LIST OF APOLLO CREW LUNAR GEOLOGIC TRAINING TRIPS TO CRATERS AT THE NTS Compiled by B.W. McGee, consultant to the National Atomic Testing Museum

Below is a comprehensive list of Apollo crew geologic training trips to the NTS, including in some cases the backup crews for the mission. There were seven major geological field training exercises conducted by Apollo astronauts at the Nevada Test Site. Each was located at nuclear excavation craters and was typically broken into training segments of two or more days, with aerial flights common over the craters in addition to boots-on-the-ground exercises. Astronauts were usually brought in by helicopter for the training exercises and then flown back to Las Vegas afterward.

Voice transcripts of the astronauts while on the Moon show that the training exercises at Schooner crater and Buckboard Mesa became a part of their thinking. For example, Apollo 16 astronaut John Young referred to Schooner crater while describing ejected block of material from the North Ray crater on the moon, saying to fellow moonwalker Charlie Duke:

“…see how these block are all laid in there? Remember how it was up at that crater? At Schooner. Those rocks are laid into the ejecta blanket. That’s where they came from.”

As a second example, Apollo 17 astronaut H. H. Schmitt referred to Little Dan crater on Buckboard Mesa (see map for August, 1972 training exercise, below) while describing a 600-m lunar crater in the Haemus Mountains west of Sulpicius Gallus, saying:

"…looks similar to… Yes, it's about a 600-meter crater. And it looks very much like in its geologic pattern to the crater out in the Nevada Test Site on Buckboard Mesa that had an explosion along a contact between two very contrasting rock types. In this case, however, the line does not go completely across the crater, and that's why we feel it may be a dike or a vein which fortuitously has been hit by that impact."

Source documents:“Nevada Test Site Craters used for Astronaut Training,” H.J. Moore, 1977, Journal of Research of the USGS, Vol. 5, No. 6, pp. 719-733 (pdf pages 61-75)https://pubs.usgs.gov/journal/1977/vol5issue6/report.pdf

“The U.S. Geological Survey, Branch of Astrogeology—A Chronology of Activities from Conception through the End of Project Apollo (1960-1973),” USGS Open-File Report 2005-1190 (and appendices)https://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/of2005-1190.pdf

TRAINING EVENTS ARE LISTED HERE IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER; RELATED IMAGES FOLLOW THE TEXT:

17-18 February, 24-25 February, and 3-4 March 1965 First big Test Site trip, included 14 astronauts total – mix of Apollo and Mercury astronauts; this

included prime and/or backup crew astronauts for Apollo 11, Apollo 12, Apollo 13, Apollo 14, Apollo 15, Apollo 16, and Apollo 17. (Some from all future Apollo missions)

NTS News images, credit National Nuclear Security Administration / Nevada Field Office

10-11 September 1970 Apollo 14 crew (Shepard, Mitchell, Cernan, Engle, Evans) – Day 1 training exercise at Schooner

crater following the same procedures for sample collection, documentation, photography, and descriptions as they were to follow on the actual mission. They were also to determine the underlying geological sequence. Day 2 included a Sedan crater visit.

(No images)

12-13 November 1970 Apollo 16 crew (Young, Duke, England) -- Sedan visit, Danny Boy crater exercise, Schooner

crater traverse exercise. Contamination-control clothing and GROVER vehicle images, credit National Nuclear Security

Administration / Nevada Field Office

Charlie Duke (at left) and John Young (at right) at Schooner Crater. (Credit National Nuclear Security Administration / Nevada Field Office)

John Young (at left) and Charlie Duke (at right) at Schooner Crater on the USGS Grover vehicle. (Credit National Nuclear Security Administration / Nevada Field Office)

Charlie Duke (at left) and John Young (at right) with the USGS Grover vehicle at Schooner Crater. (Credit National Nuclear Security Administration / Nevada Field Office)

20-21 May 1971 Apollo 15 crew (Scott, Irwin, Gordon, and Schmitt) -- Schooner crater and Danny Boy crater

exercises planned, but day 2 Danny Boy exercise cancelled due to blowing dust. (No images)

27-28 October 1971 Apollo 16 crew (Young, Duke, Haise, Mattingly) – Schooner crater training exercise, Buckboard

Mesa exercise cancelled -- snowed out. (No images)

16-17 March 1972 Apollo 17 backup crew (Young, Duke) - (No other info on location available) Images ap16-S72-31183HR and ap16-S72-31555HR – EXPLORER vehicle (credit NASA)

Charlie Duke (at left) and John Young (at right) on the USGS Explorer vehicle; NASA AP16-S72-31183.

Geologic training exercise at the Nevada Test site for the AP 16 crew on 16-17 March 1972; (a) John Young standing by the Geological Survey’s “Explorer” vehicle; NASA AP16-S72-31555.

7-8 August 1972 Apollo 17 crew (Cernan, Schmitt, Young, Duke, Roosa) – Day 1: GROVER vehicle traverse at

Schooner crater. Day 2: Danny Boy crater vehicle exercise on Buckboard Mesa. GROVER vehicle images (credit NASA); Traverse maps from Moore, 1977.

Jack Schmitt (left) and Gene Cernan (at right) on the USGS Grover vehicle; (NASA photo)

Jack Schmitt (left) and Gene Cernan (at right) on the USGS Grover vehicle; NASA photo S-72-48865