Apollo 15: Man Must Explore (Spacecraft
Set)
Picture: C Sound:
C+ Extras: B+
Film: B+
Fox continues their
collection from the NASA archives with a huge box set including all the
material from Apollo 15, which was the fourth lunar landing, but also one of
the most important since it incorporated the use of the lunar rover, which was
for the first time able to capture the moons surface in ways we had not
before. Check out the box sets for Apollo 8 and Apollo 11, which have been reviewed on this site as well.
Disc One begins our
journey with all the preparations for the mission and more exclusively the
lunar rover. The footage captures the
crew doing all the routing checks and really gives the viewer a sense of just
how much work is needed before the actual flight takes place. The Apollo 15 launch took place on July 26th
1971 and most of the material on Disc One includes footage from the day before
the launch. You can also see the actual
launch on this disc with a series of eight different angels, which you can
toggle with in order to get different perspectives of this magnificent
launch.
Disc Two includes a lot of
televised portions of the landing and this is where the preparations are being
made for the departure out onto the lunar surface and with the rovers. The first excursions onto the lunar surface
is quite lengthy and is pieced together here with various footage ranging from
tripod use to handheld, which covers most of what was shot. Certain portions of this are only available
through photographs with audio placed overtop.
Disc Three is the second
excursion, which was even longer (about seven hours total) and the rovers go
over about 15 miles of the lunar surface in total. This is also the mission in which they placed
the U.S. flag upon the moon, but most of this trip is spent
with some drilling problems.
Disc Four is a
continuation of the second excursion in which they crew go to Genesis Rock and
is considered one of the biggest highlights of the trip. Disc Four is broken up between the second and
third excursion. The third and final
trip was cut short due to adjustments needed to be made in order for the craft
to get back for lunar liftoff. This
excursion lasts a little over four hours, which is still pretty lengthy and detailed.
Disc Five is a
continuation of the final excursion and includes all the preparations getting
back to the craft and packing up the stations in order to head back to Earth. This
wraps up all final activities on the lunar surface as the astronauts say
goodbye and prepare themselves for the trip back home.
Disc Six is the lunar
launch and the trip back to Earth, which occurred during the first week of
August 1971. Just like the launch on
Earth, the Moon launch can be viewed from multiple angles as well. The accent and docking can be accessed this
way as well, making for an interesting comparison and better perspective of the
process involved in getting the ship back to Earth securely and safely.
If nothing else can be
said about these NASA archives it should be said that these are very detailed
and important for the rigorous amount of work that has been done to preserve
such a vital part of our technological breakthroughs as we encountered space
flight and landing on the Moon. Having
these broken down into detailed records and on the DVD format ensures their
life even further and any serious fan of Science and of course Space will value
these sets greatly.
All of the footage is
16MM, which has survived relatively well over the years and gives a good
approximation of what everything looked light despite not necessarily having
the best conditions for filming. Low
lighting, bulky equipment, and zero gravity can make it interesting to capture
anything on film, but these missions have been recorded very meticulously and
where footage is lost, there are photographs that have been preserved in its
place. The Dolby Digital audio is basic
2.0 Stereo, which can be played back in a Pro Logic setting and gives a
standard presentation in which almost all audio is the combination of left and
right channels.
Having something like this
on DVD is not necessarily something that you will watch over and over, but once
you start watching it is hard to stop.
It is also something that works as a document just like a History book,
but with this we have images and motion and truly capture the essence of
spaceflight in a whole new dimension.
DVD has secured the life of this material even further and much thanks
should go to NASA for sharing their archives and Fox for distributing something
this impressive.
- Nate Goss
