From the Earth to the Moon (1998): Season 1, Episode 10 - Galileo Was Right - full transcript
The Apollo 15 astronauts and backup crew go through extensive geology training in preparation for their mission.
[John F. Kennedy]
We choose to go to the moon.
We choose to go the moon.
We choose to go to the moon
in this decade and do the other things,
not because they are easy,
but because they are hard.
[Gene Cernan] Look at that.
That's beautiful.
It's got to be one of the most proud
moments of my life. I guarantee you.
[man] Along with the physical demands
made of those who fly into space,
other more particular demands were
made of the men who went to the moon.
They not only had to have the acumen
of pilots and engineers,
they also had to have
knowledge and practice
as physicists, astronomers, geologists,
and, if possible, as historians
and even poets and artists.
The reasons to demand
such Renaissance disciplines
of the astronauts was simple:
you will find no better record
of what it is like to be on the moon
than in the experiences and
recollections of the men who went there.
If God is found
in the details of our world,
then the details must be
discovered and interpreted
by the men who make the voyage
from the Earth to the moon.
[static on radio]
[man 1 ] Here's another one
of the same stuff, Jim.
I'm going to take a picture.
You get a sample of the soil, okay?
- [Jim] Okay.
- Just scoop in between them.
[Jim] Yes, sir.
[man 1 ] I think this is a big frag here.
It broke when it hit.
These pieces are roughly the same.
- [Jim] Not much soil here, really.
- No, there really isn't.
[man on radio] Is it your impression
you're sampling on the ejecta blanket
of Spur crater now?
[man 1 ] Yeah, Joe, probably from the
deepest part because we're on the rim.
- [Joe] Sounds good.
- [man 1 ] Would you agree with that, Jim?
[Jim] Yeah.
[man 1 ] Okay, let's go down and...
- [Jim] Get the unusual one?
- Get the unusual one.
There's another unusual one.
Look at the little crater here,
the one that's facing us.
There is a little white corner
to the thing.
[Joe] Okay, Dave, get as many
of those as you can.
You might be watching for a place
where you think the rake might help you.
[Dave] Yeah, I think we could probably
do a rake here, Joe.
[Joe] Okay. Sounds like a good place.
[Dave] There's a big boulder
over there down sun of us
that I'm sure you can see, Joe,
which is gray.
It has some very outstanding
gray clasts and white clasts.
Oh, boy, it's a beaut.
We're gonna get a hold
of that one in a minute.
[Joe] Okay, I have my pictures, Dave.
[Dave] Let's see. What do you think
the best way to sample it would be?
[Jim] I think, probably, could we break
off a piece of clod underneath it?
Or I guess you could probably
lift that top fragment right off.
[Dave] Yeah, let me try.
Yeah, sure can, and it's a white clast.
- It's about...
- [Jim] Oh, man.
Oh, boy. I got...
- Look at that.
- Look at that glint.
Oh, boy.
- [Jim] Almost see twinning in there.
- [Dave] Guess what we just found.
Guess what we just found!
[professor]
The xenolith is an aggregate of rocks
formed as slow-cooling crystals
at great depth
and brought to the surface
by impact or a volcanic eruption.
When silica content
is low in plutonic magma,
a cyanide-like rock
is likely to be formed,
thus producing a feldspathoid.
The third axis is minute.
A thorough examination of its twinning
will confirm this is plagioclase,
thus producing a feldspathoid.
Note the barius luster
and conchoidal fracturing...
Is this what you had to sit through
for eight years?
They're not all like this.
Low-silicon environments
are perfect nurseries for nepheline,
sodalite, hackmanite...
[Schmitt] No, that is not true.
Look, I have nothing
against Dr. Pemberton personally
or any of his teachers.
It's just time to step things up.
- Now the classroom time isn't enough?
- No.
It was hard for me to get that approved.
And we appreciate it, Deke.
I agree things are not perfect,
but I think we have
a good system in place.
- You do?
- Yes, I do.
And I think that the astronauts
have to take some responsibility.
Your colleagues, no offense, Deke,
are just pilots.
They're great pilots,
the best in the world,
but they don't have scientific minds.
- So they're a lost cause?
- Let me back up.
Some of them show great promise.
But we haven't had a commander yet
who really took the lead in this area.
What's your idea, Jack?
Find a teacher who can bring out
the scientific mind in all of them.
Professor?
Professor Silver?
- Lee, you up there?
- [man] Who's that down there?
It's Jack Schmitt, Professor.
- Jack Schmitt.
- Yeah.
I had a student
named Harrison Schmitt once.
Promising young field geologist.
Pity he didn't decide to pursue it.
Yeah, I know.
He got himself a little sidetracked.
Uh, come on up here, Jack Schmitt.
Well, thank you.
Tell me, my little friend, where did you
acquire such interesting garnet?
- What do you make of this?
- Granite.
Mmm-hmm. And the far side?
- Green grains...
- Mmm-hmm.
- Olivine?
- Which is unlikely.
- [Schmitt] Huh...
- But what a mystery to ponder, no?
What a journey that little xenolith
must have taken.
Professor, I've come to offer you
a challenge.
- Uh-oh.
- [chuckles]
I want you to help train the astronauts
to be field observers.
You must be desperate.
I'm not a lunar geologist.
Have they all resigned in protest?
I realize that NASA hasn't been exactly
popular within the scientific community.
True, although they did hire you,
didn't they?
- Yes.
- But what are they doing with you?
I'm backup on the Apollo 15 crew
and I stand a decent shot
at flying on Apollo 18,
or so they tell me.
- Congratulations.
- Thank you.
Until Apollo 18, may I recommend
robots for gathering samples?
Cheaper, safer,
and the good ones have very small egos.
Professor, my colleagues are serious.
They're motivated and very smart.
We have people to teach them the moon.
What they need
is to learn how to really see it.
You can give them that.
I'm flattered, Jack,
but I already have a job. Full-time.
I do wish you the best, though.
It's a real pleasure seeing you again.
- Thanks.
- Good luck.
[sighs]
[tsk]
- But what if you found one of these?
- What?
What if you taught an astronaut
how to find one of these on the moon?
What a journey that little rock
would have taken.
[Silver] Let me put it this way.
Doing field geology is like solving
the mystery of the dead cat.
If you bring me a dead cat,
all I can tell you is it's dead
and it was a cat.
But if you hand me a dead cat
and you tell me you found it
in the middle of the road...
Ha! What killed it?
- Car?
- Truck?
Heat exhaustion.
Now you're getting it. Okay.
You find a dead cat in the kitchen
of your favorite restaurant.
- What killed it?
- The chef?
Uh!
What are we talking about here, Jack?
- Context.
- Context?
Context. The difference
between roadkill and a meal.
The Orocopias, gentlemen.
This is Disneyland to a field geologist.
Up here, it's all about context.
Now, Jack, you've been through this
before, so you need to keep quiet.
Jim, tell me about that.
- What?
- Just start with what you see.
- Granite.
- Good.
- Which is an igneous rock.
- Right.
Now, what do you think
would make it smooth like that?
- Water.
- Could be. Most likely.
But we don't really know yet.
Let's look around.
I don't see any granite here.
Not exposed, anyway.
So, do you think
that rock came from here?
- No, I guess not.
- Okay, toss him back to me.
Just a rock.
The kind you'd kick with your boot
without giving it a second glance.
Where did you come from,
my little friend? Huh?
Back this away.
Come on, Dave. Don't worry.
I'll try not to waste your time.
- I know you're busy men.
- Come on, buddy.
Okay, this is a painting.
Not the Mona Lisa,
but for us it's just as compelling.
There's a story here, a story about
what happened to this area.
- You recognize this, Jim?
- Granite again?
- Yup. And where does granite get made?
- Down below, slowly.
Very slowly, like a big soup.
The kind my mother would make.
Which is why we didn't have
many dinner guests in our home.
But, gosh, if granite gets made
way down below,
how the heck did it get here?
Uplift, and transported down
the river wash.
Uplift!
The same kind of uplift that created
the Rocky Mountains and the Himalayas.
Now, look at this. More uplift.
Where did this come from?
These layers have broken off,
tilted in different directions.
This isn't the same kind of uplift
that created our granite here.
