Visual Archives of Apollo 17 Csm: Mapping the Lunar Surface from Orbit
By Robert Thorne
The cameras could not return to Earth on their own. The Service Module had no heat shield, meaning it would be jettisoned and incinerated during atmospheric reentry. If Evans did not physically retrieve the exposed film cassettes, the entire photographic record of the SIM bay would be lost.
On December 17, 1972, during the voyage home, the crew initiated the trans-Earth injection EVA. Apollo 17 sat approximately 180,000 nautical miles from Earth, floating in deep interplanetary space. Evans depressurized the Command Module cabin, opened the main hatch, and stepped out into the void.
Tethered to the spacecraft, Evans worked hand-over-hand along foot restraints attached to the hull until he reached Sector I. Schmitt stood in the open hatch hatchway, managing the umbilicals and observing the operation. Evans removed the 80-pound panoramic film cassette and transferred it back to Schmitt, then returned to the bay to extract the metric camera cassette. The entire spacewalk took 1 hour, 5 minutes, and 44 seconds. With both cassettes stowed under the Command Module couches, the visual harvest of Apollo 17 was finally secure.
Robert Thorne covers electric vehicle innovations, autonomous driving systems, global mobility trends, and automotive engineering developments.
