{"id":30050,"date":"2022-03-24T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-03-24T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/?post_type=purple_issue&p=30050"},"modified":"2022-04-20T13:24:46","modified_gmt":"2022-04-20T13:24:46","slug":"apollo-16","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/2022\/03\/24\/apollo-16\/","title":{"rendered":"Apollo 16"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n

Apollo 16<\/h2>\n\n

Misbehaving engines were among the mishaps on the penultimate Apollo landing. 50 years on, Ezzy <\/strong>Pearson <\/strong>looks back at the mission<\/p>\n\n

<\/div>
\n

MISSION BRIEF<\/span><\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Launch date: <\/strong>16 April 1972
Launch location: <\/strong>Launch Complex 39A
Landing location: <\/strong>Descartes Highlands
Time on surface: <\/strong>71 hours, 2 minutes and 12 seconds
Distance covered by the Lunar Rover: <\/strong>26.7km
Duration: <\/strong>11 days, 1 hour, 51 minutes
Return date: <\/strong>27 April 1972
Main goals: <\/strong>Inspect, sample and survey the Descartes region; set up surface experiments; photograph the lunar surface from orbit; test the Lunar Rover\u2019s capabilities
Achievements: <\/strong>First human landing on lunar highland; discovery that the region was an impact crater, not volcanic; collection of 96kg of material to sample, including one taken from 2.2m below the surface.
Lunar Module name: <\/strong>Orion
Command Module name: <\/strong>Casper<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section>\n\n

When a rubella scare grounded Command Module pilot Ken Mattingly in 1970, he was forced to watch from the sidelines as his two crewmates headed off to the Moon without him on the ill-fated Apollo 13. Two years later in 1972, Mattingly hoped for better luck on his new mission, Apollo 16. Unfortunately, while Apollo 13 had been an Oscar-worthy triumph over tragedy, Apollo 16 would turn out to be something of a farce. In 1972, morale at NASA was low. A curtailed Apollo programme was heading into its final two missions and many staff members were being laid off.<\/p>\n\n

Meanwhile, the Soviets were making headlines with the Lunokhod rover and its robotic sample return missions, doing the work of the Apollo missions at a fraction of the cost and without risking human lives.<\/p>\n\n

Not that the Apollo astronauts themselves minded the risk. In fact, they were pushing for more adventurous missions following the success of Apollo 15. Perhaps to the rugged landscape of the southern pole? Or even the lunar far side. Instead, NASA played it safe, and the fifth lunar landing was set to visit the equatorial lunar highlands for the first time. And so, on 16 April at 17:54 UT, Mattingly along with Commander John Young and Lunar Module Pilot Charles Duke launched on their way to Descartes crater, an area believed to be the site of past volcanic activity.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

\"\"
Charles Duke collects rock samples at the Descartes Highlands landing site, with the Lunar Rover in the background<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

Though the launch went well enough, it wasn\u2019t long before the first of Apollo 16\u2019s many problems began.<\/p>\n\n

On the second day, as the crew were mounting the Lunar Module on the nose of the Command and Service Module (CSM) and removing the former from its housing, Mattingly noticed a steady stream of white particles flowing from the Lunar Module\u2019s propellant tanks. Were they venting fuel?<\/span><\/p>\n\n

\u201cI think you\u2019re going to have to get in the Lunar Module and take a look at the\u2026 systems\u2019 gauges to tell what\u2019s going on here,\u201d came the order from the ground.<\/p>\n\n

\"\"
Apollo 16\u2019s launch on 6 April at 17:54 UT went to plan, initially\u2026 <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n
\"\"
…with NASA\u2019s Flight Director Gene Kranz keeping a careful watch from Mission Control; but it wasn\u2019t long before problems started to arise<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

The crew opened up the Lunar Module in a record 17 minutes, but found there was no sign of a pressure drop in the fuel tanks, much to their relief. However, particles with the appearance of \u2018shredded wheat\u2019 continued to move past the window. \u201cIt sure is something strange coming out of that,\u201d said Young. \u201cI never saw anything like that on [Apollo 10]. I mean I\u2019m not normally a rabble-rouser.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

The eventual culprit turned out to be a coat of white paint on the Lunar Module that was harmlessly flaking off. Crisis solved, the crew settled down for the long haul to the Moon, \u2018enjoying\u2019 a new potassiumrich cuisine, imposed upon them after elevated heart rates on Apollo 15 had left NASA fearing an astronaut might have a heart attack. The usual go-to potassium source \u2013 bananas \u2013 proved unsuitable for long-haul missions, so they were instead made to drink vast amounts of orange juice. The crew\u2019s thoughts on the menu were uncertain though, as a stuck antenna made radio communications garbled and spotty.<\/p>\n\n

