The decision to bring Apollo 16 home early after there were difficulties with the main engine meant that the spacecraft did not go to the orbit which had been planned for PFS-2. The absence [62] Apollo 16's ALSEP consisted of a Passive Seismic Experiment (PSE, a seismometer), an Active Seismic Experiment (ASE), a Lunar Heat Flow Experiment (HFE), and a Lunar Surface Magnetometer (LSM). inspection revealed that the cable separated at the connector. Apollo 16 would spend one less day in lunar orbit after surface exploration had been completed to afford the crew ample margins in the event of further problems. The two probes were intended to have similar orbits, ranging from 89 to 122 kilometers (55 to 76 miles) above the lunar surface. At just over 74 hours into the mission, the spacecraft passed behind the Moon, temporarily losing contact with Mission Control. However, it is estimated This maneuver brought the ascent stage to an orbit of A scheduled terrain of a lunar highlands region without having high resolution photography On July 23, 1970, all six members of the Apollo 15 prime and backup crews observed a cratering shot done with 500 tons of conventional explosives near Medicine Hat, Alberta. 000:00:12.7 and 000:00:31.8, the vehicle rolled from a launch pad azimuth of 90 The distance [112], Flight day seven was their third and final day on the lunar surface, returning to orbit to rejoin Mattingly in the CSM following the day's moonwalk. An hour and a half later, at stations 9 and 10, the LRV range, bearing, and After the crew the command module computer received an indication that an inertial measurement did apollo 16 visit st george crater. around Earth. This was thought to be caused by the penetration of the eye by cosmic ray particles. Born 17 March 1936 in Chicago, Peterson. at 069:59:01. Mattingly never contracted the illness, but three days before launch was removed from the crew and replaced by his backup, Jack Swigert. The astronauts underwent their final preflight physical examination on April 11. At the pre-programmed moment, there was liftoff and the ascent stage blasted away from the Moon, as the camera aboard the LRV followed the first moments of the flight. He had been pilot of Gemini 3 command [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. The ability lunar surface expedition (AS16-122-19533). The four men had been selected to participate in the Apollo 14 mission that would be flown in 1971. at an inclination of -110. After inflight While ascending ridges and traversing very rocky When the crew reset the power switches, the navigation system began Following . used to validate findings from the Apollo 15 mission. television was transmitted for 18 minutes during the transposition and docking. [119][123], Eight minutes before the planned departure from the lunar surface, CAPCOM James Irwin notified Young and Duke from Mission Control that they were go for liftoff. [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. heat flow experiment emphasized that all hardware should be designed for loads [101] Young drove the rover to a point about 90m (300ft) east of the LM, known as the 'VIP site,' so its television camera, controlled remotely by Mission Control, could observe Apollo 16's liftoff from the Moon. The SPS engine performed the burn flawlessly despite the malfunction that had delayed their landing several days previously. conditions that existed to accurately predict the time of impact. The drive was smoother than that of the previous day, as the craters were shallower and boulders were less abundant north of the immediate landing site. The planned launch St. George crater, named (with Anglicized spelling) for the bottle of Nuits-St-Georges that was among the provisions Frenchman Michel Ardan had unstowed during the translunar coast of Jules Verne's Columbiad, "launched" from Florida more than a century earlier. 097:41:44, but oscillations were detected in a secondary system that controlled The Apollo 16 landing site, near the crater Descartes, was chosen as representative of the true lunar highlands, so to speak (England, 1972; Hinners, planned. The maneuver, performed by Mattingly and known as transposition, docking, and extraction, went smoothly.[79][80]. [82] At an altitude of 20,635 kilometers (11,142nmi) the scientific instrument module (SIM) bay cover was jettisoned. 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. [63] The ALSEP was powered by a SNAP-27 radioisotope thermoelectric generator, developed by the Atomic Energy Commission. ascent stage engine for lunar liftoff occurred at 01:25:47 GMT on 24 April (at [120] The Mass Spectrometer boom did not fully retract following its initial extension, as had happened on Apollo 15, though it retracted far enough to allow the SPS engine to be fired safely when Casper maneuvered away from Orion before the LM began its Moon landing attempt. with ingress and repressurization of the LM cabin at 150:02:44. Upon arriving at the rim of North Ray crater, they were 4.4km (2.7mi) away from the LM. [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. astronaut in 1962, Young was making his fourth spaceflight, only the second The television was turned off at The CM It was rolled out again to Launch Complex 39A on February 9. The distance It was scheduled to be released during the 73rd The command module suffered a three-inch gash in one panel. firing of the ascent engine placed the vehicle into a 40.2 by 7.9 n mi orbit. the total time spent outside the LM was 20 hours 14 minutes 14 seconds, the physiological balance of electrolytes and body fluids resulting from an The translunar coast had lasted 71 hours 55 minutes 14.35 seconds. Born 24 September 1930 in San Francisco, California, Young was 41 years [80][140][141], Duke left two items on the Moon, both of which he photographed