Information center "central house of knowledge". Khrushchev's Thaw: the sphere of management

Apollo 16. On April 16, 1972, at 17:54 GMT, the Saturn-V launch vehicle and the Apollo 16 spacecraft with the crew: John Young (ship commander), Thomas Mattingly (command compartment pilot) and Charles Duke (lunar spacecraft pilot) took off.

The flight program included the landing of the Apollo 16 lunar spacecraft on the high-altitude Kalei Plateau in the area of ​​the Descartes crater, three exits of astronauts Young and Duke to the surface of the Moon, trips on the lunar rover and exploration of the Moon in the area of ​​the Descartes crater (Fig. 44.6). Estimated flight duration 12 days 3 hours 36 minutes.

Rice. 44.6. Apollo lunar spacecraft landing sites, stage impact points
S-IVB launch vehicles and take-off stages of the archery ship
Description of the landing site

The landing site of Apollo 16 is located in the Descartes crater area, near the craters Abul Fida, Kant, Zoellner, and Andel. This is the southern part of the high-mountainous region of the Moon with altitudes of 7800-8050 m above the surface of the lunar sphere of radius 1738 km.


Rice. 44.7(a) Topographic map of the Apollo 16 landing area.
The height difference between lines of equal levels is 10 m. The number on the level line, for example 8050, indicates the height of the level in m above the surface of a spherical Moon with a radius of 1738 mm.

b)



Rice. 47.7 (b,c). Apollo 16 landing site

The coordinates of the estimated landing site are 9°00"01" S. w. 15 ° 30 "59" in longitude, and an altitude of 7830 m above the surface of a spherical Moon with a radius of 1738 km. (Fig. 44.7).

A sketch of the area of ​​the Moon in the area of ​​the Descartes crater explored by Apollo 16 astronauts is shown in Fig. 44.7.


Rice. 44.8. The area of ​​the Moon explored by Apollo 16 astronauts

Research on the lunar surface

The program provided for three exits of astronauts from the lunar ship to the surface of the Moon, lasting 7 hours each, observation, research, collection of samples of lunar rocks and installation on the Moon of a set of scientific instruments for passive and active seismic research, measurements of the magnetic field and heat flow from the inner region to the surface Moons. The devices are connected by an electrical circuit; The energy source is a 70-watt thermoelectric generator; data is transmitted to Earth via a microwave radio link.

Measurements taken in the Apennine region at the Apollo-16 landing site showed that the heat flow to the lunar surface is about 3/4-10 -6 cal/cm 2 sec. The average heat flow near the Earth is only 3 times greater. The heat flow to the surface of the Moon is a consequence of the decay of radioactive elements. There were a lot of them in the samples of lunar rocks studied on Earth. However, such samples cannot be in the entire Moon; if they were, the inner region of the Moon would be completely melted.

A device for passive seismic research can detect natural vibrations of the soil or impacts of parts of spacecraft and meteorites on the Moon. Such signals are received on Earth from the landing sites of Apollo 12, 14 and 15 and an increase in their strength is observed when the Moon is at its farthest and closest distances from the Earth; no explanation has been found for this.

The latest studies of the results of spacecraft falling on the Moon have shown that the Moon is covered with a crust 64 km thick, which is significantly different from the substance that makes up the inner region of the Moon.

The Moon's magnetic field can change in amplitude, frequency and direction, so magnetometers installed on the surface of the Moon measure the field in three perpendicular directions with three sensors.

The constant component of the Moon's magnetic field, measured at the Apollo 12 landing site, turned out to be 35 gamma, several times greater than expected. Two measurements at the Apollo 14 landing site gave magnetic field values ​​of 43 and 103 gamma at two different points. The Moon's magnetic field is very small, but a compass would show North if friction were made infinitesimal.
Changes in the magnetic field over time at the surface of the Moon are strongly dependent on the electrical conductivity of the Moon. The electrical conductivity of rocks changes with temperature, so data from magnetic measurements can be used to calculate the temperature inside the Moon. If we use existing measurements of the magnetic field and calculate the temperature, it turns out that the Moon is relatively cold inside. Its temperature is 600-800° C. But there is another point of view, which is that the temperature calculation method contains errors; in fact, the Moon has a higher temperature inside. I wonder which of these two points of view will be correct.

Lunar exploration from ISL orbit

At the Apollo landing sites, the lunar surface explored by astronauts is limited to a few kilometers and, in comparison with the entire surface, only a point is explored. However, by conducting additional studies from the ISL orbit, it is possible to extrapolate some of the data obtained on the surface to the entire Moon. For this purpose, a set of instrumentation equipment is installed on board the main unit in the service compartment, containing:

Initially, Apollo-16 is launched into an elliptical ISL orbit with parameters of 111/314 km. After a few hours, the spacecraft is transferred to a landing orbit with parameters of 14.8/111 km, from which the lunar spacecraft lands 17 1/2 hours after undocking.

For 17½ hours, using a set of instruments installed in the service compartment, the Moon is studied and photographed from the ISL orbit. Before landing the lunar craft, the main unit is transferred to a circular ISL orbit with an altitude of 111 km above the lunar surface. Over the next three days, exploration of the Moon from the ISL orbit continues. 20 hours before the launch of the second stage of the lunar spacecraft from the surface of the Moon, the orbital plane of the main unit changes so that it is in the best position for rendezvous and docking. A few hours before entering the trajectory of returning to Earth, Apollo-16 is transferred to an orbit with parameters of 104/141 km for launch from the ISL spacecraft.

Photographing the Moon from ISL orbit

Panoramic photography of the Moon from ISL orbit provides high-resolution images from which the elevation of the Moon's surface along the flight path is determined. For this purpose, two cameras and a laser altimeter are used. The cameras are equipped with automatic control. The camera rotates continuously in a plane perpendicular to the flight path to perform panoramic scanning. It rocks back and forth to provide stereo coverage. To avoid image blurring, the forward movement of the main unit is automatically compensated. In addition, one of the sensors determines the ratio of the translational speed to the height above the surface of the Moon and automatically introduces a correction. Images taken from an altitude of 111 km are obtained with a resolution of 1-1.8 m.

The second 76 mm cartographic camera has two cameras connected in one unit. Photographing of the Moon is carried out through a 76 mm cartographic lens, while at the same time another device aimed exactly in the opposite direction photographs the starry sky. In the future, this allows you to determine the position of the camera in space and very accurately record objects on the surface of the Moon.

The orbit of the main unit is continuously determined by ground-based tracking stations with an accuracy of 2-3 m. The laser altimeter determines the distance between the main unit and the Moon with an accuracy of about 1 m. By subtraction we obtain the elevation of the lunar surface. In Fig. Figure 44.9 presents the results of measurements of the elevation of the lunar surface using a laser altimeter made during the Apollo-15 flight.

Rice. 44.9. Lunar surface elevations measured by laser
altimeter during Apollo 15 flight

Analysis of the results shows that the center of mass of the Moon is shifted by 2 1/2 km from the center of the volume towards the middle of the distance between the Sea of ​​​​Clarity and the Sea of ​​Crises. It has been known for about two years that these two Seas contain the two largest gravitational anomalies on the visible surface of the Moon.

Chemical research from ISL orbit

From the ISL orbit on the Apollo 16 flight, three different studies of the chemical composition of the lunar surface directly below the main block are carried out, allowing the results obtained by the astronauts at the landing site to be extrapolated to the entire Moon. Sensitive instruments survey a limited area on the lunar surface. Measurements made from any point in the ISL orbit are the average value for several square kilometers of the lunar surface under the main block.

Using an X-ray fluorescence receiver and a standard measurement processing method, the elements included in the lunar soil are determined: lithium, beryllium, boron, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, neon, sodium, magnesium, aluminum, silicon, and their quantitative composition is measured.

In Fig. Figure 44.10 shows the change in the ratio of aluminum to silicon in longitude for one revolution around the Moon, according to measurements made during the Apollo 15 flight.

Measuring the energy of alpha particles occurring during the decay of radon with an alpha spectrometer allows us to determine the amount of thorium and uranium in rocks.

Rice. 44.10 Al/Si intensity ratio by longitude for one revolution
around the Moon. Based on measurements during the flight of Apollo 15.

A gamma electrometer measures the energy and wavelength of g-radiation. From them, the types of rocks are determined and a map of the distribution of different types of rocks on the surface of the Moon is compiled. These studies provide information about the nature and evolution of the Moon.

A mass spectrometer determines the composition and density of gas molecules along the flight path. During the 40 hours of Apollo 15's orbital ISL, many different gases were detected. It is still unclear why instruments detected a large amount of gas around the Moon.

The S-band transponder is used to detect small variations in the Moon's gravitational field.

If a large block, a substance with a diameter of 75 km and a density 2 times greater than the density of the Moon, ends up under the orbit of the Apollo 16 flight, then the ship, approaching it, will experience gravity and its speed will increase as it flies over block and begins to move away from it, the force of attraction of the block will slow down the movement of the ship and its speed will begin to decrease. These small changes in speed are measured with high precision. A radio wave of a very stable frequency of 2114 MHz is sent from Earth to the ship. The frequency received by the ship is multiplied by a constant 240/221 and transmitted to Earth. Based on the Doppler frequency shift received on Earth from a flying ship, small changes in its speed are determined.

From the measured variations in the spacecraft's flight speed, changes in the gravitational field of the Moon along the wake of the ISL orbit are determined.

The program of trips on the Lunokhod and exploration of the Moon during the Apollo-16 flight is given in Table 28.

