Excerpt from Apollo 15 Lunar Surface Journal The Dreaded Station 8 Corrected Transcript and Commentary Copyright 1996 by Eric M. Jones Last revised 18 November 2010 Source is the public website: http://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a15/a15.sta8.html 148:20:12 Irwin: Okay, Joe, I have the half-inch cone installed (on the penetrometer), and I'm going to...It's sitting on 1, I'm going to index it to 2. [Jim is probably talking about the recording drum at the top of the instrument. There are a number of recording positions and, apparently, Jim is going to start with position 2.] 148:20:19 Allen: Okay, Jim. Dave, as soon as you get that (cable) unstuck, you'll want to back it off one and one-half turns. It'll come loose. [Dave clears the cable and sticks the UHT in the ground to his left.] 148:20:33 Scott: I know, Joe. (Pause) You can't bend over as far here as you can in one g. (Pause) [Off-camera, Dave starts to remove the drill.] Video Clip 2 min 47 sec ( 0.7 Mb RealVideo or 24 Mb MPG ) 148:20:49 Irwin: Joe, I hope you can watch this on TV. The ground plate...I pull it down; and the spring is too strong. It pulls the ground plate up. [During Jim's last transmission, Fendell re-aimed the TV to get both astronauts in the field-of-view and, with Houston watching, Dave removed the drill with relatively little difficulty.] 148:20:59 Allen: Okay, Jim, we watch. No problem. [Before Jim finishes adjusting the ground plate, Fendell shifts his aim to concentrate on Dave.] [With the cable out of the way, Dave has no trouble removing the drill.] 148:21:03 Irwin: The ground plate's there. Maybe it'll stay there... 148:21:09 Allen: That's no problem. [As Dave puts the drill down, Fendell re-aims the TV at Jim, who is on the north side of the trench.] 148:21:10 Irwin: ...And I'm doing the one adjacent...I'm doing it adjacent to the trench... 148:21:15 Allen: Roger. 148:21:16 Irwin: ...right here. And I'm pushing. (Pause) I'm bottomed out. 148:21:29 Allen: Roger. [Jim did the first penetrometer test at the north end of the trench. As he puts the penetrometer down, he just has his right hand on the shaft just above the recording drum and, although Fendell zooms in on the ground plate, there is no change in Jim's leg positions that would indicate that he went to two hands.] 148:21:30 Irwin: These (ground-plate) prints might stay here, Dave, so I can photograph them later. 148:21:33 Scott: Yeah. 148:21:34 Irwin: (The imprints will show) where I took it. Okay; that was adjacent to the trench. [Fendell pulls back on the zoom and we see Jim adjusting the recording drum.] 148:21:43 Irwin: I'm indexing to 3; and I'm going to do the trench bottom. [Jim pulls on the ground plate to get it out to the end of the shaft again. The ground plate had slid up the shaft when Jim raised the tip to get at the recording drum.] 148:21:48 Allen: Beautiful. And, Dave, you might check your (16-mm) film mag, if you're back at the Rover now. See if it's run out. (Pause) And I'm talking about the DAC... 148:21:56 Scott: No, it wouldn't have run out by now, Joe. (Responding to Joe's last sentence) That's what I'm saying. It wouldn't have run out by now. I just turned it on; 12 frames per second, and it looks like it's 90 percent gone. 148:22:08 Allen: Okay, beautiful; outstanding. 148:22:13 Scott: And, hey, I need a call when my sublimator gets going, Joe. [Dave wants to have more cooling than the minimum setting provides.] [Jim has carefully placed the ground plate in the trench and, this time, appears to use two hands, probably expecting to meet greater resistance.] 148:22:20 Irwin: Okay; I'm in the trench bottom, and I'm pushing. And I'm bottomed out. [Although, once again, Fendell has zoomed in and we only see the bottom of Jim's legs, the fact that his left legs slips backwards right at the end suggests that he put his full weight on the shaft. Jim removes the penetrometer from the trench and resets the drum.] 148:22:31 Allen: Roger. And, Dave, the diverter valve is yours. 148:22:38 Scott: Thank you! 148:22:43 Irwin: (To Joe) Okay, I'm starting for (drum index position) 4. 148:22:44 Allen: (To Dave) Okay, verify flags for me, please. MP3 Audio Clip ( 9 min 34 sec ) by David Shaffer 148:22:53 Scott: Yeah. The water flag's clear, Joe. (Going to higher cooling) Ohh, that feels so good! [The Sun is currently about 30 degrees above the horizon and, from Figure 9-9 in the Apollo 17 Preliminary Science Report, we can estimate that the current surface temperature is about 50 C or 120 F.] 148:23:00 Irwin: Okay, I'm going for the Rover tracks. 148:23:03 Allen: Roger. (Long Pause) [Jim moves up-Sun, going slow enough that Fendell has no trouble following. As Jim passes behind Dave, we see that Dave has threaded two more drill-stem sections on the string in the ground and is attaching the drill.] [Jim stops behind the Rover to make the next penetrometer measurement.] Video Clip 2 min 47 sec ( 0.7 Mb RealVideo or 25 Mb MPG ) 148:23:27 Irwin: Okay, I'm on the very freshest Rover tracks...(Pause) 148:23:32 Allen: The very freshest. 