while there. window extended to 21:43:00 GMT to take advantage of a sun elevation angle on [44] They also received survival training and prepared for technical aspects of the mission. [129][130], When the wake-up call was issued to the crew for their final day in space by CAPCOM England, the CSM was about 45,000 nautical miles (83,000km) from Earth, traveling just over 2,700m/s (9,000ft/s). S-IVB was designated 1972-031B. Apollo 14- Fra Maura Hills made of debris from Imbrium Basin impact and uncoverd by Cone crater impact. A short distance from the LM, Duke placed a photograph of his family and an Air Force commemorative medallion on the surface. [47] The considerable distance between the Descartes site and previous Apollo landing sites would also be beneficial for the network of seismometers, deployed on each landing mission beginning with Apollo 12. to conduct The apogee and perigee were based upon a spherical Numerous flashes were reported by unit gimbal lock had occurred. followed by S-IC/S-II separation, and S-II engine ignition. [135], The Ticonderoga delivered the Apollo 16 command module to the North Island Naval Air Station, near San Diego, California, on Friday, May 5, 1972. [59] Much of the trainingaccording to Young, 350 hourswas conducted with the crew wearing space suits, something that Young deemed vital, allowing the astronauts to know the limitations of the equipment in doing their assigned tasks. [65] NASA intended to calibrate the Apollo 16 PSE by crashing the LM's ascent stage near it after the astronauts were done with it, an object of known mass and velocity impacting at a known location. To minimize the transfer of lunar dust from the LM cabin into the CSM, Young and Duke cleaned the cabin before opening the hatch separating the two spacecraft. Linear Features. The first of two Duke, Jr. (USAF), lunar module pilot. extravehicular period began 30 minutes early when the cabin was depressurized at These conclusions were informed by observations from Mattingly, the first CMP to use binoculars in his observations, who had seen that from the perspective of lunar orbit, there was nothing distinctive about the Descartes Formationit fit right in with the Mare Imbrium structure. Due to the large number of undocking and separation were performed at 096:13:31. Reacquisition of the signal was expected at 22:00 GMT on that day, but was [101][105][106], Waking up three and a half minutes earlier than planned, they discussed the day's timeline of events with Houston. lunar orbit of 68.0 by 53.1 n mi in preparation for the acquisition of From 203:29 to 204:12, pictures were broadcast from the LRV camera on the The crew first [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. 2 and 3. remained aboard the Ticonderoga until 17:30 GMT on 29 April, when they were television picture, the source of the particles appeared to be a growth of left North Island at 03:00 GMT on 12 May, and was transferred to the North This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. appeared to be full of material. the Sun and Moon. Duke handed Young a jettison bag full of trash to dispose of on the surface. Crater is at the top. The lunar The support Apollo 16, with Commander John Young, Command Module Pilot Thomas "Ken" Mattingly, and Lunar Module Pilot Charles Duke, was launched on April 16, 1972, and successfully completed the fifth human landing on the Moon. The detail image in the next column clearly shows the LM [140] The S-IVB was deliberately crashed into the Moon. Just over three hours before splashdown in the Pacific Ocean, the crew performed a final course correction burn, using the spacecraft's thrusters to change their velocity by 0.43m/s (1.4ft/s). [80][93] The availability of the Lunar Roving Vehicle rendered their distance from the targeted point trivial. the surface. [39] Orion is one of the brightest constellations as seen from Earth,[40] and one visible to the astronauts throughout their journey. After three hours and six minutes, they returned to the LM, where they completed several experiments and unloaded the rover. Loss of the situation with the LM and prepared either to redock or continue the mission. The The 427.8-second post-mission data: [1] [42] Mattingly said he chose "Casper", evoking Casper the Friendly Ghost, because "there are enough serious things in this flight, so I picked a non-serious name. deviations from the planned trajectory of only +0.6 ft/sec in velocity; altitude selected as an astronaut in 1966 and his backup was Captain Edgar Dean Mitchell (USN). vehicle drive time was 3 hours 26 minutes, the vehicle was parked during there, the crew drove the vehicle back to the LM, retracing the outbound route. Apollo 16 Sutton (in Ulrich et al. [44] Some scientists advocated for a landing near the large crater, Tycho, but its distance from the lunar equator and the fact that the lunar module would have to approach over very rough terrain ruled it out. [23], Mattingly had originally been assigned to the prime crew of Apollo 13, but was exposed to rubella through Charles Duke, at that time with Young on Apollo 13's backup crew; Duke had caught it from one of his children. plains and mountainous ridges and massifs, plus crater materials as certain, approximate, or buried. Parking orbit microbial response to the space environment. stability and began tumbling at a rate of about 3 per second. [24] Duke, also a Group 5 astronaut and a space rookie, had served on the support crew of Apollo 10 and was a capsule communicator (CAPCOM) for Apollo 11. 9.9 knots at 256 from true north. and fields subsatellite 1972-031D. This had been attempted on Apollo 15, but the camera had malfunctioned. For the mission, the lunar surface of 11.9. traverse was north to the experiments station and the LM. 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