4.9.0 - Apollo 17 Introduction
Apollo 17 was launched at 05:33 on 07/12/72, the only night launch of the Apollo series. It performed LOI at 19:47 on the 10th. The last two astronauts to walk on the lunar surface, Gene Cernan (who also took part in Apollo 10's rehearsal mission) and Jack Schmitt (the only scientist to walk on the moon) landed at 19:55 on the 11th. The lunar surface was departed for the final time at 22:55 on the 14th, and the crew finally landed back on Earth on the 19th. The timeline for the mission can be found here: NASA timeline. The utterly superb Apollo 17 in Real Time has also proved invaluable.
During the journey, and the three EVAs of the lunar landing, 23 magazines of film exposed 3584 photographs, the majority of these being sequences on board the LRV used in exploring the surface. Eight magazines containing 404 images were also taken using a Nikon 35mm camera. The mapping camera contained one sequence showing an Earthrise. The majority of the images are available in high quality at the AIA and/or ALSJ sites, but some have had to be requested from GAP. Archive.org also contains some high resolution scans of the more famous images. Video footage will also be used, and referenced as appropriate, including stills from the 16mm footage.
There is a change in satellite for this mission, with NOAA 2 being the main source of information. The meteorological data catalogue for the mission can be found here: Hathitrust source. This satellite provides images in the visible and infra-red (IR) spectra. Visible spectrum images will be preferred, but IR images will be used where necessary and/or appropriate. The data catalogue for this satellite is also interesting in that it does not give timings of orbits. Instead, it gives the time in GMT on longitude lines. The visible spectrum satellite day is still run from around the east coast of Africa onwards , and therefore it is assumed that the weather patterns to the east of this line as far as the west coast of the Americas will be dated the day after the date of the image. The IR night time images seem to start in the Atlantic with the date on the image being appropriate for the whole image. Where digitally restored NOAA data are available and they’re helpful, they’ll be used as well.
Surprisingly, there are very few other sources for satellite data for this mission, despite other countries launching their own missions. NIMBUS 5 data became available for the latter part of the mission but is of little use. One instrument on board (the Electrically Scanning Microwave Radiometer, which measured microwave radiation from the Earth’s surface) did have data covering images on the lunar surface but as will be seen later are difficult to interpret. Those data can be found here. Other satellites do not have a comprehensive data catalogue. As usual, however, there are other individual sources that may prove useful, and at least demonstrate (again) that the satellite images were readily available.
Satellite activities of NOAA 1972, for example, contains images from December 7th, 11th and 18th, all covering small areas of the north-east of north America, but none of which would prove of any use. This Journal of Applied Meteorology article has a NIMBUS 5 image of the US east coast down to Florida from December 13th, but again there was no opportunity to use it. NIMBUS 5 was launched on the 11th of December and early images were tests, but the data catalogue for it does not start until the 19th. The MWL provides, as ever, useful images of a tropical storm (Therese) on the 7th, which occupied the north Pacific for the first half of the mission, and also of Tropical Storm Violet on the 13th. DAPP satellite images also exist for the 13th of central America in this military publication, but this region does not seem to be covered by Apollo images on that day. We have a recorded DMSP image in this publication for the 16th and that does get used.
Therese can also be seen on December 6th in a couple of places, notably the MWL and the Annual Typhoon Report, and while these are from before the launch, they are interesting in that they come from the DAPP satellite. This journal article has some sections of ATS-III images of Puerto Rico, but again the area isn’t photographed by Apollo on the relevant dates.
One ESSA image has been found, thanks to an Army veterans' site covering life on Midway Island. The ESSA 8 image is clearly identified as being from December 11th 1972, but no other details are available – the image was sent to the website for posting, and the site owner has no further details about it.
We also have for the first time images taken by NASA’s Landsat satellite. Landsat 1 (originally named Earth Resources Technology Satellite 1) was launched in July 1972 not to observe the weather but to examine terrestrial resources and land-use. It was based on the NIMBUS-4 weather satellite and had the capability to produce colour images. Images are available throughout the mission (sourced from http:\\earthexplorer.gov.), and will be used where appropriate.
As with previous missions, digitally recovered satellite data is available and will be used where possible.
As with Apollo 11, the existence of images from the lunar surface means we can generate ephemeris values from a batch file submitted to JPL Horizons to generate data showing where Earth should have been in the lunar sky, and what should have been on view.
