NASA-UAP-D029, Apollo 17 Crew Medical Debriefing (Continued), 1972

OK , this is take number 14 . Continuation of section 23.0 with Jack Schmidt . OK , flight data file CSM . Generally , I have nothing but praise for the flight data file of both vehicles . Uh , there was very , very few things that one could have asked for to improve that data file for the , for Apollo 17 at any rate . One comment on the uh flight plan supplement . Uh , we had , uh , split pages for , uh , Uh , number of the logging , uh , medical and , uh , food logging , and that probably was a mistake . Uh , I think the idea was fairly good initially , but the pages , uh , we tended to only use that in the book as a whole , and it was a good place to keep them . And also the pages , uh , if you had wanted them split , were too thin to maintain the split , and they tended to , uh , fall out of the book . I would recommend either not splitting or having heavier paper . If , uh , if you want them split . Uh , we had , uh , I had an extra cue card , uh , built for panel 229 . I , I think it was an excellent card that uh summarized the circuit breaker functions both on 229 and on on panel 8 . Uh , because we had no , uh , systems anomalies of any significance that would relate to that card , it was not used , but I would strongly recommend its availability , if only for training . Uh , during the and during Sims , it's a good quick review of what you lose or Or , uh , retain , uh , for those two panels . I , uh , in the flight plan . I added some pen and ink cues . Uh , along the margins for certain observational targets that , uh , I particularly wanted to look at , uh , these are independent of any , uh , experiment , uh , designated experiment . And , uh , entered them as a , uh , I entered them as a function of , uh , of time . And that , uh , that seemed to work very well for me . Uh , I think it had that kind of thing as an individual preference item . And , uh , if you have experiment , it ought to be flight planned , uh , if you're , uh , just planning to use your spare time for specific observational targets or types of observations . Uh , then I think , uh , the pen and ink , uh , is maybe the easiest way to go . Uh , since it shouldn't , uh , concern any , uh , large number of people . We , uh , Gordie Fullerton , uh , fixed up the circular , uh . Oral cue card . For me with a similar uh designation of , of , of craters . Uh as a function of time , uh , I did not use that , uh , not because it wasn't a good idea , but because , uh , a familiarity with the , uh , moon which , uh , came very quickly after a couple orbits and you just , uh , you could recognize your position on the moon , uh , fairly easily , uh , as a function of each rev , either the time in the rev , uh , approximate time since sunset . Uh , or , uh , just because you could look out the window and tell where you were . In the limb , uh , We , uh , The same comments apply . I think all the flight data file items were excellent . The , uh , I did not use the data card book to the extent that I know it was used on 15 and maybe on 16 . Uh , we logged most of our , uh , Uh , specific , uh , Uh , items such as , uh , alignment data and , uh , Comparable . Kinds of things in the checklist at the point where they were collected rather than in the data book and uh had no this did not seem to raise any difficulty at any time . The cuff checklist , uh , we've talked about , I think , uh , in the surface items . I , uh , I thought the cuff checklist was excellent . I think we did the things . We had the , the right kind of photo maps in there , uh , That , uh , We're , uh , useful for reference , uh , uh , where we were , uh , Around a given station I don't think we used them as much as I had anticipated using them , uh , mainly because , uh , navigation was no problem and the points that we had selected pre-flight were excellent , uh , points for investigation and there was no need to try to , to decide on uh alternative , uh , points to uh . To try to study , uh , in the vicinity of a given station . The , uh , List of . Items to be accomplished at each station are to really they were mind joggers to read at each station . Uh , were not again not as used as much as I thought they would be initially , but I think that was mainly because , uh , we both , at least I had become , uh , so familiar with the items that , uh , each station was in itself , uh , easy to recall , uh , as a result of having created the checklist . So , uh , checklist was turned out to be more of a , of a learning item , uh , rather than a reference item , uh , for use on the surface . I wouldn't have done it any differently , however . I particularly , uh , want to , uh , Compliment the , uh , Chuck Lewis on the timeline book , uh , that was , But I really can't sing , but the timeline book was , was very , very well done and very , we had , had no problems with the timeline book at all , but that , of course , applies to the , To , uh , every , every checklist that we had , uh , There were just no procedural errors that I could , that