The launch of the Saturn V launch vehicle with the Apollo 16 spacecraft was carried out at an estimated time of 28 hours 54 minutes April 16(hereinafter Moscow time)*. Before the launch, a failure of the gyroscope in the backup system was discovered * The Apollo 16 flight took place after the book went to press. There have been no NASA flight reports yet. The description of the flight used materials from foreign news agencies; the figures indicated in it require additional clarification.
control of the Saturn V launch vehicle. However, analysis of the malfunction showed that the danger was not so great as to postpone the flight. At 21:06, the last stage of the launch vehicle with the Apollo-16 spacecraft entered a holding orbit with parameters of 172/176 km.

The second switching on of the S-IVB stage liquid-propellant rocket engine was made at 23:13. The engine operated for 343 seconds and launched the Apollo 16 spacecraft onto a flight path to the Moon. On April 17 at 0:13 a.m., when the ship was 11,000 km from Earth, the rebuilding of the Apollo compartments was completed. At 1:09 a.m., Apollo 16 separated from the S-IVB stage.

At 4:45 a.m., the astronauts saw large flakes and a stream of brown particles flying through the command compartment window. The deteriorating thermal insulation was separated from the lunar ship. At first, there was an assumption that the destruction of thermal insulation was due to a leak from some tank on the lunar ship.

Table 28

The main stages of the Apollo-16 flight are given in table. 29.

It was decided to immediately check the tanks. At 5:15 a.m., astronauts Young and Duke boarded the lunar spacecraft and the tanks were checked. There was no drop in pressure detected in any of the tanks, indicating no leakage. Subsequently, experts came to the conclusion that the silicone-based paint was deteriorating, which is an additional means of thermal insulation in case the ship is launched a day later and, accordingly, a day later the lunar ship lands on the surface of the Moon and will be at a higher ascent of the Sun. Since the launch took place at the estimated time, there is no need for additional thermal insulation. The most likely cause of destruction, apparently, was the insulation of a jet of gases from the liquid-propellant rocket engine of the attitude control system of the main block.

Table 29

On April 17, after 8 hours of rest and breakfast, the astronauts conducted electrophoresis experiments under weightless conditions and recorded phosphene flashes. At 10:20 p.m. on April 17, the spacecraft was halfway between the Earth and the Moon.

On April 18, at 3:26 a.m., the first flight path correction was made. The propulsion rocket engine of the service compartment operated for about 2 seconds. and reported to the ship a speed increment of 3.75 m/sec. At 5:59 a.m., in accordance with the program, astronauts Young and Duke transferred to the lunar ship to check the onboard systems. The check lasted two hours. On April 18, after 8 hours of rest, Mattingly carried out another correction of the gyro-stabilized platform, while observing the planet Jupiter through a telescope, an emergency signal suddenly came on, indicating that one of the gyroblocks was not turning. Commands were transmitted from Earth, which Mattingly entered into the on-board computer, and the gyroblock began to rotate again. Observing the stars through a telescope was very difficult due to the fact that particles of peeling paint were flying around the ship. Therefore, Mattingly produced a gyroplatform exhibition of the Sun and Moon, which were observed without difficulty.

A simulation of the gyroplatform exhibition on the Apollo-17 ship showed that with a given sequence of operations, the onboard computer fails. To avoid a recurrence of such a malfunction, which would be especially dangerous when transferring the spacecraft into ISL orbit and during other maneuvers, the sequence of operations was changed. The flight directors stated that if this malfunction had not been corrected, the transfer of the spacecraft into ISL orbit would have had to be abandoned, and it would have flown around the Moon at a distance of 131 km and would have returned to Earth.

On April 18, instead of 20:24, the astronauts were woken up an hour earlier due to the fact that the automatic antenna switching system had failed. On the Earth-Moon route, the Apollo spacecraft continuously rotates around its longitudinal axis so that the body is evenly heated by the Sun. The telemetry information transmitter, operating on two antennas, automatically switches synchronously with the rotation of the ship to the antenna facing the Earth. The failure of automatic switching led to the fact that after each 11-minute broadcast of television information there was a break lasting 7.5 minutes. In the beginning, astronauts switched antennas manually, and then the automatic switching system was corrected.

The astronauts continued to observe phosphenes. Within an hour, not a single outbreak was registered. However, then a series of flashes began to be observed, and within an hour Duke registered 20 flashes, and Young 50. Mattingly did not register a single one, which has not yet been explained.

On April 19, at 2:44 a.m., astronauts Young and Duke moved to the lunar ship for another check of the onboard systems. We conducted training on putting on spacesuits in zero gravity conditions. Duke's spacesuit turned out to be very tight. Young had great difficulty zipping up the back of Duke's suit.

At 5:07 a.m., the Apollo 16 spacecraft entered the lunar gravitational field. The trajectory correction scheduled for 18:23 was cancelled. While approaching the Moon at a distance of approximately 30,000 km, the astronauts photographed the Moon from the command compartment. At 18:53, when the ship was at a distance of 21,000 km from the Moon, the door covering the set of scientific instruments installed in the service compartment was dropped.

At 11:12 p.m., Apollo 16 disappeared behind the lunar disk. At 23:23, when the ship was behind the Moon, the service compartment rocket engine was turned on, which worked for 375 seconds and reduced the speed by about 1 km/sec. When the ship emerged from behind the lunar disk, measurements showed that it entered an ISL orbit with parameters of 106/304 km. On the third orbit of the ISL's initial orbit, the astronauts were allowed to transfer the spacecraft to a low elliptical orbit from which they would land on the Moon.

On April 20, at 3:33 a.m. behind the Moon, the service compartment rocket engine was turned on and operated for 24.2 seconds, the ship's speed decreased by 60 m/sec. If the rocket engine had worked one second longer than the calculated time, the ship would have moved onto a collision trajectory with the Moon. The actual orbit of the ship had parameters of 19.6/109.3 km. After dinner, at 7:24 a.m., the next nine-hour rest period for the astronauts began.

At 0:03 a.m. on April 20, 39 minutes later than the estimated time, the S-IVB stage of the Saturn V launch vehicle fell onto the Moon. It was assumed that the stage would fall 220 km west of the Apollo 12 landing site in the Ocean of Storms. In fact, the stage fell 102 km north of the Apollo 12 landing site. The falling speed was 2.6 km/sec. With a stage weight of about 15 tons, the impact force was equivalent to the explosion of 11 tons of TNT. The fall of the stage was recorded by seismometers at the landing sites of Apollo 12, 14 and 15. Analysis of the propagation of seismic waves showed that up to a depth of 24 km the Moon has a heterogeneous structure. At a depth of 64 km, the seismic wave speed increased to 8.8 km/sec. At present, it is difficult to explain what structure of lunar rocks can lead to such an increase in speed.

The crew of Apollo 15 experienced very significant losses of potassium, up to 15% for Scott and Irwin, who went to the surface of the Moon, and up to 10% for Worden. Potassium is released under the influence of nervous shocks and is excreted from the body in urine. Loss of potassium can lead to lethargy, weakness, and cardiac arrhythmias. Scott and Irwin had cardiac arrhythmia. Significant loss of potassium can cause paralysis of the respiratory muscles or cardiac arrest.

Therefore, food with a high potassium content was prepared for the crew of Apollo 16. For Young and Duke, who were about to walk on the moon, it is planned to receive 135 milliequivalents of potassium per day from food, for Mattingly - 105.

Young and Duke moved to the lunar ship at 18:02 and began checking the onboard systems. They discovered a malfunction in the control system of the highly directional antenna. It took about an hour to fix this problem.

On the 12th orbit of the ISL at the estimated time of 21:07, when the ship was behind the Moon, a soft separation of the lunar ship from the main block was carried out. At the moment of separation, the orbital parameters were 19.8/107.2 km.

At 22:34:17, Mattingly was supposed to turn on the service compartment rocket engine and transfer the main unit to the rendezvous orbit with parameters of 96/127 km. At 23:04, the lunar ship emerged from behind the Moon, Young and Duke reported that the service compartment rocket engine did not turn on. When communication with the main unit was restored, Mattingly reported that during a check before turning on the rocket engine, he discovered a malfunction of the backup engine deflection control system on the gimbal. In this case, the instructions prohibit turning on the liquid rocket engine.

On the control panel in the command compartment there is an indicator indicating the deflection of the rocket engine on the gimbal. When connecting the backup thrust vector control system, Mattingly discovered that the indicator needle was fluctuating, which meant that the rocket engine in the gimbal was not fixed and was swinging relative to the yaw axis. A very critical situation has arisen. Due to the fact that the main unit was not transferred to the rendezvous orbit, the landing of the lunar spacecraft was postponed.

The flight control center had 10 hours (five orbits of the ISL) to assess the accident and make a decision on the possibility of using the service compartment liquid propellant rocket engine. If it turned out that turning on the rocket engine could lead to the death of the ship and crew, then immediate docking of the main block with the lunar ship and the use of the rocket engine of the landing stage of the lunar ship to return to Earth were envisaged. Since this was done during the Apollo 13 accident in 1970

After separation, the lunar ship was at a distance of 180 m from the main block. When a malfunction was detected and an emergency docking might be required, Mission Control instructed Mattingly to approach the lunar lander to within 30 m using the attitude control rocket engine and fly in formation while maintaining this distance. The core unit and lunar craft were oriented so that docking operations could begin immediately.

To determine the cause and severity of the accident on Earth, similar propulsion systems were tested, the situation was reproduced on simulators, and calculations were carried out on computers. Analysis teams worked at the Mission Control Center in Houston, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Instrumentation Laboratory, and at North American Rockwell's Duany plant. The analysis showed that, apparently, there was a break in the electrical circuit in the feedback loop of the control system for the LRE deflection servo drives on the cardan. A similar accident occurred at one time on the Apollo 9 spacecraft. Experts came to the conclusion that liquid rocket engines can be used. Even if the main thrust vector control system fails and an automatic switchover to a partially faulty backup system occurs, there will be no threat of destruction of the ship.