\"\"
Paint blisters can be seen on the exterior of the Lunar Module ascent stage, after paint had been seen flaking off during the journey to the Moon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n
Moon arrival<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n

On 19 April, the trio reached the Moon, and Duke and Young crossed over into the Lunar Module, named Orion. The craft separated, only for them to discover that reflections from the Moon were making their landing radar misbehave. Luckily, this wasn\u2019t a big problem \u2013 just another one of the many niggles that had become expected on space missions.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

Then, on the 12th orbit around the Moon, a far more serious issue arose. Mattingly was supposed to fire the CSM\u2019s Service Propulsion System for four seconds when passing around the lunar far side in order to circularise their orbit. During his checks, one of the backup mechanisms started shaking badly. <\/span>Even though it was a backup, the Service Propulsion System was a vital part of making sure the crew returned safely \u2013a malfunction would mean cancelling the landing and coming straight home.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cGood Lord! Look at that hole we almost landed in!\u201d
<\/em>\u2013 Charles Duke\u2019s first words on the Moon<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

<\/div>
\n

Meet the astronauts<\/span><\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Commander: John Young <\/strong>
Young, born on 24 September 1930, would go on to become one of NASA\u2019s most experienced astronauts, flying six space missions in four different vehicles \u2013 Gemini, the Apollo CSM, the Apollo LM and the Space Shuttle. He served as Chief of the Astronaut Office, finally retiring from NASA in 2004. He died on 5 January 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Lunar Module Pilot: Charles Duke <\/strong>
Born on 3 October 1935, Duke is (currently) the youngest person to have walked on the Moon, aged 36. He served as the Capcom (capsule communicator) during the Apollo 11 landing and was in the Apollo 13 backup crew before getting rubella. Apollo 16 was his only mission and he retired in 1976, continuing his career in the US Air Force.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Command Module Pilot: Thomas Kenneth Mattingly <\/strong>
Born on 17 March 1936, Mattingly was a Navy pilot before joining NASA\u2019s fifth astronaut class. Initially meant to fly on Apollo 13, he was reassigned to Apollo 16. He stayed with NASA for another decade, flying on two Shuttle flights, before retiring in 1985 to work for spaceflight companies, including Grumman and Lockheed Martin.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section>\n\n

Beset by delays<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n

As soon as Mattingly emerged from the far side of the Moon, he immediately began reporting his troubles to Mission Control. As engineers on the ground tried to trace the issue, Mattingly reflected on how this compared to their worst-case-scenario training simulations, quipping, \u201cIt\u2019s really the worst sim I\u2019ve ever been in.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

It took the ground team four hours to discover that the wobble wouldn\u2019t prevent the Service Propulsion System working properly. Mattingly conducted the burn, allowing Young and Duke to land on the lunar surface, six hours behind schedule.<\/p>\n\n

After 100 hours of dealing with issue after issue, the pair closed in on the lunar surface. Even the usually taciturn Duke indulged in a whoop of joy, exclaiming, \u201cWow! Wild man, look at that!\u201d<\/p>\n\n

After a good night\u2019s sleep and a potassium-loaded breakfast, the pair stepped out onto the surface. The communication issues meant they are the only moonwalkers without a video record of their first steps, but their first words did make it back to Earth.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

\"\"\/
Apollo 16\u2019s three EVAs (extravehicular activities) were undertaken by John Young and Charles Duke, and covered a total distance of 26.7km<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

\u201cHey\u2026 mysterious and unknown Descartes, Apollo 16 is going to change your image,\u201d said Young. Duke meanwhile, went with the less poetic, \u201cGood Lord! look at that hole we almost landed in!\u201d referring to a 7.6m-deep crater just 3m from Orion.<\/p>\n\n

The spotty transmission was soon improved with the deployment of the Lunar Rover, which had its own communications hardware that could transmit video footage. The two got to work setting up experiments around the Lunar Module, including the most important of the mission \u2013a heat flow probe to measure how the Moon radiates heat. Duke set about drilling into the surface, easily reaching 3m down.<\/p>\n\n

Meanwhile, Young was halfway through setting up the ALSEP (Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Package) when his foot caught on something. Hopping to free himself, he was soon surrounded by a floating mess of ribbon cables (pictured).<\/p>\n\n

\u201cUh-oh,\u201d said Duke, looking over. \u201cThat\u2019s the heat flow. You\u2019ve pulled it off.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

\"\"
Footage shot by Charles Duke shows the moment John Young realised the ALSEP heat cable had tangled itself around his foot as he hopped backwards<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n

The cable had broken right at the connector \u2013 it would be impossible to fix and they had no replacement. The experiment was useless.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cOh, rats!\u201d exclaimed Duke. \u201cA bunch of spaghetti over there.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

