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Author
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Topic: Remembering Apollo 16 (April 16-27, 1972)
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Robert Pearlman
Editor Posts: 48213
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 04-16-2012 12:01 PM
   
Today (April 16, 2012) is the 40th anniversary of the launch of Apollo 16. Apollo 16 was the fifth mission to land men on the moon and return them to Earth. It was also the second flight of the Lunar Roving Vehicle. Apollo 16 landed in a highlands area, a region not yet explored on the moon. Commander John Young and lunar module pilot Charles Duke collected samples, took photographs and conducted experiments that included the first use of an ultraviolet camera/spectrograph on the Moon. |
mach3valkyrie
Member Posts: 729
From: Albany, Oregon
Registered: Jul 2006
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posted 04-16-2012 04:43 PM
This mission had the most network TV coverage during the flight since Apollo 11. The crew was even featured on the cover of a TV Guide magazine in April of 1972. I watched on TV as much as possible, including launch and the moon landing and two of the three EVAs. It was great! Happy 40th Anniversary! |
Norman.King
Member Posts: 395
From: Herne Bay, Kent, UK
Registered: Feb 2010
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posted 04-17-2012 02:23 AM
It was the first lunar mission I properly remember. I was captivated then but what mankind had done... and I still am.
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Headshot
Member Posts: 1062
From: Vancouver, WA, USA
Registered: Feb 2012
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posted 04-17-2012 08:45 AM
It was overcast in the midwest the weekend that Apollo 16 launched. I was disappointed because during that same weekend the moon was passing only half a degree from Venus and I wanted to get some pictures of the event. Since it was still cloudy, I stayed home and watched the Sunday launch instead.After TLI the Apollo 16 crew broadcast some TV back to earth, including a shot of North America from the command module. I saw that the cloud mass over the midwest had a sharp western boundry behind which was clear weather and that it was approaching the eastern parts of Illinois and Wisconsin. So I threw my gear into the car and made the hour plus trip to the observatory in Racine, Wisconsin. I arrived just as the skies cleared and got some nice pictures before the pair of celestial objects set in the west. One of the pictures I took that night got published in the July 1972 issue of Sky and Telescope. I know damn well that this would have never occurred if the crew of Apollo 16 had not made that TV broadcast. |
Robert Pearlman
Editor Posts: 48213
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 06-17-2017 04:30 PM
collectSPACE An 'Opportunity' for reflection: Mars crater offers reminder of Apollo moonwalkTwo craters on two different worlds that were visited by two NASA missions have now been linked to mark the 45 years between the two explorations. NASA's Mars rover Opportunity, which has been driving on the Red Planet since 2004, passed by a young crater this past spring during the 45-year anniversary of the Apollo 16 moon landing. The intersection inspired the rover's science team to informally name the Martian feature after the lunar mission's lander. "Orion Crater" on Mars honors the Apollo 16 lunar module Orion, which carried John Young and Charles Duke to and from the surface of the moon in April 1972.  |
Robert Pearlman
Editor Posts: 48213
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 04-16-2022 02:14 PM
collectSPACE Apollo 16: Celebrating 50 years since the penultimate moon landingCharlie Duke thought he was on his way to exploring an area of the moon that was different from where NASA has sent astronauts before. He just did not know how different it really was.  |
Glint
Member Posts: 1073
From: New Windsor, Maryland USA
Registered: Jan 2004
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posted 04-17-2022 10:35 AM
The image below from 50 years ago shows my Father and myself posing with the Apollo 16 Saturn V standing in the background. And yes, that is CMP Mattingly's in person signature added to the print in 2005. |
Space Cadet Carl
Member Posts: 282
From: Lake Orion, MI
Registered: Feb 2006
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posted 04-18-2022 09:26 PM
My most vivid memory of Apollo 16 was how sharp the rover color television was. John Lowry's upstart Image Transform company in Hollywood had just been given the contract to computer enhance the downlink field sequential TV in real time. The results we viewed in our homes was stunning by 1972 standards. |
Blackarrow
Member Posts: 3443
From: Belfast, United Kingdom
Registered: Feb 2002
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posted 04-19-2022 05:23 PM
The reference to Apollo 16's enhanced TV reminds me of an issue that often puzzled me while watching Apollos 16 and 17 on TV. During live transmissions, it was often possible to hear faint exclamations from the crew about 7 to 8 seconds before the same words were heard at normal volume as part of the "live transmission." More recently, I have assumed that what I was hearing was (for example) Jack Schmitt exclaiming: "Oh! Hey! There is orange soil!" BEFORE the transmission was relayed to Lowry in Hollywood; and that it took 7 to 8 seconds to "clean up" the signal, pipe it back to Houston, and to the TV networks.If that isn't the correct explanation, why else was there a 7 to 8 second delay in the soundtrack? |
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