Awaiting editorial reviewSerial 36f7c2d4-0beb-4274-996f-26a3ce821558
Apollo 17 Technical Air-to-Ground Voice Transcription, Unidentified Phenomenon Excerpts, December 1972
Prepared summary.
During the Apollo 17 mission in December 1972, Command Module Pilot Ronald Evans reported "very bright particles or fragments or something" drifting past the spacecraft during a maneuver at Day 00, 03:34:10. Lunar Module Pilot Harrison Schmitt described the view as looking "like the Fourth of July," while Mission Commander Eugene Cernan estimated the fragments as "flat, flakelike particles," some possibly 6 inches across and twinkling. Evans speculated the fragments might be ice chunks or paint from the S-IVB stage but called that "a wild guess."
MoonEugene A. Cernan (CDR, Mission Commander)Ronald Evans (CMP, Command Module Pilot)Harrison 'Jack' Schmitt (LMP, Lunar Module Pilot)Apollo 17Saturn VS-IVB (Saturn V third stage)Light or glareParticles or fragments
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[page 1] Tape 5/2 | | CC | Yes, we copied your VI and your EMS numbers, and <br />we've got a number for you. Maneuver start time <br />will be at 03 plus 33 plus 27. | |-|-|-| | | LMP | Okay, we got you. Maneuver at 03:33:27. | | | cc | That's affirmative, Jack. | | | LMP | You guys didn't tell us we couldn't see anything <br />going through the sunrise. | | | cc | (Laughter) Roger. | | 00 03 25 01 | cc | 17, Houston. We're making plans here for a space<br />craft SEP time of 03 plus 43. | | | LMP | 03 plus 43. Roger. | | 00 03 27 27 | cc | 17, Houston. We're copying cabin press of 5.9 this <br />time. | | 00 03 27 27 | CMP | Roger. We - we just got it, Bob. | | 00 03 27 27 | cc | Okay. | | 00 03 27 27 | CMP | Thank you. | | 00 03 31 55 | LMP | Frame 65 for the LMPs mag November November. | | 00 03 34 10 | LMP | Okay. We - we are maneuvering, Houston. | | | cc | Roger. We're watching it. | | | CMP | Now we've got a few very bright particles or frag<br />ments or something that go drifting by as we <br />maneuver. | | | CC | Roger. Understand. | | | LMP | There's a whole bunce of big ones on my window <br />down there - just bright. It looks like the <br />Fourth of July out of Ron's window. | | | CMP | Yes. Now you can see some of them in shape. <br />'They're very jagged, angular fragments that are <br />tumbling. | [page 2] Tape 5/3 | CC | Roger. They look like fluid of some sort? | |-|-| | CMP | Not to me. They look like pieces of something. | | CC | Roger. | | CMP | They're very bright. | | CC | Jack, we'd like OMNI Charlie. | | CMP | Bob, for the most part, these fragments are not -<br />or are tumbling at a very slow rate. I tried a | | | couple of pictures of them - different settings. | | | You may get an idea of what, at least, the patterns | | | look like. | | CC | Roger. I've got you. We're all ears on these frag<br />ments. Do you think you can figure out what they <br />might be? | | CMP | Well, you know I - I don't know. There are a num | | | ber of possibilities. If you had some kind of a - | | | I got the impression maybe they were curved a little | | | bit, as ifthey might be - off the side of the | | | S-IVB. And that's a wild guess | | CDR | Okay. RCS LOGIC is ... - - | | CMP | - - ice chunks, possibly. Or maybe there's paint <br />coming off of it. | | cc | Roger. I noticed on one trip up the elevator last | | | weak near one of the flags. I thought it was on | | | the S-II, but it might have been on the S-IVB. | | | Looked like it was peeling. Maybe that's what | | | you've got. | | cc | And the S-IVB maneuver is complete. | | LMP | ... in 1 minute. | | CDR | Okay. We'll set the old clock. | | CMP | Okay. And the - with the maneuver complete, the | | | fragment field is essentially static, except for | | | very slight tumbling within the fragments. | ## Tape 5/4 | 00 03 38 01 | cc | Roger. Cut in. | |-|-|-| | 00 03 38 01 | CMP | Every once in a while, a fragment of considerably <br />higher velocity than the others goes across my <br />window. But that's very rare. | | 00 03 38 01 | CC | Roger. | | 00 03 38 01 | CMP | Hey, that's that field of view I saw out my window. <br />Jack, do you see it now? | | 00 03 38 01 | LMP | Yes. | | 00 03 38 01 | CMP | And, Bob. At least, there - there's no apparent <br />relative motion between fragments. | | 00 03 38 01 | CC | Roger. Understand. | | 00 03 38 01 | CMP | I'll take two pictures about a minute apart if I <br />can. And it'llbe Frame 70. | | 00 03 38 01 | CC | Okay. Frame 70. | | 00 03 38 01 | CDR | And, Bob. This is Geno. My