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Apollo 16
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===Training=== [[File:Young and Duke train for Apollo 16.jpg|thumb|right|John Young and Charles Duke training at the [[Rio Grande Gorge]] in [[New Mexico]]]] In addition to the usual Apollo spacecraft training, Young and Duke, along with backup commander Fred Haise, underwent an extensive [[geology|geological]] training program that included several field trips to introduce them to concepts and techniques they would use in analyzing features and collecting samples on the lunar surface. During these trips, they visited and provided scientific descriptions of geologic features they were likely to encounter.{{sfn|Phinney 2015|pp=125–126}}<ref name=training2>{{cite web|title=Apollo Geology Field Exercises|url=http://next.nasa.gov/alsj/ap-geotrips.html|publisher=[[NASA]]|date=April 29, 2006|editor-first=Eric M.|editor-last=Jones|editor2-first=Ken|editor2-last=Glover|work=Apollo 16 Lunar Surface Journal|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111017212419/http://next.nasa.gov/alsj/ap-geotrips.html|archive-date=October 17, 2011}}</ref><ref name=geotrips>{{cite web|title=Apollo Geology Field Exercises|url=http://next.nasa.gov/alsj/ap-geotrips.pdf|publisher=[[NASA]]|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111021152443/http://next.nasa.gov/alsj/ap-geotrips.pdf|archive-date=October 21, 2011}}</ref> The backup LMP, Mitchell, was unavailable during the early part of the training, occupied with tasks relating to Apollo 14, but by September 1971 had joined the geology field trips. Before that, Tony England (a member of the support crew and the lunar EVA CAPCOM) or one of the geologist trainers would train alongside Haise on geology field trips.{{sfn|Phinney 2015|p=125}} Since Descartes was believed to be volcanic, a good deal of this training was geared towards volcanic rocks and features, but field trips were made to sites featuring other sorts of rock. As Young later commented, the non-volcanic training proved more useful, given that Descartes did not prove to be volcanic.{{sfn|Phinney 2015|p=97}} In July 1971, they visited [[Greater Sudbury|Sudbury]], Ontario, Canada, for geology training exercises, the first time U.S. astronauts trained in Canada.<ref name=sudburytraining /> The Apollo 14 landing crew had visited a site in [[West Germany]]; geologist [[Don Wilhelms]] related that unspecified incidents there had caused Slayton to rule out further European training trips.{{sfn|Wilhelms 1993|p=290}} Geologists chose Sudbury because of a {{convert|60|mi|km|abbr=on|order=flip}} wide crater created about 1.8 billion years ago by a large meteorite.<ref name=sudburytraining /> The [[Sudbury Basin]] shows evidence of [[shatter cone]] geology, familiarizing the Apollo crew with geologic evidence of a meteorite impact. During the training exercises the astronauts did not wear [[Apollo/Skylab A7L|space suits]], but carried radio equipment to converse with each other and England, practicing procedures they would use on the lunar surface.<ref name=sudburytraining>{{cite news|last=Dickie|first=Allan|title=Astronauts training in Ont.|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=s-9UAAAAIBAJ&pg=1178,849265&dq=apollo+16+training&hl=en|access-date=November 26, 2011|agency=[[The Canadian Press]]|newspaper=[[Leader-Post|The Leader-Post]]|location=Regina, Saskatchewan|date=July 7, 1971|archive-date=February 1, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220201050007/https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=s-9UAAAAIBAJ&pg=1178%2C849265&dq=apollo+16+training&hl=en|url-status=live}}</ref> By the end of the training, the field trips had become major exercises, involving up to eight astronauts and dozens of support personnel, attracting coverage from the media. For the exercise at the [[Nevada Test Site]], where the massive craters left by nuclear explosions simulated the large craters to be found on the Moon, all participants had to have security clearance and a listed next-of-kin, and an overflight by CMP Mattingly required special permission.{{sfn|Phinney 2015|p=125}}<ref>{{cite news|access-date=September 20, 2021|publisher=Science and Technology News|title=Apollo astronauts train at the Nevada Test Site|url=https://st.llnl.gov/news/look-back/apollo-astronauts-train-nevada-test-site|archive-date=October 29, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211029065341/https://st.llnl.gov/news/look-back/apollo-astronauts-train-nevada-test-site|url-status=live}}</ref> [[File:Moon Buggy Ap16-KSC-71PC-777.jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|left|Young (right) and Duke training to drive the [[Lunar Roving Vehicle]]]] In addition to the field geology training, Young and Duke also trained to use their EVA space suits, adapt to the reduced [[Gravitation of the Moon|lunar gravity]], collect samples, and drive the Lunar Roving Vehicle.<ref name=training3 /> The fact that they had been backups for Apollo 13, planned to be a landing mission, meant that they could spend about 40 percent of their time training for their surface operations.<ref name = "overview" /> They also received survival training and prepared for technical aspects of the mission.<ref name=training3>{{cite magazine|last=Mason|first=Betsy|title=The Incredible Things NASA Did to Train Apollo Astronauts|url=https://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/07/moon-landing-gallery/?pid=1688&viewall=true|access-date=November 26, 2011|magazine=[[Wired (magazine)|Wired Science]]|publisher=[[Condé Nast Publications]]|date=July 20, 2011|archive-date=September 13, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110913083741/http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/07/moon-landing-gallery?pid=1688&viewall=true|url-status=live}}</ref> The astronauts spent much time studying the lunar samples brought back by earlier missions, learning about the instruments to be carried on the mission, and hearing what the principal investigators in charge of those instruments expected to learn from Apollo 16. This training helped Young and Duke, while on the Moon, quickly realize that the expected volcanic rocks were not there, even though the geologists in Mission Control initially did not believe them.{{sfn|Phinney 2015|p=127}} Much of the training—according to Young, 350 hours—was conducted with the crew wearing space suits, something that Young deemed vital, allowing the astronauts to know the limitations of the equipment in doing their assigned tasks.{{sfn|Phinney 2015|pp=128–129}} Mattingly also received training in recognizing geological features from orbit by flying over the field areas in an airplane, and trained to operate the Scientific Instrument Module from lunar orbit.{{sfn|Phinney 2015|p=16}}
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