Not even close.
Something happened.
Something... big.
You see the story yet?
It's all pretty much here.
In a language you can't yet understand,
but it's here.
A tale of upheaval
and battles won and lost.
Gothic tales of sweeping change
and peaceful times,
and then great trauma again.
And it all connects
to our little friend.
That's what we are, we geologists.
Storytellers.
Interpreters, actually.
And that's what you gentlemen
are going to become.
And how does this relate to the moon?
From 240,000 miles away,
you have to give the most complete
possible description
of what you're seeing.
Not just which rocks
you plan to bring back
but their context.
That and knowing
which ones to pick up in the first place
is what might separate you guys
from those little robots.
You know, the ones some jaded souls
think should have your job.
You see, you have to become
our eyes and ears out there.
And for you to do that,
you first have to learn the language
of this little rock here.
Ever since Galileo and his telescope,
the moon has been getting
closer and closer.
And now that men like yourselves
are actually walking around up there,
we're getting more familiar
with its surface characteristics.
But we still haven't answered
the big question.
How did it get up there?
Maybe billions of years ago,
just as the Earth was forming,
a big blob of its original molten core
spun itself off as
a kind of daughter planet.
Or maybe the moon is more like a sister
formed alongside the Earth
out of the same magical dust.
Or perhaps a big old stray asteroid
made the mistake
of wandering a bit too close
to our gravitational influence
and doomed itself
to circle us for all eternity
like some faithful dog.
Thanks to the data coming out of NASA
over the last five years,
we have some idea of the moon's age
and its chemical composition.
But as for its genesis...
we're still in the dark.
Maybe Apollo 15 will shed some light.
Gentlemen, I must catch some shut-eye.
Sleep well.
[chuckling]
What are you grinning at?
[chuckling]
[knocking]
Hello? Mr. El-Baz?
Lieutenant Colonel! Mr. Alfred Worden.
Farouk El-Baz. I've been expecting you.
Have you ever seen
the inside of a human brain?
[soft laugh]
I'll show you mine. Come.
By the time you reach the lunar orbit,
your brain should look much the same.
This, Colonel Worden,
is what the inside
of my brain looks like.
Crater Alphonsus.
Dark halo craters, narrow rilles.
Suspected volcanic eruptions.
Important word: "suspected."
- [snickers]
- You will tell us for sure.
Schröter's Valley,
maybe formed by lava flow.
Tranquillity Base.
Perhaps you've heard of it?
Mostly just a bunch of bumps,
squiggles and circles to me.
You will learn.
Don't worry. I won't leave your side.
[chuckles]
Perfect.
The crater Theophilus.
Now, how far out into the ejecta blanket
does the hummocky area extend?
Oh, boy.
I'm lost.
Imagine it here.
While your crewmates are down,
digging into the lunar surface,
you will be floating high up,
seeing how all the pieces fit together.
Do you see?
[sighs]
I'm not sure.
[no audible dialogue]
[no audible dialogue]
[El-Baz] 240 kilometers east.
Forty-six kilometers from the surface.
This rille is seven kilometers wide.
Now, how deep is this crater?
- About 3,000 feet.
- Yes!
Colonel Worden,
you are gonna make a brilliant student.
Call me Al.
[birds cry]
[Silver]
Now, we can, if we're very clever,
we can figure out
a lot about an area like this
by putting together
what we call "the suite."
What the hell is he talking about?
The suite.
I'm talking about
a dozen hand-sized rocks
that tell the story of this place
in all of its diversity,
from the typical right to the exotic.
You got ten minutes.
Thought you could escape me, huh?
[chuckles]
You got it, Jimmy?
I'm getting there. How about you?
Yeah, I think so.
Ho!
[chuckles] Don't look so sure.
I'm feeling good.
I would be nervous if I was you.
Whoa!
Oh, I'm nervous, Jimmy.
I'm real nervous. Real nervous.
[Silver] Oh, yeah. Yeah. Good.
It's a pretty decent collection, Dick.
You know what to look for
next time, right?
- Good Lord.
- Well.
Let's see what you guys have got.
[panting]
You first, Jimbo.
[laughing]
Okay.
Not...
bad.
Dave. Huh?
Uh-huh.
Yeah. All right.
Fine. Good... first try.
Interesting.
Mmm-hmm.
Okay, Jack, let's see what you found.
How sweet it is.
[Silver] Oh, yeah. Mmm-hmm.
Wow.
Okay...
I thought the twinning
on that one was pretty distinctive.
How about that?
- Yeah, you don't see much of that here.
- I was surprised.
Well done. Good diversity.
- [Schmitt] Hmm.
- Tells the story.
- Heard any more, Dave?
- Just what I told you.
Missions have been canceled,
and Deke wants to see us.
Here we go.
Hey, guys. Come on in.
We knew that cutbacks were inevitable,
that Congress might cut us short.
Well, they've done it.
The Apollo 15 mission as we know it
has been scrubbed.
We're moving
straight into the J Missions
which, as you know,
mean longer stays on the surface,
an upgraded LEM,
better suits and backpacks
and ultimately more science.
And, of course, the lunar rover. [sighs]
There's one going with the next flight.
And I want you two
to be the first to drive it.
So, Apollo 15 will be
the first J Mission.
I've pushed back all the crews
to accommodate the switch.
You're going to need
a lot more training time.
I don't know how you'll fit it in,
but we'll give you the support you need.
We'll make it work, Deke.
So, you'll have Apollo 15,
and that'll be followed by 16 and 17.
But that's it.
They've canceled Apollo 18 and 19.
Okay, guys.
Bad luck, Jack.
No.
Are you kidding?
That makes what we're doing
that much more important.
[Silver] We're inventing
a whole new science here.
Lunar field geology.
And we'll need to work it out together.
Time is everything, gentlemen.
And preparation is the key to success.
So, when we're confronted
with a new survey site, what do we do?
We go to the highest place we can find
and figure out the big picture.
Quickly.
That mound.
That's where the LEM just landed.
Dave, head on up there.
Tell me what you see.
Now, Jim, what I need you to do
is sketch out what Dave is describing,
and then it'll be your turn.
Okay, Houston. The albatross has landed.
Okay, Dave, start with the 12 o'clock,
work your way around,
tell us what you see.
Well, let's see.
At my 12 o'clock is...
Okay...
A bunch of layers
on the far wall of the canyon.
To the right, there's a lot of dirt...
with green stuff sloping down.
Over to my right is a large...
well, it's a huge...
Breccia... No, no, it's a, it's a...
Like a huge breccia-like boulder...
right in the side of the wall.
At my three o'clock, there's a... a...
layer of rock about...
one-quarter up
from the bottom of the wall.
I don't think so. [sighs]
At my four o'clock
is a large block of granite
on the top of the hill,
which contains
at least four vertical dikes
protruding out to the uplift.
Okay.
At my six o'clock, open end
of the canyon, there's a ridge...
Okay, Houston, at my nine o'clock
is a thick layer
of uniform horizontal beds.
Middle ground sloping down to the right.
superimposed over a variety of about
20 layers of light and dark material.
Looking down at my eight o'clock, the
range of mountains in the background.
About 20 degrees.
Yeah.
He's cooking.
[Scott] First of all, we have this idea
for a stand-up EVA right after landing.
What's that?
Basically sticking my head out of
the LEM and having a look around.
[scoffs]
- Why?
- To survey the site.
Geologically.
Okay, so we risk
a fifth cabin repressurization,
we spend money and manpower
on a revised checklist and procedures,
and we add weight
in the form of consumables,
all so we can add
another time-consuming item
to a flight plan and training schedule
that's already filled beyond capacity?
I think you'd see the value if you
joined us on a field trip sometime.
- I would, would I?
- Absolutely. You'd have a ball, Deke.
[laughs]
There's this neat rake
that the professor devised
that would help us
get a comprehensive suite
of pebble-sized rocks in the regolith.
And we'd like another telephoto lens.
Dave, we're at our weight limit.
You know that.
I've thought of that.
With the new, shorter rendezvous, maybe
we could trade some abort propellant.
Abort propellant?
For a rake?
A rake and a lens.
Uh-huh.
There. The big picture, Al.