impression is that <br />they are - flat, flakelike particles. Some may<br />be 6 inches across. And, although there's no <br />relative motion between the two, most of them seem <br />to be twinkling. And I think, for the most part, <br />they're all moving away from us. | | 00 03 38 01 | cc | Roger, Gene. Thank you. | | 00 03 39 35 | CMP | Okay. We've got 0180 and 0 on the old thumbwheels. | | 00 03 39 35 | LMP | Okay. | | 00 03 39 35 | cc | Roger, Ron. | | 00 03 39 53 | CMP | Okay. TRANS CONTROL is ARMED. | | 00 03 39 53 | LMP | . . . two ARMED. | | 00 03 39 57 | CMP | CONTROLLER number 2 is ARMED. | | | LMP | ... SECS LOGIC ... | [page 4] Tape 5/5 ## Tape 5/4 (cont.) | 00 03 40 01 | CMP | Okay. SECS LOGIC is CLOSED; SECS ARM are CLOSED; <br />LOGIC POWER is ON. | |-|-|-| | | LMP | Okay. | | 00 03 40 13 | cc | 17, Houston. You have a GO for T&D. | | | CDR | Okay. A GO for T&D. | | 00 03 40 38 | CMP | Okay. We'll ARM the PYROs. And we'll hit the GDC <br />ALIGN. | | 00 03 41 00 | CMP | And maneuver's complete. And 0180 and O? On the <br />GDC? No. It's just ... It's kind of diddling. | | 00 03 41 19 | CMP | Okay. DELTA-Vin NORMAL. | | 00 03 41 42 | CMP | S-IVB, okay. Okay, switches are all set. | | | LMP | Okay; 59: 30 . | | 00 03 41 55 | CMP | Okay. Let's start the DET. | | 00 03 41 59 | CDR | Tickity-tick-tickity, Houston. We're running <br />at 59: 30. | | | cc | Roger. | | | CMP | Okay. | | 00 03 42 12 | CMP | Okay. That's LAUNCH VEHICLE SEP, push button. | | | LMP | Okay. | | 00 03 42 19 | CMP | MC in AUTO. | | | CMP | Next? | | 00 03 42 29 | CDR | SEPARATION, Houston. | | | CMP | Okay, check the covers. Okay. And check the <br />other ones off. | | | LMP | They're all ... | | | CMP | Okay, I'm going to start the - My gr.,sh, look at <br />the junk! Okay; there's 15 seconds. Pitch her <br />up. Okay, we'll PROCEED on the - - | [page 5] ## Tape 46/4 02 18 41 11 CDR CMP 02 18 41 59 CMP CDR CC 02 18 42 34 CDR Okay. Is that it? Yes, I can get that, Gene. Okay, you want to take a picture of it first? Okay, POWER Okay, stand by. 3, 2, 1- MARK it. POWER switch OFF. Say, Bob or Stu. Roger. Go ahead. Okay, add - to ad to today. Not last night, but - I guess the first night I was in bed - I definitely saw some of these - because I had a hard time going to bed, to start with - I saw some of the same peripheral horizon-type things you said were not the type of data you were looking for; but I also saw a - some sets of the streaks. And probably the one most imposing thing I remember is - and the last one I remember before falling asleep - was the fact that there was a very bright spot that flashed right between my eyes like a very bright headlight - like a train coming at you, only with a flash. It's difficult probably to estimate the frequency of any of those because I was in a - sort of a sleep-hazy mode. ## Tape 46/4 (cont.) Tape 46/5 02 18 44 40 CDR Okay, I just wanted you to - just told them like we saw them. That's all. CC Roger. CDR I will say one thing, though; no question in my mind but that they're there. Last trip I took, I guess I just wasn't looking for them or paying any attention to them. Maybe they were there and I ignored them because of other things. But they're there. LMP Okay, all you flash bugs down there - or flash bulbs I guess is the word - frame 50. I just took four pictures to show - two on the side and two on the bottom - to show the position of the ALFMED, and one of them of each set was focused on the ALFMED. The others were focused on the - the other set was focused on the struts. CC CC 18 Roger, Jack. LMP And when you don't have anything else to do, why don't you have somebody predict where the S-IVB is. I think I've got her spotted - behind us and above us with respect to the Earth and our travel from it. CC FIDO just went out and shot himself, but we'll get working on it. LMP Oh, don't worry about it. Shoot. I thought you guys might have an idea off-the-cuff there. ## Tape 46/4 (cont.) Tape 46/6 02 18 46 46 CC CMP сс % CMP CC CMP CC Jack, are you sto - you all stowing the ALFMED now or are you done? What's that, Bob? Are you all done with the ALFMED now, Ron? Yes, I've got to get it to - get the plate moved back down there yet. Okay, Ron - get the blindfold off first so I can see what I'm doing. Roger. I just want you to know. We've got a real long update coming up to you here on the LOI abort charts and that - and it's going to be, probably, a difficult readup. And you're the most familiar with the charts; you probably would want to take them. But whenever you want to take them, they are on - charts on page 3-81, 3-82, and then the cue card for LOI limits. Whenever you want to take them. It will be a lengthy one. CMP Stand by, Bob. Let us get squared away from the ALFMED; then we can get going on that. ## Tape 46/4 (cont.) Tape 46/7 very rhythmic fashion because the flashes come around almost - almost on time. And it's as we look back at the Earth, it's up at about 11:00 about - oh, maybe 10 or 12 Earth diameters. I don't know whether that does you any good, but there is something out there. CC 90 Roger. We don't doubt it, Gene. And we might work out a set of gimbal angles or something here; maybe we can get a look at it through the optics. 02 18 49 02 CDR Okay. And I - I I just want to emphasize that it's definitely not - not one of these particles that tends to look like a star out there. It's something physical in the distance. (Laughter) Oh, yes. SC 56 CC [page 9] Tape 46/8 ## Tape 46/4 (cont.) | 02 18 51 32 | CDR | MARK it. It just crossed through the - - | |-|-|-| | | CC | Mark. We got it. | | | CDR | let's call it the XZ plane of the spacecraft. <br />One unique thing about it, Bob, is that it's got <br />two flashes. As it comes around in - in rhythmic <br />fashion, you get a very bright flash; and then <br />you get a dull flash. And then it'llcome around <br />with a bright flash, and then a dull flash. | | 02 18 52 18 | LMP | That's the side and - of the S-IVB - and then the <br />engine bell, Gene. | | 02 18 52 18 | LMP | The commander doesn't think that I can see the <br />engine bell on that thing. | | 02 18 52 18 | cc | Roger, Ja.ck. Is that with the monocular you're <br />looking at it? | | 02 18 52 18 | CDR | He couldn't see the engine bell if he had 10 monoc<br />ulars. | | 02 18 52 18 | CMP | Okay. I've got the cable restowed now. | | 02 18 52 18 | cc | Say again, Ron. | | 02 18 53 10 | CMP | And, Gene, where's your blindfold? ... | | 02 18 55 24 | LMP | Bob, couple of revolutions ago when I was looking <br />at it, I had a much brighter view and I believe <br />I was looking at it broadside. It looks to me like <br />it may be flashing more or less end-on now. It's <br />much, not - not as bright, although it's getting <br />brighter. But it's not as bright now as it was <br />awhile ago. | | | CC | Roger, Jack. | | | LMP | ... we've been noticing that, I think, for about <br />24 hours or so. I just - hadn't put it together <br />as maybe being the S-IVB. I thought it was just <br />some other particle out there. | | 02 18 56 27 | cc | Roger, Jack. | | | CDR | Hey, Robert, what's the final Cowboy score? | [page 10] Tape 46/9 80 CC Okay; I was just going to update that. The Cowboys won it 34 to 24. And by winning it, they wrap up the wild-card slot in the NFC; and so both Wash ington and Dallas will be in the playoffs. 02 18 56 53 CDR Sounds good. L.MP Bob, that line of clouds I called a fir-tree pat tern that swings up towards Hawaii: Hawaii, if you will - has - also has a mushroom pattern on the top. It has the appearance as if tvo major air masses - one going from west to east and the other form east to west - have converged along that line, and the joint movement of air at the interface being south to north. And up in the area of Hawaii, I think, it tends to mushroom so that the pattern then goes back to flow from west to east on the east side and from east to west on the west side. CC Roger. [page 11] Tape 47/14 And I'll just confirm that the - that disturbance over the So - Solomon Islands is an awfully tightly wound little storm system. And right now, I finally have see New Zealand for the first time in a couple of days, for sure. And the South Island's got some, probably high cirrus over it. North Island looks pretty clear. That's the end that I can get right now. CC 90 Roger. We saw you looking at Regulus there%3B we didn't realize you were looking at the Earth instead. LMP Ron's been looking for the booster. And he called me down and asked me to look at the Earth. He's been holding out on me. [page 12] Tape 47/15 CC Go ahead. LMP Yes, Bob, what is your - analysis chart, if you have it surface terms analysis chart show for Hawaii today? CC Stand by on that. CC Jack, according to the - - LMP The reason I ask is that for using your term Go ahead. a CC No, go ahead on that, Jack. [page 13] Tape 47/16 ## Tape 46/4 (cont.) | 02 21 04 23 | cc | Roger, Jack. The Solomon Islands disturbance <br />and everything is confirmed on this chart that <br />I've got. It's very definitely confirmed in there. | |-|-|-| | | LMP | Okey. Well , it's a lot more obvious todey than <br />itwas yesterday; but even then itwas showing <br />pretty strong circulation. It is starting to <br />wrap up, look very much like Therese did yesterday. | | | CC | Roger. I'm sure of that. The one right off of <br />Vietnam is also pretty tight, isn't it still? | | | LMP | Well, we can't see that one yet. | | | CC | Okay. | | | LMP | Australia in general is stillvery clear except <br />in the northeastern portions where it looks like <br />they have got scattered clouds; but it looks like <br />a pretty night - over Australia. | | | CC | Roger. Looks that way from the satellite photo <br />from the last couple deys. Looks pretty nice <br />down there. | | 02 21 05 34 | LMP | Right. | | 02 21 07 05 | cc | Jack, in looking at the sequence reports for <br />Hickam and Hilo and that area, it looks like they <br />just got their standard 3500 scattered, 4500 broken <br />clouds , maybe a rain shower or two. But just <br />their standard tropical fluffy clouds. | [page 14] Tape 59/19 mare. Stilllooking at Oceanus Procellarum. And now, out window 3, up to the northwest, Grimaldi is starting to show up - a very obvious dark area within the highlands of that part of the Moon - and one of the darkest mare regions that we have seen on the - on the Moon. It I s comparable, at least in the photographs, to that of Tsiolkovsky. сс Roger. 03 15 33 25 LMP Normally, of course, we think of the dark mare as being the younger basalt flows that - on the Moon, but in our case, of course, young means something on the order of 3 billion years or older. END OF TAPE [page 15] Tape 60/1 # APOLLO 17 AIR-TO-GROUND VOICE TRANSCRIPTION 03.15 33 44 CC Roger. LMP For our interp - If we can extrapolate from the samples returned by other missions. LMP Amazing how far over - now the highlands to the west of Procellarum are - still are bright, and the contrast between fresh craters and the normal high land are very - are very obvious still in earthlight, particularly along the zero phase point with respect to the Earth. Rima Gamma now is - is coming a lit tle bit closer to our oval track in the horseshoe in the - larger and more western end of it; the dark horseshoe is quite clear in this light. It's a west - or northwest-pointing horseshoe, as is the complete trend of that strange feature. I think Ron is going to have an excellent chance to study these light-colored swirls within the mare and other parts of the Moon. We had some good views of them and Mare Marginis and to the east of Crisium - Mare Crisium, and he should - if there is anything to be seen, he should be able to see it for - during the next few days. CC Okeydoke. [page 16] Tape 60/2 # APOLLO 17 AIR-TO-GROUND VOICE TRANSCRIPTION (cont.) | | CC | Roger. | |-|-|-| | | LMP | That's the small craters. There, in the Mare <br />Procellarum closest to Grimaldi, there are two <br />arcuate rilles. Look like they are probably <br />V-shaped in their cross section. I'm sure we've <br />seen those on the photographs much better than I <br />can see them here. Those - the rille patterns, <br />though, do seem to project over into the highlands. | | | CC | Okay. | | | LMP | To the north of that - to the north of that bay <br />of mare. Just interrupt. | | 03 15 38 09 | LMP <br />CC | Hey, I just saw a flash on the lunar surface! <br />Oh, yes? | | | LMP | It was just out there north of Grimaldi. Just <br />north of Grimaldi. You might see ifyou got any<br />thing on your seismometers, although a small impact <br />probably would give a fair amount of visible light. | | | CC | Okay. We'll check. | | | LMP | It was a bright little flash right out there near <br />that crater. See the crater right at the edge of <br />Grimaldi. Then there is another one north of it. <br />Fairly sharp one north of it is where there was <br />just a thin streak of light. | | | CC | How about putting an X on the map where you saw it. | | | LMP | I keep looking occasionally for - yes, we will. <br />I - I was planning on looking for those kind of <br />things. Starting to see the edge of Orientale, <br />Gordy. Way off to the west. Hey, just yell, <br />Gene, anytime you - - | | 03 15 39 46 | LMP | Gordy, to the north of Grimaldi there is a large <br />basin that is about the same size but only incom<br />pletely filled with mare in its northeastern <br />quadrant. The rest of it looks like a fairly ir<br />regular and hummocky floor material of some kind. | | | CC | Roger, | # APOLLO 17 AIR-TO-GROUND VOICE TRANSCRIPTION (cont.)