Hawaii's Big Island: Astronauts explore a moonscape on Earth
The volcanic island chain made the perfect site to learn about lunar volcanism.
Throughout the Apollo era, the astronauts completed tons of training exercises to prepare them for what they might find on the Moon. Here, members of the Apollo 15 prime and backup crews arrive on the Big Island of Hawaii for training on December 5, 1970. From left to right: Jim Irwin, Dick Gordon, Dave Scott, Harrison Schmitt, Bob Parker, and Joe Allen.
Some of these training missions took them to volcanic landscapes of Hawaii, where they could practice efficient study of a unique terrain.
At a handful of Hawaiian volcanic sites, the astronauts practiced taking photos, samples and making observations of different types of geological features. They learned what details would be most relevant to home in on during their short trips to the Moon.
The group had a grand old time in Hawaii. According to USGS geologist Jerry Schaber, who chronicled the Apollo happenings at USGS, one particularly noteworthy moment from this 1970 trip was a hike the group took near an active lava flow. Some members of the group melted the soles of their shoes on still-hot lava. Later, someone boldly poked at the edge of a cooling flow, triggering a re-direction of lava right over USGS geologist Bob Sutton’s boots. And when astronaut Dick Gordon decided to try to take a cooled sample of the molten lava back for his kids, he caught a stick on fire, and tried to put out the flame and cool the sample with some rather crude methods. From left to right, astronauts Bob Parker and Dick Gordon, NASA geologist Lee Silver and scientist-astronaut Harrison Schmitt.
The geologists running the training exercises didn’t guide the astronauts on foot — instead, they set up camp remotely to more closely mimic the communication the astronauts might actually expect while exploring the moon. They referred the spot as the “science backroom.” From left to right, Jim Head (Bellcom Inc.), Jerry Schaber (USGS), Bob Sutton (USGS), Gary Lofgren (Manned Spacecraft Center, Houston).
It was too difficult to get full spacesuits down to Hawaii, so instead the group wore simulated backpacks as they practiced hauling around their equipment over different terrains. Here, Scott adjusts the microphone he would have used to communicate to the remote team of geologists guiding the exercise from the “backroom.”
Don Beattie, NASA manager for the Apollo lunar surface explorations, would later describe these exercises as a “final exam” of sorts for the astronauts. After they went out exploring, the geologists would retrace their steps to see how well they navigated and made observations. The Hawaii simulations were, Beattie said, “about as good as we could get in obtaining a high-fidelity rehearsal before the real mission was under way.”
Astronaut Dave Scott carries a multi-tool called a gnomon, a Hasselblad camera, rake and terrain map during an exercise.
