Progress of Apollo 14

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32524, 6 February 1971, Page 15

Progress of Apollo 14

(Contributed)

The first tasks for Captain Shepard and Commander Mitchell on the lunar surface early this morning (New Zealand time) will be to set out the experiment instruments several hundred feet from the lunar module. The area chosen will be one which will not be affected by the exhaust of either the descent or the ascent stages. When their work with the instruments has been completed, the men will move to an area nearby which is unlikely to have been contaminated during the landing. For about an hour, various samples of the surface will be selected.

In the Apollo 14 mission, the amount to be brought back is to be limited in preference to obtaining material which has been documented on its location and prevalence upon the surface. The rocks will be photographed several times before being touched, marked for sorting, and bagged separately. Although the lunar module could carry as much as 1001 b of specimens, only about half this amount is likely to be gathered. The surface party is to make a short walk round several small craters, before returning to the cabin for a sleep and to recharge their suits. The first period outside may not last longer than four hours. About 11 o’clock this evening, the second period will begin and equipment will be loaded on a two-wheeled hand-cart. During five hours, the two men will walk several miles, taking corings and samples at different points. COMMAND MODULE

In orbit, Major Roosa will be taking a series of photographs of the' moon and several astronomical features, and be recording the finedetail of radar echoes from the surface. The oath of his craft will be shifting as the moon rotates slowly under it and in the irregular gravitational field.

About the time that the surface party has ended its first walk, Major Roosa will manoeuvre his craft into an orbit which will pass over the

landing site about 6.45 a.m. on Sunday morning. SUNDAY Two minutes afterwards, the ascent stage will lift off on its constant-thrust engine. Unlike the descent engine, this is fixed within its mounting and the attitude-control jets will be firing in bursts during the seven minutes of launching to correct for the inevitable uneven loading within the cabin. The ascent stage will first climb vertically for 10 seconds, then tilt slowly in the direction of the orbiting command module. Captain Shepard will stop the firing when his craft enters an orbit which has a 10-mile low point, several hundred miles behind, and a high point of 51 miles. The rising ascent stage, however, will not pass through either of these points. About 45 minutes after liftoff, being in a lower and faster orbit, it will be catching up, to pass under the command module. When the crew see that the craft containing Major Roosa is nearly 27 degrees above their flight path, about 45 miles away, they will fire their engine for

five seconds to push their craft directly towards it. The effect of this burst will be to change the orbit of the ascent stage into one which intersects that of the command module. After about 40 minutes, the two craft will be approaching, and the ascent stage will be braked with four short firings until it is about 100 feet away. (This rendezvous method is about two hours shorter than those used in earlier missions.)

While Major Roosa keeps the docking mechanism on his craft in line with the tunnel hatch in the top of the ascent stage, the landing party will move their craft in with its attitude-control jets. The docking latches are expected to work without fail this time, as the two craft come together. After unloading, the ascent stage is to be released. Just after midday, ground control will use the remaining fuel to put it into a path in which it will strike the surface near the landing sites of this mission and that of Apollo 12. An hour later, about 1.37 p.m., the service-module main engine will be fired for four minutes to put Apollo 14 into its earthward course.