Hartsfield: I guess the big thing, Ken, was they found all breccia. They found only one rock that possibly might be igneous.
Mattingly: Is that right? [Laughs.]
Hartsfield: Yeah. I guess the guys are a little bit surprised by that.
Mattingly: […] [Laughs.] Well, it’s back to the drawing boards, or wherever geologists go.
Inside the LM, as Young and Duke prepared to sleep, Duke paid tribute to the mission geologists who had trained them.
Duke: Let me say that all our geology training, I think, has really paid off. Our sampling is really — at least, procedurally — has been real team work, and we appreciate everybody’s hard work on our sampling training.
England: OK. And I sure think it’s paying off. You guys do an outstanding job.
Young: Yeah. You noticed how good I carried the bags, huh?
Unbeknownst to Young, his radio remained open, allowing Houston — and the press corps — to eavesdrop on a decidedly private conversation.
Young: I got the farts again. I got ’em again, Charlie. I don’t know what the hell gives it to me. Certainly not — I think it’s the acid in the stomach. I really do.
Duke: It probably is.
Young: I mean, I haven’t eaten this much citrus fruit in 20 years! And I’ll tell you one thing, in another 12 f------ days, I ain’t never eating any more! And if they offer to sup[plement] me potassium with my breakfast, I’m going to throw up! [Pause.] I like an occasional orange — really do. [Laughs.] But I’ll be darned if I’m going to be buried in oranges.
After a few more minutes of unguarded conversation, Houston intervened.
Joe Allen (CapCom): Orion, Houston.
Young: Yes, sir.
England: OK, uh, John. You — we have a hot mic.
Young: How… How long have we had that?
England: OK. It’s been on through the debriefing.
Young: How could we be on hot mic with normal voice? […]
England: John, would you exercise your push-to-talk button there? It may be stuck.
Young: Yeah, I hit it then.
England: John, it doesn’t seem to be a hot mic now. Evidently, you got it off.
Young: OK. Fine.
* * *
The next day, Young and Duke trekked to the lower slopes of Stone Mountain, 2.4 miles (3.8 km) south. Driving the rover up a 20 percent grade, they reached a cluster of five craters, called the Cincos, 500 feet (150 m) above the Cayley Plains. Their goal was to find chunks of the mountain’s bedrock — true samples of the Descartes Highlands. However, this was complicated by the nearby presence of South Ray Crater on the plains below: The crew realized that many of the craters they were seeing were secondary craters formed by flying debris from the South Ray impact.
Duke: You know, John, with all this — these rocks here, I’m not sure we’re getting [samples of] Descartes.
Young: That’s right. I’m not either.
Duke: We ought to go down to a crater without any rocks. […]
As Young and Duke stood at the rim of one secondary crater with a rake for collecting samples, they debated the best spot to sample from.
Duke: This is steep. OK, where do you want this [rake]?
Young: Well, on the rim, I think, Charlie.
Duke: Why don’t we get outside the rim? That would be definitely Descartes, right down here. OK?
Young: The object is to get the stuff that’s been knocked out of the ground [bedrock from the deepest point] and landed on the rim.
Duke: Yeah, I know it, but I thought that would definitely — we could say that would be definitely — oh, OK, I’ll sample right up here.
The next day’s third and final EVA was originally going to be cancelled due to the landing delay, but it was retained at the insistence of the science team. They argued that EVA 3’s main target, North Ray Crater, offered the mission’s last, best chance to find Descartes bedrock material.
Indeed, North Ray Crater was a crown jewel of the area. At roughly 3,600 feet (1.1 km) in diameter, it was nearly as large as Arizona’s Meteor Crater — and with even steeper slopes, as the pair found out.
Young: Man, does this thing have steep walls.
Duke: They said 60 degrees.
Young: Well, I tell you, I can’t see to the bottom of it and I’m as close to the edge as I’m gonna get. That’s the truth. […]
England: Man, is that a hole in the ground!
Duke: […] It really is. I see no bedrock, though. All I see is boulders around the crater. There’s nothing that reminds me of bedding, just loose boulders.
Though no bedrock seemed available to sample, the crew took the opportunity to scout and sample an enormous boulder several hundred feet in the distance.
Duke: Look at the size of that biggie!
Young: It is a biggie, isn’t it. It may be further away than we think because —
Duke: No, it’s not very far. It was just right beyond you.
Young: Theoretically, huh?
Apollo crews found it notoriously difficult to judge distances on the Moon. The lack of air meant distant terrain never appeared hazy as it would on Earth, robbing astronauts of a helpful distance cue.
Duke: Look at the size of that rock!
England: We can see.
Duke: The closer I get to it, the bigger it gets.