One Giant Leap for Mankind: Vintage Photographs from the Victor Martin-Malburet Collection 
28 October 2022
One Giant Leap for Mankind: Vintage Photographs from the Victor Martin-Malburet Collection 
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TV pictures of the astronauts at House Rock and Shadow Rock, station 11 and 13 (two photos), NASA [Apollo 16], 16-27 April 1972, EVA 3

printed 1972
vintage gelatin silver prints on fiber-based paper 8 h × 10 w in (20 × 25 cm)
estimate: $700–1,000
result: $128
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Two very rare unpublished images showing the astronauts’ activities near North Ray Crater at the Descartes landing site.
Numbered to versos '72-4-585' and '72-4-594' with RCA Astro Electronics credit stamps.

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These two very rare unpublished images show the astronauts’ activities on the lunar surface at the Descartes landing site.

Duke and Young are seen gathering lunar samples near North Ray Crater in these black and white reproductions made from color transmissions made by the RCA camera mounted on the Lunar Rover. Their objective was to sample one of the many large boulders in the area.

Station 11 was located on the southeast rim of North Ray Crater near a big black rock nicknamed House Rock because of its size (estimated to be 10 m high by 20 m long). Station 13 was located about 800 m away from the rim of North Ray Crater near the base of Smoky Mountain next to a large 3-meter rock which could potentially cast a permanent shadow onto the lunar soil beneath it.

This was scientifically significant because it meant a sample could be taken of cold lunar soil that had not been exposed to the heat of the Sun. The rock was therefore named Shadow Rock. (Constantine, pg. 111)

“The television camera on the Rover, which could be remotely controlled from Earth during traverse stops, was the eye of the science team. It gave them much of the information needed to radio advice to us.”

—Apollo 17 astronaut Harrison Schmitt (NASA SP-250, pg. 271)

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