RR7214A APOLLO 16: MISSION TO THE HIGHLANDS
Video from the channel AP Archive about Apollo 16, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 16:28. Language: English. Video type: Archive footage.
What it shows
A period news report introducing the Apollo 16 mission before launch. It opens with communications from a rehearsal between the crew and control, and explains why the Descartes area was chosen. More than 70% of the Moon consists of bright regions, the highlands, which dominate the far side, and Apollo 16 would be the first American mission to sample one of them. A crew member explains that the experiments will be similar to those of Apollo 15, but the rocks will be different. He adds that the site's altitude does not affect the landing because the orbit compensates for it. He then describes the lunar rover: it has no steering wheel, it is driven with a lever positioned between the two crew members, and its four-wheel steering gives it a minimal turning radius. It has a range of 80 km, and the planned routes add up to between 25 and 30 km. The farthest point, about 6 km from the lunar module, will be the crater North Ray, on the third excursion.
When and where it was filmed
It was filmed before launch, during crew training and in laboratories where lunar samples were analyzed. Ken Mattingly describes the spacewalk to retrieve two cassettes from the service module: the panoramic camera's, weighing about 85 pounds (around 39 kg), and the mapping camera's, much smaller. It also presents the small subsatellite that would be left in lunar orbit to measure Earth's magnetic environment.
Context
The report ends in the laboratory. A scientist explains that the Moon may have had a metallic core that formed very early, that its exterior was once molten, and that it received enormous impacts. According to him, studying its rocks helps understand the early history of Earth's crust.