page_title: Apollo 15 operations on the Lunar surface
section_title: EVA-3
hierarchical_section_title: Apollo 15 operations on the Lunar surface / EVA-3
caption_attribution_description: English: Apollo 15 Lunar Module Pilot James Irwin salutes the U.S. flag.Astronaut James B. Irwin, lunar module pilot, gives a military salute while standing beside the deployed U.S. flag during the Apollo 15 lunar surface extravehicular activity (EVA) at the Hadley-Apennine landing site. The flag was deployed toward the end of EVA-2. The Lunar Module (LM) "Falcon" is in the center. On the right is the Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV). This view is looking almost due south. Hadley Delta in the background rises approximately 4,000 meters (about 13,124 feet) above the plain. The base of the mountain is approximately 5 kilometers (about 3 statute miles) away. This photograph was taken by Astronaut David R. Scott, Apollo 15 commander. Original NASA description (From http://nix.larc.nasa.gov) Dansk: Månelandingsmodulet for Apollo 15 med pilot James Irwin gør honnør til det amerikanske flag.Astronaut James B. Irwin, giver en militær hilsen, mens han står ved siden af det plantede amerikanske flag under aktiviteter på Månens overflade ved Hadley-Apennine-landingspladsen. Flaget blev plantet ved afslutningen af den anden aktivitetsrunde. Månemodulet "Falcon" er delvist synligt til den højre side. Hadley Delta rejser sig i baggrunden ca. 4.000 meters over overfladen. Bjergbasen er ca. 5 km væk. Billedet blev taget af astronaut David R. Scott, Apollo 15-kommandør Deutsch: James Irwin, Pilot der Mondlandefähre von Apollo 15, salutiert vor der amerikanischen Flagge. Der Astronaut James B. Irwin, Pilot des Mondlandemoduls, salutiert militärisch neben der aufgestellten US-Fahne stehend, während eines Apollo 15 Außeneinsatzes an der Hadley-Apennin Landestelle. Die Fahne wurde gegen Ende des zweiten Außeneinsatzes aufgestellt. Das Mondlandemodul „Falcon“ steht in der Bildmitte. Das Mondauto (LRV) ist rechts am Bildrand zu sehen. Der Blick richtet sich fast genau nach Süden. Mons Hadley Delta erhebt sich im Hintergrund rund 4000 Meter hoch über die Ebene. Der Fuß des Berges ist ungefähr fünf Kilometer entfernt. Dieses Foto wurde von Astronaut David R. Scott, dem Kommandanten von Apollo 15, aufgenommen. Français&#160;: Le pilote du module Apollo 15 James Irwin salue le drapeau américain. Italiano: Il pilota del modulo Apollo 15, James Irwin, inaugura il suolo lunare con la bandiera degli USA, posizionata sul monte Apenninus, luogo di atterraggio. La foto è stata scattata dall'astronauta David R. Scott, il comandante. Slovenščina: Pilot lunarnega modula Apolla 15 James Irwin salutira ob zastavi ZDA.Astronavt James B. Irwin, pilot lunarnega modula, nam daje vojaški pozdrav, medtem ko stoji ob postavljeni zastavi ZDA med misijo Apollo 15. Fotografija je nastala med raziskovanjem vesoljske lunarne aktivnosti (EVA) na pristajališču Hadley-Apennine. Zastavo je postavil proti koncu podviga EVA-2. V središču je lunarni modul (LM) "Falcon". Na desni je lunarno vozilo (LRV). Pogled je usmerjen proti jugu. V ozadju se dviga Hadley Delta približno 4.000 metrov nad ravnino. Temelji gore se od stojišča nahajajo na razdalji okoli 5 kilometrov. Fotografijo je posnel astronavt David R. Scott, komandir Apolla 15. Po originalnem opisu agencije NASA (Iz http://nix.larc.nasa.gov)
context_page_description: Apollo 15 lunar surface operations were conducted from July 30 to August 2, 1971, by Apollo 15 Commander David Scott and Apollo Lunar Module Pilot James Irwin, who used the first Lunar Roving Vehicle to make three exploratory trips away from their landing site at the base of the Apennine Mountains, near Hadley Rille.
