Mice and men on Moon odyssey

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33093, 7 December 1972, Page 17

Mice and men on Moon odyssey

tsz. P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) CAPE KENNEDY, December 6. The end of a space era dawned today with Apollo 17 primed for blast-off tonight on man’s last expedition to the Moon for perhaps another generation. Astronauts, spacecraft, and launch rocket are all reported in fine condition, along with the five mice installed aboard the command ship, “America,” ready to make rodent history in the interests of science.

Only the weather remains fickle: the launch director, Mr Walter Kapryan, assesses the chances of a blast-off on time at 50-50.

The worst threat is a cold front sweeping east and south across the United States: it may push cold air into the Cape Kennedy

region, creating freezing cloud conditions similar to those that caused Apollo 12 to be struck by lightning after it had been launched in November, 1969. Freezing clouds—rain and ice particles—form their own electrical field which can discharge lightning when i pierced by a spacecraft, even as high as 10,000 feet. Weather apart, all looks set for a punctual lift-off at 9.53 p.m. local time (2.53 p.m. Thursday, New Zealand time). The count-down, exceeding all others in its smoothness, entered a ninehour built-in “hold” 53 minutes early today, and is due to be resumed at 11.53 a.m. local time (4.53 a.m. Thursday, New Zealand time). The Apollo 17 astronauts, Captain Eugene Ceman, Commander Ronald Evans and Dr Harrison (“Jack”)

Schmitt, plan to remain in bed until mid-day today before undergoing their final pre-launch physical examinations. Last night they had final visits from their families and friends in the quarantined crew quarters in the space centre. Separated by windows, they chatted, and cheerfully discussed their mission. The crew are subject to strict limits on the number of people they mix with, to avoid the possibility of infection. Captain Ceman, the mission commander, and Commander Evans both have their wives at Cape Kennedy; Dr Schmitt, the first scientist to visit the Moon, is a bachelor. All three astronauts flew their personal T3B jet trainers yesterday, and had final mission rehearsals in the spacecraft simulators. Thousands of visitors—celebrities, tourists and Floridians determined to see the final, and most spectacular, fling of the $U525,000 million Apollo programme —- converged on Cocoa Beach and the surrounding area yesterday. Near launch pad 39A, ducks swam calmly on the marshy waters while technicians put final touches to the 360 ft-high, three stage Saturn 5 rocket and spacecraft The whole area is a national wildlife refuge, and the birds and animals, including wild pigs, armadillos, and alligators, are apparently as unperturbed by the hoards of visitors as they usually seem to be by the mighty roar of a rocket launching. This one, of course, is different: the first at night. A space official predicted today that as many as 600 small boats would be anchored in the Banana River to watch the after-dark launching spectacle. Snug, and sheltered from the clamour of it all, are the five diminutive Californian mice, safely installed in aluminium tubes aboard the spacecraft. They will remain there until Apollo 17 splashes down into the Pacific on December 20.

Then they will be flown to a special laboratory in Samoa, and killed—if not already dead from the shocks of space travel—and examined in fine detail to see how the heavy particles of cosmic radiation may have damaged their pea-sized brains. The thumb-sized mice were chosen for their smallness and the fact that they draw all the water they need from the seed that will be fed to them automatically in their containers.