- You must tell me the big picture first.
- Well, there's...
[Worden scoffs]
- [El-Baz] Quickly!
- Basalt lava flows.
No, too specific. The big picture first.
A cinder cone with lots of lava.
From where is the lava flowing?
Damn! I don't know.
There is a breach in the cone.
Do you see?
- I can't.
- Of course not.
- We passed it already.
- [sighs]
[chuckles]
All right, all right.
Let's try again.
[chattering]
[Silver] I'm the new guy here.
- We need you to weigh in on this.
- [man] Gentlemen!
We are not leaving this room
or breaking for lunch
until we agree
on a landing site for Apollo 15.
Now, then,
we have a deadlock
between Marius Hills on the one hand
and Hadley Rille
in the Apennine Mountains on the other.
We have been barking over this bone
for six months now...
with absolutely no movement
or, I might add, accommodation.
If we're going to launch in July,
we must know today.
Now, then, let's start at the beginning.
Chet.
I stand by my position. Marius Hills.
[murmurs of agreement]
We should stick with what we know.
We're just getting
equatorial landings down.
Fooling around with anything else,
especially in an area
we don't even have detailed pictures...
- What about the new guidance trajectory?
- And the propulsion system?
It's much more efficient.
I don't care about the new guidance
trajectory or propulsion system.
You know how big those mountains are?
- They're 18,000 feet.
- That's right.
- 18,000 feet.
- We're aware of that.
Trying to land among those peaks
just scares the hell out of me.
- Why go where we've already gone?
- The moon's the moon.
How can you say that?
How can you say, "The moon's the moon"?
I don't believe it.
[Pemberton] Now, look,
samples are what count, in my opinion.
And Marius Hills presents
an adequately unique site
for testing any of the genesis theories,
and it seems a safer landing site.
Dr. Pemberton, the Apennines,
first of all,
should be a great source
of deeper and older imbrium ejecta,
and we may even find material there
from the original lunar crust.
But it's huge.
How do you expect
the astronauts to explore
such a wide, expansive site?
Well, Dave?
That's where the rover comes in.
Assuming that it's ready in time,
and assuming that Hadley isn't covered
with boulders as radar shows,
which would render
the rover non-navigable.
So, you see, gentlemen,
Marius is so much more
reasonable a site.
Marius Hills is attractive only
for its allegedly rare volcanic rocks,
and for being the easy, safe choice.
Well, fine. Then we might
as well consider Tycho.
All right, let's consider it.
I got many reasons as to why Tycho
would make the ideal landing site.
Oh, come on, Jason. That is just nuts.
Astronauts collecting enough regolith
to bury NASA headquarters, that's nuts.
Gentlemen.
Gentlemen, we are getting
absolutely nowhere here.
In fact...
we are moving backward.
Gentlemen, it's getting late.
And we still have this decision to make.
Marius Hills or Hadley Rille?
Help us out here, Dave.
You're the commander, and you haven't
said a word all day. What do you think?
[sighs] Well, let's see.
No offense, Chet, but we feel pretty
confident we can land at either site.
Dr. Pemberton,
I'm one who respects hedging bets.
But from what I've learned in the field,
Hadley-Apennine with its complex variety
of features, both impact and volcanic,
is the best choice for putting together
a picture of how the moon came to be.
- It may be a little riskier.
- Not a little.
But also...
Also, the Apennines have something else.
Grandeur.
And I believe there's something to be
said for exploring beautiful places.
It's good for the spirit.
[sighs]
Then it's Hadley, gentlemen.
- Yes!
- [murmurs of approval]
[sighs]
[chuckles]
[sighs]
- Well?
- One pass.
Let me see.
- There were 16 volcanoes.
- Very good. Yes, yes, yes.
Oh, my God. It's perfect.
- Viewing angle?
- Thirty-four degrees.
Ah!
Oh, my friend. It will be as if
I am going to the moon myself.
I don't believe it.
Farouk, last night I had a dream,
and I actually saw it.
What did you see?
I'm orbiting around,
and I'm hit by a meteor shower.
I'm heading straight down
to Tsiolkovsky crater.
Yeah.
It's a lot deeper than the photo showed.
And when I reached
the moment of impact...
I'm cushioned by this blanket of dust.
Volcanic dust.
And I'm okay.
What does that mean?
It means you are ready.
You know the moon
as you know your own planet.
You've become as crazy as me. [chuckles]
- Grand Canyon.
- No.
[chattering, laughing]
Right.
- Meteor Crater!
- Wow. Brilliant.
[whooping]
[all shouting] Grand Canyon!
[Silver] No kidding.
Hadley Rille, my kind of place.
- My kind of place.
- [laughing]
All right, flip the lights on,
if you would, Stan.
This will be our last visit together.
- Glad you could make it, Deke.
- I wouldn't have missed it.
I know. I'll miss you too.
[laughing]
Now, when you get up there,
you're going to see a lot of this.
- Basalt.
- Mm-hmm.
- And you'll be seeing a lot of this.
- Breccia.
Breccia.
But while I have your attention
one last time,
I want to make a plea
for this fellow here.
Now, we really don't know what
we're gonna find on the lunar surface.
Pete Conrad's car keys?
[laughing]
Maybe.
But what we'd really like to find
is this.
Anorthosite.
It's important because it may unlock
a stack of mysteries
about the origins of the moon.
Because if you find this...
you have probably found
a piece of the moon's primordial crust.
It would be a shame if it was up there
and we missed it.
[Irwin on radio]
Thirty at three. Twenty-five at two.
Seven percent fuel. Twenty at one.
Fifteen at one. Minus one.
Ten feet. Eight feet.
Minus one. Contact.
- [cheering]
- Yes!
Okay, Houston, the Falcon
is on the plain at Hadley.
Roger, Falcon.
[Scott] Okay, overhead hatch,
full open and latched.
Okay, coming full open.
Let's see if we can give our friends
in the geology backroom
something to get excited about.
I'm pulling myself up
through the hatch now.
Oh, boy, what a view.
What a view! Oh!
If the professor could see this.
All right, I'm looking off here
to the north.
I can see Pluton, Icarus and Chain.
I'm getting my camera out.
Start at my 12 o'clock position.
As I come out around to Mount Hadley,
there are no sharp, jagged peaks
or large boulders anywhere.
Boy, the telephoto lens
is great for this.
To the east are lineations
or layers dipping about 30 degrees.
There's one bright, fresh crater right
next to St. George on the eastern side,
which is almost white in albedo.
It's got an ejecta blanket
about a crater diameter away.
I tell you, this is really gonna
help us when we get out there.
- Roger, Dave. It sure will.
- [chuckles]
Okay, Endeavor, this is Houston.
You're at T-2 now.
Okay, Houston, ready for some words
on Tsiolkovsky crater?
Great. We're listening.
First off, the central peak.
The central peak is
a very large spur peak
on the south and east sides.
Getting blocky on the north side.
There appears to be some layering
visible on the south and west
exposed scarp of the peak.
- You getting this?
- You're coming in loud and clear.
Loud and clear, my friend.
[Scott] Okay. Give me a word anytime.
[Irwin] Okay, Dave. Ready?
[Scott] Ready.
Okay, over the rail here.
Down she comes.
All righty. Everything looks
like it's in good shape.
Here we go. Attaboy.
A little more.
A little more. It's coming.
- It's coming okay.
- Okay, we're moving forward, Joe.
[Scott] Gotta get a feel for this thing.
It's nine miles an hour.
I can see I'm gonna have to keep
my eyes on the road.
I can maneuver pretty well.
I'm up a little rise.
There's no dust at all.
Steering is quite responsive,
even with only the rear steering.
There doesn't seem to be much slip.
If you make a turn sharply,
it responds quite well.
Look at that.
There's a nice little round
one-meter crater.
very angular frags
all over the bottom and the rims...
glass at the very center,
about a meter across.
Whoa! Hang on. Feels like we need
seat belts, doesn't it, Jim?
[Irwin] Yeah, really do.
- It's a bucking bronco.
- [Scott] Yeah, man.
I lift back on the power,
it keeps right on going.
Okay, I've got it to the floor here,
and we're up to 12.
Glad I've got this great
suspension system for this thing.
