Alain Capt

LUNAR EVA ACTIVITIES

When you first land on the Moon, press the "K" key to start the EVA activities. Your astronaut appears near the foot of the LM leg with the attached ladder.

The focus has been automatically moved to this crew member #1. Before proceeding further, I recommend changing the camera mode to "ground mode". Use the shortcut "CTRL-F1".
By using the key "M" you can now toggle the focus between the LM and the astronaut in EVA. If you press again the key "K", when the focus is on the LM, the second astronaut will start his EVA.
From this stage the "M" focus toggle key will switch views between both astronauts.
How to make both astronauts walk:
This is simple. You use the numeric keypad in the following way:

- To walk forward, use the key "8".

- To walk backward, use the key "2".
The astronaut will "Moon walk" as long as you keep the key pressed. If you need to turn while walking press SIMULTANEOUSLY the following keys:
When walking forward:

- To turn left, use the key "7".

- To turn right, use the key "9".
When walking backward:

- To turn left, use the key "1".

- To turn right, use the key "3".
Here again, as long as you press both keys at once, the astronaut will turn while walking. So to review, you use two groups of keys "1,2,3" and "7,8,9" to walk and turn in any direction. For example, while pressing keys "7" and "8", your astronaut will walk forward while simultaneously turning to the left.
The translation of movement accelerates with the time when you keep the key pressed. In other words, your astronaut will walk faster (about a 30% increase). Notice that this also depends on his fatigue (see following). When he starts to become really exhausted, he won’t be able to accelerate. To the contrary, he will only be able to take smaller steps even though he must pause between each step, and this will occur more and more until he is fully exhausted. At this point, he’ll almost no longer be able to move. You will have to wait until he recovers his breath and tonus.
To turn in place, use the NUMPAD keys "4" & "6". Here again, keep the key pressed until the astronaut looks in the desired direction. Note that you may also use keys "7" & "9" or "1" & "3" instead. You have 2 more commands on the numeric keypad to let the astronaut perform funny acrobatics. The "." (dot) key performs a forward salto and the "0" key performs a back salto. Obviously, this has never actually been performed on the Moon, but it is cool!!!
It is possible to LOCK any walking command combination with the numeric pad “ENTER” key. To do this, press this key WHILE ALSO PRESSING THE WALKING KEY(S). The message line in the bottom left of the screen will display “LOCK”. Now the walking order is locked, so you can release the walking key(s). This allows you to now switch the focus on the other Astronaut and do the same (Use the “M” toggle focus key). In this case, both Astronauts will continue to walk, without you ever needing to keep the walking key(s) pressed. To unlock again, you simply press the numeric pad “ENTER” key. This is useful, for example, to let one or both astronauts continue walking somewhere while you examine the surrounding with the camera. This can also be very useful if you create a video. Notice that if you change the focus with the “M” key, while also keeping the walking key(s) pressed UNTIL THE FOCUS HAS CHANGED, the Astronaut without the focus will also continue to walk.
Fatigue is also modeled. Walking and jumping (even more) will increase the tiredness of the astronaut. As said before, tiredness will reduce walking performance and past a certain point, the jumps won’t be possible anymore (he will just do a small vertical jump). Twenty minutes of continuous walking will totally exhaust the astronaut. To recover, the astronaut must stop walking and jumping. You will know when the astronaut starts to be really tired, because the breathing sound in the "cockpit" view will become more rapid and loud. Finally, notice that the Astronaut will recover 20% faster, when he sits aboard the Lunar Rover.

Working on the Moon
Actions that can be performed rely on radius distances around the LM.
If you are between 5 and 6 meters from LM, pressing action key "J" will terminate your EVA. This distance corresponds to a position just beside a LM leg.
If you are between 3.5 and 4.8 meters from LM, you can get tool items from the LM by pressing action key "J". This distance corresponds to a position just beside the LM sides, where the materials compartments are located (between the LM legs). With Apollo 15 and subsequent missions, the "K" key will start the authentic deployment and equipment of the Lunar Rover. Tools come in the following order:
1- The Antenna (Apollo 12 to 14)

