Launch and flight to lunar orbit
On 31 January 1971, a cloudy and rainy day, Roosa and Mitchell on top, Apollo 14 spacecraft was launched from Kennedy Space Center after several weather-related delays. The mission continued to encounter niggling problems. For reasons still unexplained it proved very difficult to dock with the Lunar Module (LM) Antares, opening the possibility that the mission would be aborted. However on the sixth attempt Roosa succeeded in locking the CSM Kitty Hawk with the lunar lander. |
Lunar descent
THE FIRST EVA
The touchdown occurred at 5 February 1971 on a boulder-strewn landscape. The first EVA or moonwalk began at 9:42 a.m. EST, February 5, 1971, 5 hours and 23 minutes after landing. This was 40 minutes later than planned because of a problem configuring the communications system. A color television camera mounted on the LM descent stage provided live coverage of the descent of both astronauts to the lunar surface.
This EVA lasted until 2:30 p.m. EST, a total of 4 hours and 48 minutes, which was 30 minutes longer than planned. The total distance covered by the astronauts was about 550 meters. Shepard’s first words were “And it’s been a long way, but we’re here.” He was overawed by the ancient majesty of the desolate wilderness in which he walked and by the tiny Earth lost in a huge black sky .
This EVA lasted until 2:30 p.m. EST, a total of 4 hours and 48 minutes, which was 30 minutes longer than planned. The total distance covered by the astronauts was about 550 meters. Shepard’s first words were “And it’s been a long way, but we’re here.” He was overawed by the ancient majesty of the desolate wilderness in which he walked and by the tiny Earth lost in a huge black sky .
Shepard and Mitchell deployed the U.S. flag, a solar-wind composition experiment, and the Apollo Lunar-Surface Experiments Package (ALSEP). On this mission, the ALSEP included a remarkable device called the Active Seismic Experiment.
This was intended to provide calibrated “Moonquakes” This alarming instrument was to be triggered by radio control from Earth after the crew’s departure, but this was never done lest the debris contaminate other experiments and it sits to this day on the lunar surface. Apollo 14 carried the first wheeled vehicle to the Moon. This was a glorified wheelbarrow called the MET (Modular Equipment Transporter). Designed to carry the astronauts ‘ geological tools and cameras, MET was useful up to a point, it was handy for transporting their gear. |
THE SECOND EVA
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The second extravehicular activity (EVA) was a planned geological traverse to Cone Crater, with the objective of sampling material from the rim of this crater. At the crew's request, the EVA was begun 2 hours, 27 minutes earlier than scheduled. All equipment was transported using a small cart, the Modular Equipment Transporter. Due to the difficulty in walking over the rugged terrain, the crew fell behind schedule during the traverse. As a result, several of the planned geology stops were cancelled and the traverse stopped short of Cone Crater's rim. They became physically exhausted from the attempt and with their suits' oxygen supplies starting to run low, the effort was called off. Post-mission analysis of landmarks in photographs indicated that the crew may have been just 20 meters from the crater rim when Mission Control ordered them to return to the lunar module (LM). The crew did not know this during the EVA because of the difficulty in determining their precise location in the rugged terrain. The stops that were made on the traverse are listed below. This EVA lasted 4 hours and 34 minutes, from 3:11 a.m. to 7:45 a.m. EST on February 6. During this time the astronauts traveled approximately 3 kilometers. One of the more famous moments came at the end of the second EVA when Apollo 14 commander Alan Shepard hit 2 golf balls on the Moon. |
OTHER EVA ACTIVITIES
The Apollo Lunar Surface Close-up Camera
The Lunar Portable Magnetometer
which was used to measure the magnetic field at two locations along the EVA 2 traverse. The device operated normally but there was some difficulty in rewinding the cable after deployment.
End of the Apollo 14 Mission
A close-up view of the plaque that the Apollo 14 crew left behind on the Moon during their lunar landing mission. The stainless-steel plaque was attached to the ladder on the landing-gear strut on the lunar module descent stage.
CAMERA EQUIMENT USED
Return and Splashdown
Antares took off at 6 February, after 33 hours on the lunar surface and shortly after Shepard and Mitchell were reunited with Roosa who had spent his solitary time in lunar orbit performing scientific experiments and photographing the surface in exquisite detail. Kittyhawk splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on 9 February 1971. On board were a priceless 42kg of lunar samples. Despite the doubts about the crew’s commitment to science, these samples have delighted geologists ever since. By any standards, Apollo 14 had been a hugely successful mission. |