Spacelog Apollo 11

Okay, good. I'll maneuver back to PTC initiation attitude while you guys look at the data and see what you think.

Roger.

Houston, Apollo 11. I think the reason is in having 1620 on the DSKY during the subsequent entries, or at least that's one possibility.

Roger. You may not have to unpack it. The position which I just gave you is slightly west of West Crater. I guess it's about two tenths of a kilometer west of it, and we were wondering if Neil or Buzz had observed any additional landmarks during descent, lunar stay, or ascent which would confirm or disprove this. One thing that we're wondering about is that if you were at this position, you would have seen the Cat's Paw during ascent just up to the north of your track. Over.

We were looking for the Cat's Paw, too, thinking we were probably downrange, beyond the Big V. But I think that it's likely that that might have been West Crater that we went across in landing, but—Stand by.

We're hoping, Bruce, that our 16 mm film was working at that point in descent, and we'll be able to confirm our touchdown position. We thought that during ascent we might be able to pick up some recognizable objects close to the landing site, and we did see a number of small craters, and crater rows, and things like that, which we may be able to pick out after the fact, but we haven't been able to yet.

Roger. And the next question from our panel is for Buzz. We recall that he reported seeing a laser upon AOS of the Earth the first time after—the first REV after ascent, and we're wondering what color the beam was and if he could determine at the approximate location with respect to the Earth. Over.

It was mostly white, perhaps a tinge of yellowish color to it; and it seemed to be—as I recall it, the terminator of the Earth was toward the horizon and seemed to be about a quarter to a third of the way down from—down towards the terminator of the Earth—from the opposite horizon. That's a third to a quarter Earth radii. Over.

Roger. And that puts it in the light side? Over.

Roger. Yes, it was in the light side. The Earth was about—a two thirds lit Earth, with the terminator down toward the horizon. And now coming from the opposite limb of the Earth, the sunlight limb, coming down about one quarter to one third of a radius in from the limb. Generally, pensively located with respect to a line drawn perpendicular to the terminator that goes through the center. Over.

Roger, Buzz. We copy.

And I got pictures of that. I'm sure that will show up.

And I saw that, too. It was a very bright spot of light and I confirm Buzz's observation of its position.

Okay, 11. Very good. Now, with respect to the documented sample container: on television it appeared to us as though the samples for that container were in fact being given—being selected in accordance with some thought or consideration being given to the rocks themselves. And we were wondering if you could give any further details from memory about any of these samples, and the context of the material or the surface from which they were taken. Over.

Yes. You remember I initially started on the cut side of the LM that the TV camera was on, and I took a number of samples of rocks on the surface, and several that were just subsurface—about 20—15 to 20 feet north of the LM. And then I recalled that that area had been probably swept pretty well by the exhaust of the descent engine, so I crossed over to the southern side of the LM, and took a number of samples from the area around the elongate double crater that we commented on, and several beyond that, and tried to take as many different types—of rock types as I could see by eye—as I could in the short time we had available. There were a number of other samples that I had seen earlier in our stroll around the LM that I had hoped to get back and pick up and put in the documented sample, but I didn't get those, and I'll be able to comment in detail when we get in the debriefing session.

Roger. Did you observe any small craters with conspicuously blocky rims? Over.

Well, aside from the one big one that we went over, I guess there were none in our area. I took a stroll back after putting up the EASEP, and while Buzz was starting to unpack the documented samples—took a stroll back to a crater behind us that was maybe 70 or 80 feet in diameter and 15 or 20 feet deep, and took some pictures of it. It had rocks in the bottom of pretty good size, considerably bigger than any that were out on the surface, but there was no—we apparently, at 15 feet or so, had not gotten below the regolith. We were essentially showing no bedrock, at least in the walls of the crater at that depth. Over.

Roger. We copy,

Okay. Thank you, Neil. That about wraps up the questions we have on hand for now.

Okay.

My compliments to the chef. The food is outstanding. This cream of chicken soup I give at least three spoons.

Apollo 11, this is Houston. Over.

Go ahead.

11, we concur that having VERB 16, NOUN 20 up on the DSKY may well have had some effect on your PTC initiation. It looks like this would give—let the computer work with a knowledge of the actual CDU angles. What we'd like you to do is do a CDU zero which is VERB 40, NOUN 20, ENTER, and then start the PTC procedure again at step 2 with loading VERB 6, NOUN 22, desired attitude in the AUTO maneuver, and all that. Over.

Okay. The only thing I don't understand about that is why it took off at the rate it did. What rate should it have taken off at under that theory?

11, CMP, this is Houston. Over.

Go ahead, Houston.

Mike, over here on page 9 7 of your checklist where we're setting up PTC, there's been a note penciled in after, “Wait 20 minutes for rate to damp. Do not monitor VERB 16, NOUN 20.” It turns out that the significance of that is that, if you are monitoring 16 NOUN 20, then when you get down here in step 7, the second time you do a VERB 24, you've got to reload the NOUN 01 to make it VERB 24, NOUN 01, ENTER, before you load the three registers. Over.

Roger, that. I was just questioning the rate at which the maneuver would begin if that were not done.

Roger. We're still working on computing the rate for you.

Apollo 11, Apollo 11, this is Houston broadcasting in the blind. If you read us, attempt to acquire on OMNI antennas. Attempt to acquire us on OMNI antennas, if you read. This is Houston. Out.

Apollo 11, Apollo 11, this is Houston broadcasting in the blind. If you read, attempt acquisition on an OMNI antenna. Attempt acquisition using an OMNI antenna. Over.

… Goldstone.

…

Apollo 11, this is Houston. How do you read? Over.

Loud and clear, Bruce. How me?

Roger. What antenna are you using?

Houston, Apollo 11 is calling you on the high gain. How do you read? Over.