This is really a rocking rolling ride.
There's an elongated depression
here before you get to Rhysling...
Having trouble making it
to our drill site.
[grunting, panting]
I'm pushing,
but the damn thing's bottomed out.
[grunts]
Look, we're not gonna get it out.
[Irwin] Let me give you a hand, Dave.
We'll get this drill out.
[Scott] I don't know
what the hell we've hit here,
but this thing is really stuck.
[Irwin] All right, Dave. Here we go.
- You ready?
-[Scott grunts]
- One, two...
- [panting]
three.
[both grunt]
[panting]
[Scott] Damn.
[no audible dialogue]
Dave, let's take a breather.
We want you to break it loose
and let the stem
and the drill sit in the surface.
We'll come back and pull it out later.
- Let me finish it off, Joe.
- Dave, Jim.
We want you to end your tasks here.
We want you back on the rover, please.
We've got to make sure they get back
to the drilling site in the morning.
That's crazy.
We're gonna blow the North Complex.
North Complex was always a maybe.
We need those deep-core samples.
No, they can't get them out.
That's pretty obvious. Are you gonna
blow the whole EVA on them?
If that's what it takes.
God, that was tough.
I never would have thought. That drill
didn't budge an inch in an hour.
- Are you all right?
- I just need some water, that's all.
The darn line kinked up in the suit.
Why didn't you say anything, Jimmy?
I didn't want them pulling the plug.
[panting]
Get some water in you now.
[panting]
[Scott] Houston, Falcon.
[Joe] Yeah, Falcon, this is Houston.
Go ahead.
Joe, we're heading back to the site.
How long do you want us to work on
getting this drill out?
We're spending a lot of time
on this thing.
Tell me you really want it this bad.
[sighs] That's hard for me to say, Dave.
Stand by.
What's it gonna be, fellas?
We're cutting
into the drive to Hadley Rille.
- Come on. Let's forget this thing.
- That is not an option!
- The rille, Lee. We can't mess that up.
- Just a second.
- You wouldn't know a vesicular basalt...
- How dare you?
Hey, we're wasting time.
Now, here's the thing.
I'd like nothing more than
to abandon the core
- and get on with the observation.
- Absolutely.
But the fact is,
if we don't get that core out,
the whole world is gonna look at it
as a mission failure.
- But, Lee...
- I don't think we can afford that.
So we're gonna give it a couple
more tries, and then we move on.
Regardless. Fair enough?
Good. Tell them to keep trying.
Dave and Jim.
Just go ahead and give it one more try.
And then we want you
to continue on with the grand prix.
[Scott] Good enough.
Let's put some muscle into it.
[Irwin] Houston, I hope
that freeze-dried spinach
we had for breakfast pays off.
[Irwin laughs]
[grunting]
[grunting]
- [Irwin] Dang it!
- Hang on.
This bit looks like it's gonna break.
[Irwin] What the heck is this in anyway?
[Scott] All right, I'm gonna
get down low and grab it.
[Irwin] Okay, hang on for a second.
I'm gonna get a better grip.
[Scott] One, two, three.
[grunting]
Okay, troops.
Let's move on to the rille.
Roger that, Joe.
[Scott] Okay, Houston,
we're moving to the second site.
The patterns of the landscape seem
consistent with the photographs from 14.
I see a large concentration
of enormous boulders.
This one boulder's very angular.
It's got glass on one side,
with lots of bubbles.
Looks fairly recent.
Give me your hammer.
I can see several large blocks
that have rolled down slope.
They're angular and they're all
the same color and texture.
I see the linear patterns Dave commented
on before with the dip and everything.
Okay, eight kilometers up a little rise.
- Look at this baby climb the hill.
- [Irwin] We're heading about 165 now.
- This is Elbow right here.
- We're on the east rim.
There's a fragment here.
It's a rough surface texture.
It looks like a very fine-grain,
gray, rather solid frag.
Could this be Rhysling right here, Jim?
We're on the edge
of the Spur crater now,
and there's the usual basalt regolith
with a corona of light albedo ejecta.
Get the unusual one.
[Irwin] Oh, boy.
[Scott] It's a beaut.
And it's a white clast.
And it's about...
[Irwin] Oh, man, look at that.
I can almost see twinning in there.
[Scott] Guess what we just found.
Guess what we just found.
I think we found what we came for.
I think we found ourselves
some anorthosite.
[laughing, cheering]
[man] That's it!
[Scott] It's like being back
at the old San Gabriel Mountains.
[Joe] Roger, Dave.
[Scott] Make this bag 196 a special bag.
[laughs]
Did you see that? Did you see that?
I doubt a random surface sample would
have ever pulled that out of a hat.
Really. Give me guys
in the field any day.
Yes, sir. That is science.
I stand corrected, Dr. Silver.
Ah, well,
I can't wait to get it home...
and see what you guys can make of it.
[Scott]
We're trying to drive straight ahead
and stay on a fairly level contour.
[Irwin] We don't wanna go down. [laughs]
[Scott] Yeah, I think I'm going
to park right up here.
This would be
a good picture for Houston.
Joe, if you want to swing
the TV around here,
you're going to see a spectacular place.
[Irwin] Boy, oh, boy.
Look at that rille.
- [Scott] How about that?
-[Irwin] How about that, geology fans?
I can see from up
at the top of the rille down,
there's debris all the way.
It looks like some outcrops directly
at about 11 o'clock to the sun line.
Looks like a layer,
about five percent of the rille wall
with a vertical face on it.
[Joe] Beautiful, Dave. Beautiful.
[Joe]
As the space poet Rhysling would say,
"We're ready for you to come back again"
to the homes of men
"on the cool, green hills of Earth."
[Scott] Thank you, Joe. We're ready too.
But it's been great.
Dave and Jim, I've noticed a very slight
smile on the face of the professor.
You very well may have passed
your final exam.
[Scott] Well, we're glad to hear that.
You tell the professor that
we couldn't have done it without him.
Okay, Joe, if you can swing
the camera around toward the LEM here.
Hope you have a good picture there.
Well, in my left hand, I have a feather.
In my right hand, a hammer.
I guess one of the reasons
we got here today
was because of a gentleman
named Galileo a long time ago,
who made a rather significant discovery
about falling objects
and gravity fields.
We thought, where would be
a better place to confirm his findings
than on the moon?
And so, we thought
we'd try it here for you.
The feather happens to be,
appropriately, a falcon feather.
For our Falcon.
And I'll drop the two of them here.
Hopefully, they'll hit the ground
at the same time.
How about that?
That proves that Mr. Galileo
was correct in his findings.
[Joe] Superb, Dave.
[Scott] I always say, "There's nothing
like a little science on the moon."
Gentlemen.
- Proud of those boys.
- Brilliant management on your part.
- [laughing]
- Joe.
Dave and Jim, we have a very
special guest with us right now,
if you care to say a word or two.
Roger that, Joe.
Hey there, Dave.
You've done a lovely job.
You just don't know
how we're jumping up and down down here.
That's because I happen to have
a very good professor.
A whole bunch of them, Dave.
We sure appreciate everything you did
in getting us ready for this thing.
There's an awful lot
to be seen and done up there.
I'll bet.
We think you defined the first site
to be revisited on the moon.
Professor...
I hope someday
we can get you up here too.
That would be...
an amazing adventure.
But I feel as if I've already
been there, thanks to you.
Oh, you were with us, Professor,
every step of the way.
[Scott] We went to the moon
as trained observers,
in order to gather data,
not only with our instruments on board,
but with our minds.
I'd like to quote a statement
from Plutarch,
which I think expresses our feelings
since we've come back.
"The mind is not a vessel to be filled
but a fire to be lighted."
That's it.
Wow.
Sample #15415.
They're calling it the Genesis Rock.
It may be as old as
the solar system itself.
Since I was five years old...
all I ever wanted to be was a pilot.
And flying to the moon...
seemed the ultimate adventure.
- You understand?
- I think I do.
Nothing seemed more important.
But finding this little fellow...
understanding what it represents,
what it can tell us...
Huh...
will probably be the most
satisfying thing I'll ever do.
Well, I suspect there's more to come
from Dave Scott.
