Apollo Artifacts

Apollo 17 flown LM Data Card Book

David Meerman Scott — Tue, 14 Oct 2025 22:29:47 +0000

Apollo 17 flown LM Data Card Book

This 3-hole punched Apollo 17 LM Data Card Book acquired from the Gene Cernan collection was carried to the lunar surface and used aboard the Apollo 17 lunar module Challenger in the Taurus-Littrow valley of the moon during the last Apollo lunar landing mission in December 1972.

The LM Data Card Book contains templates for recording Pre-Advisory Data (PAD), which was used throughout the flight of the Lunar Module and the stay on the surface. Each card was used as a concise document for making notations on LM operations including LM activation, aborts, rendezvous and docking.

When large lists of PAD numbers were read from Mission Control to Jack Schmitt and Gene Cernan while in the LM, they used this book to record the data necessary to carry out a particular maneuver. To simplify the voice transmission of these large lists of numbers and reduce the likelihood of errors, each type of PAD was precisely formatted and aligned for use in Mission Control and this book.

The writing in these pages was all written while on the surface of the moon. The data contained in the data cards can be tracked in the official mission transcripts of the 75-hour stay upon the lunar surface.

The photo of a similar data card book on the LM control panel is from Apollo 11 photo AS11-36-5389H.

Apollo Command Module SIM Bay camera second-generation film

David Meerman Scott — Tue, 14 Oct 2025 22:14:44 +0000

Apollo Command Module SIM Bay camera second-generation film

The Apollo Command Modules for Apollo 15, Apollo 16, and Apollo 17 were equipped with the Apollo Scientific Instrument Module (SIM) Bay Cameras, including the 24-inch-focal-length optical bar panoramic camera produced by the Itek Optical Systems Division of Lexington, Massachusetts.

The cameras took photos of lunar landscape as the CSM circled the moon. The film was exposed in lunar orbit, and retrieved by the space-walking command module pilot during the coast back to Earth. The space walk of Apollo 15 CM pilot Al Worden to retrieve film was conducted more than 200,000 miles away from the earth, a world record. The first generation film canisters were returned to Earth and copies made. The original first generation flown canisters are now at NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston in cold storage.

These films are marked 2nd generation (which is the master used by NASA to create prints and other negatives/positives). The labels state that they are “Master Direct Negative” and/or “Master Direct POS”. Each frame measures approximately four feet long and 9 inches wide and each canister contains 30+ frames.

Apollo 17 lunar module flown RCS / Common cue card

David Meerman Scott — Tue, 14 Oct 2025 20:46:11 +0000

Apollo 17 lunar module flown RCS / Common cue card

This cue card directly from the Gene Cernan collection was flown to the lunar surface on 17 aboard the spacecraft Challenger and spent time on the moon in the Taurus-Littrow valley during the last Apollo lunar landing mission in December 1972.

The RCS / COMMON cue card would have been used if the astronauts had experienced a Reaction Control System failure in the Lunar Module during the mission. It contains failure indications, workarounds to solve for failures, and other operating information about the RCS system onboard the Lunar Module.

Cue cards like this one are critical to allowing the crew to react quickly and accurately to contingencies that arise during the mission.

Flown Apollo 17 T&D; cue card

David Meerman Scott — Mon, 14 Apr 2014 04:53:40 +0000

Flown Apollo 17 T&D; cue card

This Apollo 17 T&D; cue card was an important tool during the outbound journey from the earth to the moon.

It was used to ensure the correct sequence of maneuvers to execute the transposition and docking of the Command /Service Module (CSM) with the Lunar Module (LM) which for liftoff had been located in the Apollo Saturn V third stage (S-IVB).

The steps included separating the CSM from the S-IVB, pitching the CSM 180° and proceeding to dock with the LM by inserting a probe at the top the CSM into a drogue at the top of the LM.

Unlike many cue cards which were carried in the case of contingencies and never used, this cue card detailed a critical part of the mission.

Flown Apollo 17 lunar surface checklist page

David Meerman Scott — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 12:00:00 +0000

Flown Apollo 17 lunar surface checklist page

This is page 7-8 of the Apollo 17 lunar surface checklist, used on the lunar surface during the last lunar landing mission. The other side of this is page 7-7.

I find this particular checklist page fascinating because it details the last sleep period that humans enjoyed on the lunar surface. Scheduled to begin at 174:39 hours into the mission, the crew status report notations (made on the surface inside Lunar Module America) indicate that Commander Gene Cernan slept 5 hours and Lunar Module Pilot Jack Schmidt slept 6 hours.

Click the image and note the smudges of lunar dust on the checklist page.

In this photo of the Apollo 17 crew taken prior to the mission, you can see the many cue cards and checklists that will be taken aboard the spacecraft. Interesting, the lunar surface checklist (with black writing on the edge) is opened to this very page.