Apollo 14: Mission to Fra Mauro

Video from the channel NASA STI Program about Apollo 14, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 28:26. Language: English. Video type: Archive footage.

NASA film about the Apollo 14 mission to Fra Mauro. It opens with Alan Shepard's flight aboard Freedom 7 on May 5, 1961, contrasting it with the Saturn V that, ten years later, launched Shepard, Stuart Roosa and Edgar Mitchell on January 31, 1971. It shows the six attempts to dock the command module Kitty Hawk with the lunar module Antares, whose probe capture latches would not engage, and how Mission Control studied an identical probe. Once in lunar orbit, a spurious abort signal threatened the descent: controller Dick Thorson attributed it to a loose particle in the abort button, and Donald Eyles, at MIT, prepared instructions for the computer to ignore it, verified on a simulator at Cape Kennedy. During the descent the landing radar also had to be reset.

It combines footage from the mission itself, in orbit and on the lunar surface, with scenes from Mission Control and contributions from scientists of the time. Shepard stepped onto the Moon 114 hours and 22 minutes after launch, and Mitchell followed four minutes later. On the first excursion they planted the flag, loaded the MET handcart and installed the automatic science station: a nuclear generator, the central station, a seismometer, charged-particle experiments, a laser retroreflector and a mortar. Mitchell also tested the thumper, a controlled-charge device. They collected 44 pounds of samples in 4 hours and 50 minutes. On the second excursion, 12 hours and 40 minutes later, they tried to reach the rim of Cone crater but stopped less than 150 feet short without knowing it, as photo analysis revealed a week later.

Fra Mauro, Apollo 13's thwarted destination, was of interest because it was believed to be formed from material ejected by the Imbrium basin impact and could preserve ancient lunar crust. The rocks collected showed potassium and uranium levels ten times higher than those from Apollo 11 and 12. The two excursions totaled a record nine and a half hours of exploration. Liftoff came 33 and a half hours after landing; after docking, the lunar module crashed into the Moon and its impact was recorded by the seismometers of Apollo 12 and 14. The crew returned on February 9, 1971, with 95 pounds of lunar material.