  They collected a total of 77 kg of lunar surface material during 18½ hours outside the Lunar Module Falcon.
context_section_description: Overnight, Mission Control decided to cancel the traverse to the North Complex. Time saved not going there would be spent on pulling out the deep core sample. Although annoyed by this, Scott understood that although he was in command of the mission, he was part of a team, and the mission scientists had decided that the core sample was more important than sampling the North Complex. 
  Before setting off to the ALSEP site, the crew took some customary publicity shots of them and the flag.
  Back at the core sample drill, both Scott and Irwin grabbed hold of the drill and tried to pull it out. Slowly but surely, they managed to work it out of the ground by getting up under the drill. A few more tries and it was completely out of the ground. When they came to break the stem apart they found that a vice built into the Rover for the purpose had been installed backwards. Scott by this time was becoming more and more annoyed at the amount of time being spent on this sample and said "How many hours do you want to spend on this drill, Joe?"
  Analysis of the core samples found that pebble concentration and density varied dramatically. Along the 7.9 ft (2.4 m) length of the sample, there were more than 50 distinct layers, varying in thickness from 0.2 to 8.2 inches (0.5 to 21 cm). Of particular interest was that the deepest portions of the core samples were too deep for cosmic rays to penetrate, meaning that they had not been affected by recent cosmic ray activity.
  The Rover TV camera was having problems. Any attempt to pan up or down would cause it to flop down, leaving it pointing uselessly at the ground and requiring an astronaut to repoint it.
  After making a 16 mm film of the Rover driving for the engineers on Earth, they set off for the main target of their last EVA, Hadley Rille. On the way, they stopped to photograph a rock they suspected had formed a crater nearby. There was no time to stop and sample it.
  They arrived at a 50 ft (15 m) crater near to their original target crater, Scarp. Scott decided to stop there as it met the original objective of Scarp, which was to collect debris from near the rille. After taking a panorama of the site, Scott took some samples, finding them to be extremely soft. It is thought that the area around them was the youngest ever walked on by an astronaut.
  Moving on, they traveled to the rille. One of the objectives of Apollo 15 was to sample exposed bedrock at its point of origin. On previous missions, the basalt collected had been thrown there by impacts. As Irwin took the site panorama, Scott used the 500 mm telephoto lens to image the far side of the Rille, which was about 0.6 mi (1 km) across. They were looking for layering in the wall of the Rille, which could help geologists to find if the lava flows that had filled Palus Putredinis came in one go or over time.
  Irwin started a radial sample. He found a rectangular rock that was too large to return to Earth. Due to the slope of the surrounding area, he was able to see some bedrock below the rim of the Rille that appeared to be above them further along. They walked to a 10 ft (3 m) crater and sampled the meter-sized rocks that it had thrown up.
  It was meant to be time to move on again, but the geology backroom decided that the loss of another sampling station was offset by the chance of sampling true bedrock, so they were given more time. Moving down to the very edge of the rille, they sampled a 7 ft (2 m) rock. Back at the Rover, they took another rake sample and a core sample. Scott then decided to sample a vuggy, coarsely grained basalt. He decided to take the whole football-shaped rock. Dubbed "Great Scott", the 21 lb (9.6 kg) sample would be the biggest returned on Apollo 15 (Sample 15555). They moved on to the last station of the mission, Station 10. With little time left, all they could do was photograph the site at a 200 ft (60 m) crater.
  Scott had one more thing to do once he returned to the lunar module:
  Well, in my left hand, I have a feather; in my right hand, a hammer. And I guess one of the reasons we got here today was because o
caption: Jim Irwin salutes the US flag
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