Apollo 17 in Moon’s pull

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33096, 11 December 1972, Page 1

Apollo 17 in Moon’s pull

(N Z.PA.-Reuter —Copyright)

HOUSTON, December 10. Captured by the Moon’s gravitational grasp, Apollo 17 gathered speed today towards man's sixth landing on the lunar surface.

After a busy but uneventful threeday coast from Earth, the astronauts, Captain Eugene Ceman. Dr Harrison Schmitt, and Commander Ronald Evans, began preparations for tomorrow’s touch-down on a mountainfringed site in the Moon’s TaurusLittrow region.

Apollo moved into the Moon's gravity late last night when the spaceship was 190,725 nautical miles from the rapidly shrinking Earth, whose weather patterns have been carefully detailed in a series of descriptions by Dr Schmitt for comparison with satellite pictures.

Apollo moved into the Moon’s sphere of gravitational influence 70 hours and 37 minutes after blast-off from Cape Kennedy on Wednesday night. Ground control jokingly warned the astronauts that they might feel a bump when they crossed this line between the gravitational pulls on the Earth and the Moon at 4.10 a.m. G.M.T. on Sunday.

The spacecraft was 33,803 nautical miles from the Moon at that time. Thirty minutes later the astronauts prepared for an eight-hour sleep period.

The astronauts will now turn their attention to the weatherless world on which Ceman and Schmitt will spend 75 hours starting tomorrow.

The astronauts were making an early start today.

Overslept

Space officials have no fears that they will oversleep as they did yesterday. They finally W’oke up one hour and 15 minutes late because a mistakenly thrown switch turned off Commander Evans’s radio headphones. As the “duty man” he should have heard ground control’s wake-up call. The spacemen’s main task of the day is to fire the spacecraft rocket engine behind the Moon to insert it into an elliptical orbit of 58 by 197 miles. This orbit will be maintained for a little over four hours when another firing ■will bring it down to one of 16 by 68 miles in preparation for cutting loose the lunar lander. Challenger, from the command ship, America.

Challenger will later begin a series of manoeuvres that will set it gently on to the Moon's dusty surface near a crater called Camelot. Meanwhile. America will carry out a series of sophisticated orbital experiments that will map the Moon’s terrain, measure its altitude and probe its depths to about half a mile by means of radar beams.

The various equipment that will take these readings will be exposed when the astro-

'nauts jettison the door to the scientific instrument bay in ) their first task of today.

Filial inspection

United Press International reported that the astronauts crawled into Challenger yesterday for one final inspection before arriving at the Moon. They found all in order for the critical rocket firing into lunar orbit. "We’ve looked at the L.M. (lunar module) data, and it looks perfect,” mission ’ control said. "There are no problems at all to report.”

The astronauts also adivanced their spacecraft clocks two hours 40 minutes to reflect a make-up in time which they lost on Thursday in the launch delay. The change synchronised : the clocks, the spacecraft I position and the printed flight i plan—and confused the crew las much as daylight time contuses some Earthlings.

“Does that mean we have to eat supper l two hours and

40 minutes earlier,” asked a puzzled Captain Cernan. The flight commander and his companions had just finished one meal. Mission control assured them they, could ignore the flight plan supper period this time if they wished. Another body ) A.A.P.-Reuter said that the 'astronauts spotted another I celestial body from their 'spacecraft window. Mission control identified it !as the Saturn 4b third stage rocket that helped boost them from the Earth. The rocket stage is also on the way to the Moon. It is due to crash today into the lunar surface) with an impact energy of about 11 tons of T.N.T. The jolt will be measured by seismometers left by earlier Apollo missions. In an experiment that could be of vital concern to future astronauts taking part in long duration voyages, the astronauts covered their eyes to observe strange flashes that have been seen by other Moon voyagers. The flashes are believed to be caused by heavy particles striking or passing through the eyeballs.

Five mice on board the spacecraft are also being used for this experiment. On return their brain ceils will be examined for any. possible damage.