On April 21, on the 15th orbit of the ISL, Mattingly received instructions to turn on the service compartment rocket engine. The liquid-propellant rocket engine was turned on at 4:16 a.m., worked for 6 seconds, and transferred the main unit into an orbit with parameters of 98.2/125.4 km. The rocket engine of the landing stage of the lunar ship was turned on at 5 hours 11 minutes on the 16th orbit of the ISL orbit. Due to the fact that the lunar spacecraft made three additional orbits, at the moment the rocket engine was turned on, it found itself 6.4 km south and 4.8 km above the calculated point, due to the disturbance of the ISL orbit by anomalies in the gravitational field of the Moon. The operating program of the landing stage liquid-propellant rocket engine was designed to compensate for the orbital disturbance and ensure landing of the lunar spacecraft at the calculated location. Braking began at a distance of 370 km from the landing point. The flight in the final hover before landing lasted longer than the nominal time, as Young had to maneuver to find level ground. Duke twice drew Young's attention to rocks that could interfere with the landing. The actual landing site turned out to be 150 m north and 215 m west of the calculated point. According to the astronauts' report, the landing site is 30-40% cluttered with large stones.

While still in ISL orbit during the analysis of the accident that occurred on board the main unit, Young and Duke asked for permission from the Mission Control Center to rest before entering the lunar surface.

The astronauts' rest period on the Moon began at 8:50 a.m.

After the landing of Apollo 16, work on the Moon was carried out. according to the new program. Since the landing was made almost 6 hours later than planned.

Due to an accident in the thrust vector control system of the rocket engine of the service compartment, the lunar ship and the service compartment made 3 extra orbits of the ISL, and the consumption of onboard resources exceeded the norm.

It was decided to shorten the ISL orbital flight of the main unit by one day after docking with the take-off stage of the lunar ship, so as not to once again turn on the service compartment rocket engine with a faulty thrust vector control system.

On April 21, astronauts Young and Duke woke up at 5 p.m. Duke took the sleeping pill Seconol before going to bed. After preparing for the exit, the cabin was depressurized at 19:49 and at 20:00 Young and Duke reached the lunar surface.
After examining the surface, they discovered that they had managed to land the lunar ship in the very center of a crater with a diameter of 50 m and a wall height of 4-5 m. Only in the center of the crater was there a flat area, and the slopes rose at an angle of 30°.

The astronauts installed an ultraviolet spectrograph on the Moon in the shadow of the lunar ship, first pointing it at the nebula in the constellation Cygnus, and about an hour later they pointed it at Earth to photograph the hydrogen geocorona in ultraviolet rays. Then they lowered the rover from the lunar ship and mounted it into working position. When checking the Lunokhod, a malfunction was discovered in one of the batteries and in the rear wheel steering system.

The astronauts then began installing scientific instruments on the lunar surface at a distance of 100 m from the lunar ship. Duke drilled three wells 3 m deep. In two, probes were installed to measure heat flow to the surface of the Moon. The third well was drilled to obtain soil samples.

Having finished installing the scientific instruments, the astronauts on the lunar rover headed west to the Flag crater, which was 1.6 km from the landing site. There they collected samples and went to the Opuk crater, collected samples and took a panorama of the crater. The astronauts took measurements with a portable magnetometer. From Spook crater they headed to Plum and Buster crater, collected samples and returned to the lunar ship at 2:57 a.m. on April 22.

The first exit to the lunar surface lasted 7 hours 11 minutes. The total length of the trip on the Lunokhod is 4.2 km.

The astronauts discovered that the thinnest top layer of soil, a few millimeters deep, is gray in color; the soil underneath is white. It is believed that the gray color of the upper layer is due to the influence of cosmic rays from the solar wind and meteor dust. Scientists believe that the soil in the Apollo 16 landing area is older than in the landing sites of previous ships.

The astronauts noted the ease of control of the lunar rover, despite the fact that the rear wheels were slipping as if in the snow. When moving against or away from the Sun, it is difficult to navigate the terrain. At some moments they lost their bearings. They returned from the Spuk crater along a track and believe that otherwise they could have gotten lost.

Calculations show that during the astronauts' exit the temperature on the sunlit side was plus 46°C, and in the shade minus 65°C. However, Young complained that he was freezing even while in the Sun and doing active work.

At 6:54 a.m. on April 22, the astronauts' rest period began. They slept for 7 hours without spacesuits in hammocks suspended in the lunar ship.

The second exit to the lunar surface began at 19:34. Having loaded the necessary items onto the lunar rover at 20:20, the astronauts drove across the Kalei Plateau to Mount Kamennaya. They were driving at a speed of 12 km/h, but then the stones blocking the path forced them to reduce the speed to 6 km/h.

The first stop was made at Kamennaya Mountain, 4.1 km from the lunar lander. They covered this distance in 30 minutes. The stop lasted 40 minutes. During this time, they collected samples of lunar soil and photographed the area.

Then they began to climb the lunar rover to Kamennaya Mountain. The steepness of the slope averaged 10°, and sometimes reached 20°. The ascent was difficult, as the soil resembled a plowed field. The lunar rover's trim indicator failed due to shaking. Subsequently, the trim was determined on Earth and reported to the astronauts. Once they reported that they did not know what was going on at the moment, ascent or descent. They were told from Earth that at that moment they were making a relatively steep climb.

The shaking broke off the dust wing from the front wheel and covered the astronauts with dust. Later, the navigation system of the lunar rover almost completely failed and they returned to the lunar ship along the track. There were also problems with the steering system. Despite these problems, when moving up the mountain they reached speeds of up to 8 km/h, and from the mountain up to 11 km/h. And only a large number of stones forced them to reduce their speed to 6 km/h.

They made their second stop, lasting 48 minutes, on the mountainside. The third stop is even higher at Crown Crater, the fourth at the point of maximum ascent at a group of 5 craters called Chinko. From the highest point of the ascent, they saw the lunar ship, photographed the area, collected samples, turned over large stones in search of crystalline samples of volcanic origin. The astronauts returned to the lunar ship on April 23 at 2:57 a.m. The exit lasted 7 hours 23 minutes. The astronauts traveled 11.5 km on the lunar rover and collected 40.5 kg of lunar rock samples.

The third exit to the lunar surface began at 18:33. The navigation system of the lunar rover was corrected and the astronauts went to the edge of the Northern Radial Crater.

They covered a distance of 5 km in 35 minutes. Along the way, we explored and described the area, in particular noting that there were many recently formed craters around.

At the edge of the crater, to which they climbed a slope of 15°, they found many stones. Some were 10-15 m in size. The stones were covered with a layer of dust. At the request of the scientists, they chipped samples from white and black stones. Then they came to the very edge of the crater. The depth of the crater, as measured from Earth, is 400 m, the diameter is 1200 m. They could not see the bottom of the crater and noted that the inner wall was very steep (60°).

A big inconvenience was the sample bags taped to the astronauts' back packs. Due to the high temperature (87° in the Sun), the glue melted and the bags came off.

The astronauts spent about an hour at the Northern Radial Crater. At 21:41 they set off on their return journey and covered the distance to the lunar spacecraft in 28 minutes. In one section, the speed of the lunar rover reached 16 km/h. From Earth they were advised to reduce their speed.

Returning to the Lunar Lander, they positioned the rover 100 m from the landing site so that the rover's television camera could film the launch of the ascent stage from the Moon. Film was removed from an ultraviolet spectrograph. Before returning to the lunar ship, the astronauts spent a long time cleaning their spacesuits from lunar dust with a brush. The third exit ended at 0:03 a.m. on April 24 and lasted 5:40 a.m. The length of the trip on the Lunokhod was 11.4 km.

The takeoff stage was launched from the Moon at 4:26 a.m. on April 24. The take-off stage entered the initial ISL orbit with parameters of 16.5/75 km. 10 minutes after the launch, Young reported that he could see the main block. The docking was made at 6:35 a.m., 18 minutes later than the estimated time, since Mattingly, on instructions from the flight directors, flew around and inspected the take-off stage to determine which parts fell off during the launch from the Moon. Mattingly said the items were pieces of insulation.

The total duration of Young and Duke's stay on the Moon was 71 hours 02 minutes, and they reached the surface three times. The moons totaled 20 hours 14 minutes.

In total, Young and Duke collected 111 kg of rock and lunar soil samples.

On April 24, the astronauts were awakened at 18:13. Within 45 minutes, they were given instructions that they should add to the flight plan. They then moved all the items to be returned to Earth from the ascent stage to the command compartment and secured them. It was difficult to place and secure a stone weighing 18 kg.

At 23:54 the take-off stage was separated. It was supposed, on command from the Earth, to slow down the take-off stage and drop it on the Moon. However, due to repeated changes in the program, the switch on the control panel was not set to the required position to receive commands from the Earth. After separation, the take-off stage began to somersault, it was not possible to stabilize it, it remained in the ISL orbit, will exist for about 250 days, after which, under the influence of lunar gravity, it will fall to the Moon.

0 hours 57 minutes On April 25, Mattingly gave the command to release an automatic satellite weighing 40 kg; it will transmit measurements of the magnetic field and cosmic radiation for a year.

Before turning on the service compartment rocket engine to transfer the main unit to the flight path to Earth, the astronauts were warned that an emergency signal would be given because the backup thrust vector control system was faulty. Astronauts should not pay attention to the emergency signal. A study of this situation on Earth showed that there is no danger for astronauts even if, during operation of the service compartment rocket engine, the main system for controlling the direction of the thrust vector fails and an automatic switchover to the backup system occurs. In this case, the ship will begin to sway and vibrate, but the rocket engine will still provide the required impulse, and the ship will move to a flight path to Earth close to the calculated one.

The bracket on which the mass spectrometer is removed from the service compartment jammed and could not be removed. This disrupts the alignment of the main block and is unacceptable at the moment the rocket engine is turned on to transfer the ship to the flight path towards the Earth, so Mattintly shot off the bracket along with the device.

The service compartment liquid-propellant rocket engine was turned on on the 64th orbit of the main unit's flight along the ISL orbit at 5 hours 15 minutes, when the ship was behind the Moon. The liquid-propellant rocket engine operated normally for 162 seconds, having consumed about 5 tons of fuel, and transferred the main unit to the trajectory of return to Earth.

On April 25 at 17:36 the ship entered the Earth's gravitational field. At 18:00, when it was at a distance of 330,000 km from the Earth, the first correction of the flight trajectory was made using liquid propellant rocket engines of the control system, which worked for 8 seconds.

At 11:15 p.m. on April 25, Mattingly walked into outer space when the spacecraft was about 300,000 km from Earth. Mattingly was connected by a 7.6 m long halyard to the command compartment, through which oxygen and water were supplied to the suit. He carried a cassette with film from a panoramic camera, weighing 32.7 kg, into the command compartment. On his second exit, he brought a cassette with the film of the topographic camera. Mattingly's exit lasted 62 minutes. His heart rate was 130-168 beats, while Young and Duke's were 70-80 beats per minute.

On April 27, the astronauts were awakened at 16:10. The main block was located at a distance of approximately 80,000 km from Earth.

On the last day of the flight, the indicator on the control panel showed a malfunction of the main control and navigation system. Experts on Earth said that despite the warning indicator, astronauts could use the system during a controlled descent into the Earth's atmosphere. One of the astronauts kicked the control panel, the emergency signal went out and did not light up again.

At 19:31, when the main unit was at a distance of 44,000 km from the Earth, the last flight trajectory correction was made.

After separation of the service compartment, the command compartment entered the atmosphere at 22:30. At the same time, its speed was 11,026 m/sec. The splashdown occurred at 22:45 in the Pacific Ocean at a point with coordinates 00°40" S, 156°03" W. at a distance of 1.8 km from the aircraft carrier Ticonderoga.

Apollo 16(English: Apollo 16), tenth manned spacecraft of the program , the fifth landing of men on the moon. The first landing is in a mountainous area, on a plateau not far from the Descartes crater. This was the second one after J-mission (eng. J-mission) with an emphasis on scientific research. Crew commander John Young and lunar module pilot Charles Duke spent almost three days on the Moon - 71 hours. They made three trips on Lunar Rover 2, with a total length of 26.7 kilometers. The three lunar surface walks lasted a total of 20 hours and 14 minutes. 95.8 kilograms of lunar rock samples were collected and delivered to Earth. During this expedition, a speed record for traveling on the Moon in a Lunar Vehicle was set - 18 km/h.

The crew composition was officially announced on March 3, 1971, immediately after the end of the three-week quarantine for the Apollo 14 astronauts who returned to Earth on February 9, and more than a year before the scheduled launch of Apollo 16.

Basic

John Young - commander

Thomas Mattingly - command module pilot

Charles Duke - Lunar Module Pilot

At the time of the flight, Apollo 16 commander John Young was the most experienced US astronaut. For him, this was his fourth space flight and second flight to the Moon. He first flew into space in 1965 as the pilot of the Gemini 3 spacecraft. The second time in 1966 - as commander of Gemini 10. He made his first flight to the Moon in May 1969 as a command module pilot for Apollo 10. In 1970, Young served as backup to James Lovell, Cmdr. .

For Thomas (Ken) Mattingly, this was his first flight into space. He was preparing for the Apollo 13 flight as a command module pilot for the main crew, but three days before launch he was replaced by a backup due to fears that he would contract rubella, which could have been transmitted to him by Charles Duke. The latter was preparing for the Apollo 13 flight as a backup pilot for the lunar module. The Apollo 13 astronauts were unable to land on the Moon due to the accident, and Mattingly did not contract rubella.

For Charles Duke, the flight was also the first. On July 20, 1969, he was a communications operator (English: CapCom - Capsule Communicator) during the historic lunar landing of the Apollo 11 crew of Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin.

Duplicate

Fred Hayes - Commander

Stuart Roosa - command module pilot

Edgar Mitchell - lunar module pilot

All members of the backup crew had experience flying to the Moon. Fred Hayes flew as the lunar module pilot for Apollo 13. Stuart Roosa was the command module pilot for Apollo 14. Edgar Mitchell flew with him as a lunar module pilot and went down in history as the sixth man to walk on the Moon.

Support team

Philip Chapman

Anthony England

Henry Hartsfield, Jr.

Robert Overmyer

The support crew members did not undergo pre-flight training and, accordingly, were not candidates who could apply for a place on the crew. But they had the authority to represent the main and backup crews at various meetings if the latter were busy at that time in training. During flights, they, as a rule, performed the very important functions of communication operators (English CapCom - Capsule Communicator).

Ships' call signs

The command module - "Casper" - is named after the popular cartoon character. This option was suggested by Ken Mattingly because in the TV picture the astronauts on the Moon looked very much like ghosts.

The lunar module is “Orion”, after the name of the constellation. In ancient Greek mythology, a legendary hunter.

In the process of preparing the spacecraft for launch, the need arose several times to replace individual systems and components. In mid-November 1971, it was decided to replace all three main parachutes of the command module due to the fact that in August, during the landing of Apollo 15, one of them did not open, and the ship landed on two parachutes. On December 13, 1971, the Saturn V-Apollo 16 launch vehicle was transported from the vertical assembly building to launch pad 39-A. However, subsequent tests led to the destruction of one of the Teflon chambers of self-igniting propellant for the command module attitude control system engines. Because the tests used helium rather than actual fuel, the damage was not very severe. But the fuel chamber needed to be replaced, and this required removing the command module's thermal shield. At the same time, during tests related to the future Skylab orbital station, significant defects were identified due to which the pyrocords did not work. The exact same pyro cord was installed on Apollo 16 to separate the lunar and command and service modules before returning to Earth. It also needed to be replaced. As a result, for the first time in the entire Apollo program, it was decided to return the launch vehicle from the launch pad to the vertical assembly building, and postpone the launch scheduled for March 17, 1972. Return transportation took place on January 27, 1972. The command and service module was dismantled and after all replacements, it was again installed in its place on top of the rocket. On February 9, Apollo 16 was finally installed on the launch pad. The next launch window after March 17 opened on April 16, then on May 14.

On the day of the Apollo 16 launch, April 16, 1972, the command module pilot from the backup crew, Stuart Roos, was the first to enter the cockpit. His duties included checking and, if necessary, setting every single switch on the main control panel to the desired position. In the instruction cheat sheet, everything he needed to do was outlined in 454 points.

About three hours before the start, members of the main crew took their places. Commander John Young is in the left seat, command module pilot Ken Mattingly is in the center, lunar module pilot Charles Duke is on the right. Apollo 16 launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida on April 16, 1972 at 17:54:00 UTC. After 12 minutes, the ship entered the calculated low-Earth orbit. Then, for almost two orbits, the astronauts checked the main systems. On the night side of the planet, they observed thunderstorms and forest fires in Africa.

2 hours 33 minutes after launch, the third stage engine was turned on. He worked for almost 6 minutes, 341.9 seconds. Apollo 16 switched to its flight path to the Moon. The speed of the ship at that moment was 36,360 km/h. After another 25 minutes, the astronauts began rebuilding the compartments - a maneuver when the command and service module departs from the third stage, at the top of which there is a lunar module, turns automatically 180°, docks with the lunar module and then pulls it out of the third stage. Upon completion of the turn, the command and service module was approximately 15 meters from the lunar module. Unexpectedly, the astronauts saw a rather dense cloud of tiny debris around the third stage and the lunar module. To rendezvous, the service module attitude control system engines were turned on for 4 seconds. But this was not enough. It took two more very short additional activations, less than one second each. During the departure from the third stage and the turn, the astronauts did not hear the operation of the service module attitude control system engines. However, when the distance between the modules was reduced to three meters, the sound of jet streams hitting the skin of the lunar module became distinct. The astronauts saw large flakes and a stream of brown particles flying through the window. This destroyed the silicone-based paint, which was an additional means of thermal insulation of the lunar module in case the ship was launched a day later, and, accordingly, the Sun would be higher above the horizon on the Moon. After docking, traces of peeling paint were visible on the skin of the upper part of the take-off stage of the lunar module. Pieces and small particles of paint surrounded the ship until the moment of undocking in lunar orbit. About an hour after the crew reported a debris problem to Mission Control in Houston, they were instructed to move to the Lunar Module for its first inspection. John Young and Charles Duke opened the transfer tunnel and transferred to Orion. All ship systems were working normally. There were no leaks in the main engine or attitude control engines. A few minutes later, the astronauts returned to the command module. The second inspection of the lunar module was carried out on the second day of the flight. It included cleaning the ship and checking communication systems. The inside of the lunar module was clean, except for a couple of small cogs that floated past Young and Duke and were immediately collected by them.

At the very beginning of the third day of the flight, Young, Mattingly and Duke conducted the first of two planned experiments to observe visual flashes (phosphenes). It lasted 66 minutes. (The same experiment was carried out by the crew of Apollo 15 on a previous flight). During the experiment, Charles Duke wore a special helmet with a special sensitive emulsion applied to the glass near the eyes to directly measure cosmic rays that cause visual flashes. John Young had his eyes covered with a bandage, Ken Mattingly was recording the results. It was initially assumed that he would be the one wearing the helmet during the entire experiment, but, for some unknown reason, he did not see a single flash. Mattingly became the only astronaut since Apollo 11 who did not observe flares. In just 66 minutes, Young and Duke recorded 70 flashes. The commander observed an average of one every 3.6 minutes, and the Lunar Module pilot observed one every 1.3 minutes.