I , that I recall in any of the books that we , Fortunately we didn't have to use a malfunction , uh . Book or the , uh , only , uh , once did I pull out the system's data book , uh , to check . To check on a , uh , systems problem , and I , uh , Right now , I can't remember what that was . What it was . Well , I did use it once . Charts and maps . I thought in the CSM that I would use , uh , the , uh , orbiter , orbit , uh , What do they see , orbit monitor charts , I guess that's what they're called , and I had an extra one put on so it wouldn't interfere with the planned activities of , uh , Of the CMP . I did not use that , uh , Very much . I eventually , uh , did some sketching on it post TEI . I think there are about 5 , specific points that I labeled as areas , uh , A , B , C , D , maybe E , and these are , uh , referenced on my crew notebook , in my crew notebook for specific , uh , observations . But in general , uh , I did not put that to as much use as I expected . One item is that that chart should have been identical to the , uh , CMP's chart , and there were a few pen and ink changes left off of it that caused some confusion at one point , pen and ink , uh , exposure . Uh , settings for certain photo targets . The uh CSM uh . On the landmark maps that the LNP had added in the rear of that book . Uh , Again , were not used . I , I really thought I would use those , but in the , uh , you became reluctant as you were observing a specific point or area target , say , such as Gagarin or something like that to , uh , to take time out to , uh , sketch on the photo . You , I tended for the 2 or 3 minutes that observation was possible of a given area . I tended to , to look and then , uh , at the first opportunity to take notes in the notebook rather than , uh , trying to sketch on the , uh , photograph . And I suspect that this was because uh I tended to look for generalizations about the uh target that I was trying to observe rather than uh uh checking out specific uh individual features and uh there really uh did not seem to be any need to uh make notes about specific points on the pictures and as a result I did not use them . Again though , I think having uh selected them and studied them pre-flight , uh , made it worth having them around . Uh , the necessity for flying them was probably less than the necessity for having reviewed them and studied them . I think I still , if I had to do it again , I still would want to have that kind of data available in the spacecraft even though it on this particular mission it was not used . I do think though that the CMP , uh , used his , uh , visual target maps , uh , considerably and I , and I did on a couple occasions , uh , use some of the , uh , ones that he had again and , uh , but , uh , for the most part that was post TEI . And uh I made some notes and sketches on some of those maps . When the , and I think that just a function that there was a lot of time to look at the moon and make a sketch and then look back and and fix it up post EEI where in orbit the time just did not exist . As Gordon said a couple of years ago , and once you start flying , the clock is relentless . OK , general flight planning . Uh , I was not very closely involved in the flight planning . Ron sort of carried the burden of that . Uh , for both Gene and myself , uh , I . The flight plan was excellent . Uh , we had no problems with it at all that I , that I'm aware of . Tommy Holloway and his people are to be complimented on that . The , uh , Uh , Number of different requirements and , uh , experiments , and , uh , General operational , uh , items that were required to be integrated one with the other , uh , was very , very high , and it was done in an extremely , uh , competent and , uh , and usable way . And I don't , can't think of anything that I would , uh , would change in the way the flight plan was written . OK , 23.5 , uh , preflight support . Pre-fight support was excellent . Uh , in the flight data file area and , uh , Uh , one specific item that I had , uh , was , uh , once the flight plan was well established . Just about at the final stage , uh , Uh , I had . Two or three , texts , I don't remember , two or three , briefing sessions where , uh , in the portions of the , uh , lunar orbit flight plan that I was going to be , uh , During which I would be in , uh , I was going to be in the spacecraft in the CSM . Uh , we went over in detail the attitudes and maneuvers and the , uh , availability window availability so that , that I was able to plan in a very short amount of time with minimum effort on my part . Uh , the , uh , my own personal , uh , Observations of the lunar surface . And which went very well as far as planning was concerned . Appreciated that , uh , that was extra above and beyond the call of duty on the part of the flight planners , and , uh , I appreciated uh . Of their , uh , taking time out to do that for me . The , uh , I think it was , uh , Useful to , uh , have the , uh , I think it was a daylong session . Uh , where the flight controllers and the crew , And the flight planners sat around in one room and went over those portions of the flight plan which were not normally simulated . Uh , it turned out that the flight plan had been so well done that , uh , I doubt if there were any specific items that , uh , came up that we needed to change or there was seemed to be a lack of coordination on . Uh , this was in contrast to , to , uh , previous flights where I flights where I think we were still learning , uh , all of us were learning on , uh , how to , uh . Uh , put together flight plans and integrate requirements . 