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  Apollo EVA boots, gloves left on moon

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Author Topic:   Apollo EVA boots, gloves left on moon
Dirk
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Posts: 933
From: Belgium
Registered: Jul 2003

posted 03-22-2007 03:01 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Dirk   Click Here to Email Dirk     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
The Apollo 11 EVA boots and gloves should have been left on the moon, but on photos of Neil Armstrong's moon suit back on Earth you can see the EVA gloves.

Were the EVA boots and gloves of the other moon landings left on the moon?

Philip
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Posts: 5952
From: Brussels, Belgium
Registered: Jan 2001

posted 03-23-2007 12:48 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Philip   Click Here to Email Philip     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Left on the moon as in left in the lunar module ascent stage, which have fallen back onto the lunar surface?

thump
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Posts: 575
From: washington dc usa
Registered: May 2004

posted 03-23-2007 01:04 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for thump   Click Here to Email thump     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
They would have been actually left on the surface, so as to reduce the amount of weight in the ascent stage for liftoff.

Robert Pearlman
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Posts: 42981
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 03-23-2007 01:43 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Referencing the Apollo 17 Apollo Lunar Surface Journal, EV glove jettison was not included on the checklist, thus I see no reason why it would have been on earlier missions, though that is just conjecture on my part. The Apollo 17 crew did jettison their spare EV gloves.

The Apollo 17 checklists did call for EV boot jettison, which they did not do, per the ALSJ:

As mentioned at 171:39:37, they each had two pairs of EVA gloves - a fact confirmed when, at the end of the second EVA, Gene asked Bob Parker if "those gloves that you've got packed in the back have got something in them." At 171:54:54, they departed from the checklist and jettisoned two pairs of gloves rather than two pairs of boots. As suggested by the dialog from here to 174:56:09, they jettisoned the unused EVA gloves - which they must have gotten out of storage, another action not in the checklist. Gene says that they had decided to bring the boots home and, perhaps, they decided to jettison a pair of gloves instead. Each of them also has a pair of Intravehicular (IV) gloves.
This would be consistent with my understanding that the only lunar surface used EV boots to be returned were on Apollo 17 (Schmitt's EV boot can be seen here).

Rick Mulheirn
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Posts: 4167
From: England
Registered: Feb 2001

posted 03-23-2007 04:43 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Rick Mulheirn   Click Here to Email Rick Mulheirn     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I think it safe to assume Apollos 15 through 17 brought their EV gloves home; they would have worn them for the deep space EVA carried out by their respective command module pilots during the SIM bay film recovery procedure. I have held Charlie Duke's EV gloves during a visit to the Smithsonian.

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