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Author Topic:   Apollo 14 flown safety line presentation
Blaberus
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Posts: 18
From: England
Registered: Nov 2006

posted 11-13-2006 06:32 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Blaberus     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Several times I have seen for sale 4x2 inch NASA presentation cards featuring a 1-inch piece of 'safety line' apparently flown to the lunar surface aboard the lunar module "Antares". The card states:
Presented in appreciation of your role in Apollo 14's success. This small portion of the lunar surface safety line was carried by the astronauts on the Moon's surface February 5-6, 1971.
Does anyone know anything about the history of these cards (e.g. how many were produced), and also what exactly the safety line was used for?

spaced out
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Posts: 3110
From: Paris, France
Registered: Aug 2003

posted 11-14-2006 05:37 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for spaced out   Click Here to Email spaced out     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
The safety line was about 100' long and was to be used in case one astronaut needed to be helped by the other to climb a slope - e.g. to get back up a crater wall.

Given the length of the line there could easily be 1,000 of these cards.

They generally sell for about $400-$500 a piece.

Blaberus
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Posts: 18
From: England
Registered: Nov 2006

posted 11-14-2006 03:32 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Blaberus     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
The cards state that the safety line was "carried by the astronauts on the moon's surface" and I wonder if it was being carried by them when they attempted to climb to the rim of Cone Crater?

spaced out
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Posts: 3110
From: Paris, France
Registered: Aug 2003

posted 11-14-2006 04:53 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for spaced out   Click Here to Email spaced out     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
The line was never used as far as I know, but it was carried on the surface, presumably stowed in a pocket somewhere.

Blaberus
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Posts: 18
From: England
Registered: Nov 2006

posted 12-13-2006 07:14 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Blaberus     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I have now done some research on this item and I thought I would share some of the fascinating things I have learned about it with fellow collectors.
Brief history of the Apollo 14 Lunar Safety Line
by George Beccaloni

A safety line or tether for use on the lunar surface was first carried on Apollo 12. It was provided because "concern existed before the mission about operating on the inner slope of the crater (Surveyor crater) where Surveyor 3 had landed. A 10 meter tether was provided in case stability was questionable."

The Apollo 12 tether was actually 9.1 meters (30 feet) long and it weighed 0.7 kg. Bean, in a 1969 Technical Debrief recommended that a 30 meter (100 foot) tether should be supplied to future missions. He said:

It wasn't very difficult, I didn't think, to operate on that slope. It wasn't particularly slippery... But I do think that having a strap or tether that you could use — in the event that you got down into too steep a slope, to help you get back out — is a good idea. It probably ought to be a standard piece of equipment on the following missions.

As Pete brought out earlier, it would have been nice to go down to the bottom of that slope (at Bench Crater) to the material that looked melted. Our strap was only about 10 meters long, and I would recommend that, as a standard piece of equipment, that you put a strap about 30 meters long in a saddle bag or somewhere in your equipment. That way, you could help a man down the side of a slope. He could just carry that strap down to the bottom and pick up any rocks he wanted to get, and then you could help him back up.

I don't think you would have any trouble; you would have to use discretion in case you got halfway down and found out the sides were a little more slippery than you thought.

Apollo 13, 14 and 15 carried one 30 meter tether each, whereas the later Apollo missions didn't carry tethers. None of the tethers were ever used and probably all except the one carried by Apollo 14 were left behind on the moon (obviously except for the Apollo 13 one).

The Apollo 14 tether

The Apollo 14 Stowage List details one "Safety Line, Lunar Surface (100 ft)" (Item Number B 1041, Part Number SEB33100290-302) as being stored separately in a bag in the MESA (Modular Equipment Stowage Assembly) on the side of the LM.

On the lunar surface on February 5th 1971, the astronauts (Shepard and Mitchell) transferred the tether from the MESA to the MET (Modularized Equipment Transporter) along with other equipment. The MET was used to transport equipment and rock samples, and it was pulled (and carried!) by the astronauts up to the rim of Cone Crater and back.

When preparing to leave the moon on February 6th, capcom asked Mitchell to put the tether into the ETA (Equipment Transfer Bag) for transfer back to the Lunar Module, where it was put into the left-hand stowage compartment. This was strange since the Apollo 14 Stowage List indicates that the tether should have been left behind on the moon along with a lot of other equipment.

The reason initially given for the astronauts to take it was so that it could be used to tie down extra sample bags, but the real reason may have been in case the crew had trouble docking with the CM and had to make an impromptu spacewalk. They could have tied the tether between the two spacecraft and climbed along it to the CM (note that the crew had docking problems with the LM on the way to the moon). In the event the docking was successful and the tether was transferred by the astronauts to the CM.

On return to Earth, part (all?) of the tether was chopped into 26 mm x 7 mm lengths and made into official presentations from the crew of Apollo 14 to staff at the Kennedy Space Center in gratitude for their hard work. If part of the tether remains I do not know where it is now.

As far as I know the tether is the only piece of equipment flown to the lunar surface which has been chopped up in this way and used in an official NASA presentation (please correct me if I'm wrong). Perhaps the reason NASA were willing to do this is that the tether was supposed to have been left behind on the moon in the first place.

If you have any additional information then please post it!

References:

FFrench
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Posts: 3161
From: San Diego
Registered: Feb 2002

posted 12-13-2006 08:49 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for FFrench     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
This thread has me recalling the TV version of the James Michener book "Space."

It's been decades since I saw it, but I recall one of the moonwalking astronauts helping another out of a crater he'd slipped into. Did they use the rope then?

j_c
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posted 02-06-2014 09:27 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for j_c   Click Here to Email j_c     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Yes, I know this is an ancient thread.

I thought I could add a bit. I just purchased one from a reputable aeronautic artifact dealer on eBay. I thought that I'd give a physical description of mine that may help others know that they have a genuine artifact.

These are attributes of the one that I received and it's accompanying letter:

  • The letter is on paper with a watermark of an eagle and shield with "1970".
  • The letter page has 2 horizontal black marks on the outer edge of the left margin.
  • The letter has never been folded.
  • Clearly Autopenned or possibly stamped signatures in bold black. (this is well known and expected)
  • Other than a blue letterhead, logo and "Reply to.." all variable text on the letter is black.
  • In some images, I have seen rust from a paperclip on the front of the letter, mine has this too. I can barely detect a same-angle paperclip indentation in the lamination of the artifact.
  • The letter is not 8.5x11, it is 8x10.5 (US Government did not adopt 8.5x11 until the 1980s!)
  • I can see glue or adhesive on the right side of the cable fragment between it and the underlying blue paper
  • On the back side of the artifact, the name of the original recipient is imprinted in black on the OUTSIDE of the lamination. It is not perfectly aligned with the printed card underneath.
I am pretty happy with mine. It is going next to my rock of Trinitite in my display of artifacts from "Do-Or-Die" situations.

All times are CT (US)

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