7 Apollo 17 flight plan apparently reached the , uh , Peak of perfection . Uh , I was a little bit disappointed in that briefing and that , uh , some of the , uh , people who would be eventually intimately involved in the mission were not at the , uh , flight plan review . And I think this was because of . Of , uh , Conflicts uh with other programs which were the center was carrying out at the time . OK , 24.0 visual sightings . Well , uh , we've covered the countdown and , uh , Launch , I think , pretty well . In the , uh , Previous sections . Uh , Also powered flight , Earth orbit . I think the transcript would cover the visual sightings that I made with respect to uh . Uh , weather and , uh , and a few geographic , uh , Observations and the same would go for the uh fairly uh . Extensive , uh , weather observations that , uh , I tried to make Earth or translunar . Uh , Trans Earth , we had only a , uh , small crescent of an Earth , and it was not feasible to do an extensive , uh . Weather observations . Uh , I don't know whether I've recorded yet that , uh , although we had light flashes , uh , just about continuously during the whole flight when you , uh , when it was when you were dark adapted . And I may have even had one which I thought was a flash on the lunar surface . Uh , during the first rev . Um , That one period of time when we had the blindfolds on for the OPMed experiment , uh , there just , uh , were no visible flashes , although the next that evening , that night , uh , before I went to sleep , I noticed I was seeing the light flashes again , so it just seemed to be that one interval , uh , either side of that , that interval on either side of it where the , uh , light flash phenomena was not , uh , visible to , uh , to myself or to the other two crewmen . Lunar orbit , uh , I think , uh , the transcript and , uh , The , uh , my crew notebook would cover all the visual sightings that , uh . I can remember at this stage without , uh , going over it , uh , orbit by orbit and feature by feature with the photography , and I think that has to come later . Entry we've covered in the , uh , previous , uh , briefings . And I think the same goes for landing and recovery . Why don't you stop for a second , Tex . 25.0 , premission planning for the LNP , uh , It's hard to think once again of anything that we didn't do right . Uh , I'm sure that might have been different had we had problems on the flight , but right , the way the flight went . The total plan , the integration of the mission requirements into that plan . Uh , although there were periods of some , uh , difficulty , uh , pre-flight , uh , particularly in the area of , uh , medical requirements . Uh , And in some last minute , uh , Uh , possible scientific requirements , um , particularly on the samples . Uh , everything seemed to get resolved satisfactorily and as near as I could tell . And , uh , I don't , uh , I can't think of anything that , uh , Was not handled very well in parti particular between the people who uh were leveling uh levying the requirements and the flight planners in particular and occasionally uh . Uh , when the crew had to be involved , uh , that was handled almost entirely , uh , by the support crew , uh Bob Parker in the science area , and , uh . Cody Fullerton and Bob Overmyer in the operational areas . There were no significant spacecraft changes , uh , in the course of our . Uh , training period . Uh , Ron , uh , I guess the biggest single area that , uh , took time was the one that Ron had to deal with , and that was lunar Sounder . Uh , most of our AE changes were all taken care of , uh , prior to our , our training , and , uh , we had a few , uh , minor , uh , suggestions that were , uh , taken care of early in the training , uh , Cycle . And , uh , We essentially had an up to-date , uh , ALSE to train with , uh . Uh , and all other lunar surface gear was up to date for most of the , uh , 12 month training period . Are the final 12 months of the training period . Mission rules and techniques , uh , were fairly well defined very early by Phil Schaffer and his crowd . Uh , in the techniques area and the mission rules , certainly Jerry Griffin and , and , uh , people working on that , uh , no major changes and only the only changes were all I felt in the right direction and that they enhance the probability of , of making a , a , a landing and a successful mission . They opened generally we're in the area of opening up . Possibilities for workarounds so that a mission could be completed . We really never had to exercise any significant , any of the mission rules in a , in the , the . In an abnormal way . I think the one time that , uh , mission rule tended to , Let me finish this , Chuck . I'll be right . Omission rule tended to be , uh , fairly clearly a controlling factor was , uh , in the limitation on the , uh . The work at station 4 Shorty Crater where we were up against the walk back constraints and terminated that work after only 35 minutes . For another . 