Word: lunar
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...knocking off part of one of its rear fiberglass fenders, which act as shields against the spray of dust churned up by the rover's wire mesh wheels. Cernan tried to reattach the section of fender with gaffer tape. But because of the everpresent, clinging fine-grained lunar dust, it would not stick. As precious minutes ticked away. Mission Control suggested that the astronauts abandon the fender repair work and get on with the more important job of setting up the five ALSEP (Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Package) experiments...
Paper Fender. At the start of their second moon walk, the astronauts headed straight for the damaged rover. Displaying a little old-fashioned Yankee ingenuity. Mission Control had advised them to tape together four lunar maps made of stiff photographic paper and attach the resulting 15-by 20-in. rectangle to the damaged fender with clamps taken from Challenger's interior light fixtures. The scheme worked. Indeed, the paper fender was so effective that it shielded the astronauts from dust even when Cernan opened the rover's throttle to more than 7 m.p.h. on the way to South...
There was good reason for the excitement. The orange hue indicated that the lunar material may have oxidized, or rusted. That, in turn, meant that it had probably been exposed to water or oxygen. The only likely source for such vapors on the arid, airless moon were volcanic vents in the lunar surface. Indeed, some scientists had suspected earlier that Shorty Crater (which resembles volcanic vents on earth) had been created volcanically rather than by the impact of a meteorite (which is how most of the moon's craters are believed to have been formed). As they await...
...mankind." It carried the engraved signatures of all three astronauts as well as that of President Nixon. But before boarding the moonship for the last time, the astronauts could not resist one more bit of horseplay as Schmitt heaved a geological hammer "a million miles" in the slight lunar gravity...
...Gentle. Little more than seven minutes after its spectacular ascent from the lunar surface, Challenger was in lunar orbit, ready for its rendezvous with America. "God, you look pretty," Cernan radioed as Challenger approached the mother ship. Evans maneuvered America so gingerly in the final phases that the first docking contact was too gentle; the latches of the docking mechanism failed to catch. The two ships came together harder on the second try and were firmly joined. Taking their rocks, films and other paraphernalia with them, Cernan and Schmitt climbed through the connecting tunnel and rejoined Evans; the moonwalkers...