Earthrise (14 page)

Alan and I were in an unusual position while heading down to the Moon. Up until this point we had been flying on our backs as we stood in the Antares. We could literally see the sky and stars out our window. But at about 10,000 feet above the lunar surface, we started to pitch over, which meant our spacecraft was turning and moving into an upright position to land.

Happy with the pitch over, Alan exclaimed, “We’re right on the money.”

I could immediately see Cone Crater and it was an incredible sight.

Seconds later, we got the green light from Mission Control. “Houston, you’re go for landing.”

“Here we go,” Alan said. “Shoot for the Moon, Ed.”

“Looks real good,” I added. At 3,000 feet above the lunar surface, I started to give continual updates of our descent. “2,048 feet, coming down a little fast,” I said. “2,050 feet a second, little bit fast, but not bad. “1,500. Little fast, not bad. Over.”

“Starting down, starting down,” Alan said. “We’re in good shape, too.”

“Going down, looking great.” “Sixty seconds.”

“Three feet per second—40 feet,” I said. “Three feet per second—30. Three feet per second, looking great. Twenty feet. Ten. Three feet per second … Contact, Al.” And there was a bump as the footpads of the Antares hit the Moon.

“Stop. Auto. Auto!” Alan called out.

“We’re on the surface,” I said. It was February 5, 1971, at 4:18
AM,
Eastern Standard Time. We were on the Moon.

“Okay, we’ve made a good landing,” Alan said.

“Roger, Antares,” Fred replied.

I felt elated we’d made it right on our landing site. “That was a beautiful one,” I added. And indeed it was. We had landed in a little crater and the Antares was tilted on a bit of a slope, but we’d done it. I had an enormous feeling of relief and complete happiness, and I imagine the cheering, hooting, and hollering down at Mission Control might have been heard around the world. I could just see Louise and the girls jumping for joy. I knew my family was proud of me, and I bet that Don Eyles, Guenter and his team, everyone at NASA, and everyone back home were thrilled.

There was no mistaking the fact that Alan and I had landed. We were the third manned mission to make it to the Moon, and it felt tremendous.

A Marvelous Day for a Moonwalk

“Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.”

—Dorothy,
The Wizard of Oz

E
ven though we were 240,000 miles from home, it was great to be on solid ground again. And we had arrived on the Moon at just the right time. Because lunar temperatures could be extremely hot or cold, it made sense to land our spacecraft when the Sun was low in the sky for two big reasons. The early morning Sun created long shadows on the lunar surface, which made it easier to see during our landing. It also wouldn’t be so incredibly hot while we were working on the Moon.

Although Alan and I had a challenging ride down to Fra Mauro, I couldn’t wait to get out of the Antares and walk around. I immediately started to peer out the window at this new world. My first thought was that the Moon looked like a desolate and inhospitable desert, like some of the most barren regions of New Mexico where I grew up. Of course there wasn’t a creature, plant, blade of grass, flower, or tree in sight. I could see the lunar surface had a soft, rolling terrain with many large and small craters and rocks scattered about. Everything was covered with a grayish, powdery Moon dust, and there was a stark but magnificent beauty about it.

It wasn’t long before Alan and I heard from CAPCOM Bruce McCandless, who asked us to describe our new surroundings with as much detail as possible. I thought about all my geology training and remembered my instructor telling us to be the “eyes and ears” for everyone back home. I was eager to take a stab at describing the lunar surface and gave it my best shot.

A great deal of what the astronauts said during their unique Moon missions was recorded for historical purposes and archived as NASA mission transcripts. The following excerpts are from the “Apollo 14 Technical Air-to-Ground Voice Transmission” document and are the conversations that took place among Bruce McCandless in Houston, and Alan Shepard and I as we looked out our Lunar Module window and described the unusual new setting before us. As Alan and I talked about what we viewed, we used clock time to describe the locations of the primary craters, Doublet, Cone, and Triplet, we were about to explore.

And because one of our LM footpads had landed in a crater and tilted our spacecraft, Bruce asked Alan about this first.

04-13-45-24 (Bruce McCandless) CAPCOM

Antares, this is Houston. We’re standing by for your description of the lunar surface as viewed from the windows of the Lunar Module, and we’d also be interested specifically in hearing whether you feel that the roll in the spacecraft is due primarily to terrain or whether you feel that there is some landing gear stroking, also. Over.

04-13-45-50 (Alan Shepard: Commander)

Okay. We’ll be right with you on the condition of the lunar surface here momentarily; we’re configuring one of the cameras at the moment. With respect to the upward roll, it looks as though it’s probably due mostly to the terrain. There’s not really a good level spot to land on around here, unless we proceeded quite a bit closer to Doublet. So we’ll keep you in, and we’ll advise you further on that after we’re had the EVA (Extravehicular Activity).

04-13-46-23 (McCandless)

Okay, very good. Sounds like you may have a nice level sight over near Doublet for the ALSEP though, doesn’t it? [Note: The ALSEP was the Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Package, which included a number of geophysical experiments.]

04-13-46-31 (Shepard)

Well, we’ll find one.

04-13-50-03 (Shepard)

Okay, Houston, Antares here. You ready for some words on the surface?

