When Is A Rock Not A -Rock- ?, page 1

Originally posted by fooks
didn't someone tell the astronaut, in the begining, to "open it" or something to that effect?

they seemed pretty relaxed if something strange was there.

other than that, at the end, it was about glass on another rock.

When they were talking about "opening" something, they were talking about the battery cover on the rover where Astronaut Gene Cernan was at the time. Cernan was not in the frame of video at the beginning, but he was the one talking about the battery covers; the astronaut standing by the big rock is Astronaut Harrison (Jack) Schmitt, who is a geologist. Cernan does join Schmitt by the rock later.

Here's the part of the transcript when they were discussing the Lunar Rover (LRV) battery cover

Cernan: Okay. Cover's open.
Mission Control: Okay. And did you get the batteries - -
Cernan: Oh, my golly.
Mission Control: the LRV battery covers open. We didn't copy that, Gene.
Cernan: No, I didn't copy that you wanted them open. I Just got 107. I was about to ask you that.
Mission Control: Okay. We'd like them open. And, Jack, while I'm interrupting everybody here, how about a frame count, if convenient.
Schmitt: Oh, shoot! Bob. I gave you one at the rock. It's now 68.
Mission Control: Okay. Copy that.
Cernan: Man, I never - (Laughter) You can't believe how tough it is getting around this Rover, on this slope.
....

...and yes, they did mention glass. But glass can occur naturally in rocks, especially volcanic rocks, such as the kind that are very common on the moon. Natural volcanic glass is relatively common on Earth, too, such as the rock "obsidian". The fact that they were talking about "inclusions" (bits of one type of rock stuck to another type of rock) makes me think that this big "host" rock is of volcanic origin.

Here is the transcript from the part of the video that they were discussing the glass:

Cernan: You got one in there already?
Schmitt: Yes.
Mission Control: We copy that one, Jack.
Cernan: You won't be able to reach - you won't be able to
reach my bag.
Schmitt: No, but you can put it in mine. Can you reach it?
Cernan: Oh, darn it.
Schmitt: Bob, one of the light-colored inclusions looks like
it may be anorthositic - gabbroic anorthosite - Let me get my terms straight. The host rock has dark enough zap pits that it's probably gab - anorthositic gabbro, if I didn't say that. Some of the light-colored inclusions have slightly lighter colored glass, and they may be the gabbroic anorthosite.
Mission Control: Okay, I copy that, Jack.
Schmitt: Inclusions like this one and that one.
Cernan: Some of those inclusions get to be bigger than the
size of a baseball. There's one here and a couple
up there.
Scmidtt: Let be borrow your hammer.
Cernan: Yes. Jack, try a little higher. See that one - right...

There's nothing odd here in any of the what they said. Cernan at the beginning is mostly talking about the Rover, and Schmitt (being a geologist) is talking about rocks. There's nothing strange at all about this video.

[edit on 12/21/2008 by Soylent Green Is People]