Mattingly: We had the event timer problem which we already discussed, but the one on the MDC-2 cromped on us about halfway through the mission. And thatÂ’s really a nuisance - you can work around it but itÂ’s awfully difficult to work some problems in our DET instead of on a countdown basis. Trying to set your watches is a difficult thing since it works in 30-minute increments when the sweep second hand goes around. So you really need those things. And for future spacecraft, thereÂ’s got to be a better way to set those clocks. You should never have to spend all the time trying to sync a clock to the computer for instance. You go to make a burn; it can take you a minute or two by the time you reset the DET to count up when you ought to really is just push some kind of a sync button and have the thing start counting. And thatÂ’s just a terrible nuisance. WeÂ’re always joking about the fact that there isnÂ’t enough time to set the clock, but itÂ’s more than just a joke. On future birds, thatÂ’s really got to be an included item in the design.
Crew Compartment Configuration - I think all you can say is that the J-configuration with all the stowage in there, really is a full house by the time you tie down the rock bags on top of the stowage compartments. It gets to be very frustrating when you find that thereÂ’s no way you can stow so that you donÂ’t have to go back into those compartments. You just have to get used to the idea that you have to untie the rock bags and then go on down in there. When the PGA bag is full, you just can not get to the connectors where the rock bags tie down to the top of A-1 and A-7. The PGA bag gets so full that you canÂ’t even get your fingers in there much less the probe that ties them down. One of the bags I tied to the top of the PGA and the other one, I just had to leave it hanging free. The back of the PGA bag is up towards the side hatch which represents a volume of quite a few cubic feet. The best we could tell, this was totally unused. Could be used for more deviated volume or whatever but itÂ’s back in an area where itÂ’s difficult to get to. You canÂ’t put large items down through the couch to get into it but itÂ’s one of the few unused volumes in the spacecraft. We used the tunnel a great deal for our stowage place and thatÂ’s very convenient until it comes time to do a LM oriented maneuver when you have to go into the LM or something. Now youÂ’ve got to push all that stuff out of the way to find some other place for it. This is particularly true when you go to don suits. The Mirrors I donÂ’t think we used for anything except shaving.
Duke: I did to put my sensors on.
Mattingly: Did you?
Duke: It worked pretty good. I like those mirrors.
Mattingly: No sweat there. I think one thing that would help is either a portable mirror or a mirror you could take with you down into the area when you have to defecate. I think thereÂ’s some application for a mirror for that.
Young: It will help you in cleaning yourself off. You know where to rub. It wouldnÂ’t be so hit and miss.
Mattingly: Well, at least you wouldnÂ’t miss something.
Young: ThatÂ’s the difference between using half a carton of tissue and using the whole pile. YouÂ’re rubbing blind. I think itÂ’s a serious problem. We really thought when we started the mission, we were going to be out of tissues inside the phase.
Mattingly: You really go through those things in a hurry.
IV Clothing and Belated Equipment - I thought the jacket and trousers worked real well. That pair of long johns, again you ought to use two pieces and I guess Skylab has gone to that we donÂ’t have to say anymore about it. ThatÂ’s a much better way to operate.
Young: I guess everybody has their own temperature associated problems but none of the three of us were at any single time wearing the same amount of gear. I wore the top part of it and the lower part of the skivies with the boots on to keep my feet warm. And Charlie, he was running around in his underwear and Ken had the whole business on and I think that worked pretty good. I think with that much clothes youÂ’re able to set your own temperature.
Mattingly: Yes. I think in the spacecraft cabin thatÂ’s probably the way you have to do it. You just canÂ’t go around controlling the cabin temperature at will.
Young: You donÂ’t have any control, near as I can figure, except you could control the spacecraft cabin to an extent by either turning up the floods or by putting the window covers in.
Mattingly: So weÂ’ve already talked about the Couches and the Mechanical business - the problem of the "Y" strut. Maybe a procedural problem for all I know, but it was something that caught us by surprise.
Restraints were certainly adequate.
In-flight Tool Set, we only used a couple of tools out of it. It was nice to know they were there. That Tool E is certainly an invaluable thing and you really would hate to lose that thing. We have another one in the tool kit. I guess I worried the whole flight that we were going to lose that thing, particularly on the day that the LM left. I was afraid John would have it in his pocket. We had a shakedown before he - before he could get out of the cockpit. Same thing goes for pencils by the way. You can really run yourself out of pencils up there and then youÂ’re in trouble - Probably a spare pencil ought to get stuffed away somewhere. I wouldnÂ’t carry anymore, but IÂ’d take some of the ones you have onboard and stuff them away for use after youÂ’ve lost all the ones you started with. We lost a couple out the hatch during EVA.