The pair continued on, finishing up the other experiments before setting off in the Lunar Rover to explore the surrounding area with a relatively short 4.2km jaunt to pick up some samples from a nearby crater, including a bright white rock that appeared to be thrown up by a meteorite impact. The excursion finished with one last, fun exercise \u2013 racing the Lunar Rover in a \u2018Lunar Grand Prix\u2019, driving flat out and skidding in circles as a more extreme test of its capabilities. The Lunar Rover managed a maximum speed of 17km\/h across the uneven landscape.<\/p>\n\n

Too many oranges<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n

Covered in dust \u2013 especially Duke, who had fallen over at least three times \u2013 the two clambered into their module. After undressing in a completely sealed room, which was a little larger than two phone boxes, Young made a distressing declaration.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got the farts again. I got \u2018em again Charlie. I don\u2019t know what the hell gives them to me,\u201d he mourned, though he soon laid the blame on the potassium-rich, orange-fuelled diet. \u201cI haven\u2019t eaten this much citrus fruit in 20 years! And I\u2019ll tell you one thing, in another 12 f***ing days I ain\u2019t never eating any more.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

At this point, Houston cut in to inform him he\u2019d left his microphone on and was broadcasting his laments to not just Mission Control, but the journalist-filled media room.<\/p>\n\n

After eight hours of rest, the pair headed outside for their second extra vehicular activity (EVA), 4.1km away at the base of Stone Mountain. Over the 11.1km-long round trip the duo stopped to take samples, including a set where they scraped one sample from the top of a boulder which had been exposed to cosmic rays for millennia and another from the underside that had been protected, so that geologists could compare the two samples.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

The pair of astronauts constantly communicated what they saw to the geologists on the ground, supplementing the video feed coming in from the Lunar Rover\u2019s camera. The longer the moonwalkers explored, the more apparent it was becoming there were no signs of the volcanism they\u2019d been expecting; it was actually an impact basin. They\u2019d got it wrong, which was an embarrassing mistake on the geologists\u2019 part, but one that demonstrated the need for first-hand exploration to get close to the surface.<\/p>\n\n

\"\"
Charles Duke is pictured with the Lunar Rover during the second EVA on 22 April, as he was preparing to explore Stone Mountain<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

Duke, meanwhile, was getting a little too close for comfort, falling over another six times. He soon found he could use a hole or crater to lever himself up. Despite his constant slips both Duke and Young were enjoying their mission, and when they arrived back at the Lunar Module Duke begged their Capcom, Tony England, \u201cHow about an extension?… How about 10 minutes, Tony? Please.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n

\u201cOkay, we\u2019ll go ahead and give you 10 minutes,\u201d England acquiesced.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

\u201cAttaboy,\u201d said Duke. They finished up their EVA and returned for another eight-hour rest before getting started on the third and final moonwalk. They travelled a total of 11.4km, exploring around the North Ray crater, 4.4km away from the Lunar Module. During one stop, they found a 10m-high boulder, named House Rock, samples from which would incontrovertibly prove the area was not volcanic.<\/p>\n\n

\u2018Lunar Olympics\u2019<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n

As the final EVA wrapped up, the pair indulged in one last moment of hijinks by competing in the \u2018Lunar Olympics\u2019, seeing who could jump the highest. In the one-sixth gravity, Young managed an impressive 1.2m, but when Duke followed suit he, true to form, fell over. Only this time he came down hard on the fibreglass shell which protected his life support equipment. If the shell cracked, he would have died before Young could drag him back to the lander. Fortunately, it held.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

\u201cThat wasn\u2019t very smart, Charlie,\u201d Young said as he helped him up and the pair, quietly, climbed aboard before relaunching from the lunar surface. While all this had been going on down on the surface, up in orbit in the CSM, Mattingly had been far from idle. His attempts at studying the Moon from above had been plagued with malfunctions \u2013 the cameras didn\u2019t work properly, overexposing many of the images; an external mass spectrometer wouldn\u2019t fully retract; and an altimeter became increasingly unreliable before failing entirely. To cap it all off, NASA decided they should begin the return to Earth a day early, meaning he had to rush to set up for the journey.<\/p>\n\n

  • \"\"
    The 10m-high \u2018House Rock\u2019 on the rim of North Ray crater was visited during the final EVA on 23 April<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li>
  • \"\"
    Poignantly, Charles Duke left a family portrait photo on the Moon \u2013 at 36, he was the youngest person to have landed<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li>
  • \"\"
    John Young tested the Lunar Rover to its limits, kicking up dust at speeds of 17km\/h during the \u2018Lunar Grand Prix\u2019 on 21 April<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li>
  • \"\"
    Mission completed, the crew of Apollo 16 are greeted on board the USS Ticonderoga<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n