148:23:36 Irwin: (Garbled) And I'm pushing. 148:23:37 Allen: Roger. [Jim has both hands on the extension handle and, as he pushes, moves both feet back, getting up on his toes as he puts his weight on the instrument.] 148:23:38 Irwin: I've bottomed out. (Long Pause) 148:23:50 Irwin: I'm indexing to 5. 148:23:53 Allen: Roger. (Pause) And, Dave and Jim... 148:23:57 Irwin: And the one adjacent (to the Rover tracks) 148:23:58 Allen: ...it's coming up on 5 minutes remaining before close out. 148:24:04 Scott: Okay. (Long Pause) [Fendell zooms in on a dark patch on the surface NNE of the right-rear Rover wheel.] 148:24:16 Irwin: Okay, adjacent to the Rover tracks. (Pause) Pushing. 148:24:21 Allen: Roger. 148:24:25 Irwin: (Grunting) Bottomed out. (Pause) We don't want to leave here before I get a chance to collapse my trench, Joe. 148:24:42 Allen: You've got 5 minutes, Jim. Play it accordingly; and I thought that was my job. [This is obviously a training reference. Jim will attach a fixed plate to the penetrometer and will measure the amount of force it takes to collapse the trench wall by pushing on the surface a short distances from the wall.] 148:24:52 Irwin: (Chuckles) (Pause) Okay, I'm going for the plate. 148:25:03 Allen: Roger. (Long Pause) [While Jim goes to the Rover, Fendell aims the TV at Dave, who is twisting the drill off the drill string. Dave grabs the wire loop, puts the drill on the ground, and heads for the Rover.] 148:25:25 Scott: I see why we planned all this before we came. (Pause) [Scott - "One of the more fun parts of the whole mission was the planning. Certainly the geology planning was fun. In the crew quarters, at night, we worked on all these traverses. Doing all the planning and putting everything to fit together, that was a lot of fun. Lot of guys involved."] [Jones - "And you were an active part of that."] [Scott - "Yeah, well, they had to deal with us. They didn't have any choice. (Laughing) We were the one's who were going to do it. We were in a pretty good position, right?"] [Jones - "You had to buy into it, otherwise, it wasn't going to work."] [Fendell pans right and finds Jim at the back of the Rover.] 148:25:41 Irwin: Okay; the plate's installed. 148:25:43 Allen: Roger, Jim. [The plate is the small, rectangular object on the tip of the penetrometer shaft.] 148:25:47 Irwin: Did I index it after the last one, Joe? 148:25:49 Allen: Say again. 148:25:54 Irwin: I don't think I indexed it after the last one. 148:25:57 Allen: Okay. Try it again. No problem. We've got several... 148:25:59 Irwin: I'm index... [Jim walks slowly toward the trench as he adjusts the recording drum. Dave bounds past him with a joined pair of drill stem sections.] 148:26:02 Allen: Index it again. Video Clip 2 min 44 sec ( 0.7 Mb RealVideo or 24 Mb MPG ) 148:26:04 Irwin: I'm indexing to six. 148:26:05 Allen: Roger. 148:26:06 Irwin: I'm indexing to six here for the trench bottom. 148:26:09 Allen: Okay. (Long Pause) [Fendell is watching Dave as he threads the drill-stem pair on the string in the ground.] 148:26:38 Irwin: Okay; here goes it for trench bottom. 148:26:41 Allen: Roger. (Pause) 148:26:46 Irwin: It bottomed out. 148:26:47 Allen: Okay. (Long Pause) [Dave's breathing is intermittently audible. Dave is still having trouble getting the stems threaded.] [Jones - "The thing that amazes me is that the threads on those cores really had a big pitch. In shirtsleeves, it's trivial to get those things attached. I've tried it and it's easy. But standing there at the end of that lever arm, wearing those gloves with the huge fingers..."] [Scott - "Yeah. And you've got to move the suit. The suit's good, but you still have to move against it (and) overcome the pressure."] [Scott, from the 1971 Technical Debrief - "I got all the sections in; and I noted in the process that it was more difficult to screw the sections together than it had been in training. I don't know whether it was the thermal problem (that is, sunlight heating of the stems) or what, but it took quite a bit of motion and patience with them to get the stems all the way to the joint (that is, fully threaded)."] 148:26:59 Irwin: Indexing to seven. 148:27:01 Allen: Roger. (Long Pause) [Just before Jim's next transmission, Dave finally gets the drill stems threaded. At some point during his struggles, he knocks the drill over but, this time, has no trouble bobbing down to get it. He doesn't quite go to his knees.] 148:27:14 Irwin: Okay; I'm going to be collapsing the trench side. I hope. (Long Pause) [Dave threads the drill on the drill string and, as Fendell zooms in on the treadle, Dave steps on the treadle and starts to drill.] 148:27: Irwin: Okay. I'm about four inches out from the side of the trench. (Pause) And I'm pushing. (Pause) It's bottomed out. A slight amount of collapse. 148:28:12 Allen: It won't collapse? 148:28:14 Irwin: (Grunting) I'm continuing to push. Yup. It just collapsed. 148:28:16 Allen: Okay. 148:28:16 Irwin: ...collapsed. I'll take a quick picture here so you can see the location of all of those. (Long Pause)