Data Collection, IÂ’d like to say some words about data collection in general. Data collection on an operational mission ought to be something that takes the minimal amount of crew concentration. I think you ought to put the minimum number of entries into the Flight Plan. And, the ground can watch the DSKY or the ground can copy things before it goes on the DSE. I think thatÂ’s the way it should be done. One of the problems we had with our tape recorder is that youÂ’re never sure when youÂ’ve got the tape recorder to put the data on. You can be pretty sure if youÂ’re on a J mission, if youÂ’re on the front side of the Moon, that theyÂ’re dumping the tape and you have to go on the radio. Trans-lunar and trans-earth coast I never knew who had what going because the ground guys always operated it. In building future hardware If weÂ’re going to operate this way, it seems like a darn good thing would be, instead of the tape motion light, at least you ought to have the complement, one that says whether itÂ’s recording or rewinding. I think you need access to a taped voice channel all the time. Because it turned out that I wanted to make a lot of comments on things I saw, things I didnÂ’t want to forget. Taking the time to write them down, you donÂ’t get your job done. And you just really ought to be able to just say the words and then thatÂ’ll jog your memory when you get home. Data collection in the Flight Plan just isnÂ’t the way to go and I finally resorted to calling it out to the ground. Hopefully it can be sorted out but itÂ’s gonna take the air-to-ground playback plus some flight plans to - sort out where all the different frames went.
Thermal Control of Spacecraft. Far as I can tell, we didnÂ’t have any. Took whatever we had. And, in lunar orbit, that represented a rather large swing of excursions between hot and cold. ThatÂ’s no surprise to anybody.
Camera Equipment, I thought that the camera equipment operated beautifully. I still have some very strong comments about the idea of using a camera like the Hasselblad and having to use a ring sight on the side of it. I have several pictures where I had the target in the ring sight and unfortunately the lens was looking at part of the window frame. And I think through the lens is the only way to prevent that. You have to be careful when you use the 250[mm] because it makes the camera so long. You really need to emphasize making any optical equipment as short as you can when you want to get up next to the window with your head. Just anything like that and the same thing is true of the binoculars. They turned out to be small enough that they were very useful. We felt like we couldnÂ’t get enough uniform illumination inside to get good photography. If you can get the Sun shining in the window, thatÂ’s fine. But that says anytime you want to take a picture of something, like demonstrating how a meal preparation goes, you have to try and time it when the Sun is coming through the window. And it just turns out that on an operational mission you just never have the luxuries to do those kind of things. You really could use a portable light in the cockpit if you want to do photography or anything like that. SIM Bay Equipment, I donÂ’t think thereÂ’s any comment at all on that.
Young: We used to have a portable light.
Mattingly: I donÂ’t remember ever having one. I remember asking for a utility light.
Young: Well, we talked about using it and carrying it down in the LEB with us and everybody said well, you can use a flashlight so they did away with it.
Mattingly: The flashlights donÂ’t give you enough illumination to take photography.
Slayton: We probably ought to have a higher priority on it.
Mattingly: I think the Skylab is going to be seeing a lot of times when theyÂ’d like to take internal pictures. I donÂ’t know how they illuminate Skylab.
Young: Crew compartment configuration.
Duke: That we just talked about, the Velcro. I thought the launch stowage was excellent. We had a couple of changes that we decided to do to give us a minimum time for getting ready on the lunar surface. That was to put the footstool harnesses on for lift-off and things like that. Minor things that just saved us a few minutes, and all that went great. We used the Restraint Systems for landing and you really were anchored. We had a pair of pliers and a pair of dikes that never were out of stowage.
Young: The emergency APS start system.
Duke: We never touched those either. And we had a emergency tool B, I guess it was to open the Command Module hatch that was never touched. The Camera Equipment all worked great, just great.
Young: One thing that we just sort of arbitrarily imposed on Grumman was to put a strap in every compartment behind the equipment thatÂ’s in there so you can pull on a strap and get the equipment out. I would say if you send one engineer in there and judiciously look at the compartments where the things are in there tight, those would be the ones you could leave the straps in. I bet thereÂ’s three to four pounds of straps in that vehicle which serve no useful purpose if theyÂ’re looking for weight savings. ThereÂ’s an awful lot of compartments in there and every one has a strap in there that pulls something out and you donÂ’t need them. There must be a strap thatÂ’s as long as this table, thatÂ’s 10 feet long that pulls the LCG bags out the LCG compartment. You donÂ’t need it.