In the meantime, "Brought back
original crust of the moon"
should weigh pretty impressively
on your résumé.
You know?
[Silver chuckles]
We choose to go to the moon.
We choose to go the moon.
We choose to go to the moon
in this decade and do the other things,
not because they are easy,
but because they are hard.
[Gene Cernan] Look at that.
That's beautiful.
It's got to be one of the most proud
moments of my life. I guarantee you.
[man] Along with the physical demands
made of those who fly into space,
other more particular demands were
made of the men who went to the moon.
They not only had to have the acumen
of pilots and engineers,
they also had to have
knowledge and practice
as physicists, astronomers, geologists,
and, if possible, as historians
and even poets and artists.
The reasons to demand
such Renaissance disciplines
of the astronauts was simple:
you will find no better record
of what it is like to be on the moon
than in the experiences and
recollections of the men who went there.
If God is found
in the details of our world,
then the details must be
discovered and interpreted
by the men who make the voyage
from the Earth to the moon.
[static on radio]
[man 1 ] Here's another one
of the same stuff, Jim.
I'm going to take a picture.
You get a sample of the soil, okay?
- [Jim] Okay.
- Just scoop in between them.
[Jim] Yes, sir.
[man 1 ] I think this is a big frag here.
It broke when it hit.
These pieces are roughly the same.
- [Jim] Not much soil here, really.
- No, there really isn't.
[man on radio] Is it your impression
you're sampling on the ejecta blanket
of Spur crater now?
[man 1 ] Yeah, Joe, probably from the
deepest part because we're on the rim.
- [Joe] Sounds good.
- [man 1 ] Would you agree with that, Jim?
[Jim] Yeah.
[man 1 ] Okay, let's go down and...
- [Jim] Get the unusual one?
- Get the unusual one.
There's another unusual one.
Look at the little crater here,
the one that's facing us.
There is a little white corner
to the thing.
[Joe] Okay, Dave, get as many
of those as you can.
You might be watching for a place
where you think the rake might help you.
[Dave] Yeah, I think we could probably
do a rake here, Joe.
[Joe] Okay. Sounds like a good place.
[Dave] There's a big boulder
over there down sun of us
that I'm sure you can see, Joe,
which is gray.
It has some very outstanding
gray clasts and white clasts.
Oh, boy, it's a beaut.
We're gonna get a hold
of that one in a minute.
[Joe] Okay, I have my pictures, Dave.
[Dave] Let's see. What do you think
the best way to sample it would be?
[Jim] I think, probably, could we break
off a piece of clod underneath it?
Or I guess you could probably
lift that top fragment right off.
[Dave] Yeah, let me try.
Yeah, sure can, and it's a white clast.
- It's about...
- [Jim] Oh, man.
Oh, boy. I got...
- Look at that.
- Look at that glint.
Oh, boy.
- [Jim] Almost see twinning in there.
- [Dave] Guess what we just found.
Guess what we just found!
[professor]
The xenolith is an aggregate of rocks
formed as slow-cooling crystals
at great depth
and brought to the surface
by impact or a volcanic eruption.
When silica content
is low in plutonic magma,
a cyanide-like rock
is likely to be formed,
thus producing a feldspathoid.
The third axis is minute.
A thorough examination of its twinning
will confirm this is plagioclase,
thus producing a feldspathoid.
Note the barius luster
and conchoidal fracturing...
Is this what you had to sit through
for eight years?
They're not all like this.
Low-silicon environments
are perfect nurseries for nepheline,
sodalite, hackmanite...
[Schmitt] No, that is not true.
Look, I have nothing
against Dr. Pemberton personally
or any of his teachers.
It's just time to step things up.
- Now the classroom time isn't enough?
- No.
It was hard for me to get that approved.
And we appreciate it, Deke.
I agree things are not perfect,
but I think we have
a good system in place.
- You do?
- Yes, I do.
And I think that the astronauts
have to take some responsibility.
Your colleagues, no offense, Deke,
are just pilots.
They're great pilots,
the best in the world,
but they don't have scientific minds.
- So they're a lost cause?
- Let me back up.
Some of them show great promise.
But we haven't had a commander yet
who really took the lead in this area.
What's your idea, Jack?
Find a teacher who can bring out
the scientific mind in all of them.
Professor?
Professor Silver?
- Lee, you up there?
- [man] Who's that down there?
It's Jack Schmitt, Professor.
- Jack Schmitt.
- Yeah.
I had a student
named Harrison Schmitt once.
Promising young field geologist.
Pity he didn't decide to pursue it.
Yeah, I know.
He got himself a little sidetracked.
Uh, come on up here, Jack Schmitt.
Well, thank you.
Tell me, my little friend, where did you
acquire such interesting garnet?
- What do you make of this?
- Granite.
Mmm-hmm. And the far side?
- Green grains...
- Mmm-hmm.
- Olivine?
- Which is unlikely.
- [Schmitt] Huh...
- But what a mystery to ponder, no?
What a journey that little xenolith
must have taken.
Professor, I've come to offer you
a challenge.
- Uh-oh.
- [chuckles]
I want you to help train the astronauts
to be field observers.
You must be desperate.
I'm not a lunar geologist.
Have they all resigned in protest?
I realize that NASA hasn't been exactly
popular within the scientific community.
True, although they did hire you,
didn't they?
- Yes.
- But what are they doing with you?
I'm backup on the Apollo 15 crew
and I stand a decent shot
at flying on Apollo 18,
or so they tell me.
- Congratulations.
- Thank you.
Until Apollo 18, may I recommend
robots for gathering samples?
Cheaper, safer,
and the good ones have very small egos.
Professor, my colleagues are serious.
They're motivated and very smart.
We have people to teach them the moon.
What they need
is to learn how to really see it.
You can give them that.
I'm flattered, Jack,
but I already have a job. Full-time.
I do wish you the best, though.
It's a real pleasure seeing you again.
- Thanks.
- Good luck.
[sighs]
[tsk]
- But what if you found one of these?
- What?
What if you taught an astronaut
how to find one of these on the moon?
What a journey that little rock
would have taken.
[Silver] Let me put it this way.
Doing field geology is like solving
the mystery of the dead cat.
If you bring me a dead cat,
all I can tell you is it's dead
and it was a cat.
But if you hand me a dead cat
and you tell me you found it
in the middle of the road...
Ha! What killed it?
- Car?
- Truck?
Heat exhaustion.
Now you're getting it. Okay.
You find a dead cat in the kitchen
of your favorite restaurant.
- What killed it?
- The chef?
Uh!
What are we talking about here, Jack?
- Context.
- Context?
Context. The difference
between roadkill and a meal.
The Orocopias, gentlemen.
This is Disneyland to a field geologist.
Up here, it's all about context.
Now, Jack, you've been through this
before, so you need to keep quiet.
Jim, tell me about that.
- What?
- Just start with what you see.
- Granite.
- Good.
- Which is an igneous rock.
- Right.
Now, what do you think
would make it smooth like that?
- Water.
- Could be. Most likely.
But we don't really know yet.
Let's look around.
I don't see any granite here.
Not exposed, anyway.
So, do you think
that rock came from here?
- No, I guess not.
- Okay, toss him back to me.
Just a rock.
The kind you'd kick with your boot
without giving it a second glance.
Where did you come from,
my little friend? Huh?
Back this away.
Come on, Dave. Don't worry.
I'll try not to waste your time.
- I know you're busy men.
- Come on, buddy.
Okay, this is a painting.
Not the Mona Lisa,
but for us it's just as compelling.
There's a story here, a story about
what happened to this area.
- You recognize this, Jim?
- Granite again?
- Yup. And where does granite get made?
- Down below, slowly.
Very slowly, like a big soup.
The kind my mother would make.
Which is why we didn't have
many dinner guests in our home.
But, gosh, if granite gets made
way down below,
how the heck did it get here?
Uplift, and transported down
the river wash.
Uplift!
The same kind of uplift that created
the Rocky Mountains and the Himalayas.
Now, look at this. More uplift.
Where did this come from?
These layers have broken off,
tilted in different directions.
This isn't the same kind of uplift
that created our granite here.
Not even close.
Something happened.
Something... big.
You see the story yet?
It's all pretty much here.
