [43] As Apollo 16 was the penultimate mission in the Apollo program and there was no major new hardware or procedures to test on the lunar surface, the last two missions (the other being Apollo 17) presented opportunities for astronauts to clear up some of the uncertainties in understanding the Moon's characteristics. Additional [46], The Ad Hoc Apollo Site Evaluation Committee met in April and May 1971 to decide the Apollo 16 and 17 landing sites; it was chaired by Noel Hinners of Bellcomm. was made at 195:03:13 to separate the CSM from the ascent stage. [20] Although not officially announced, Director of Flight Crew Operations Deke Slayton, the astronauts' supervisor, had originally planned to have a backup crew of Haise as commander, William R. Pogue (CMP) and Gerald P. Carr (LMP), who were targeted for the prime crew assignment on Apollo 19. The S-IVB engine shut down at Instead, the two craft kept station, maintaining positions close to each other. A short distance from the LM, Duke placed a photograph of his family and an Air Force commemorative medallion on the surface. point was about 3.0 n mi from the target point and 2.7 n mi from the recovery The velocity of the craft steadily decreased, as it had not yet reached the lunar sphere of gravitational influence. flow experiment. LM was 15,092 feet. [101] After spending 54 minutes on the slope, they climbed aboard the lunar rover en route to the day's second stop, dubbed Station 5, a crater 20m (66ft) across. Astronauts David Scott and James Irwin drove their rover onto what was suspected to be its ejecta blanket in 1971, on the Apollo 15 mission, during EVA 1. The first Apollo 15 EVA took astronauts David Scott and James Irving southward along the edge of Hadley Rille and to the base of Mt. physiological balance of electrolytes and body fluids resulting from an mass concentrations (mascons) on the front and far sides of the Moon were Linear Features. After making a navigation stop, they . television press conference started at 243:35 and lasted for 18 minutes. [114], After Orion was cleared for the landing attempt, Casper maneuvered away, and Mattingly performed a burn that took his spacecraft to an orbit of 98.3 kilometers; 61.1 miles (53.1nmi) by 125.6 kilometers; 78.0 miles (67.8nmi) in preparation for his scientific work. 36 years old at the time of the Apollo 16 mission. or subdued-buried . The particles were unexplained. Craters on the north slope of Stone Mountain. [76] This brief lifetime was because lunar mascons were near to its orbital ground track and helped pull PFS-2 into the Moon. The support Several LRV maneuver was possible, and the ascent stage remained in lunar orbit for was on the surface, the command module pilot had obtained photographs, measured During this time, Mattingly was preparing the CSM in anticipation of their return approximately six hours later. Lunar dust The LM cabin was The early part of day three was largely housekeeping, spacecraft maintenance and exchanging status reports with Mission Control in Houston. The first shows the area north of the LM up to North Ray Crater. This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. as a black spot, with white streaking from the descent engine plume. Apollo 16 Pan Camera frame 4623 - North (260k) John Pfannerstillhas scanned three areas of this frame. [55] By the end of the training, the field trips had become major exercises, involving up to eight astronauts and dozens of support personnel, attracting coverage from the media. At the end of the crew's final full day in space, the spacecraft was approximately 143,000 kilometers (77,000nmi) from Earth and closing at a rate of about 2,100 meters per second (7,000ft/s). was made at 195:03:13 to separate the CSM from the ascent stage. It was too far up the slope of Hadley Delta mountain. 15 to 18 db drop in signal strength. was selected as an astronaut in 1966. The Apollo 16 landing site, near the crater Descartes, was chosen as representative of the true lunar highlands, so to speak (England, 1972; Hinners, An investigation board reported that the ratio of neutralizer to All systems situation with the LM and prepared either to redock or continue the mission. undocking and separation were performed at 096:13:31. retrieved by helicopter and was aboard the recovery ship 37 minutes after The LM landed 890ft (270m) north and 200ft (60m) west of the planned landing site at 104 hours, 29 minutes, and 35 seconds into the mission, at 2:23:35 UTC on April 21 (8:23:35pm on April 20 in Houston). Numerous flashes were reported by The vehicles and payload were lunar orbits lasting 125 hours 49 minutes 32.59 seconds. features. The Apollo 16 mission launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 12:54pm EST on April 16, 1972. The S-IC engine shut down at 000:02:41.78, NASA Astromaterials Curation, an integral part of any sample return mission, comprises preparation and allocation of samples for research and education, initial characterization of new samples, and secure storage for the benefit of future generations. During this time Mattingly orbited the Moon in the command and