What is this object?

[Jairo]

Hi,

What is the object marked in this picture. I know they had tape for fixing things (like the dust cover of the LRV wheel). Is that a tape roll?

[trebor]

Knowing the ID of the picture or even from which mission it is from would be helpful..
Don't suppose the source of this image gives them?

[Jairo]

Here it is the picture that cointained the object in the panoramic:
www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/alsj/a11/AS11-40-5864HR.jpg

[Kiwi]

It is the metal ring from the contingency sample collection bag which Neil removed then threw. It appears that he may have just given a small flick of the wrist to throw it as there is hardly any motion from his arm.

Go to the ALSJ and the page "One Small Step" for the information at 109:36:08 and links to various photos of the ring.

Andrew Chaikin got it wrong about seeing the ring in flight -- what he refers to is just some dirt on the 16mm film in front of the RCS thruster. A few frames after that the ring can be seen moving through a patch of sunlight on the left of the screen.

On the Spacecraft Films Apollo 11 DVD of the EVA, in the 16mm film the ring can be seen as follows:

0:15:25 109:35:56 Armstrong: Yes, it is. It's - I'm sure I could push it in farther, ... [Neil holds the ring up and it is clearly visible at "push".]
0:15:28 ...but it's hard for me to bend down further than that. [The thrown ring appears in flight at "bend", in the triangle of light in front of Neil, about 8 o'clock from the bottom of the contingency sampler handle which he previously pushed into the ground. It is just visible as a faint blur in one frame and a little clearer in the next frame, next to a small crater on the left.]

Hey, do I get to wear the "I Corrected Andrew Chaikin" teeshirt?

From the ALSJ:

109:36:08 Armstrong: (Chuckling) You can really throw things a long way up here! (Long Pause)

[In June 2002, Andy Chaikin discovered what seems to be evidence that Neil has just thrown the ring from the contingency sample collection bag. Figure 5 from Judy Allton's Tool Book shows Neil using the sampler during training. Figures 6a, 6b, and 7 show additional detail. After collecting the sample, Neil presses the release on the handle just above the ring, extracts the ring, detaches the bag from the ring, discards the ring, and closes the bag. In a frame from the DAC film, Chaikin notes that we can see the ring in Neil's right hand and, in the next frame, that we see what may be the ring in flight.]

[Alternatively, a detail from AS11-40-5864, which Neil takes while Buzz is making his way down the ladder, may show the ring lying under the descent stage. If that is the case, then the puzzle of what Neil threw remains unsolved.]

[Kiwi]

Feb 14, 2011 9:56:36 GMT -4 Jairo said:

Here it is the picture that cointained the object in the panoramic:
www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/alsj/a11/AS11-40-5864HR.jpg

Jairo, whenever you have the number of a lunar surface photo, go to the Image Library of that mission at the ALSJ and look up the caption of the photo. In this case the caption mentions the ring and provides a link to the discussion in the journal.

AS11-40-5864 (OF300) ( 1110k or 243k )
109:40:27 Shows the area under the Descent Stage, including the jettison bag. Neil turned to his right to take this photo while waiting for Buzz to get farther out of the cabin. A detail shows what may be the contingency sampler ring. See, however, the discussion following 109:36:07.

[supermeerkat]

Stanley Kubrick left it there. Duh!

[Kiwi]

Feb 14, 2011 10:04:35 GMT -4 Kiwi said:

On the Spacecraft Films Apollo 11 DVD of the EVA, in the 16mm film the ring can be seen as follows:

0:15:25 109:35:56 Armstrong: Yes, it is. It's - I'm sure I could push it in farther, ... [Neil holds the ring up and it is clearly visible at "push".]
0:15:28 ...but it's hard for me to bend down further than that. [The thrown ring appears in flight at "bend", in the triangle of light in front of Neil, about 8 o'clock from the bottom of the contingency sampler handle which he previously pushed into the ground. It is just visible as a faint blur in one frame and a little clearer in the next frame, next to a small crater on the left.]

To save other members reinventing the wheel, here's how to quickly view the appropriate places on that DVD -- mine is the first version of Apollo 11 by Spacecraft Films:

Pause the 16mm film at 0:15:25 when Neil says "Yes, it is. It's - I'm sure..."

Press the step button and watch Neil's right arm coming up and revealing the ring in silhouette. When it first becomes visible it is a little unclear, but becomes very clear on the seventh frame. Start counting from one after that one.

On the 14th to 17th presses you'll see the Andrew Chaikin blip, over the far edge of the medium-sized crater (the first of a line of three) which is almost in line with the RCS thruster.

Keep pressing and counting from No. 18 to No. 78, when the ring first appears as a light fuzz over the bottom of the shadow of the contingency sampler handle. The fuzz moves across the patch of sunlit ground, and between frames 84 to 87 the ring is clearly visible next to the small crater on the left.

And there you go!

This worked best in my "proper" DVD player and didn't work well in my computer's DVD drive, where I got anything from 61 to 68 presses before I saw the ring in flight, so obviously some frames got dropped. (With apologies to the video techies who are probably cringeing at my use of "frames.")