    Concerns aside, the Service Propulsion System fired perfectly and sent the crew on their way home. There was a brief interlude on the voyage, while Mattingly performed a deep-space EVA to retrieve film cassettes from the outside of the spacecraft, and the crew arrived back on Earth on 27 April.<\/p>\n\n

    Despite wobbly engines, a broken heat flow and an astronaut who couldn\u2019t stay on his feet, the mission had largely been a successful one. The crew certainly didn\u2019t seem put out by the difficult mission, with Duke running across the deck of the recovery ship in high spirits \u2013 possibly giddy at the prospect of never having to eat another orange. In fact, the crew\u2019s good health had convinced NASA doctors to give the green light to missions up to 56 days long, just in time to begin planning lengthy stays on the Skylab space station due to fly in a few years\u2019 time. Although the Apollo programme was one mission away from its end, the future of spaceflight was just beginning.<\/p>\n\n

    \n\n
    \n
    \n
    \"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

    <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

    \n

    Dr Ezzy Pearson is BBC Sky at Night Magazine<\/em>\u2019s news editor<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

    <\/div>
    \n

    MISSION TIMELINE<\/span><\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

    16 April 17:54*<\/strong>
    The Apollo 16 crew blast off from Cape Kennedy<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    16 April 21:15 <\/strong>
    The Command Service Module and (CSM) Lunar Module (LM) dock; Mattingly sees \u2018shredded wheat\u2019 particles moving past the window<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    19 April 20:22<\/strong>
    Apollo 16 reaches lunar orbit<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    20 April 19:34<\/strong>
    A fault is discovered in the backup circuit of the Service Propulsion System, forcing a cancellation of the circularisation burn and a delay to the landing<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    21 April 02:23 <\/strong>
    The lunar landing occurs six hours behind schedule<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    21 April 16:47<\/strong>
    First EVA begins, lasting 7 hours, 11 minutes<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    22 April 16:33 <\/strong>
    Second EVA begins, lasting 7 hours, 23 minutes<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    23 April 15:25<\/strong>
    Final EVA begins, lasting 5 hours, 40 minutes<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    24 April 01:25<\/strong>
    The LM lifts off from the Moon\u2019s surface and redocks with the CSM<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    25 April 20:33<\/strong>
    Mattingly starts deep-space EVA to retrieve film canisters, lasting 1 hour 23 minutes<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    27 April 19:45<\/strong>
    Splashdown<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    *All times are UT<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    <\/p>\n<\/div><\/section>\n\n

    <\/p>\n\n

    Photos: NASA, ILLUSTRATION BY PAUL WOOTTON (BASED ON NASA DATA)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Misbehaving engines were among the mishaps on the penultimate Apollo landing<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":30033,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ub_ctt_via":"","purple_page_number":"34","purple_custom_meta_purple_page_number":"34","purple_seq_number":"1","purple_custom_meta_purple_seq_number":"1","purple_source_article":"article_34-1.xml","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_article":"article_34-1.xml","purple_source_issue":"April-2022","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_issue":"April-2022","purple_external_id":"April-2022-34-1","purple_custom_meta_purple_external_id":"April-2022-34-1","purple_issue_code":"|0000086551||","purple_custom_meta_purple_issue_code":"|0000086551||","purple_android_product":"com.im.skyatnight.203","purple_custom_meta_purple_android_product":"com.im.skyatnight.203","purple_ios_product":"com.im.skyatnight.203","purple_custom_meta_purple_ios_product":"com.im.skyatnight.203","purple_web_product":"","purple_custom_meta_purple_web_product":"","purple_publication_id":"075fab74-0a21-4201-866a-899d6c41c40c","purple_migrated":"","kt_blocks_editor_width":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[88,14],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/03\/65bb9664-7a8e-4171-aa56-a8cd82af4daa.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"14","apple_news_title":""},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/03\/65bb9664-7a8e-4171-aa56-a8cd82af4daa.jpg",2048,1053,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/03\/65bb9664-7a8e-4171-aa56-a8cd82af4daa-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/03\/65bb9664-7a8e-4171-aa56-a8cd82af4daa-300x154.jpg",300,154,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/03\/65bb9664-7a8e-4171-aa56-a8cd82af4daa-768x395.jpg",768,395,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/03\/65bb9664-7a8e-4171-aa56-a8cd82af4daa-1024x527.jpg",800,412,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/03\/65bb9664-7a8e-4171-aa56-a8cd82af4daa-1536x790.jpg",1536,790,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/03\/65bb9664-7a8e-4171-aa56-a8cd82af4daa.jpg",2048,1053,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Misbehaving engines were among the mishaps on the penultimate Apollo landing","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30050"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30050"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30050\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38497,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30050\/revisions\/38497"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}