04-13-50-08 (McCandless)

That’s affirmative, Antares. Go ahead with your description.

04-13-50-22 (Shepard)

Okay. As you may have heard, after P64 at pitch-over, the Cone Crater and the landing site were immediately visible. The Sun-angle was good; we were able to recognize [the landing site] even easier than we were on the LNA display at the Cape. The LPD (Landing Point Designator) input are only one, and we took over short of a—of Triplet, and I thought at first I was going to land just south of the track, but it’s rougher over there than the LNA shows. And so, we came back on track and landed. Since we held the track between Triplet and Doublet, and I estimate perhaps just 100 meters short of our target. Okay, with respect to the general terrain, we are in a depression here; we’re looking, of course, directly toward Doublet Crater, which appears to be above us in elevation by approximately 25 to 30 feet. The terrain slopes gradually upward in that direction; there is—there are some modulations, but generally speaking it slopes gradually upward into the area of Doublet. The deactivated spacecraft is about one and a half degrees to the right of the landing plane, and of course that puts the shadow of the LM off to the left because of the current Sun location. Are you reading me, all right?

04-13-52-32 (McCandless)

That’s affirmative, Antares; we’re copying you 4-0. Over.

04-13-52-40 (Shepard)

Okay, while Ed is completing the pictures out of this window, I’ll continue to say that generally speaking as I sweep from one horizon to the other, we find that the terrain is a little rougher than I suspected, and we are in a depression here in the landing site with respect to the south and to the north. The depression at the north appears to be very close to us, approximately 50 or 60 meters away; to the south, the land gradually slopes up to a ridge, which is perhaps half a mile away. The general area in the left-hand window of the LM is relatively free of large boulders; I see less than l0 within my field of view that are—over the size of perhaps 8 to 10 inches. And now, Ed’s ready to take over, and I’ll proceed to photograph out the left window and turn it over to him.

04-13-54-01 (McCandless)

Roger, Ed. Go ahead.

04-13-54-04 (Edgar Mitchell: Lunar Module Pilot)

Okay, Houston. I’m just trying to get orientated; I think I can see quite a few of the craters that are out my window are here on the map. There are several large enough to be seen on the map, and in addition there’s some reasonably large boulders. I will try to get us located first; then I’ll describe what I see.

04-13-54-33 (McCandless)

Okay.

04-13-55-11 (Mitchell)

Well, it doesn’t look like it’s going to be quite easy, as easy as I thought, Houston, to pick out the craters that I see in front of me, and point, on the map until we get a little bit better; a clear view from the outside. Let me just pick it up with a description. First of all, as Al pointed out, we’re very close to the landing site that was proposed.

04-13-56-11 (McCandless)

Roger; and continue.

04-13-56-35 (Mitchell)

Okay, Houston. As Al pointed out, toward Doublet is a rise, and then the ridge that we had talked about that is beyond Doublet is very pronounced. It forms our skyline or my near horizon. And we seem to be sitting in a bowl. It slopes toward us from the west; it’s rather choppy, I might admit, undulating, but the ridge beyond Doublet is the highest thing I can see in front of me. Looking around to the right, the—skyline is quite undulating. There is a large, old depression to our right or that—that is to the north of us, which forms another bowl very similar to the one that we are—appear to be sitting in. And I can see several ridges and rolling hills of perhaps 35 to 40 feet in height. Obviously very, very old craters that are almost lost—almost indistinct now between myself and the skyline to the north—the horizon to the north. It just looks like a series of low hills from this vantage point.

04-13-58-16 (Shepard)

Okay. And the window photography is completed. Magazine Kilo Kilo, exposure 20.

04-13-58-24 (McCandless)

Houston, Roger. Out.

04-13-58-27 (Mitchell)

Okay, Houston. The undulations are far too complex for me to try to describe them right now, without getting in a better vantage point so I can point them out on your map. I’m sure I can do that as soon as I can get a better handle on our location. Let me suffice it to say that I think there is more terrain, more relief here, than we anticipated from looking at the maps.

04-13-58-56 (Shepard)

There’s a hell of a lot of relief inside the cabin, I’ll tell you that.

04-13-59-05 (Mitchell)

Okay. And there’s a few boulders out my window. They’re scattered around falling between here and Doublet. I see at about my 2:30 position, probably 50 yards out, a large boulder that’s probably 3 feet across. There—that’s the largest one I have in my field of view, or at least, in my near field of view. And, there are two or three others perhaps half that size—or appear to be half that size in that same vicinity, Just a little, little beyond, about—about 2:30 on the clock code and perhaps 50 meters to the largest one and then another 10 or 15 to the other—the other big—boulders. They don’t seem to form a pattern that I can see. The color that we’re looking at is a kind of a mouse-brown or mouse-gray. And, obviously, it changes with the Sun angle. The surface—Well, there are craters in my field of view. Some old, very subdued, some overlapped by newer craters. Some that seem to be relatively recent. Most of the surface, however, seems to be fine grain. Incidentally, I do see some linear features on the surface. Very small, fine linear features. I do not think that they are erosion patterns; they may be. However, I can see a suggestion of them quite a ways away from the LM, kind of running parallel to those that I can see, and we’ll have to talk about later when we get out.