{"id":3623,"date":"2020-04-25T14:04:53","date_gmt":"2020-04-25T18:04:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.colinmackellar.com\/blog\/?p=3623"},"modified":"2021-04-12T18:54:06","modified_gmt":"2021-04-12T22:54:06","slug":"64-apollo-17-diary-of-the-twelfth-man-part-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colinmackellar.com\/blog\/64-apollo-17-diary-of-the-twelfth-man-part-6\/","title":{"rendered":"6. APOLLO 17: Diary of the Twelfth Man, Part 6"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Passing through 3500 ft on its descent to the landing site in Taurus-Littrow<\/em>\u00a0valley, the 16 mm Data Acquisition Camera (DAC) mounted in my window of Challenger<\/em> records the approach. The large crater abutting the edge of the window at left is Camelot<\/em>, ~600 m in diameter. The smaller crater (of 3) immediately to its right is Holden<\/em> (~240 m); and next right, Lewis<\/em> (above<\/em>,\u00a0~200 m) and Clark<\/em> (below<\/em>, ~180 m). The bright avalanche debris from the South Massif emerges from the left edge of the window, partly crossing the valley entrance. The dark oval in the branch of it nearest the reader is Shorty Crater<\/em>, the site where I discovered the orange soil (Chapter 11). In the distance, are (l.<\/em> to r<\/em>.): the larger (West<\/em>) Family Mountain<\/em>, a middle\u00a0white-capped peak, and the smaller (Old<\/em>) Family Mountain<\/em> (see the ALSJ<\/em><\/a><\/span> for a detailed discussion of this latter nomenclature).<\/span><\/p>\n

Author\u2019s Note<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cContact!\u201d recounts the events of the 6th day of the Apollo 17 mission. It includes wakeup activities; my entry into Challenger<\/em> to begin the Challenger\u2019s<\/em> activation; a complete activation of \u00a0Challenger’s<\/em> systems; Descent Orbit Insertion-1 (DOI-1) while still docked with the CSM; preparation for undocking from America<\/em>; undocking; preparation and implementation of DOI-2 by Challenger<\/em>; and, of course, Powered Descent on to the lunar surface in the valley of Taurus-Littrow. Observations of both the departing CSM with Ron Evans and parts of the lunar surface from orbit are discussed and illustrated. Four videos of the undocking; fly-over of the landing site; and the landing beginning 10 miles from touchdown are included. The chapter differs from other accounts of the transcripts of this part of the mission in that I give explanations of the various LM systems and controls. I hope that the reader obtains a measure of just how complex Grumman\u2019s Lunar Module actually was, and how well both the simulators and the flight machines performed for that era.<\/p>\n

As before, the liberal use of endnotes, distinguishing between subjects and sources is aided by the consistent use of different font styles and colors in the text. The first endnote of Chapter 8 repeats the explanation of these color codes.<\/p>\n

To continue reading, click \u201cChapter 8 \u2013 Contact!\u201d in the sidebar at upper right under \u201cB. Chapters 1 \u2013 9\u201d. That page leads directly to the beginning of the chapter. The sub-heading \u201ca. Headings of Chapter 8\u201d takes the reader to a Table of Contents to the headings of the chapter to facilitate later entry into the chapter.<\/p>\n

One can, of course, also begin the whole \u201dDiary\u201c from the beginning by clicking on the header, \u201c1. Apollo 17: Diary of the 12th Man\u201d, in the \u201cPages\u201d sidebar at the top upper right.<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 by Harrison H. Schmitt, 2020, All rights reserved.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Passing through 3500 ft on its descent to the landing site in Taurus-Littrow\u00a0valley, the 16 mm Data Acquisition Camera (DAC) mounted in my window of Challenger records the approach. The large crater abutting the edge of the window at left is Camelot, ~600 m in diameter. The smaller crater (of 3) immediately to its right … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “6. APOLLO 17: Diary of the Twelfth Man, Part 6”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,50],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-science-engineering-space-policy","category-science-engineering-space-policy-past-present-future"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bNBl-Wr","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colinmackellar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colinmackellar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colinmackellar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colinmackellar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colinmackellar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3623"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.colinmackellar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3623\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4767,"href":"https:\/\/www.colinmackellar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3623\/revisions\/4767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colinmackellar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colinmackellar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colinmackellar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}