Mission parameters

Weight:

• Launch weight: 2,921,005 kg

  Total mass of the spacecraft: 46,782 kg

  • Weight of the command and service module: 30,354 kg, of which KM - 5840 kg, SM - 24,514 kg

    Weight of the lunar module: (before landing) - 16,666 kg, weight of the take-off stage when taking off from the Moon - 4966 kg

Orbits around the Earth: about two before starting to the Moon, about one when returning

Perigee: 166.7 km

Apogee: 176.0 km

Inclination: 32.542°

Circulation period: 87.85 min

Orbits around the Moon: 64

Relocations: 107.6 km

Aposelenii: 315.4 km

Tilt: 168°

Circulation period: 120 min

Landing site coordinates: 8.97301° S - 15.50019° E or 8° 58" 22.84" S - 15° 30" 0.68" E

Docking - undocking of the command and service module and the lunar module

EVA (extravehicular activities)

Young and Duke - the first VKD

Duration: 7 hours 11 minutes 02 seconds

Young and Duke - second VKD

Duration: 7 hours 23 minutes 09 seconds

Young and Duke - third VKD

Duration: 5 hours 40 minutes 03 seconds

Mattingly (Duke - in the open CM hatch) - EVA on the way to Earth

Duration: 1 hour 23 minutes 42 seconds

Apollo 16(eng. Apollo 16) - the tenth manned spacecraft within the Apollo program, the fifth landing of people on the Moon. The first landing is in a mountainous area, on a plateau not far from the Descartes crater. This was the second J-mission, after Apollo 15, with an emphasis on scientific research. Crew commander John Young and lunar module pilot Charles Duke spent almost three days on the Moon - 71 hours. They made three trips on Lunar Rover 2, with a total length of 26.7 kilometers. The three lunar surface walks lasted a total of 20 hours and 14 minutes. 95.8 kilograms of lunar rock samples were collected and delivered to Earth. During this expedition, a speed record for traveling on the Moon in a Lunar Vehicle was set - 18 km/h.

Crew:

• John Young - commander
• Thomas Mattingly - command module pilot
• Charles Duke - lunar module pilot

From left to right: Mattingly, Young, Duke

On the day of the Apollo 16 launch, April 16, 1972, the command module pilot from the backup crew, Stuart Roos, was the first to enter the cockpit. His duties included checking and, if necessary, setting every single switch on the main control panel to the desired position. In the instruction cheat sheet, everything he needed to do was outlined in 454 points.

About three hours before the start, members of the main crew took their places. Commander John Young is in the left seat, command module pilot Ken Mattingly is in the center, lunar module pilot Charles Duke is on the right. Apollo 16 launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida on April 16, 1972 at 17:54:00 UTC. After 12 minutes, the ship entered the calculated low-Earth orbit. Then, for almost two orbits, the astronauts checked the main systems. On the night side of the planet, they observed thunderstorms and forest fires in Africa.

Launch of Apollo 16

At the very beginning of the third day of the flight, Young, Mattingly and Duke conducted the first of two planned experiments to observe visual flashes (phosphenes). It lasted 66 minutes. (The same experiment was carried out by the crew of Apollo 15 on a previous flight). During the experiment, Charles Duke wore a special helmet with a special sensitive emulsion applied to the glass near the eyes to directly measure cosmic rays that cause visual flashes. John Young had his eyes covered with a bandage, Ken Mattingly was recording the results. It was initially assumed that he would be the one wearing the helmet during the entire experiment, but, for some unknown reason, he did not see a single flash. Mattingly became the only astronaut since Apollo 11 who did not observe flares. In just 66 minutes, Young and Duke recorded 70 flashes. The commander observed an average of one every 3.6 minutes, and the Lunar Module pilot observed one every 1.3 minutes.

By this time, the spacecraft was at a distance of approximately 291 thousand km from Earth. The speed of the device was constantly decreasing, because he has not yet reached the sphere of the predominant influence of the Moon. In the afternoon, John Young and Charlie Duke entered the lunar module to power up and check systems, and to prepare the module for landing. The system functioned as expected. The team donned their spacesuits and rehearsed the sequence of actions for landing day. At the end of the third flight day, at 59 hours 19 minutes 45 seconds of flight time, at a distance of 330,902 km from the Earth and 62,636 km from the Moon, the speed of the ship began to increase due to the predominance of the gravitational field of the Moon.

After waking up on the fourth flight day, the team began preparing for the maneuver, which was supposed to place the device into lunar orbit. At approximately 20,635 km from the Moon, the cover of the Scientific Instrument Module (SIM) was dropped. Approximately 74 hours after the start of the mission, Apollo 16 disappeared behind the Moon, losing direct contact with the control center. The engine of the command and service module was turned on for 6 minutes 15 seconds, thanks to which the device entered a lunar orbit with a perimeter of 108 km and an apopulation of 315.6 km. After entering lunar orbit, Young, Duke, and Mattingly began preparing to enter the descent orbit. The maneuver was carried out successfully, and the orbital displacement decreased to 19.8 km. The rest of the fourth flight day was occupied by observations, preparations for activation of the lunar module, undocking and landing.

Young, Mattingly, and Duke continued preparations to activate and undock the lunar module shortly after awakening. Young and Duke entered the lunar module to activate and test the ship's systems. Despite entering the LM 40 minutes earlier than planned, preparations were completed only 10 minutes early due to numerous delays. Undocking occurred at 96 hours 13 minutes 13 seconds of flight time. Over the course of two orbits, Mattingly prepared the command module to shift into a circular orbit, while Young and Duke prepared the lunar module to descend. During the tests, a malfunction was noticed in the command module's controllable engine backup system. In this case, the command center could order the module crews to abort the landing and re-dock in order to use the lunar module engine to return to Earth. However, after several hours of data analysis, mission control concluded that the malfunction could be corrected, and Young and Duke could continue their descent. As a result, the descent began with a 6-hour delay, due to which Young and Duke began their approach from a higher position than previous missions, from an altitude of about 20.1 km. At an altitude of 4000 m, Young could already fully see the landing site. After turning on the landing engine, the ship took a landing position at an altitude of 2200 m. The lunar module landed 270 meters north and 60 meters west of the planned point 104 hours 29 minutes 35 seconds after launch from Earth, at 2:23:35 UTC on April 21.

Photograph of the lunar surface from the lander shortly after landing

On the fifth day of the flight, after breakfast, Young and Duke began preparing for the first extra-vehicular activity (EVA), or simply landing on the surface. After the astronauts put on and sealed their spacesuits, the lunar module cabin was depressurized. John Young climbed onto the LM's "porch", a small platform above the stairs. Duke handed Young a bag of trash to throw to the surface. Young then lowered a bag to the surface to carry equipment needed on the surface. Young walked down the stairs and became the ninth man to walk on the moon. Having taken the first step, Young expressed his feelings in these words: "Here you are, mysterious and unknown Descartes. Mountain plains. Apollo 16 will change your appearance." Duke soon descended upon him, becoming the tenth and youngest man to land on the moon. At that time he was 36. Having taken the first step, he said: “Fantastic! Oh, this first step on the lunar surface is amazing, Tony!

Young near the US flag

Shortly after waking up on the morning of the sixth flight day, Young and Duke discussed the day's schedule with control. The main purpose of the second day of landing was to visit Stone Mountain. The astronauts had to climb a 20-degree slope to reach an array of five craters known as the Zinco Craters. The rover delivered the astronauts to the craters located 3.8 km from the LM. At an altitude of 152 m from the base of the slope, they were higher relative to the level of the lunar module than all other Apollo missions. The astronauts collected samples, and after 54 minutes on the slope, they went to their next stop - a crater with a diameter of 20 m. There they hoped to find materials that were not contaminated by emissions from a large crater south of the landing site. Next stop was a crater 10m across, where they hoped to sample the Cayley Formation. Skipping one stop to save time, they arrived on the lower side of Stone Mountain. There samples were taken of black and white breccias, as well as smaller stones rich in plagioclase. Two more stops were also made to collect samples and conduct experiments. At the request of the astronauts, the landing was extended by 10 minutes. After returning to the lunar module and briefing the control center, Young and Duke prepared the cabin for bed.

Young near the rover on the slope of Stone Mountain

Duke near the Shadow Stone

The day after the final check was completed, the lunar module was jettisoned. Due to the fact that some switches in the LM were not activated before the reset, it became impossible to remotely start the engine to deorbit the spent module. The LM left orbit and crashed onto the lunar surface about a year after the mission. The next stage was the launch of a mini-satellite from the instrument compartment of the command module. The launch of the engine to place the CM into the orbit required for the satellite was canceled, which is why the latter operated for only about half of its expected lifetime. Less than 5 hours later, on the 65th orbit around the Moon, the main engine was turned on to set a course for Earth. Despite a malfunction that delayed landing several days earlier, the engine operated normally.

At a distance of about 310,000 km from Earth, Mattingly conducted a spacewalk to retrieve film cassettes from the scientific equipment compartment. While in outer space, Mattingly conducted a biological experiment using a Microbial Ecology Evaluation Device (MEED). This experiment was carried out only on Apollo 16. MEED contained 798 cuvettes with microorganisms, 140 neutral density filters, 28 filters in different passbands, 8 recording thermometers, one high-energy charged particle dosimeter, 64 actinometric potassium ferrioxalate cuvettes, 44 cuvettes with photographic film, and 18 cuvettes with thermoluminescent dosimeters. Before ending the day, the team completed various spacecraft maintenance tasks and ate food.

Mattingly in outer space

When the wake-up call was received, the ship was about 83,000 km from Earth and moving at a speed of 2.7 km/s. 3 hours before landing in the Pacific Ocean, the team made the last course correction, changing the speed by 0.43 m/s. Approximately 10 minutes before reentry, the command module separated from the service module. At 265 hours 37 minutes of flight time, at a speed of 11 km/s, Apollo 16 entered the Earth's atmosphere. The temperature of the capsule's thermal insulation lining reached 2200-2480 °C. After successfully releasing the parachutes and less than 14 minutes after re-entry, the command module splashed down in the Pacific Ocean 350 km southwest of Christmas Island. The total mission time was 290 hours 37 minutes 6 seconds. The landing capsule and its crew were recovered and transported by the USS Ticonderoga.

After a thorough analysis by specialists on Earth of the current situation and possible consequences, permission to land was given with a 6-hour delay.

Crew commander John Young and lunar module pilot Charles Duke spent almost three days on the Moon - 71 hours. They made three trips on the Lunar Rover, with a total length of 26.7 kilometers. The three lunar surface walks lasted a total of 20 hours and 14 minutes. 95.8 kilograms of lunar rock samples were collected and delivered to Earth. During this expedition, a speed record for traveling on the Moon in a Lunar Vehicle was set - 18 km/h.

Crew

The crew composition was officially announced on March 3, 1971, immediately after the end of the three-week quarantine for the Apollo 14 astronauts who returned to Earth on February 9, and more than a year before the scheduled launch of Apollo 16.

Basic

• John Young - Commander (4)
• Thomas Mattingly - command module pilot (1)
• Charles Duke - lunar module pilot (1)

At the time of the flight, Apollo 16 commander John Young was the most experienced US astronaut. For him, this was his fourth space flight and second flight to the Moon. He first flew into space in 1965 as the pilot of the Gemini 3 spacecraft. The second time in 1966 - as commander of Gemini 10. He made his first flight to the Moon in May 1969 as a command module pilot for Apollo 10. Young was a backup to James Lovell, commander of Apollo 13.

For Thomas (Ken) Mattingly, this was his first flight into space. He was preparing for the Apollo 13 flight as a command module pilot for the main crew, but three days before launch he was replaced by a backup due to fears that he would contract rubella, which could have been transmitted to him by Charles Duke. The latter was preparing for the Apollo 13 flight as a backup pilot for the lunar module. The Apollo 13 astronauts were unable to land on the Moon due to the accident, and Mattingly did not contract rubella. Ironically, Mattingly and Duke went on their first flight together.

For Charles Duke, the flight was also the first. On July 20, 1969, he was a telecom operator. ) during the historic lunar landing of the Apollo 11 crew of Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin.

Duplicate

• Fred Hayes - Commander
• Stuart Roosa - command module pilot
• Edgar Mitchell - lunar module pilot

All members of the backup crew had experience flying to the Moon. Fred Hayes flew as the lunar module pilot for Apollo 13. Stuart Roosa was the command module pilot for Apollo 14. Edgar Mitchell flew with him as a lunar module pilot and went down in history as the sixth man to walk on the Moon.

Support team

• Philip Chapman
• Anthony England
• Robert Overmyer

The support crew members did not undergo pre-flight training and, accordingly, were not candidates who could apply for a place on the crew. But they had the authority to represent the main and backup crews at various meetings if the latter were busy at that time in training. During flights, they usually performed the very important functions of telecom operators. CapCom - Capsule Communicator).

Ships' call signs

Landing area

The Orion lunar module of Apollo 16 for the first time landed not in the lunar sea, but in a high mountain region, on the Cayley Plateau. Cayley Plains), approximately 550 km southeast of the center of the lunar disk, north of the ancient crater Descartes (English) Russian

, named after the 17th century French mathematician, philosopher, physicist and physiologist René Descartes. This area lies 7800-8050 m above the surface of a sphere with a radius equal to the equatorial radius of the Moon (1738 km), and 2250 m above the level of the Apollo 11 landing area in the Sea of ​​Tranquility. Landing site coordinates: 8.97301° S. 15.49812°E .	Landing sites of the Apollo spacecraft (marked with green triangles) and the Luna spacecraft (red) and Surveyor (yellow) on the map of the visible hemisphere of the Moon. Apollo 16 - southeast of center	The Apollo 16 landing area (marked with a white arrow), as it looks through earthly telescopes. Below, slightly to the right of center, are the craters Cyril and Theophilus (covering Cyril a little)	The landing area is larger. Closer to the lower left corner is the Southern Ray Crater. Two closely spaced craters directly north of the landing site are the Kiva and Northern Luchevoy craters.

Initially, two were considered as potential landing sites for Apollo 16: Alphonse Crater and the Descartes Crater area west of Mare Nectar. Both areas were of interest to scientists from the point of view of discovering lunar rocks of volcanic origin. However, some geologists have suggested that the Alphonse crater is contaminated by emissions from the meteorite impact that formed the Mare Mons. There were two geological formations of interest in the Descartes Crater area: the Descartes Formation and the Cayley Formation. Photographs obtained with Earth-based telescopes and taken in lunar orbit have given scientists reason to believe that both of these formations are of volcanic origin, although they were formed by a more viscous magma than the lava that fills the lunar seas. (The results of the Apollo 16 expedition will show that these ideas were erroneous). It was also believed that the age of the Cayley Formation was comparable to the age of the meteorite impact that formed the Mare Mons. Both geological formations in the Descartes region covered 11% of the area of ​​the visible side of the Moon, making their study important in terms of understanding the formation of the Moon. Finally, the Descartes crater area was significantly removed from the landing sites of all previous Apollo missions. This had advantages in terms of expanding the network of geophysical scientific instruments left by astronauts on the Moon. In June 1971, the final choice was made in favor of Descartes. Based on photographs taken by the Apollo 14 astronauts, it was deemed safe for landing. The specific landing site was chosen between two young impact craters, North Ray Crater. North Ray Crater, about 1000 m in diameter) and the Southern Ray Crater (eng. South Ray Crater, 680 m in diameter). They were natural boreholes drilled into the regolith down to the underlying rock. Alphonse Crater became the main potential landing site for Apollo 17 for a time, but was ultimately abandoned altogether.

Postponement of the start

In the process of preparing the spacecraft for launch, the need arose several times to replace individual systems and components. In mid-November 1971, it was decided to replace all three main parachutes of the command module due to the fact that in August, during the landing of Apollo 15, one of them did not open, and the ship landed on two parachutes. On December 13, 1971, the Saturn V-Apollo 16 launch vehicle package was transported from the Vertical Assembly Building to Launch Pad 39-A. However, subsequent tests led to the destruction of one of the Teflon chambers of self-igniting propellant for the command module attitude control system engines. Because the tests used helium rather than actual fuel, the damage was not very severe. But the fuel chamber needed to be replaced, and this required removing the command module's thermal shield. At the same time, during tests related to the future Skylab orbital station, significant defects were identified due to which the pyrocords did not work. The exact same pyro cord was installed on Apollo 16 to separate the lunar and command and service modules before returning to Earth. It also needed to be replaced. As a result, for the first time in the entire Apollo program, it was decided to return the launch vehicle from the launch pad to the vertical assembly building, and postpone the launch, scheduled for March 17, 1972. Return transportation took place on January 27, 1972. The command and service module was dismantled and after all replacements, it was again installed in its place on top of the rocket. On February 9, Apollo 16 was finally installed on the launch pad. The next launch window after March 17 opened on April 16, then on May 14.

Launch and flight to the Moon

On the day of the Apollo 16 launch, April 16, 1972, the command module pilot from the backup crew, Stuart Roos, was the first to climb into the cockpit. His duties included checking and, if necessary, setting every single switch on the main control panel to the desired position. In the instruction cheat sheet, everything he needed to do was outlined in 454 points.

About three hours before the start, members of the main crew took their places. Commander John Young is in the left seat, command module pilot Ken Mattingly is in the center, lunar module pilot Charles Duke is on the right. Apollo 16 launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida on April 16, 1972 at 17:54:00 UTC. After 11 minutes 40 seconds, the ship entered the calculated low-Earth orbit at an altitude of 162.7 km by 169 km. Then, for almost two orbits, the astronauts checked the main systems. On the night side of the planet, they observed thunderstorms and forest fires in Africa.

2 hours 33 minutes after launch, the third stage engine was turned on. He worked for almost 6 minutes, 341.9 seconds. Apollo 16 switched to its flight path to the Moon. The speed of the ship at this moment was 36,360 km/h. After another 25 minutes, the astronauts began rebuilding the compartments - a maneuver when the command and service module departs from the third stage, at the top of which there is a lunar module, turns automatically 180°, docks with the lunar module and then pulls it out of the third stage. Upon completion of the turn, the command and service module was approximately 15 meters from the lunar module. Unexpectedly, the astronauts saw a rather dense cloud of tiny debris around the third stage and the lunar module. To rendezvous, the service module attitude control system engines were turned on for 4 seconds. But this was not enough. It took two more very short additional activations, less than one second each.

Launch of Apollo 16	View of the Earth from orbit before Apollo 16 transitioned to the flight path to the Moon	A photograph of the Earth taken during the Apollo 16 flight to the Moon. The western hemisphere is visible. Most of the US is cloud free

During the departure from the third stage and the turn, the astronauts did not hear the operation of the service module attitude control system engines. However, when the distance between the modules was reduced to three meters, the sound of jet streams hitting the skin of the lunar module became distinct. The astronauts saw large flakes and a stream of brown particles flying through the window. This destroyed the silicone-based paint, which was an additional means of thermal insulation of the lunar module in case the ship was launched a day later, and, accordingly, the Sun would be higher above the horizon on the Moon. After docking, traces of peeling paint were visible on the skin of the upper part of the take-off stage of the lunar module. Pieces and small particles of paint surrounded the ship until the moment of undocking in lunar orbit.