service module (CSM), taking photos and operating scientific instruments. This was the eleventh Saturn V to be flown and the ninth used on crewed missions. The SM scientific instrumentation module door was jettisoned departed by C-141 aircraft for Ellington Air Force Base, Houston, at 20:07 GMT [60] Mattingly also received training in recognizing geological features from orbit by flying over the field areas in an airplane, and trained to operate the Scientific Instrument Module from lunar orbit. The thumpers would be exploded during the ALSEP deployment. For the mission, [44], After landing, Young and Duke began powering down some of the LM's systems to conserve battery power. [82] At an altitude of 20,635 kilometers (11,142nmi) the scientific instrument module (SIM) bay cover was jettisoned. This may have The crew planned. 1981) notes that the Apollo 16 core stems went easily into the soil, and that the LM area where the deep drill core was also taken was only loosely compacted. Apollo 16 (April 16-27, 1972) was the tenth crewed mission in the United States Apollo space program, administered by NASA, and the fifth and penultimate to land on the Moon. [45] Several members of the scientific community noted that the central lunar highlands resembled regions on Earth that were created by volcanism processes and hypothesized the same might be true on the Moon. [31][32], For projects Mercury and Gemini, a prime and a backup crew had been designated, but for Apollo, a third group of astronauts, known as the support crew, was also designated. Credit: NASA. international designation for the CSM upon achieving orbit was 1972-031A and the The [48], At Alphonsus, three scientific objectives were determined to be of primary interest and paramount importance: the possibility of old, pre-Imbrium impact material from within the crater's wall, the composition of the crater's interior and the possibility of past volcanic activity on the floor of the crater at several smaller "dark halo" craters. Griffin, Neil B. Hutchinson, and Charles R. Lewis (third shift). not performed before ejection of the subsatellite and the it was placed into an England, Ph.D., and Lt. This was done without problems. He was module was jettisoned at 265:22:33, and the CM entry followed a normal profile. The 427.8-second accidentally tripped over the electronics cable, breaking it, and rendering the Using two different sizes of polystyrene particles, one size colored red and one blue, separation of the two types via electrophoresis was achieved, though electro-osmosis in the experiment equipment prevented the clear separation of two particle bands. the condition. the CSM was separated from the S-IVB stage, transposed, and docked at capability of the S-band omni-directional antenna system to support the 000:00:12.7 and 000:00:31.8, the vehicle rolled from a launch pad azimuth of 90 The in the CM tanks as a result of the Apollo 15 parachute anomaly. system, which supported the antenna. Visual During the press conference, the astronauts answered questions pertaining to several technical and non-technical aspects of the mission prepared and listed by priority at the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston by journalists covering the flight. Illinois, Mattingly was 36 years old at the time of the Apollo 16 mission. Once inside, they pressurized the LM cabin, went through a half-hour debriefing with scientists in Mission Control, and configured the cabin for the sleep period. Twenty-five minutes after departing the Vacant Lot, they arrived at the final stop of the day, halfway between the ALSEP site and the LM. [113] After pressurizing the LM cabin, the crew began preparing to return to lunar orbit. gathered during lunar orbit, from the lunar surface, and during both the The farthest point traveled from the After several hours of analysis, mission controllers determined that the malfunction could be worked around, and Young and Duke could proceed with the landing. Image Credit: NASA. As on One that excited Irwin particularly was a meter or so (3 to 4 feet) across . splashdown. During ingress, pilot of Gemini 10, and command module pilot of Apollo 10, the first test of the The maneuver, performed by Mattingly and known as transposition, docking, and extraction, went smoothly.[79][80]. Becoming an astronaut in 1962 as part of the second group to be selected by NASA, he flew in Gemini 3 with Gus Grissom in 1965, becoming the first American not of the Mercury Seven to fly in space. No deorbit burn lunar surface during the 425th revolution at longitude 110 east. After their arrival, the duo took photographs of the 1km (0.62mi) wide and 230m (750ft) deep crater. The television was turned off at Apollo 12-Oceanus Pracellarum (Ocean of Storms) in the Mare Insularam (sea of islands) Apollo 13- no landing. The capsule old at the time of the Apollo 16 mission. [28], Apollo 16's backup crew consisted of Fred W. Haise Jr. (commander, who had flown on Apollo 13), Stuart A. Roosa (CMP, who had flown on Apollo 14) and Edgar D. Mitchell (LMP, also Apollo 14). 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