2- The US flag

3- The solar wind experiment

4- The magnetometer

5- The UV telescope

6- The station

7- The SEP

8- The drill

When you carry an item, you have to go almost 8 meters away from the LM to be able to lay the item on the ground by pressing the "J" key.
When you are not carrying an item and if you are close to any items already installed (1.5 meter or less), you can pick this item up again with the "J" key and move it elsewhere.
The solar wind experiment is the only item you can carry in your hand, when you return into LM. In fact, you should not forget to take it back with you, when you terminate your last EVA trip, otherwise the Swiss university who imagined this experiment will be very disappointed !!!
You can also use the drill to collect underground samples. To do this, simply stand close toward the drill and press "K" alternate action key. You will see a message saying you are drilling. When the message disappears, press "K" again to store the sample. If you want to take another sample, you must displace the drill. Drilling operation takes two minutes and during this time, you can't do anything else.
On the lower-left corner of the screen, your can read your EVA references. First is a direction indicator built with "<" and ">" characters which indicate the direction of the actual EVA station. Then, you see the EVA # you are in and the current EVA station indicated with the ">" character, followed by the station #. Then, comes the distance to this station. The same indications are used in the Lunar Rover vehicle, with the exception that the location indicated by the LRV may differ from the location indicated in the astronaut display line. For the Lunar Rover, this location is the center of the EVA station. For the Astronaut the location is the center of the area where 6 rock samples have been randomly generated. Your task is to find these rocks and collect them. You simply press the "J" action key when you are a distance of 1.5 meter or less from the stone. If you don't want to gather these rocks anymore, you can use the cheat command "CTRL-K" at any time to destroy all the remaining rock(s) in the present station.
For each EVA you are in, there are several stations to visit. Since Apollo 15, they can be very far and will require you travel with the LRV vehicle. As soon as you will have collected all the rocks, if the EVA has a further station to visit, then a new set of rock samples will be generated at this next station and so on, until you visited the last station programmed for this EVA. After you have collected all the rock samples in this last station, no more samples will be generated, and all reference locations simply become the LM landing location, so you can return to the LM with no problem.
Finally, when you terminate your EVA (both astronauts back in the LM), if you have collected all the rock samples, the next EVA will be selected. But if you haven’t collected all the samples, you will remain in this unachieved EVA until the last rock sample is collected. You can do more EVAs than programmed. The EVA counter will increment, but you won’t have any rock samples to collect and all the reference locations will always be the LM location.
REMARKS: The following trick may help you to locate rock samples, if you have difficulties finding them. Press F4, then press "Select ship" and in the list, select a rock and press OK. This sets the camera focus on this rock. Now by moving the camera, you can evaluate the position of the rock, relative to the astronaut, or any other objects. To continue your mission, you will have to select the astronaut "vessel" again in the same way.
A fairer trick is to place one Astronaut exactly on the reference location (Dist=0) and to travel with the ground external camera around him, at different distance. When you detect a rock, then you use the second astronaut to go there and grab the rock.
The last information displayed in the display line is the time spends since EVA started for the Astronaut. ATTENTION !!! You may die, if you exceed your oxygen autonomy !!! Here are the oxygen autonomies you get for each mission and EVA (based on NASA Mission Press toolkit):
Apollo 11: EVA1 160mn (2h40mn)

Apollo 12: EVA1 205mn (3h25mn)

EVA2 205mn (3h25mn)

Apollo 14: EVA1 255mn (4h15mn)

EVA2 255mn (4h15mn)

Apollo 15: EVA1 420mn (7h)

EVA2 420mn (7h)

EVA3 360mn (6h)

Apollo 16 and 17: ALL EVA's 420mn (7h)
The fictitious Apollo 18-19 missions (or later), use the same model as Apollo 17. If you perform a successful fictitious Apollo 13 mission, you will get the same data as for Apollo 14. You must add a reserve of 10 minutes to these times, to find your total oxygen autonomy.
When your oxygen autonomy reaches 30mn left, the message "WARNING" will be added to the display line. When you start to use the last 10 minutes of reserve, the message will turn to "DANGER". If you are not inside the LM before the oxygen is totally exhausted, you will die and fall face toward the Moon ground.
For the Apollo 12 mission, you have a special task to do: You must find the probe Surveyor III, get close to it and press the "J" action key to retrieve the probe camera.
To climb into the Lunar Rover, get close to one of its sides and press the action key "J". Both astronauts may climb into the Rover while carrying the drill tool. In this case, when one disembarks, he will have the drill with him. You drive the Rover in the same way as the astronaut, including the lock/unlock. Of course, you cannot turn in place and the "0" key is a brake. You can make sharp turns at low speeds if you press the turning key while giving multiple short keystrokes with the forward or the backward key. To disembark, just press "J" again. You may use the key "K" instead, if you want crewmember #2 to disembark first.
You will need to manage the Lunar Rover thermal mirrors covers of the forward batteries pack with "Ctrl-L" key, when you stop. These covers protect the mirrors from the dust, while driving or when the batteries pack temperature is low enough. Driving the Rover will increase this temperature. After about 6 to 7 minutes of continuous full speed driving, you may even get the message "OVERHEAT" in the display line and the maximum speed will be reduced. This is why, when you stop at a station, you must open these covers before to disembark, to get optimal heat dissipation. Covers will close automatically when you restart your drive or when the batteries pack temperature is again low enough. If you forget to open these covers when you stop, batteries pack temperature will lower only very slowly during your stay. With opened covers, heat dissipation should not exceed 20 minutes.
Until both astronauts come back (or die), the LM is totally disabled, so you cannot leave the Moon without them. You can try by going to the LM with Orbiter standard manual ship selection commands, or with "M" key, but only if 1 astronaut is in EVA.
To know all about your duties during any EVA of all Apollo missions, please refer to the document "EVA.doc" where you will find nice landing site maps and all the necessary instructions to succeed in your missions during your Moon visits.