A Geological Field Guide for a Walk on the Moon

An extremely rare Apollo 14 extravehicular activity [EVA] guide made for astronauts, detailing two EVAs for each of the three possible landing sites (one targeted, two contingency) in the Fra Mauro Highlands.

The atlas consists of two geological keys and fifteen photographs of the moon, with geological information and proposed routes overlain. The ephemeral nature of the atlas (loose sheets secured with a single staple) probably contributes to the atlas's extreme rarity; we find no copies listed in OCLC nor of any other copies ever having been offered for sale.

The map outlines the scientific objectives and routes of six different EVAs. The Lunar Module would succeed in landing near the computer targeted landing site [LM-1], and thus the maps for the backup landing sites were not needed. The first EVA for LM-1 documents a short walk no further than a couple of hundred meters from the lunar lander. The astronauts are given information about the exact locations ("Rim intersection of large older 85 m crater and younger 65 m crater") and descriptions of what to collect ("[a] 'football' sized rock'"). They are also given a series of general features to note, such as the presence of "solder-like glass blebs." For the second EVA, they are given a much longer route, a nearly mile-long round trip to the Cone Crater. They had an extensive list of tasks to complete but unfortunately were too exhausted to complete the mission and turned back just before the crater rim.

The atlas was prepared for NASA by the USGS Center for Astrogeology.

Collation

The following is an enumeration of the contents of the atlas: