Earthrise

by Edgar Mitchell

  “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

  Even 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.

  Getting Ready to Go Outside

  Before we set foot on the Moon, there was still a lot of work to do inside the spacecraft. For the next five hours Alan and I read over all our checklists for what we were supposed to do next. This way we wouldn’t waste precious time once we were walking on the Moon. We also made sure all our equipment and spacesuits were in top-notch condition. We then had a bite to eat. I know we were both famished and somehow all our plastic bags of freeze-dried food tasted better than ever.

  Preparing to go outside in the tight fit of the Antares wasn’t easy. We were already wearing our spacesuits, but it took a while to pull on everything else including our boots, gloves, helmets, and lunar backpacks. With our spacesuit plus the backpack, we weighed a whopping 400 pounds on Earth. But because the Moon has one-sixth the gravitational pull of Earth, we weighed only about 70 pounds now. These space-suits and all their accoutrements were amazing technological designs that had to keep us alive in the harsh, airless environment of the Moon. Walking around the Moon was, in some ways, like being underwater on Earth. We needed to have a way to breathe as well as a way to protect our skin from the intense solar rays. Our spacesuits provided us with oxygen, kept us cool, and protected us.

  Each layer of the suit had an important function. The layer closest to the body was a water-cooled nylon undergarment, the middle layer was made with neoprene to withstand the pressure of spaceflight, and the outer layer was made of white beta cloth to protect against scrapes, fire, heat, and any solar rays we might encounter.

  Fortunately, we never felt too hot or cold in our space-suits because we could regulate our own temperature. If we worked hard and started to sweat, for example, we could turn up the cooling system and cool down. Alan and I also wore large gloves with special rubber fingertips for handling our equipment and picking up Moon rocks.

  A cloth cap was worn close to the head with earphones and a microphone so we could always communicate with each other and with Mission Control. A bubble Plexiglas helmet, which was attached to the neck ring of our spacesuit, went over the cap helmet. And last, a visor covered the Plexiglas helmet to protect us from the bright rays of the Sun. Inside the helmet a small tube enabled us to take sips of water. We’d just turn our heads and get a sip of water from a small bag of water inside our suit.

  One of the most important parts of our spacesuit was the large, rectangular lunar backpack called a Portable Life Support System (PLSS). Without this piece of equipment we couldn’t have survived even a few seconds on the Moon. The PLSS provided us with oxygen to breathe, electrical power for our radios, and temperature and humidity control. Most important, the backpack carried a maximum of five hours of oxygen for each of our Moonwalks.

  I hate to think what might have happened if we’d gone over this five-hour time limit. But of course, we never did.

  Stepping Out at Last

  When Alan and I were fully suited up, it was hard not to laugh. It was like we were wearing not one but two bulky snowsuits so we could go out and play in the snow. But this time the “snow” on the Moon was a whole lot of lunar dust. And because it was hard to tell us apart in our white space-suits, Alan’s suit had vivid red stripes on it.

  After we got the okay from Mission Control, Alan was the designated man to head down the ladder to the Moon first. I followed him outside about four minutes later. A motion picture camera was mounted on the lower part of the Lunar Module to film us exiting the craft. The images were broadcast back to Earth so people back home would have the opportunity to see what we were doing.

  When Alan stepped off the ladder and set foot on the Moon, his words were concise. “It’s been a long way, but we’re here.” I knew Al had worked long and hard to get to this point, and it was an important and emotional moment.

  Then it was my turn. I backed down the ladder, step by step, and heard the CAPCOM say, “Okay Ed, we can see you coming down the ladder now.” I moved carefully but quickly.

  “It’s very great to be coming down,” I replied. And then I jumped back past the last step of the ladder and landed on the surface.

  I’d made it. I’d finally, finally made it.

  The first thing I did was to figure out how to walk on the Moon, and I was curious to see what it would be like to get around in the reduced gravity. As I took one step and then another and another, I quickly realized I felt lighter on my feet, even in my stiff spacesuit. As I moved around in my new environment, I stepped over a few craters that were filled with dust. In some ways this reminded me of walking on a beach in Hawaii with its darker volcanic sand.

  I looked over at the Antares and could easily see how one of the footpads had landed in a small crater. But it didn’t seem to be a problem.

  I then looked up at the sky. Boy did it look different. It was inky black without a star in sight and I couldn’t see Earth at all. Alan and I later figured out that if we stood on the Antares ladder, hung onto the rails and leaned way back, we could see Earth, which was straight up above us and shaped like a crescent Moon.

  But for a moment, I just wanted to stop, take in my surroundings, and stare at this amazing new place. And then I needed to get to work.

  All the work we completed on the Moon was carefully thought out ahead of time, and Alan and I were responsible for the tasks of the original Apollo 13 mi
ssion that didn’t make it to the Moon.

  Our work was spelled out on checklists we wore on the wrist cuffs of our spacesuits. These checklists were detailed to-do lists that stated everything we were to accomplish from one moment to the next. With a checklist on one arm and a watch on the other, Alan and I were constantly looking at our wrists to stay on schedule and on task.

  Time was a huge factor and there wasn’t a moment to waste. We were always working against the clock, and both of us needed to stick to precise directions as to exactly what to do and when. We always had Mission Control talking to us through our earphones and asking us where we were, what we’d done, and if we were on schedule. We constantly heard, “You’re two minutes behind. You’re three minutes behind.” This went on and on. Alan and I were so focused on getting all our work done that once we completed a task, we quickly moved on to something new.

  WHERE ARE THE STARS?

  When Alan and I worked on the Moon, we couldn’t see any stars in the sky. This natural phenomenon happened because the sunlight was so bright during the lunar day, the stars were too dim compared to it, and thus not visible. The bright lunar sunlight caused the lenses of our eyes to shut down, as well as the lenses of our cameras.

  This is the same phenomenon that occurs on Earth when we look up at the sky during the day and can’t see any stars. The stars are out there, but because of the daylight brightness, we simply can’t see them. We are able to see the stars in the Earth sky again when the sunlight becomes dimmer during nighttime.

  All in a Day’s Work

  Our Moon work was scheduled over two days in two separate Moonwalks called ExtraVehicular Activities, or EVAs. Each EVA lasted about four and a half hours and, as mentioned, we had a five-hour oxygen limit in our backpack.

  Alan and I were always careful how long we worked on the Moon because we wanted to be back in the Antares before our oxygen and water ran out. At the end of each EVA, it took about 15 to 20 minutes to load all the Moon samples we collected into the Antares and climb back into the craft.