Here’s the batch file submitted:
!$$SOF
COMMAND= '399'
MAKE_EPHEM = 'YES'
EPHEM_TYPE = 'OBS'
CENTER= 'coord@301'
COORD_TYPE= 'GEODETIC'
SITE_COORD= '30.7717, 20.1908, 0'
START_TIME= '1972-12-12 01:00'
STOP_TIME= '1972-12-14 06:00'
STEP_SIZE= '1 h'
QUANTITIES = '4,14'
REF_FRAME= 'IAU_MOON'
!$$EOF
Which generated this output:
*******************************************************************************
Date__(UT)__HR:MN Azi____(a-app)___Elev ObsSub-LON ObsSub-LAT
*******************************************************************
$$SOE
1972-Dec-12 01:00 *i 240.663822 45.068425 234.055833 -8.459035
1972-Dec-12 02:00 *i 240.621968 45.028441 219.506797 -8.239681
1972-Dec-12 03:00 *i 240.580108 44.989119 204.957689 -8.019506
1972-Dec-12 04:00 *i 240.538243 44.950467 190.408525 -7.798522
1972-Dec-12 05:00 *i 240.496373 44.912490 175.859322 -7.576745
1972-Dec-12 06:00 *i 240.454500 44.875196 161.310095 -7.354187
1972-Dec-12 07:00 *i 240.412624 44.838589 146.760862 -7.130862
1972-Dec-12 08:00 *i 240.370746 44.802677 132.211639 -6.906784
1972-Dec-12 09:00 *i 240.328866 44.767466 117.662442 -6.681967
1972-Dec-12 10:00 *i 240.286987 44.732962 103.113288 -6.456424
1972-Dec-12 11:00 *i 240.245108 44.699170 88.564196 -6.230170
1972-Dec-12 12:00 *i 240.203231 44.666098 74.015180 -6.003218
1972-Dec-12 13:00 *i 240.161356 44.633752 59.466261 -5.775584
1972-Dec-12 14:00 *i 240.119484 44.602137 44.917453 -5.547280
1972-Dec-12 15:00 *i 240.077616 44.571259 30.368776 -5.318322
1972-Dec-12 16:00 *i 240.035753 44.541125 15.820247 -5.088723
1972-Dec-12 17:00 *i 239.993897 44.511741 1.271884 -4.858498
1972-Dec-12 18:00 *i 239.952047 44.483113 346.723705 -4.627662
1972-Dec-12 19:00 *i 239.910206 44.455246 332.175728 -4.396229
1972-Dec-12 20:00 *i 239.868373 44.428147 317.627972 -4.164214
1972-Dec-12 21:00 *i 239.826550 44.401821 303.080454 -3.931632
1972-Dec-12 22:00 *i 239.784738 44.376275 288.533194 -3.698497
1972-Dec-12 23:00 *i 239.742938 44.351514 273.986210 -3.464824
1972-Dec-13 00:00 *i 239.701151 44.327544 259.439520 -3.230630
1972-Dec-13 01:00 *i 239.659378 44.304370 244.893145 -2.995928
1972-Dec-13 02:00 *i 239.617620 44.281999 230.347102 -2.760734
1972-Dec-13 03:00 *i 239.575879 44.260435 215.801411 -2.525064
1972-Dec-13 04:00 *i 239.534155 44.239686 201.256092 -2.288933
1972-Dec-13 05:00 *i 239.492449 44.219755 186.711163 -2.052357
1972-Dec-13 06:00 *i 239.450763 44.200650 172.166644 -1.815351
1972-Dec-13 07:00 *i 239.409098 44.182374 157.622555 -1.577931
1972-Dec-13 08:00 *i 239.367456 44.164934 143.078916 -1.340114
1972-Dec-13 09:00 *i 239.325836 44.148334 128.535745 -1.101915
1972-Dec-13 10:00 *i 239.284241 44.132581 113.993063 -0.863351
1972-Dec-13 11:00 *i 239.242672 44.117680 99.450891 -0.624438
1972-Dec-13 12:00 *i 239.201130 44.103635 84.909247 -0.385193
1972-Dec-13 13:00 *i 239.159617 44.090452 70.368153 -0.145632
1972-Dec-13 14:00 *i 239.118134 44.078136 55.827628 0.094228
1972-Dec-13 15:00 *i 239.076682 44.066691 41.287693 0.334370
1972-Dec-13 16:00 *i 239.035262 44.056123 26.748369 0.574776
1972-Dec-13 17:00 *i 238.993877 44.046437 12.209675 0.815431
1972-Dec-13 18:00 *i 238.952527 44.037638 357.671632 1.056315
1972-Dec-13 19:00 *i 238.911215 44.029730 343.134261 1.297412
1972-Dec-13 20:00 *i 238.869941 44.022717 328.597583 1.538704
1972-Dec-13 21:00 *i 238.828707 44.016606 314.061618 1.780173
1972-Dec-13 22:00 *i 238.787515 44.011399 299.526388 2.021800
1972-Dec-13 23:00 *i 238.746367 44.007102 284.991913 2.263569
1972-Dec-14 00:00 *i 238.705263 44.003718 270.458214 2.505459
1972-Dec-14 01:00 *i 238.664206 44.001253 255.925312 2.747453
1972-Dec-14 02:00 *i 238.623198 43.999710 241.393228 2.989532
1972-Dec-14 03:00 *i 238.582240 43.999094 226.861984 3.231677
1972-Dec-14 04:00 *i 238.541333 43.999408 212.331600 3.473868
1972-Dec-14 05:00 *i 238.500481 44.000657 197.802098 3.716087
1972-Dec-14 06:00 *i 238.459684 44.002844 183.273499 3.958314
$$EOE
After the date, the columns represent the azimuth and elevation of Earth from the lunar module’s location, and the Observer sub-longitude and latitude, ie the centre point of the Earth as viewed from the observer’s point on the moon at the time of the observation.
On to the missions!