[Apollo 14] 'TURTLE ROCK' AT STATION H: final site of the first long-range exploration of the Mo...

[Apollo 14] 'TURTLE ROCK' AT STATION H: final site of the first long-range exploration of the Moon Edgar Mitchell, 31 January - 9 February 1971, EVA 2 Printed 1971. Vintage gelatin silver print on fibre-based paper [NASA image AS14-68-9476]. Blank on the reverse (issued by NASA). 25.4 x 20.3 cm. (10 x 8 in.) Historical context Turtle Rock—The final site of Apollo 14's lunar exploration. This rare, unreleased frame from Edgar Mitchell's panoramic sequence at Station H captures Turtle Rock, the largest boulder in a scattered field located 70–80 metres northwest of LM Antares. Scientists believe these boulders were ejected from Cone Crater over a kilometre away during its ancient impact. Measuring approximately 1.5 metres across and 0.75 metres high, Turtle Rock earned its name from the smaller, turtle-like fragments perched atop the main boulder. As their historic Moonwalk drew to a close, Mitchell carefully photographed and sampled this boulder field while Shepard performed a final check at the scientific site on the ALSEP antenna alignment due to weak signals reported by Houston. 'That was it. Antares was in sight, as it had been throughout much of the traverse, and our long Moon Walk was almost over. I went on past Antares to the ALSEP site to check antenna alignment... Ed took some more samples from a nearby field of boulders.' —Alan Shepard (NASA SP-350, p. 238) Footnotes: From the mission transcript when the photograph was taken: 134:54:02 Shepard: Okay, we're approaching the LM now. Coming in at Fra Mauro Base. 134:54:14 Haise (Mission Control): Roger, Al, and I guess from here, we can split up; and Ed can take the MET and proceed to the cluster of boulders he had reported earlier to the north(west) of the LM; and you can proceed out to the ALSEP. 134:56:35 Mitchell: Okay, Fredo, my plan...I'm out in the area of the boulder field. I'm going to photograph many of the boulders, the rocks, the broken ones, the big ones, what have you; and then, grab as many of the different fragments as I can around these piles of broken boulders. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing