Word: apollos
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Ancient Highlands. Apollo 14, scheduled to lift off on Sunday, Jan. 31, at 3:23 p.m. E.S.T., will head for the same hilly region near the crater Fra Mauro that was the target of its ill-fated predecessor. If all goes well, the Apollo 14 astronauts will become the first human visitors to the lunar highlands. There they may be able to recover rocks dating back to the birth of the moon, more than 4.5 billion years ago. The lunar landing maneuvers will differ in important details from the two previous successful manned lunar expeditions. For one thing, the command...
...should be visible back on earth. As Shepard climbs down from the lunar module, he will pull a cord to open up an exterior equipment bay, thereby switching on a color TV camera, which will later be carried around to record the astronauts' work. For insurance against an Apollo 12-type television breakdown, a black-and-white camera has been provided as a spare. Shepard, who will be recognizable by red arm and leg bands, plans to take his first steps on the moon at 9:05 a.m. E.S.T. Friday. Mitchell will join him a few minutes later...
Later Mitchell will deploy a more powerful explosive device: a mortar containing four rocket grenades that will be fired after Apollo 14 returns home. Together with the shock waves that will be generated in the moon when Antares' abandoned ascent stage and Apollo 14's discarded S-4B rocket hit the lunar surface, tremors from the explosives should give seismologists many more clues to the structure and composition of the moon...
...prevent a recurrence of Apollo 13's troubles, NASA has drastically altered the design of Apollo's oxygen tanks, incorporating such safety features as stainless-steel-sheathed electrical wiring, heat regulators controlled by the astronauts, and external cutoff switches. In addition, NASA has added a third oxygen tank, a long-lived storage battery and extra water supplies as reserves for the command ship. Even Mission Control will profit from the $15 million safety overhaul. If any of Apollo 14's critical systems go awry, as did the defective oxygen tank in Apollo 13, loud beeping alarms will...
...Cape Kennedy. Only people absolutely essential to their mission have been allowed to come in contact with them (only exception: their wives). Others, such as NASA scientists, must brief them from behind glass partitions in their sealed-off crew quarters. With the quarantine, NASA hopes to avert another Apollo 13-type measles crisis, which nearly caused a last-minute cancellation of the mission after one of the back-up astronauts contracted the disease on a preflight visit to Houston and exposed the prime crew...