On the second day of the flight, after the crew had risen, Apollo 16 was at a distance of about 182,000 km from Earth. The astronauts conducted an experiment on polystyrene electrophoresis. Its goal was to evaluate the possibility of producing highly purified vaccines and drugs in the future on long-term orbital stations. Then, by turning on the main engine for 2 seconds, the flight path was corrected. As a result, the ship's speed increased by 3.84 m/s. That same day, Young and Duke returned to the lunar module to clean the ship and check communications systems. The inside of Orion was clean, except for a couple of small screws that floated past the astronauts and were immediately collected by them.

At the beginning of the third day of the flight, Apollo 16 was at a distance of 291,000 km from Earth. Shortly after the ascent, Young, Mattingly, and Duke conducted the first of two planned experiments to observe visual flares (phosphenes). It lasted 66 minutes. (The same experiment was carried out by the crew of Apollo 15 on a previous flight). During the experiment, Charles Duke wore a special helmet with a special sensitive emulsion applied to the glass near the eyes to directly measure cosmic rays that cause visual flashes. John Young had his eyes covered with a bandage, Ken Mattingly was recording the results. It was initially assumed that he would be the one wearing the helmet during the entire experiment, but, for some unknown reason, he did not see a single flash. Mattingly became the only astronaut since Apollo 11 who did not observe flares. In just 66 minutes, Young and Duke recorded 70 flashes. The commander observed an average of one every 3.6 minutes, and the Lunar Module pilot observed one every 1.3 minutes.

Later, John Young and Charlie Duke went into the lunar module for the third time, connected the power supply system and checked all the systems. Everything was functioning fine. The astronauts then returned to the command module, donned spacesuits without helmets or gloves, and moved back to Orion, rehearsing their sequence of actions on landing day. Duke reported to Houston that he had difficulty, and then with the help of Young, managing to zip up his spacesuit. The sensations, he said, were as if the spacesuit had become tighter, and he himself had grown by several centimeters. Duke asked permission to slightly loosen the lacing on the suit's legs, increasing their length. They promised to answer this the next day. At the very end of this working day, at 59 hours 19 minutes 45 seconds of flight time, Apollo 16 crossed an imaginary line beyond which the gravitational influence of the Moon on it became greater than that of the Earth. At this moment, the ship was at a distance of 330,902 km from the Earth, 62,636 km remained to the Moon. Its speed, which by this time had dropped to 880 m/s, began to increase again. At the Control Center in Houston, all flight data were converted to values ​​relative to the Moon, and not the Earth, as was the case before.

Entering lunar orbit and waiting for landing

At the beginning of the fourth day of the flight, the crew began preparing to turn on the main engine, which was supposed to launch the ship into lunar orbit. At a distance of 20,635 km from the Moon, a lid-door was dropped, covering the module of scientific instruments. Scientific Instrument Module, SIM ) . At the 75th hour of the flight, Apollo 16 disappeared behind the western edge of the lunar disk, and contact with the ship was temporarily lost. At 74 hours 28 minutes 27 seconds of flight time over the far side of the Moon, the main engine of the command and service module was turned on. He worked for 6 minutes 15.1 seconds. The ship's speed decreased by 854.6 m/s, and it entered an elliptical lunar orbit with an aposelation of 315.6 km and a periselation of 108 km. Shortly thereafter, the third stage (S-IVB) of Apollo 16 crashed into the Moon. The astronauts did not see this, the area of ​​the fall was beyond the horizon from them, but the impact was recorded by seismographs left on the Moon by previous expeditions. At the Mission Control Center in Houston, it was announced that John Young became the first person to fly in lunar orbit twice (before him, the first person to fly to the Moon twice [on Apollo 8 and Apollo 13] was James Lovell, but Apollo 13 did not go into orbit due to the accident, but only circled the Moon).

At the end of the second orbit, also over the far side of the Moon, the astronauts performed a maneuver to change the orbital parameters. By turning on the main engine for 24.2 seconds, the ship was transferred to a descent orbit with an apopulation of 109 km and a perimeter of 19.8 km. The rest of the fourth flight day was occupied by observations, preparations for lunar module activation, undocking and landing. The astronauts continued preparations for activation and undocking of the lunar module shortly after waking up. Young and Duke entered the lunar module to activate and test the ship's systems. Despite entering the LM 40 minutes earlier than planned, preparations were completed only 10 minutes early due to numerous delays. Undocking occurred at 96 hours 13 minutes 13 seconds of flight time. Over the course of two orbits, Mattingly prepared the command module to shift into a circular orbit, while Young and Duke prepared the lunar module to descend. During the tests, a malfunction was noticed in the command module's controllable engine backup system. In this case, the command center could order the module crews to abort the landing and re-dock in order to use the lunar module engine to return to Earth. However, after several hours of data analysis, mission control concluded that the malfunction could be corrected, and Young and Duke could continue their descent. As a result, the descent began with a delay of 6 hours, due to which Young and Duke began their approach to land from a higher position than previous missions, from an altitude of about 20 km. At an altitude of 4000 m, Young could already fully see the landing site. The lunar module landed 270 meters north and 60 meters west of the planned point 104 hours 29 minutes 35 seconds after launch from Earth, at 2:23:35 UTC on April 21. After landing, some module systems were turned off to save battery power. After completing the initial setup, the astronauts prepared the module for a three-day stay on the surface, removed their spacesuits and conducted a geological survey of the landing site, after which they began their first lunar meal. After eating, they prepared the cabin for their first sleep on the surface. The landing delay required significant revisions to the mission schedule. Apollo 16 was scheduled to spend one less day in lunar orbit after completing surface exploration. To improve the astronauts' sleep patterns, it was decided to shorten the third surface exit from seven hours to five.

Working on the Moon

On the fifth day of the flight, after breakfast, Young and Duke began preparations for the first landing on the surface. After the astronauts put on and sealed their spacesuits, the lunar module cabin was depressurized. John Young climbed onto the landing above the stairs. Duke handed Young a bag of trash to throw to the surface. Young then lowered a bag to the surface to carry equipment needed on the surface. Young walked down the stairs and became the ninth man to walk on the moon. Having taken the first step, Young expressed his feelings in these words: “Here you are, mysterious and unknown Descartes. Mountain plains. Apollo 16 will change your appearance." Duke soon descended upon him, becoming the tenth and youngest man to land on the moon. At that time he was 36. Having taken the first step, he said: “Fantastic! Oh, this first step on the lunar surface is amazing, Tony!” The first task was to unload the Lunar Rover and other equipment from the module. The task was completed without incident, but the first drive revealed that the rear steering was not functioning. Young reported this to the control center, after which he began installing a television camera and a US flag. The next task was to deploy a set of equipment for experiments (Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Package, ALSEP). When parking the rover with a camera installed to film the deployment process, the steering suddenly started working on its own. During the deployment of the heat flow experiment that burned the Apollo 13 lunar module and failed during the Apollo 15 mission, a cable inadvertently became wrapped around Young's leg. After deploying the equipment, Young and Duke collected samples in the vicinity of the module. Approximately four hours after the start of the landing, the astronauts set off on the rover to the first geological stop - the 36-meter diameter Plum crater, located on the ring of the Flag crater (290 meters in diameter). There, 1.4 km from the lunar module, Young and Duke collected samples of rocks in the vicinity of Flag Crater, which scientists believe penetrated through the upper regolith into the underlying formation. At this location, at the request of the control center, Young picked up the largest rock returned by the Apollo mission, a breccia named Big Mully in honor of the mission's research geologist, Bill Muelberger. The next stop was Buster Crater, 1.6 km from LM. Here Duke took photographs of the surrounding area, while Young carried out the deployment of an experiment to study the magnetic field. At this stage, scientists began to reconsider their hypothesis that Descartes was a consequence of previous volcanic activity. After stopping, Young gave a demonstration ride of the rover, which Duke captured with a 16mm film camera. After completing some more ALSEP missions, Young and Duke returned to the LM to complete the landing. They entered the lunar module 7 hours 6 minutes 56 seconds after the start of the landing. They pressurized and pumped the cabin, held a half-hour briefing with scientists in the control center, and prepared the cabin for sleep.

Shortly after waking up on the morning of the sixth flight day, Young and Duke discussed the day's schedule with control. The main purpose of the second day of landing was to visit Stone Mountain. The astronauts had to climb a 20-degree slope to reach a five-crater array known as the Zinco Craters. The rover delivered the astronauts to the craters located 3.8 km from the LM. At an altitude of 152 m from the base of the slope, they were higher relative to the level of the lunar module than all other Apollo missions. The astronauts collected samples, and after 54 minutes on the slope, they went to their next stop - a crater with a diameter of 20 m. There they hoped to find materials that were not contaminated by emissions from a large crater south of the landing site. Next stop was a crater 10m across, where they hoped to sample the Cayley Formation. Skipping one stop to save time, they arrived on the lower side of Stone Mountain. There samples were taken of black and white breccias, as well as smaller stones rich in plagioclase. Two more stops were also made to collect samples and conduct experiments. At the request of the astronauts, the landing was extended by 10 minutes. After returning to the lunar module and briefing with the control center, Young and Duke prepared the cabin for bed. The seventh day of the flight was the last day on the lunar surface. After the third surface exit, the astronauts were to return to orbit and join Mattingly. The objective of the landing was to inspect the Northern Ray crater - the largest of the craters visited by astronauts of the Apollo missions. The crater was located 4.4 km from the lunar module, was 1 km across and 230 m deep. The area was photographed and samples were taken, which finally dispelled the hypothesis about the volcanic origin of the Descartes crater. After spending 1 hour 22 minutes at the stop, the astronauts went to a large field of cobblestones about 0.5 km from Northern Ray. Along the way, they set a lunar speed record, moving down the slope at a speed of approximately 17.1 km/h. They arrived at a huge stone 3 meters high, which they called "Shadow Rock". Here they took samples of the darkened soil. 3 hours 6 minutes after the start of the exit, the astronauts returned to the LM, completed several experiments and unloaded the rover. Not far from the LM, Duke placed a photograph of his family and a US Air Force commemorative medallion. Young took the rover 90 meters east of the lunar module so his television camera could watch Apollo 16 lift off from the Moon. The total duration of the landing was 5 hours 40 minutes. The astronauts sealed and inflated the cabin, after which preparations for takeoff began.

