Apollo 16 Press
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.. Arii . cLyI( ’ JOHN F . KENNEDY Si ACE GENTEb @@C€ i!AM LIB XRY cJ- / NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION Washington, D . C . 20546 202-755-8370 I FOR RELEASE: THURSDAY A .M . RELEASE NO: 12-64X April 6. 1972 PRO IFCT. APOLLO 16 (To be launched no earlier than April 16) E GENERAL RELEASE ..................... .1-5 COUNTDOWN ........................ 6-10 Launch Windows ................... .9 Ground Elapsed Time Update ............. .10 LAUNCH AND MISSION PROFILE ............... 11-39 Launch Events .................... 15-16 Mission Events .............. ..... 19-24 EVA Mission Events ................. 29-39 APOLLO 16 MISSION OBJECTIVES .............. 40-41 SCIENTIFIC RESULTS OF APOLLO 11, 12. 14 AND 15 MISSIONS . 42-44 APOLLO 16 LANDING SITE ................. 45-47 LUNAR SURFACE SCIENCE .................. 48-85 Passive Seismic Experiment ............. 48-52 ALSEP to Impact Distance Table ...... ..... 52-55 Lunar Surface Magnetometer ............. 55-58 Magnetic Lunar sample Returned to the Moon ..... .59 K Lunar Heat Flow Experiment ............. 60-65 ALSEP Central Station ................ .65 SNAP-27 .. Power Source for ALSEP .......... 66-67 Soil Mechanics ................... .68 I Lunar Portable Magnetometer ............. 68-71 Far Ultraviolet Camera/Spectroscope ......... 71-73 Solar Wind Composition Experiment .......... .73 Cosmic Ray Detector ................. .74 T Lunar Geology Investigation........ ..... 75-78 Apollo Lunar Geology Hand Tools ........... 79-85 LUNAR ORBITAL SCIENCE ............. ...... 86-98 Gamma-Ray Spectrometer ............... .86 X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometer...... ......86 Alpha-Particle Spectrometer........ ..... .86 .more . March 22. 1972 .. i2 Laser Altimeter .................... 93 Subsatellite ...................... 93-96 UV Photography-Earth and Moon .............96 Gegenschein from Lunar Orbit.............. 96 CSM/LM S-Band Transponder ............... 97 Bistatic Radar Experiment ...............98 Apollo Window Meteoroid ................98 MEDICAL EXPERIMENTS AND TESTS ............... 99-101 Microbial Response in Space Environment ........99 Visual Light Flash Phenomenon .............99-100 Biostack ........................ 100 Bone Mineral Measurement ................101 ENGINEERING/OPERATIONAL TESTS AND DEMONSTRATION ......102-104 Skylab Contamination Study ............... 102 Skylab Food Package ..................102-103 Improved Gaspater Separator .............. 103 Improved Fecal Collection Bag .............103 Electrophoretic Separation Demonstration ........ 103-104 LUNAR ROVING VEHICLE .................... 105-118 General Description .................. 105-109 Mobility System .................... 109-111 Crew Station...................... 111-114 Navigation System ...................114-115 Power System ...................... 115 Thermal Control .................... 115-116 Stowage and Deployment ................. 116 LUNAR COMMUNICATIONS RELAY UNIT (LCRU) ...........119-120 TELEVISION AND GROUND COMMANDED TELEVISION ASSEMBLY ....121-122 PHOTOGRAPHIC EQUIPMENT ...................123-125 ASTRONAUT EQUIPMENT .................... 126-136 Space Suit....................... 126-129 Personal Hygiene .................... 130 Survival Kit...................... 130 Medical Kits...................... 131 Crew Food System .................... 132-136 APOLLO 16 FLAGS, LUNAR MODULE PLAQUE ............ 137 SATURN V LAUNCH VEHICLE .................. 138-140 APOLLO SPACECRAFT ..................... 141-146 Launch Escape System.................. 141 Command Module ..................... 141 Service Module ..................... 143 Spacecraft-LM Adapter Structure ............143 Lunar Module ...................... 144-146 CREW BIOGRAPHIES ...................... 147-162 SPACEFLIGHT TRACKING AND DATA SUPPORT NETWORK ....... 163-166 NASA Communications Network (NASCOM) .......... 163-165 ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OF APOLLO/SATURN V MISSION ......167-168 PROGRAM MANAGEMENT ..................... 169-171 CONVERSION TABLE ...................... 172 - more - i3 TABLES AND ILLUGTRATIONS Apollo 16 Flight Profile ...................12 Apollo 16 vs Apollo 15 Operational Differences ........13 Comparison of Apollo Missions .................14 . Launch Events ......................... 15-16 Apollo 16'In-Flight Activities ................17 Apollo 16 ........................... 18 Powered Descent Vehicle Positions ............... 21 ApproachPhase ........................ 22 First View of Descartes .................... 23 Film Retrieval From the Sim Bay ................25 Apollo 16 Recovery ...................... 26 Apollo 16 Crew Post-Landing Activities ............27 Apollo 16 Alternate Missions .................28 Descartes LRV Traverses .................... 