30 minutes there I think would have been extremely valuable , although I , uh , I hope that we got , uh , Enough information that , uh , Phenomenon , uh , Exposed at that crater can be understood . OK , why don't you stop and I'll talk . 26.0 mission control . Typically outstanding support for Mission Control . I think the , uh , This includes the , uh , number of extracurricular hours that , uh , Uh , the , uh , Limb people and the ECOs , uh , for the CSM in particular , Put in , uh , with me on Saturdays and , uh , and other times , uh , just generally talking over systems and techniques and mission rules and , uh , that was a major factor in , uh , helping me understand , uh , and keep up to speed on the on those , uh , items . I think , uh , the help that they gave me in designing and uh . The fact is they essentially did it . They did the design of the , uh , emergency uh cue cards that we did for Apollo 17 for the limb where it was a . Uh , major contribution , although fortunately not . We did not use them . They still , uh , Made it possible to understand , uh , very quickly , uh , sys systems problems and to solve those problems , uh , in the simulations and had we required them , uh , I think it would have gone very well . I particularly want to , uh , point out the , uh , Help Thorson . Gave in organizing , uh , most of the , uh , Uh , limb sessions . And even some of the , uh , joint CSM limb sessions that we had . And he also , uh , Thorson also uh . Was a major , uh , organizer of the , uh , Creation of and the uh updating of those emergency cue cards . Human factors 27.0 . All right , let's go back . Let's see , one other comment on 26.0 . Postflight , it's my understanding that Some of the Things I had hoped could be done during the flight were not possible . Because of Real time discussions in the , uh , mission control . Specifically , uh , one of those things was to have , Some summary of the thinking . Of the uh science background . Given to me , uh , while in flight and that would be the thinking based . On the data that we had transmitted to them verbally and in a sense visually through the television camera . I had hoped that I would have the benefit of their thinking . Uh , but apparently , uh , this was not , uh , Possible to do . I would like to think that in the future we can look at ways of Of using the uh the team approach to science investigations . In space rather than depending solely on the uh observational capability and the interpretive capability of the uh of the men who are performing the uh job . There's no reason that I can see to not use all the brainpower that's available for any given task , and part of that brainpower is on the ground . OK , 27.0 . Human factors preflight . The brunt of the discussions and organization from the crew point of view of the pre-flight health stabilization control program was borne by the commander . Uh , And uh Uh , the LNP just , uh , sort of , uh , went along with whatever was decided . I personally did not find . Any great difficulty in , uh , working out and adhering to the requirements of the , uh , of that , uh , program . I think medical care Although very , very limited , uh , requirement was good . Uh , Uh , a couple of sinus infections I had , uh , reacted just like they always had , and , uh , we were able over a period of 2 , 10 days or 2 weeks to get those cleared up . Time for exercise , uh , probably was , uh , less than it should have been , although , uh , I was able to , uh , get a good workout just about every other day in addition to the , uh , workouts we got as a normal course of our EBA training . Uh , eventually , uh , techs , uh , started scheduling , putting on the schedule , uh , time , uh , In the late afternoon for exercise , and that helped , uh , as a reminder and , uh , And buffer to see that that exercise was obtained . It is generally hard , in the , at least in the lunar training program , to get exercise periods in during the day and , uh , quite frequently , uh , the exercise was done in the Cape gym at night . I think rest and sleep , uh , is an individual thing , and I made a particular effort to , uh , always get as , as much as I possibly could and try never to get behind the power curve on rest , uh , because , uh , my personal experience is that that is when I tend to get colds and , uh , resulting sinus infections . Medical briefing , uh , was good . Uh , the exams , uh , seem to go , uh , very well in my , uh , estimation . Uh , They were as expeditious as possible under the circumstances . And the , uh , I think the , uh , operational medical personnel who carried