Summary

The Erectable S-Band Antenna was first flown on Apollo 11 and was intended to provide a stronger television signal.  Because time during the brief Apollo 11 EVA was so precious, the expected 19-minute deployment of the antenna would have a major impact of productivity.  Consequently, an assessment was made of the first few minutes of the B&W TV signal coming through the LM's steerable antenna.  The signal was deemed adequate, so the Erectable S-Band wasn't deployed.  It was deployed on both Apollo 12 and 14.

Deployment was intended to be easy enough that one person could do it.  However,  training convinced the Apollo 12 crew that they might have to work together when aiming the antenna at Earth.  On both the Apollo 12 and 14 deployments, the astronauts worked as a team doing rough alignments and then, with one of them watching the sighting glass and making small adjustment to elevation using the flexible-cable crank, the other astronaut held the antenna to keep it relatively steady and to keep it from tipping over.  The Apollo 12 and 14 deployments took 15 1/4 and 10 1/2 minutes, respectively.  In both instances, the second crewman took part for about 5 minutes.

Detailed procedures can be found on pages 35 to 39 in the Final Apollo 12 Lunar Surface Operations Plan ( 6 Mb ).

Lessons

The low weight and high center-of-mass meant that the antenna was easy to disturb.  Evidently, there was enough friction ("stiffness")  in the crank mechanism to cause the structure to move or, even, tip over, unless the astronauts worked together to keep it steady while it was being aligned.  This is probably a case in which mechanical forces became more important relative to gravity than had been the case on Earth.

The Apollo 14 deployment took about 10 minutes 30 seconds versus 15 minutes 15 seconds for Apollo 12.  The difference was due entirely to a much quicker alignment, undoubtedly due to lessons learned for the Apollo 12 experience.

Offloading

As indicated, the following two-line decal was in the equipment bay to the right of the ladder, just below the stowed antenna.  See Apollo 11 training photo S69-31055.

Deployment

The following decal was on the top plate (end cap) of the package as can be seen in a detail from Pickerell photo 01.  The plan was to have the deployment in the field-of-view of the 16mm sequence (movie) camera mounted in the LMP's window.  'Gross pointing' may have involved holding the package upright and turning it around its vertical axis until an arrow on the top plate was pointed at Earth's azimuth (training photo S69-31057).  The antenna was supported on three telescoping legs, which were to be unlocked at this point (Pickerell photo 02).  Finally, the top plate and underlying pad were removed (S69-31150) and discarded (S69-31151).




The final deployment decal was on one of the legs.  The first steps are to remove the carry bar and a rib protector, as indicated in a labeled detail from training photo S69-31159.  Next, a trigger lanyard was released (S69-31160). This put the trigger about halfway down the legs (Pickerell photo 08), which let the astronaut trigger deployment while keeping his helmet and backpack well out of the way of the quite dynamic unfolding (Pickerell photo 09,  S69-31162, Apollo 14 training film clip).  Finally, the cable connecting the antenna to the LM was extended out from the MESA and mated to the antenna.

Details of the Apollo 12 and 14 Deployments

For the Apollo 12 deployment, we have only a few seconds of TV relevant to offloading; otherwise, only the audio and transcript.  These allow approximate times to be determined for some events.  For the Apollo 14 deployment, although the quality of the TV isn't great, we can identify the time of most deployment events from the audio/video record, supplemented by the audio transcript.  The Apollo 14 deployment was the shorter of the two by about 5 minutes, due entirely to quicker alignment.  Clearly, the Apollo 14 crew learned a great deal from the Apollo 12 experience and, pre-flight, probably worked out an effective way to get the alignment done.  Because we have a more complete record of the Apollo 14 deployment, it occurs first in the following table.  Crew comments can be found via the links to the relevant portions of the Apollo 12 and Apollo 14 Lunar Surface Journals

Event	Apollo 14 Ground Elapsed Time (From Television)	Apollo 14 Time from Start (mm:ss)	Apollo 12 Ground Elapsed Time (From transcript*)	Apollo 12  Time from Start (mm:ss)	Apollo 11 Training Photographs
Total Task Times
Start Offload	114:11:32	0	115:53:42	0
Finish Deployment	114:22:05	10:33	116:08:59	15:15
Deployment details
Start Off-Load	114:11:32	0	115:53:42	0	S69-31055
Carried package away from bay	114:12:22	00:50	115:54:26	00:44	S69-31056
Reached deployment location, rough align, remove top plate	114:13:12	01:40	115:54:53	01:11	S69-31057 S69-31150
Discarded top plate	114:14:04	02:32			S69-31151
Has mast raised	114:14:34	03:02	115:56:27	02:45	S69-31152
Third leg raised	114:15:06	03:34
Leg straps removed, legs released, tripod raised and legs locked	114:15:54	04:22			S69-31155 S69-31156 S69-31157 S69-31158
Umbrella cover removed and discarded	114:16:01	04:29	115:58:11	04:29	S69-31159 Cover is in the foreground in this A11 training photo, with the carry bar on top of it.
Question from Houston about leg penetration answered	114:16:26	04:54
Removed and discarded carry bar and rib protector	114:16:51	05:19	115:59:25	05:43	S69-31159(detail) S69-31165(detail) Neil has the rib protector in his right hand and will let it slide down the leg on our right.
2nd leg question answered	114:17:01	05:29
Al worked on far side of the antenna, probably deploying the trigger lanyard.  Ed brought the connecting cable from the MESA.  Noticed that the antenna was too far from the MESA.	114:17:27	05:55			S69-31160 S69-31161
Ed returned to MESA to see if he has pulled the full cable length out.  Returned.	114:18:04	06:32
Antenna in final location	114:18:33	07:01
Umbrella released but hung up; antenna tipped 90 degrees so Mitchell could free.  Returned to upright.	114:19:27	07:55	116:01:14 Didn't get hung up.	07:32	S69-31162 S69-31163 Apollo 14 training film clip Didn't get hung up.
Shepard used the crank to set approximate elevation.	114:20:42	09:10			S69-31059(detail) S69-311179 KSC-70PC-0016 (Apollo 13 training photo showing Jim Lovell using the crank)
Mitchell on the sighting "glass".  Shepard adjusted azimuth, looking from behind. They then fine-tuned elevation and got Earth centered.	114:22:05	10:33	116:08:59	00:00	S69-17211(detail) S69-31165 S69-31165(detail) unnumbered training photo

* Times inferred from the Apollo 12 transcript are more uncertain than those from the audio-synched Apollo 14 TV record.