Apollo 14 Trivia Quiz

Answer: True

Apollo 14 experienced unsatisfactory weather conditions at the time of launch which resulted in a 40-minute delay. Commander Alan Shepard, Lunar Module Pilot Ed Mitchell, and Command Module Pilot Stuart Roosa lifted off on January 31, 1971.

Answer: 6

Inflight examination of the docking probe revealed no problems. It is assumed that a piece of debris must have been preventing successful docking, or that the capture-latch assembly was not in the locked configuration during the first five attempts.

Answer: True

No one at NASA knew about it beforehand, but Ed Mitchell had made arrangements to "send" randomly selected symbols that he was concentrating on during his sleep period. Test subjects on earth would try to "receive" them. Due to the 40-minute launch delay, the people on earth were trying to "receive" forty minutes before Mitchell was "sending".

A footnote in Andrew Chaikin's book "A Man On The Moon", states that, according to Mitchell, the test subjects were wrong more often than chance would dictate, that their subconscious minds knew that something wasn't right, and therefore the experiment was not a failure.

Answer: False

The MET was a two-wheeled cart, which weighed about 26 pounds, that was pulled by the astronaut. Tools, samples, and other equipment were carried in the MET. Apollo 15 and Apollo 17 used the Rover.

Answer: Active Seismic Experiment

Apollo 12 had performed Cold Cathode Ion Gauge, Suprathermal Ion Detector and Lunar Dust Detector Experiments. They had also performed Passive Seismic Experiments. The Active Seismic experiment used an astronaut-activated thumper device to generate seismic signals. Detectors, which were laid out on the surface, could measure the velocity of seismic waves.

Answer: Cone Crater

The climb proved steep, and Shepard and Mitchell had to take frequent rests. With time running out on the EVA, it was decided they wouldn't go any further and they took samples from where they were. As it turned out, they were only 20-30 meters south of the rim.

Answer: Joe Engle

The backup crew consisted of Gene Cernan, Joe Engle and Ron Evans. Normal rotation made them prime crew of Apollo 17. Jack Schmitt replaced Joe Engle on the prime crew of Apollo 17, because NASA was under pressure to put a scientist on the moon, and Apollo 17 was the last lunar landing mission. Joe Engle later flew on the Space Shuttle. Vance Brand was backup on Apollo 15, and flew the ASTP mission. William Pogue and Bruce McCandless were on the support crew of Apollo 14. Pogue flew on a Skylab mission and McCandless flew in the Shuttle program.

Answer: Fred Haise

Fred Haise was the landing and EVA-2 CapCom for Apollo 14. Bruce McCandless was the EVA-1 and LM launch CapCom, and Gordon Fullerton was the goodnight and wake-up CapCom. Alan Shepard took three swings to hit the first golf ball and one to hit the second. According to Al, they went for "miles and miles and miles".

Answer: 94 pounds

The lunar samples and the Command Module remained in quarantine until April 4, 1971. The crewman were in quarantine until February 27, 1971. This was the last Apollo crew to be quarantined.

Answer: USS New Orleans

Splashdown occurred on February 9, 1971 in the Pacific Ocean.