Gem #18

I don't know if I broke the Internet or not, but suddenly I've lost access to the treasure trove of historical NASA images I'd been sifting through the past two days. I grabbed this image from a much smaller (but better organized) collection of images curated by the Public Affairs Office. This image is from the Apollo 12 mission.

Official description in image library:


(19-20 Nov. 1969) --- Astronaut Alan L. Bean holds a Special Environmental Sample Container filled with lunar soil collected during the extravehicular activity (EVA).

 

Gem #19

A unique image from a de-brief session following the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission.

Official description in image library:

(20 April 1970) --- The three crew men of the problem plagued Apollo 13 mission are photographed during the first day of their postflight debriefing activity at the Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC). Left to right, are astronauts James A. Lovell Jr., commander; John L. Swigert Jr., command module pilot; and Fred W. Haise Jr., lunar module pilot.

 

Gem #20

Back to Apollo 12. It seems I've got access again to the "deep" image library, so I'll keep digging as long as I'm able.

You MUST read the description below, carefully, then click on the image to see it in high-resolution. You'll never see anything like this anywhere else -- it's a GEM !

Official description in image library:

Al's picture of Pete taking Al's picture. Pete is holding the extension handle in his left hand. Note that he has re-attached the scoop. His cuff checklist can be seen on his left wrist and is open to one of the pages on which the backup crew has pasted a picture of a Playboy Playmate. Pete's watch is on his sleeve between his pressure gauge and his elbow. The LM is in the background, over Pete's left shoulder.

 

Great thread @Jones in LA , now I need to find a JBC bracelet!

 

Not a Speedmaster gem, but fascinating nevertheless.

The contraption in the foreground is the Surveyor III spacecraft, which landed there 3 years prior to the Apollo 12 flight. It was not coincidental that Apollo 12's LEM landed as close to Surveyor III as it did: a visit to Surveyor III was one of the key elements of the Apollo 12 mission. From Wikipedia: "...this remains the only occasion on which humans have visited a probe that had been sent to another world".

Surveyor III's main camera was retrieved by the Apollo 12 astronauts and brought back to Earth. There are reports that the camera was found to be contaminated with Earth-origin bacteria, which means that the bacteria survived three years in one of the harshest environments imaginable. The presence, or non-presence of bacteria on Surveyor III's camera continues to be a matter of controversy, but even the suspicion that there was an Earth-origin biological contaminant on Surveyor III brought about significant procedural changes for the preparation of all future interplanetary spacecraft.

 

Gem #21

Interesting collection of subjects here: Astronaut (Al Bean) wearing an Omega Speedmaster, standing next to an interplanetary probe, with a human-piloted spacecraft in the background.

Clicking on the image will enable a better view of Bean and his Speedmaster

Official description in image library:

Pete's "tourist" picture of Al at the Surveyor III spacecraft with the LM in the background.

 

Gem #22

Now on to pre-flight training for Apollo 13.

This photo is a crop I made from a very high-resolution image; I wanted to bring out as much detail as possible in Fred Haise's Speedmaster.

Note reference below to crew member Thomas K. (Ken) Mattingly. Mattingly was dropped from the primary crew after an accidental exposure to measles shortly before the Apollo 13 launch. Mattingly was replaced by backup Command Module pilot Jack Swigert.

Official description in image library:

NASA caption, 28 January 1970: "Fred W. Haise Jr., Apollo 13 Lunar Module Pilot, participated in a walk-through of the extravehicular activity timeline near the flight crew training building here today. In the foreground is the lunar surface tool carrier, topped by auger-like pipes, to be used with a motorized device to obtain soil sample cores in the Moon's rugged Fra Mauro region. Apollo 13 is scheduled for launch from Complex 39s Pad A no earlier than April 13. The other crew members are James A. Lovell, Jr., commander, and Thomas K. Mattingly II, Command Module pilot." Note that Haise has a 16-mm DAC movie camera mounted on his RCU bracket. The featureless box mounted on the camera of Haise's right is a battery for the DAC.

 

To mark the landing of Apollo 15 today here is Dave Scott during his 3rd EVA with a nice shot of his Bulova Chronograph. The crystal popping off his Speedmaster just breaks my heart.

 

Great thread!!! I love these pics.

 

Here we go. Took a minute to sort my images and find it.

Again, one of my favorites as well. Dave Scott at Station 7 during EVA 2.

 

Man, these are all great pics...many thanks for the continued postings. Quick question: What is the purpose of the basic crosshairs...the "+"...that is present in the moon pics?

 

@TLIGuy -- thanks for posting up these photos! They're awesome!

I'm curious how a Speedmaster's crystal could pop off -- I recall reading somewhere that it's good to 5 ATM negative pressure. Maybe it was a physical collision with something that dislodged the crystal?

Also, @TLIGuy, there's a question I've been meaning to ask you: Do you know if it was possible for astronauts to actuate the chronograph pushers on their Speedmasters while wearing EVA gloves?

@Mad Dog -- I'm guessing the "+" marks in the photos are used for the purpose of scaling distances and sizes of subjects, and for dividing a scene into sectors for descriptive purposes.

 

Probably more than you wanted to know but here is an exeprt from the full article found here.

http://history.nasa.gov/printFriendly/apollo_photo.html

"The Data Camera used on the lunar surface during the Apollo 11 mission and later Moon landings was a 500EL with additional modifications. A transparent glass Reseau plate, or register glass, engraved with grid markings was placed between the film magazine and the camera body, immediately in front of the film plane. The plate is engraved with crosses to form a grid and the intersections accurately calibrated to a tolerance of 0.002 mm. The crosses were recorded on every exposed film frame. From the markings, it is possible to calibrate distance and heights in photos taken either on the lunar surface or from space. Such markings were not new or unique to the space program. They were commonly used for large format scientific and aerial photography prior to the Moon landings, when the large size of the photographic negative could be distorted either during exposure or the printing process.

When film is normally wound in a camera, static electricity is generated on the film surface. This electricity is dispersed by metal rims and rollers, which guide the film, and by humidity in the surrounding air. In the lunar surface camera, however, the film was guided by the Reseau plate's raised edges. As glass is a poor electrical conductor, and with the absence of surrounding air, the charge built up between the glass surface and the film could become so great that sparks could occur between the plate and the film. In order to conduct the static electricity away and prevent sparking, the side of the plate facing the film was coated with a thin transparent conductive layer and silver deposited on the edges of the conductive layer. The electrical charge was then led to the metallic parts of the camera body by contact springs.

The outer surface of the 500EL data camera was colored silver to help maintain more uniform internal temperatures in the violent extremes of heat and cold encountered on the lunar surface. Lubricants used in the camera mechanisms had to either be eliminated or replaced because conventional lubricants would boil off in the vacuum and potentially could condense on the optical surfaces of the lenses, Reseau plate, and film."

 

I'm aware of only two failures of the Spedmaster on the surface of the Moon. Charlie Duke's on his 2nd EVA and Scott's on his 3rd.

Here is a great picture of Duke with the Speedmaster after it lost its crystal. This my friends is the original gray side of the Moon Speedmaster.



Charlie Duke discusses his damaged watch on EVA-3:

DUKE: Another comment on the EVA. We mentioned our failures, except one I failed to mention was that my watch blew a crystal on EVA-3 and it stopped running at that point. So the flight watch went belly up and I got it brought it back to let them examine it. But the crystal either blew out or broke, and I don't ever remember hitting it. The face of the watch doesn't look like it's scratched. So I think what happened is the crystal just blew out and we got dust in it, and the thing was just not running and that happened on EVA-3. That's it.

Reagarding Scott's failure and an answer to your question "Did the astronauts actuate the chronograph with gloves on? I would say yes after reading this account from the Apollo 15 Surface Journal.

142:14:22 Scott: "Verify cabin at 3.5." Okay, cabin's at 3.5. Suit circuit's locked up at about 4.4. My PGA is coming through 5 and decaying. And let's slip on a watch.

[Dave may have had his watch hanging from the instrument panel and, in any event, he is now putting it on and is probably starting the stopwatch function.]

[Scott, from a 1996 letter - "I do not recall ever having looked at my watch after egress. In the cabin after EVA-2, I noticed that the crystal of my Omega had popped off sometime during the EVA. Therefore, on EVA-3, I used my backup watch (which was) of a similar type. It worked just fine during the even higher temperatures of EVA-3."]

[In Dave's 1996 letter to me, he said that the back-up watch was a Waltham. After further researching the issue for an article on watches, Dave wrote in early 2014, "Frankly, back in 1996 I just made a mistake -- it was a Bulova, not a Waltham. When you asked in '96, things were a bit hazy after 25 years, and I hadn't fully researched many of the ancillary parts of the mission. However, more things are coming into focus these days as more people are researching Apollo." Dave has documentation that tells us that the backup watch he wore on the lunar surface was a Bulova Chronograph, Model #88510/01. The Part Number on the wrist band was SEB12100030-202.]

Here is probably the best image of Scott wearing the Bulova after the Speedmaster failure. Really pains me to say Speedmaster and failure in the same sentence but it is what it is.

 

@TLIGuy said: Really pains me to say Speedmaster and failure in the same sentence but it is what it is.


The whole story must be told, warts and all.


Thanks @TLIGuy for your response to my question on chronograph use during EVA

 

Here is the exerpt from the Apollo 16 mission report regarding Duke's Speedmaster. I think this is all great reading.

"At depressurization, just prior to the third lunar extravehicular activity, the Lunar Module Pilot noted that his chronograph crystal was gone. The chronograph hands and face were not hit. However, about 12 minutes later the movement stopped. Most likely, warpage caused by thermal cycling allowed the differential pressure across the acrylic crystal to pop it out of the case. The exposure to and penetration of lunar dust contamination about the Lunar Module Pilot's sleeves probably caused the failure of the chronograph movement.
These chronographs are certified to a maximun temperature of 160° F. Testing has demonstrated that in the range of 190° F, the crystal is weakened to the point where internal pressure can push the crystal off. For the chronograph to reach a temperature of 190° F, direct continuous exposure to incident solar radiation normal to its surface is required for approximately 12 minutes.

These chronographs are tested at the Manned Spacecraft Center when received, again before shipment to the Kennedy Space Center and again just prior to flight. The Apollo chronograph is a secondary timing device and is not critical to mission success or crew safety. There are no plans for corrective action.

This anomaly is closed."

 

I find it interesting that there were no reported EVA failures of Speedmasters on Gemini 4, Apollo 11, Apollo 12, and Apollo 14 -- then failures on two successive Apollo missions, 15 and 16. The detective in me wants to know why

 

Gem #23

Another Apollo 13 pre-flight photo, featuring original Command Module pilot Ken Mattingly (replaced on mission by Jack Swigert).

Official description in image library:

Fred Haise (left) Jim Lovell, and Ken Mattingly pose in front of the launch pad. 6 April 1970.

 

These guys were the smartest, gutsy, jocks around. And still are imho. m

 

Gem #24

By this date, the crew substitution -- Swigert for Mattingly -- has been made.

Oh my....look how shiny and new that watch is!

Official description in image library:

Jack Swigert sits in a pristine space suit. Photo dated 8 April 1970.