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[i]Back inside, we did some last-minute cleaning and tossed a bunch of very expensive gear out of the spacecraft. Cameras, tools, backpacks and other now useless material were flung to the surface. We had to shed weight if we were going to get off the moon safely. Mission planners had worked out the exact balance needed, and every container of rocks we bought aboard was weighed on a handheld fish scale, calibrated for one-sixth gravity before being stored. We had just enough fuel to get us into orbit, with almost no margin for error, so the overall weight of the spacecraft, its passengers and cargo of rocks was critical. We threw out nearly everything that wasn't nailed down.[/i]
[i]Since we were taking 250 pounds of moon rocks and soil back with us, we had to dump everything that we wouldn't need. We carried a kind of fish scale that we used to weigh everything we brought into the spacecraft.[/i]
[i]...we weighed our rocks and soil samples. The total came to 44 pounds... we were allowed to bring back 215 pounds, so we had plenty more collecting to do.[/i]
[i]First we weighed our rock and soil samples, because we needed an exact weight at lift-off for our computer to fine tune our ascent trajectory and burn time. After weighing everything, Houston said we had collected a total of 245 pounds during our three day stay. When more accurate measurements were taken later on the earth, it turned out there were actually 213 pounds. They had a little concern about our weight and for a while we thought we might have to jettison some of our rocks, but Houston decided to go with all we had.[/i]
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