In a language you can't yet understand,
but it's here.
A tale of upheaval
and battles won and lost.
Gothic tales of sweeping change
and peaceful times,
and then great trauma again.
And it all connects
to our little friend.
That's what we are, we geologists.
Storytellers.
Interpreters, actually.
And that's what you gentlemen
are going to become.
And how does this relate to the moon?
From 240,000 miles away,
you have to give the most complete
possible description
of what you're seeing.
Not just which rocks
you plan to bring back
but their context.
That and knowing
which ones to pick up in the first place
is what might separate you guys
from those little robots.
You know, the ones some jaded souls
think should have your job.
You see, you have to become
our eyes and ears out there.
And for you to do that,
you first have to learn the language
of this little rock here.
Ever since Galileo and his telescope,
the moon has been getting
closer and closer.
And now that men like yourselves
are actually walking around up there,
we're getting more familiar
with its surface characteristics.
But we still haven't answered
the big question.
How did it get up there?
Maybe billions of years ago,
just as the Earth was forming,
a big blob of its original molten core
spun itself off as
a kind of daughter planet.
Or maybe the moon is more like a sister
formed alongside the Earth
out of the same magical dust.
Or perhaps a big old stray asteroid
made the mistake
of wandering a bit too close
to our gravitational influence
and doomed itself
to circle us for all eternity
like some faithful dog.
Thanks to the data coming out of NASA
over the last five years,
we have some idea of the moon's age
and its chemical composition.
But as for its genesis...
we're still in the dark.
Maybe Apollo 15 will shed some light.
Gentlemen, I must catch some shut-eye.
Sleep well.
[chuckling]
What are you grinning at?
[chuckling]
[knocking]
Hello? Mr. El-Baz?
Lieutenant Colonel! Mr. Alfred Worden.
Farouk El-Baz. I've been expecting you.
Have you ever seen
the inside of a human brain?
[soft laugh]
I'll show you mine. Come.
By the time you reach the lunar orbit,
your brain should look much the same.
This, Colonel Worden,
is what the inside
of my brain looks like.
Crater Alphonsus.
Dark halo craters, narrow rilles.
Suspected volcanic eruptions.
Important word: "suspected."
- [snickers]
- You will tell us for sure.
Schröter's Valley,
maybe formed by lava flow.
Tranquillity Base.
Perhaps you've heard of it?
Mostly just a bunch of bumps,
squiggles and circles to me.
You will learn.
Don't worry. I won't leave your side.
[chuckles]
Perfect.
The crater Theophilus.
Now, how far out into the ejecta blanket
does the hummocky area extend?
Oh, boy.
I'm lost.
Imagine it here.
While your crewmates are down,
digging into the lunar surface,
you will be floating high up,
seeing how all the pieces fit together.
Do you see?
[sighs]
I'm not sure.
[no audible dialogue]
[no audible dialogue]
[El-Baz] 240 kilometers east.
Forty-six kilometers from the surface.
This rille is seven kilometers wide.
Now, how deep is this crater?
- About 3,000 feet.
- Yes!
Colonel Worden,
you are gonna make a brilliant student.
Call me Al.
[birds cry]
[Silver]
Now, we can, if we're very clever,
we can figure out
a lot about an area like this
by putting together
what we call "the suite."
What the hell is he talking about?
The suite.
I'm talking about
a dozen hand-sized rocks
that tell the story of this place
in all of its diversity,
from the typical right to the exotic.
You got ten minutes.
Thought you could escape me, huh?
[chuckles]
You got it, Jimmy?
I'm getting there. How about you?
Yeah, I think so.
Ho!
[chuckles] Don't look so sure.
I'm feeling good.
I would be nervous if I was you.
Whoa!
Oh, I'm nervous, Jimmy.
I'm real nervous. Real nervous.
[Silver] Oh, yeah. Yeah. Good.
It's a pretty decent collection, Dick.
You know what to look for
next time, right?
- Good Lord.
- Well.
Let's see what you guys have got.
[panting]
You first, Jimbo.
[laughing]
Okay.
Not...
bad.
Dave. Huh?
Uh-huh.
Yeah. All right.
Fine. Good... first try.
Interesting.
Mmm-hmm.
Okay, Jack, let's see what you found.
How sweet it is.
[Silver] Oh, yeah. Mmm-hmm.
Wow.
Okay...
I thought the twinning
on that one was pretty distinctive.
How about that?
- Yeah, you don't see much of that here.
- I was surprised.
Well done. Good diversity.
- [Schmitt] Hmm.
- Tells the story.
- Heard any more, Dave?
- Just what I told you.
Missions have been canceled,
and Deke wants to see us.
Here we go.
Hey, guys. Come on in.
We knew that cutbacks were inevitable,
that Congress might cut us short.
Well, they've done it.
The Apollo 15 mission as we know it
has been scrubbed.
We're moving
straight into the J Missions
which, as you know,
mean longer stays on the surface,
an upgraded LEM,
better suits and backpacks
and ultimately more science.
And, of course, the lunar rover. [sighs]
There's one going with the next flight.
And I want you two
to be the first to drive it.
So, Apollo 15 will be
the first J Mission.
I've pushed back all the crews
to accommodate the switch.
You're going to need
a lot more training time.
I don't know how you'll fit it in,
but we'll give you the support you need.
We'll make it work, Deke.
So, you'll have Apollo 15,
and that'll be followed by 16 and 17.
But that's it.
They've canceled Apollo 18 and 19.
Okay, guys.
Bad luck, Jack.
No.
Are you kidding?
That makes what we're doing
that much more important.
[Silver] We're inventing
a whole new science here.
Lunar field geology.
And we'll need to work it out together.
Time is everything, gentlemen.
And preparation is the key to success.
So, when we're confronted
with a new survey site, what do we do?
We go to the highest place we can find
and figure out the big picture.
Quickly.
That mound.
That's where the LEM just landed.
Dave, head on up there.
Tell me what you see.
Now, Jim, what I need you to do
is sketch out what Dave is describing,
and then it'll be your turn.
Okay, Houston. The albatross has landed.
Okay, Dave, start with the 12 o'clock,
work your way around,
tell us what you see.
Well, let's see.
At my 12 o'clock is...
Okay...
A bunch of layers
on the far wall of the canyon.
To the right, there's a lot of dirt...
with green stuff sloping down.
Over to my right is a large...
well, it's a huge...
Breccia... No, no, it's a, it's a...
Like a huge breccia-like boulder...
right in the side of the wall.
At my three o'clock, there's a... a...
layer of rock about...
one-quarter up
from the bottom of the wall.
I don't think so. [sighs]
At my four o'clock
is a large block of granite
on the top of the hill,
which contains
at least four vertical dikes
protruding out to the uplift.
Okay.
At my six o'clock, open end
of the canyon, there's a ridge...
Okay, Houston, at my nine o'clock
is a thick layer
of uniform horizontal beds.
Middle ground sloping down to the right.
superimposed over a variety of about
20 layers of light and dark material.
Looking down at my eight o'clock, the
range of mountains in the background.
About 20 degrees.
Yeah.
He's cooking.
[Scott] First of all, we have this idea
for a stand-up EVA right after landing.
What's that?
Basically sticking my head out of
the LEM and having a look around.
[scoffs]
- Why?
- To survey the site.
Geologically.
Okay, so we risk
a fifth cabin repressurization,
we spend money and manpower
on a revised checklist and procedures,
and we add weight
in the form of consumables,
all so we can add
another time-consuming item
to a flight plan and training schedule
that's already filled beyond capacity?
I think you'd see the value if you
joined us on a field trip sometime.
- I would, would I?
- Absolutely. You'd have a ball, Deke.
[laughs]
There's this neat rake
that the professor devised
that would help us
get a comprehensive suite
of pebble-sized rocks in the regolith.
And we'd like another telephoto lens.
Dave, we're at our weight limit.
You know that.
I've thought of that.
With the new, shorter rendezvous, maybe
we could trade some abort propellant.
Abort propellant?
For a rake?
A rake and a lens.
Uh-huh.
There. The big picture, Al.
- You must tell me the big picture first.
- Well, there's...
[Worden scoffs]
- [El-Baz] Quickly!