30 Apollo 16 Traverse Comparison with Apollo 15 .........31 Apollo 16 Lunar Surface Timeline ...............32 Smary Time Line ....................... 33 Near LM Lunar Surface Activity ................ 34 Apollo 16 Walking Traverse .................. 39 Apollo 16 Traverses - Geologic Sketch ............. 46 Apollo Landing Sites ..................... 47 Lunar Surface Science Experiment Assignments ..........49 Lunar Surface Experiment Scientific Discipline Contribution Correlation ..................50 Apollo 16 ALSEP Deployment .................. 51 s-Im/IU Impact ........................ 53 Lunar Impact Target for Spent LM Ascent Stage .........54 Lunar Magnetic Environment ...................57 Active Seismic Experiment ...................63 Active Seismic Experiment Mortar Mode Concept .........64 Soil Mechanics Experiment Penetrometer ............69 Lunar Portable Magnetometer .................. 70 Tripod-Mounted Schmidt Electronographic W Camera/Spectroscope 72 Lunar Geology Hand Tools ................... 83 Lunar Geology Sample Containers ................ 84 Extractor ........................... 85 Lunar Orbital Science Experiment Assignments .........87 Apollo 16 Orbital Timeline ..................88 Apollo 16 Potential Lunar Orbit Coverage ........... 89 Mission SIM Bay Science Equipment Installation ........90 Apollo Mapping Camera Systems .................92 Apollo Subsatellite ...................... 94 SIM Bay Subsatellite Experiments Concepts ...........95 LRV Without Stowed Payload .................. 106 LRV Components and Dimensions .................107 LRV Wheel ........................... 110 LRV Crew Station Components - Control and Display Console ...112 Hand Controller ........................ 113 LRV Deployment Sequence .................... 117 Lunar Field Geology Equipment Stowage on LRV .........118 - more - i4 Apollo 16 Television Events .................122 TV and Photographic Equipment ................125 Extravehicular Mobility Unit .................127 Apollo 16 Menu .Blue .................... 134 Apollo 16 .LMll Menu ..................... 135 Apollo 16 Pantry Stowage Items ................136 Saturn V Launch Vehicle ................... 139 Command Module ........................ 142 Lunar Module ......................... 145 Manned Space Flight Tracking Network .............166 Apollo/Saturn Officials ................... 170-171 Conversion Table....................... 172 NATIONAL AERONAUTiCS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION Washington, D. C. 20546 Phone: (202) 755-8370 . FOR RELEASE: Kenneth C. Atchison THURSDAY A.M. (Phone: 202/755-3114) April 6, 1972 RELEASE NO: 72-64 APOLLO 16 LAUNCH APRIL 16 ,/Apollo 166scheduled for an April 16 launch’ 3 will devote its 12-day duration to gathering additional knowl- edge about the environment on and around the Moon and about our own planet Earth. !\ During the three days two Apollo 16 crewmen spend on the lunar surface north of the crater Descartes, they will extend the exploration begun by Apollo 11 in the summer of 1969 and continued through the Apollo 12, 14, and 15 lunar landing missions. In addition to gathering samples of lunar surface material for analysis on Earth, the crew will emplace a fourth automatic scientific station. - more - March 22, 1972 . -2- An extensive array of scientific experiments in the orbiting command/service module will search out and record data on the physical properties of the Moon and near-lunar space and photographic images to further refine mapping technology. Additionally, the command module pilot Will photograph astronomical phenomena in the distant reaches of space. The Descartes landing site is a grooved, hilly region which appears to have undergone some modification by vol- canic processes during formation. The Descartes region iS in the southeast quadrant of the visible face of the Moon and will offer an opportunity to examine several young, bright-rayed craters created by impacts in the volcanic terrain. John W. Young is Apollo 16 mission commander, with Thomas K. Mattingly flying as command module pilot and Charles M. Duke, Jr. as lunar module pilot. Young is a US Navy captain, Mattingly a Navy lieutenant commander, and Duke a US Air Force lieutenant -colonel. - more - -3- Young and Duke will climb down from the lunar module onto the lunar surface for three seven-hour periods of explora- . tion and experimentation. A major part of the first EVA will be devoted to establishing the nuclear powered, auto- matic scientific station -- Apollo Lunar Surface Experiment Package (ALSEP) -- which will return scientific data to Earth for many months for correlation with data still being returned by the Apollo 12, 14 and 15 ALSEPs. The second and third EVAs will be devoted primarily to geological exploration and sample gathering in selected areas in the