Space Mission
Apollo 11, 16-24 July 1969
Photographer
Neil Armstrong
Photo Description
Vintage chromogenic print on fiber-based Kodak paper, [NASA photo no AS11-40-5943], 20,3 x 25,4 cm (8 x 10 in), with A KODAK PAPER watermarks and NASA Manned Spacecraft Center credit stamp numbered AS11-40-5943 on verso
Essay
Buzz Aldrin walking toward the horizon of the Sea of Tranquility with experiment packages in both hands.
Buzz Aldrin is transporting scientific equipment to the EASEP (Early Apollo Scientific Experiments Package) site. He holds the seismometer in his left hand and the LRRR (Laser Ranging Retro-Reflector) in his right hand. The scientific experiments had to be deployed far away enough so that they would not be damaged by the ascent stage rocket when the Eagle lifted off. In the one sixth gravity of the lunar surface, Aldrin had to manoeuvre through an area covered with fragments of broken rock near a small crater (foreground) to find a level spot on which to put the LRRR. Aldrin set up the LRRR about 14 m south-southwest of the LM and the seismometer a bit farther out from the LM (19 m).