- Basalt lava flows.
No, too specific. The big picture first.
A cinder cone with lots of lava.
From where is the lava flowing?
Damn! I don't know.
There is a breach in the cone.
Do you see?
- I can't.
- Of course not.
- We passed it already.
- [sighs]
[chuckles]
All right, all right.
Let's try again.
[chattering]
[Silver] I'm the new guy here.
- We need you to weigh in on this.
- [man] Gentlemen!
We are not leaving this room
or breaking for lunch
until we agree
on a landing site for Apollo 15.
Now, then,
we have a deadlock
between Marius Hills on the one hand
and Hadley Rille
in the Apennine Mountains on the other.
We have been barking over this bone
for six months now...
with absolutely no movement
or, I might add, accommodation.
If we're going to launch in July,
we must know today.
Now, then, let's start at the beginning.
Chet.
I stand by my position. Marius Hills.
[murmurs of agreement]
We should stick with what we know.
We're just getting
equatorial landings down.
Fooling around with anything else,
especially in an area
we don't even have detailed pictures...
- What about the new guidance trajectory?
- And the propulsion system?
It's much more efficient.
I don't care about the new guidance
trajectory or propulsion system.
You know how big those mountains are?
- They're 18,000 feet.
- That's right.
- 18,000 feet.
- We're aware of that.
Trying to land among those peaks
just scares the hell out of me.
- Why go where we've already gone?
- The moon's the moon.
How can you say that?
How can you say, "The moon's the moon"?
I don't believe it.
[Pemberton] Now, look,
samples are what count, in my opinion.
And Marius Hills presents
an adequately unique site
for testing any of the genesis theories,
and it seems a safer landing site.
Dr. Pemberton, the Apennines,
first of all,
should be a great source
of deeper and older imbrium ejecta,
and we may even find material there
from the original lunar crust.
But it's huge.
How do you expect
the astronauts to explore
such a wide, expansive site?
Well, Dave?
That's where the rover comes in.
Assuming that it's ready in time,
and assuming that Hadley isn't covered
with boulders as radar shows,
which would render
the rover non-navigable.
So, you see, gentlemen,
Marius is so much more
reasonable a site.
Marius Hills is attractive only
for its allegedly rare volcanic rocks,
and for being the easy, safe choice.
Well, fine. Then we might
as well consider Tycho.
All right, let's consider it.
I got many reasons as to why Tycho
would make the ideal landing site.
Oh, come on, Jason. That is just nuts.
Astronauts collecting enough regolith
to bury NASA headquarters, that's nuts.
Gentlemen.
Gentlemen, we are getting
absolutely nowhere here.
In fact...
we are moving backward.
Gentlemen, it's getting late.
And we still have this decision to make.
Marius Hills or Hadley Rille?
Help us out here, Dave.
You're the commander, and you haven't
said a word all day. What do you think?
[sighs] Well, let's see.
No offense, Chet, but we feel pretty
confident we can land at either site.
Dr. Pemberton,
I'm one who respects hedging bets.
But from what I've learned in the field,
Hadley-Apennine with its complex variety
of features, both impact and volcanic,
is the best choice for putting together
a picture of how the moon came to be.
- It may be a little riskier.
- Not a little.
But also...
Also, the Apennines have something else.
Grandeur.
And I believe there's something to be
said for exploring beautiful places.
It's good for the spirit.
[sighs]
Then it's Hadley, gentlemen.
- Yes!
- [murmurs of approval]
[sighs]
[chuckles]
[sighs]
- Well?
- One pass.
Let me see.
- There were 16 volcanoes.
- Very good. Yes, yes, yes.
Oh, my God. It's perfect.
- Viewing angle?
- Thirty-four degrees.
Ah!
Oh, my friend. It will be as if
I am going to the moon myself.
I don't believe it.
Farouk, last night I had a dream,
and I actually saw it.
What did you see?
I'm orbiting around,
and I'm hit by a meteor shower.
I'm heading straight down
to Tsiolkovsky crater.
Yeah.
It's a lot deeper than the photo showed.
And when I reached
the moment of impact...
I'm cushioned by this blanket of dust.
Volcanic dust.
And I'm okay.
What does that mean?
It means you are ready.
You know the moon
as you know your own planet.
You've become as crazy as me. [chuckles]
- Grand Canyon.
- No.
[chattering, laughing]
Right.
- Meteor Crater!
- Wow. Brilliant.
[whooping]
[all shouting] Grand Canyon!
[Silver] No kidding.
Hadley Rille, my kind of place.
- My kind of place.
- [laughing]
All right, flip the lights on,
if you would, Stan.
This will be our last visit together.
- Glad you could make it, Deke.
- I wouldn't have missed it.
I know. I'll miss you too.
[laughing]
Now, when you get up there,
you're going to see a lot of this.
- Basalt.
- Mm-hmm.
- And you'll be seeing a lot of this.
- Breccia.
Breccia.
But while I have your attention
one last time,
I want to make a plea
for this fellow here.
Now, we really don't know what
we're gonna find on the lunar surface.
Pete Conrad's car keys?
[laughing]
Maybe.
But what we'd really like to find
is this.
Anorthosite.
It's important because it may unlock
a stack of mysteries
about the origins of the moon.
Because if you find this...
you have probably found
a piece of the moon's primordial crust.
It would be a shame if it was up there
and we missed it.
[Irwin on radio]
Thirty at three. Twenty-five at two.
Seven percent fuel. Twenty at one.
Fifteen at one. Minus one.
Ten feet. Eight feet.
Minus one. Contact.
- [cheering]
- Yes!
Okay, Houston, the Falcon
is on the plain at Hadley.
Roger, Falcon.
[Scott] Okay, overhead hatch,
full open and latched.
Okay, coming full open.
Let's see if we can give our friends
in the geology backroom
something to get excited about.
I'm pulling myself up
through the hatch now.
Oh, boy, what a view.
What a view! Oh!
If the professor could see this.
All right, I'm looking off here
to the north.
I can see Pluton, Icarus and Chain.
I'm getting my camera out.
Start at my 12 o'clock position.
As I come out around to Mount Hadley,
there are no sharp, jagged peaks
or large boulders anywhere.
Boy, the telephoto lens
is great for this.
To the east are lineations
or layers dipping about 30 degrees.
There's one bright, fresh crater right
next to St. George on the eastern side,
which is almost white in albedo.
It's got an ejecta blanket
about a crater diameter away.
I tell you, this is really gonna
help us when we get out there.
- Roger, Dave. It sure will.
- [chuckles]
Okay, Endeavor, this is Houston.
You're at T-2 now.
Okay, Houston, ready for some words
on Tsiolkovsky crater?
Great. We're listening.
First off, the central peak.
The central peak is
a very large spur peak
on the south and east sides.
Getting blocky on the north side.
There appears to be some layering
visible on the south and west
exposed scarp of the peak.
- You getting this?
- You're coming in loud and clear.
Loud and clear, my friend.
[Scott] Okay. Give me a word anytime.
[Irwin] Okay, Dave. Ready?
[Scott] Ready.
Okay, over the rail here.
Down she comes.
All righty. Everything looks
like it's in good shape.
Here we go. Attaboy.
A little more.
A little more. It's coming.
- It's coming okay.
- Okay, we're moving forward, Joe.
[Scott] Gotta get a feel for this thing.
It's nine miles an hour.
I can see I'm gonna have to keep
my eyes on the road.
I can maneuver pretty well.
I'm up a little rise.
There's no dust at all.
Steering is quite responsive,
even with only the rear steering.
There doesn't seem to be much slip.
If you make a turn sharply,
it responds quite well.
Look at that.
There's a nice little round
one-meter crater.
very angular frags
all over the bottom and the rims...
glass at the very center,
about a meter across.
Whoa! Hang on. Feels like we need
seat belts, doesn't it, Jim?
[Irwin] Yeah, really do.
- It's a bucking bronco.
- [Scott] Yeah, man.
I lift back on the power,
it keeps right on going.
Okay, I've got it to the floor here,
and we're up to 12.
Glad I've got this great
suspension system for this thing.
This is really a rocking rolling ride.
There's an elongated depression
here before you get to Rhysling...
Having trouble making it
to our drill site.
[grunting, panting]
I'm pushing,
but the damn thing's bottomed out.
[grunts]
Look, we're not gonna get it out.
[Irwin] Let me give you a hand, Dave.
We'll get this drill out.
[Scott] I don't know
what the hell we've hit here,
but this thing is really stuck.
[Irwin] All right, Dave. Here we go.
- You ready?
-[Scott grunts]
- One, two...
- [panting]
three.
[both grunt]
[panting]
[Scott] Damn.
[no audible dialogue]
Dave, let's take a breather.
We want you to break it loose
and let the stem
and the drill sit in the surface.
We'll come back and pull it out later.
- Let me finish it off, Joe.
- Dave, Jim.
We want you to end your tasks here.
We want you back on the rover, please.
We've got to make sure they get back
to the drilling site in the morning.
That's crazy.
We're gonna blow the North Complex.
North Complex was always a maybe.
We need those deep-core samples.
No, they can't get them out.
That's pretty obvious. Are you gonna
blow the whole EVA on them?
If that's what it takes.
God, that was tough.
I never would have thought. That drill
didn't budge an inch in an hour.
- Are you all right?
- I just need some water, that's all.
The darn line kinked up in the suit.
Why didn't you say anything, Jimmy?
I didn't want them pulling the plug.
[panting]
Get some water in you now.
[panting]
[Scott] Houston, Falcon.
[Joe] Yeah, Falcon, this is Houston.
Go ahead.
Joe, we're heading back to the site.
How long do you want us to work on
getting this drill out?
We're spending a lot of time
on this thing.
Tell me you really want it this bad.
[sighs] That's hard for me to say, Dave.
Stand by.
What's it gonna be, fellas?
We're cutting
into the drive to Hadley Rille.
- Come on. Let's forget this thing.
- That is not an option!
- The rille, Lee. We can't mess that up.
- Just a second.
- You wouldn't know a vesicular basalt...
- How dare you?
Hey, we're wasting time.
Now, here's the thing.
I'd like nothing more than
to abandon the core
- and get on with the observation.
- Absolutely.
But the fact is,
if we don't get that core out,
the whole world is gonna look at it
as a mission failure.
- But, Lee...
- I don't think we can afford that.
So we're gonna give it a couple
more tries, and then we move on.
Regardless. Fair enough?
Good. Tell them to keep trying.
Dave and Jim.
Just go ahead and give it one more try.
And then we want you
to continue on with the grand prix.
[Scott] Good enough.
Let's put some muscle into it.
[Irwin] Houston, I hope
that freeze-dried spinach
we had for breakfast pays off.
[Irwin laughs]
[grunting]
[grunting]
- [Irwin] Dang it!
- Hang on.
This bit looks like it's gonna break.
[Irwin] What the heck is this in anyway?
[Scott] All right, I'm gonna
get down low and grab it.
[Irwin] Okay, hang on for a second.
I'm gonna get a better grip.
[Scott] One, two, three.
[grunting]
Okay, troops.
Let's move on to the rille.
Roger that, Joe.
[Scott] Okay, Houston,
we're moving to the second site.
The patterns of the landscape seem
consistent with the photographs from 14.
I see a large concentration
of enormous boulders.
This one boulder's very angular.
It's got glass on one side,
with lots of bubbles.
Looks fairly recent.
Give me your hammer.
I can see several large blocks
that have rolled down slope.
They're angular and they're all
the same color and texture.
I see the linear patterns Dave commented
on before with the dip and everything.
Okay, eight kilometers up a little rise.
- Look at this baby climb the hill.
- [Irwin] We're heading about 165 now.
- This is Elbow right here.
- We're on the east rim.
There's a fragment here.
It's a rough surface texture.
It looks like a very fine-grain,
gray, rather solid frag.
Could this be Rhysling right here, Jim?
We're on the edge
of the Spur crater now,
and there's the usual basalt regolith
with a corona of light albedo ejecta.
Get the unusual one.
[Irwin] Oh, boy.
[Scott] It's a beaut.
And it's a white clast.
And it's about...
[Irwin] Oh, man, look at that.
I can almost see twinning in there.
[Scott] Guess what we just found.
Guess what we just found.
I think we found what we came for.
I think we found ourselves
some anorthosite.
[laughing, cheering]
[man] That's it!
[Scott] It's like being back
at the old San Gabriel Mountains.
[Joe] Roger, Dave.
[Scott] Make this bag 196 a special bag.
[laughs]
Did you see that? Did you see that?
I doubt a random surface sample would
have ever pulled that out of a hat.
Really. Give me guys
in the field any day.
Yes, sir. That is science.
I stand corrected, Dr. Silver.
Ah, well,
I can't wait to get it home...
and see what you guys can make of it.
[Scott]
We're trying to drive straight ahead
and stay on a fairly level contour.
[Irwin] We don't wanna go down. [laughs]
[Scott] Yeah, I think I'm going
to park right up here.
This would be
a good picture for Houston.
Joe, if you want to swing
the TV around here,
you're going to see a spectacular place.
[Irwin] Boy, oh, boy.
Look at that rille.
- [Scott] How about that?
-[Irwin] How about that, geology fans?
I can see from up
at the top of the rille down,
there's debris all the way.
It looks like some outcrops directly
at about 11 o'clock to the sun line.
Looks like a layer,
about five percent of the rille wall
with a vertical face on it.
[Joe] Beautiful, Dave. Beautiful.
[Joe]
As the space poet Rhysling would say,
"We're ready for you to come back again"
to the homes of men
"on the cool, green hills of Earth."
[Scott] Thank you, Joe. We're ready too.
But it's been great.
Dave and Jim, I've noticed a very slight
smile on the face of the professor.
You very well may have passed
your final exam.
[Scott] Well, we're glad to hear that.
You tell the professor that
we couldn't have done it without him.
Okay, Joe, if you can swing
the camera around toward the LEM here.
Hope you have a good picture there.
Well, in my left hand, I have a feather.
In my right hand, a hammer.
I guess one of the reasons
we got here today
was because of a gentleman
named Galileo a long time ago,
who made a rather significant discovery
about falling objects
and gravity fields.
We thought, where would be
a better place to confirm his findings
than on the moon?
And so, we thought
we'd try it here for you.
The feather happens to be,
appropriately, a falcon feather.
For our Falcon.
And I'll drop the two of them here.
Hopefully, they'll hit the ground
at the same time.
How about that?
That proves that Mr. Galileo
was correct in his findings.
[Joe] Superb, Dave.
[Scott] I always say, "There's nothing
like a little science on the moon."
Gentlemen.
- Proud of those boys.
- Brilliant management on your part.
- [laughing]
- Joe.
Dave and Jim, we have a very
special guest with us right now,
if you care to say a word or two.
Roger that, Joe.
Hey there, Dave.
You've done a lovely job.
You just don't know
how we're jumping up and down down here.
That's because I happen to have
a very good professor.
A whole bunch of them, Dave.
We sure appreciate everything you did
in getting us ready for this thing.
There's an awful lot
to be seen and done up there.
I'll bet.
We think you defined the first site
to be revisited on the moon.
Professor...
I hope someday
we can get you up here too.
That would be...
an amazing adventure.
But I feel as if I've already
been there, thanks to you.
Oh, you were with us, Professor,
every step of the way.
[Scott] We went to the moon
as trained observers,
in order to gather data,
not only with our instruments on board,
but with our minds.
I'd like to quote a statement
from Plutarch,
which I think expresses our feelings
since we've come back.
"The mind is not a vessel to be filled
but a fire to be lighted."
That's it.
Wow.
Sample #15415.
They're calling it the Genesis Rock.
It may be as old as
the solar system itself.
Since I was five years old...
all I ever wanted to be was a pilot.
And flying to the moon...
seemed the ultimate adventure.
- You understand?
- I think I do.
Nothing seemed more important.
But finding this little fellow...
understanding what it represents,
what it can tell us...
Huh...
will probably be the most
satisfying thing I'll ever do.
Well, I suspect there's more to come
from Dave Scott.
In the meantime, "Brought back
original crust of the moon"
should weigh pretty impressively
on your résumé.
You know?
[Silver chuckles]