|
Author
|
Topic: Apollo EVA boots, gloves left on moon
|
Dirk
Member Posts: 1061
From: Belgium
Registered: Jul 2003
|
posted 03-22-2007 03:01 PM
   
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
Member Posts: 6389
From: Brussels, Belgium
Registered: Jan 2001
|
posted 03-23-2007 12:48 PM
Left on the moon as in left in the lunar module ascent stage, which have fallen back onto the lunar surface? |
thump
Member Posts: 579
From: washington dc usa
Registered: May 2004
|
posted 03-23-2007 01:04 PM
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
Editor Posts: 56499
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999
|
posted 03-23-2007 01:43 PM
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. |
Rick Mulheirn
Member Posts: 4677
From: England
Registered: Feb 2001
|
posted 03-23-2007 04:43 PM
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. |
APG85
Member Posts: 320
From:
Registered: Jan 2008
|
posted 05-09-2026 05:24 AM
Did Gene Cernan bring his lunar overboots home by flight-plan direction or did he make the decision himself? I've always wondered if his boots were the only ones brought back. Editor's note: Threads merged. |
Robert Pearlman
Editor Posts: 56499
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999
|
posted 05-09-2026 09:27 AM
As noted above, the checklist called for the overshoes to be jettisoned. It was Gene Cernan and Jack Schmitt who made the choice to bring their overshoes back, jettisoning their backup EV gloves instead.Here is one of Cernan's overshoes after it was removed from its long time display in the former "Apollo to the Moon" gallery at the National Air and Space Museum. Both overshoes are back on display in "Destination Moon." Schmitt's overshoes are in the archives as they had the most caked-on moon dust.  
|
advertisement