Takeoff from the Moon and docking

Eight minutes before departure, communications operator James Irwin informed Young and Duke that they were ready to take off. Two minutes before launch, they activated the main control switch and the stage abort button, and then waited for the takeoff engine to ignite. After ignition, the squibs separated the landing engine from the takeoff engine, and special guillotines cut off the cables connecting the blocks. Six minutes after takeoff, the module entered lunar orbit at a speed of about 1.4 km/s. The lunar module successfully docked with the command module, on which Mattingly carried out various observations for 3 days. Before opening the hatches, Young and Duke cleared the cabin to minimize the entry of lunar dust into the command module, after which the team transferred the collected samples of lunar rock. After all the operations were completed, it was time for sleep.

Working in lunar orbit

The day after the final check was completed, the lunar module was jettisoned. Due to the fact that some switches in the LM were not activated before the reset, it became impossible to remotely start the engine to deorbit the spent module. The LM fell out of orbit and crashed onto the lunar surface about a year after the end of the mission. The next stage was the launch of a mini-satellite from the instrument compartment of the command module. The launch of the engine to place the CM into the orbit required for the satellite was canceled, which is why the latter operated for only about half of its expected lifetime. Less than 5 hours later, on the 65th orbit around the Moon, the main engine was turned on, the ship switched to a flight path towards Earth. Despite a malfunction that delayed landing several days earlier, the engine operated normally.

Flight to Earth and return

At a distance of about 310,000 km from Earth, Mattingly conducted a spacewalk to retrieve film cassettes from the scientific equipment compartment. While in outer space, Mattingly conducted a biological experiment using a Microbial Ecology Evaluation Device (MEED). This experiment was carried out only on Apollo 16. MEED contained 798 cuvettes with microorganisms, 140 neutral density filters, 28 filters in different passbands, 8 recording thermometers, one high-energy charged particle dosimeter, 64 actinometric potassium ferrioxalate cuvettes, 44 cuvettes with photographic film, and 18 cuvettes with thermoluminescent dosimeters. Before ending the day, the crew completed various spacecraft maintenance tasks and ate food. The penultimate day of the flight was primarily devoted to experiments, except for a 20-minute press conference in the afternoon. During the press conference, the astronauts answered questions regarding some of the technical and non-technical aspects of the mission, prepared and prioritized by journalists observing the flight at the Manned Flight Center in Houston. The astronauts also prepared the ship for the upcoming re-entry the next day. At the end of the Apollo 16 team's last full day in space, the vehicle was about 143,000 km from Earth and approaching it at a speed of about 2.1 km/s.

When the wake-up call was received, the ship was about 83,000 km from Earth and moving at a speed of 2.7 km/s. 3 hours before landing in the Pacific Ocean, the team made the last course correction, changing the speed by 0.43 m/s. Approximately 10 minutes before reentry, the command module separated from the service module. At 265 hours 37 minutes of flight time, at a speed of 11 km/s, Apollo 16 entered the Earth's atmosphere. The temperature of the capsule's thermal insulation lining reached 2200-2480 °C. After successfully releasing the parachutes and less than 14 minutes after re-entry, the command module splashed down in the Pacific Ocean 350 km southwest of Christmas Island. The total mission time was 290 hours 37 minutes 6 seconds. The landing capsule and its crew were recovered and transported by the USS Ticonderoga.

Mission parameters

• Weight:
  • Launch weight: 2,921,005 kg
  • Total mass of the spacecraft: 46,782 kg
    • Weight of the command and service module: 30,354 kg, of which KM - 5840 kg, SM - 24,514 kg
    • Weight of the lunar module: (before landing) - 16,666 kg, weight of the take-off stage when taking off from the Moon - 4966 kg

• Revolutions around the Earth: about two before launch to the Moon, about one upon return
• Perigee: 166.7 km
• Apogee: 176.0 km
• Inclination: 32.542°
• Circulation period: 87.85 min

• Orbits around the Moon: 64
• Relocations: 107.6 km
• Aposeleny: 315.4 km
• Inclination: 168°
• Circulation period: 120 min

• Landing location coordinates: 8.97301° S - 15.50019° E or 8° 58" 22.84" S - 15° 30" 0.68" E

Docking - undocking of the command and service module and the lunar module

• Undocking: April 20, 1972 - 18:07:31 UTC
• Docking: April 24, 1972 - 03:35:18 UTC

EVA (extravehicular activities)

• Young and Duke - first VKD
• Beginning of the first EVA: April 21, 1972, 16:47:28 UTC
• End of the first EVA: April 21, 1972, 23:58:40 UTC
• Duration: 7 hours 11 minutes 02 seconds

• Young and Duke - second EVA
• Beginning of the second EVA: April 22, 1972, 16:33:35 UTC
• End of the second EVA: April 22, 1972, 23:56:44 UTC
• Duration: 7 hours 23 minutes 09 seconds

• Young and Duke - third EVA
• Beginning of the third EVA: April 23, 1972, 15:25:28 UTC
• End of the third EVA: April 23, 1972, 21:05:31 UTC
• Duration: 5 hours 40 minutes 03 seconds

• Mattingly (Duke- in the open hatch of the KM) - EVA on the way to Earth
• Start: April 25, 1972, 20:33:46 UTC
• Ending: April 25, 1972, 21:57:28 UTC
• Duration: 1 hour 23 minutes 42 seconds

see also

• List of spacecraft with X-ray and gamma detectors on board

Notes

1. Woods, David and Brandt, Tim. The Apollo 16 Flight Journal. Day One Part One: Launch and Reaching Earth Orbit. Apollo Flight Journal. NASA (2003-2009). Archived
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3. Gemini-X (10) (English) . Project Gemini. Manned Missions. NASA (2000). Archived
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5. Orloff, Richard W. Apollo 13. The Seventh Mission: The Third Lunar Landing Attempt (English). Apollo By The Numbers: A Statistical Reference. NASA (SP-2000-4029) (2000). Archived from the original on March 2, 2012.
6. Orloff, Richard W. Apollo 11. The Fifth Mission: The First Lunar Landing (English). Apollo By The Numbers: A Statistical Reference. NASA (SP-2000-4029) (2000). Archived from the original on February 4, 2012.
7. Orloff, Richard W. Apollo 14. The Eighth Mission: The Third Lunar Landing (English). Apollo By The Numbers: A Statistical Reference. NASA (SP-2000-4029) (2000). Archived from the original on March 2, 2012.
8. Peebles, Curtis Names of US Manned Spacecraft (English). Spaceflight, Vol. 20(02/02/1978). Archived from the original on February 4, 2012.
9. Compton, William David(English) - P. 244. - NASA-SP-4214 (1989). Archived
10. I. I. Shuneyko Manned flights to the Moon, design and characteristics of the Saturn V Apollo, Chapter IV, Apollo 16 (Russian). Rocket Science Volume 3. All-Union Institute of Scientific and Technical Information (1973). Archived from the original on December 2, 2012. Retrieved November 23, 2012.
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14. Apollo 16 Press Kit (English) . - Washington, D.C.: NASA, 1972. - P. 6.
15. Apollo 16 Press Kit (English) . - Washington, D.C.: NASA, 1972. - P. 9.
16. Woods, David; Brandt, Tim Day One Part Three: Second Earth Orbit and Translunar Injection (English). The Apollo 16 Flight Journal. NASA (2006). Archived from the original on December 2, 2012. Retrieved November 26, 2012.
17. Woods, David; Brandt, Tim Day One Part Four: (English). The Apollo 16 Flight Journal. NASA (2006). Archived
18. Transposition, Docking and Ejection (English). Apollo 16 Mission Report - P. 9-5. - NASA (August 1972). Archived from the original on December 2, 2012. Retrieved November 27, 2012.
19. Transposition, Docking and Ejection (English). Apollo 16 Mission Report - P. 9-6. - NASA (August 1972). Archived from the original on December 2, 2012. Retrieved November 27, 2012.
20. Transposition, Docking and Ejection (English). Apollo 16 Mission Report - P. 9-8. - NASA (August 1972). Archived from the original on December 2, 2012. Retrieved November 27, 2012.
21. Woods, David; Brandt, Tim Day 1 Part 5: Settling into Translunar Coast (English). The Apollo 16 Flight Journal. NASA (2006). Archived from the original on December 2, 2012. Retrieved November 28, 2012.
22. Transposition, Docking and Ejection (English). Apollo 16 Mission Report - P. 9-9. - NASA (August 1972). Archived from the original on December 2, 2012. Retrieved November 27, 2012.
23. Woods, David; Brandt, Tim Day Two Part 1: Electrophoresis Experiment and Midcourse Correction Burn (English). The Apollo 16 Flight Journal. NASA (2006). Archived from the original on December 2, 2012. Retrieved November 29, 2012.
24. Apollo 16 Press Kit (English) . - Washington, D.C.: NASA, 1972. - pp. 103-104.
25. Woods, David; Brandt, Tim Day Three Part One: ALFMED Experiment (English). The Apollo 16 Flight Journal. NASA (2006). Archived
26. Visual Light Flash Phenomenon (English) . Apollo 16 Mission Report - P. 5-18. - NASA (August 1972). Archived from the original on December 2, 2012. Retrieved November 30, 2012.
27. Woods, David; Brandt, Tim Day Three Part Two: Lunar Module Activation and Checkout (English). The Apollo 16 Flight Journal. NASA (2006).