out the exams are to be complemented in their , uh , Uh , efforts to , uh , To see that the exam was as painless and as efficient as possible . And this should also include the uh postflight exams on the uh Ticonderoga . Eating habits and amount of food consumption , uh , were normal , uh , except during those periods of time when we , Uh , on the in-flight food . Prior to launch , and , uh , those times there tended to be , in my case , a decrease of appetite . And , uh , certainly a , uh , Although the food was certainly palatable . Uh , my appetite did go down . And it certainly was not possible for me to eat the amount of food that was provided for me . This , uh , also applied to space work . But in the case of the , uh , In flight , uh , eating . Although I did not eat everything that was available to me in my , uh , food packages , I , uh , apparently should needed to if I hadn't wanted to , uh , avoid losing weight . My appetite was down , but also apparently , uh , uh , for some reason , uh , I had a loss of weight . And it , uh , At this time of this recording , my weight is still down , has , has not , uh . Gone up to uh preflight . Levels , which may have been a little high , by the way . OK , uh , 17.2 , flight , appetite and food preference . Well , I just discussed that a little bit , and , uh , The appetite in flight versus two weeks preflight , uh , was less , again , except for when we were testing the preflight food when I also had a low appetite . Uh , no notable differences in the taste of food . Uh , I think the things I liked pre-flight , uh , I , I liked in space , and the things I didn't like , I also didn't like . I didn't notice any differences . Uh , A change in food preferences for flight progressed . I tended to start to prefer to eat the wet packs and would , uh , Eat those , uh , in preference to any of the other , uh , solid foods . I would strongly recommend , uh , From my personal point of view , at any rate , uh , that food , that the wet packs be used in preference to the , uh , rehydratable . Now , I know , I think that probably you get a different opinion from , uh , the other crewmen . The juices were good . I , uh , after the first period of one and only , uh , period of difficulty with loose , uh , bowel movements , I did cut out the potassium . Indicated foods , uh , and although I can't say whether that had any effect or not , but , uh , I did not have any other loose , I did not have any other bowel movements , and certainly no more loose ones . In , uh , uh , before the end of the flight . The , uh , First bowel movement after flight on the Ticonderoga was , uh , normal . The 2nd was very loose , the 3rd was normal , and the 4th and 5th very loose . The size of food portions and the meal portions , uh , Of course , we're pretty much constant , uh . In terms of availability . Packaging , uh , but in my , uh , appetite , uh , was very low the first , uh , day and gradually , uh , increased . Uh , over the next two or three days and remained essentially the same , uh , after , uh , about the 3rd day . I mentioned the most acceptable foods were the wet packs and the juices . Uh , the fruit cake I thought was good , although , uh , it was possible to eat too much or to get to a point where you didn't want any more . Uh , the , uh , chocolate was good . I think of the , uh , dry , uh , crackers or cookies , the graham crackers , uh , were probably the most , uh , Uh , Tasty . And , uh , peanut butter and jelly sandwiches were quite good . Uh , deviations from the menu and the periods , uh , are all recorded in the , uh , flight , uh , transcripts , I'm sure . OK , food preparation and consumption . Uh , rehydration , uh , went , uh , I think , normally , uh , and the nominal gas was present . Food temperature , uh , tended to prefer , uh , uh , the , uh , foods that were warm or hot , and , uh , they were , the hot water was quite adequate for , uh , Uh , warm foods . Uh , we actually , I think , missed the warm foods considerably in the limb where that hot water was not available . I did not notice uh an effect of water flavor . The water was , was reasonably tasty . I mean , it , uh , did not . I never noticed a high , uh , chlorine , uh , taste of any kind . Although the gas content did make it , uh , a little bit uncomfortable to eat at times . Boom bow packages worked pretty well although those that uh were uh finally divided I tended to cut off the other end of the package , the water insertion end , and , uh , use them as a squeeze package . Spoons work perfectly adequate . I tended not to use the fruit in the cans because of just the messiness of opening and . Uh , those , although they're , uh , I think the technique that Ron , uh , worked out , uh , of opening it in your , in , in or near your mouth , uh , is a , uh , good one . Uh , puddings and this kind of thing were very good . It was only the fruits , the canned fruits that I tended to avoid just because they were inconvenient to use . Food bars uh during the EVAs , uh , I think were good to have , although I never ate more than half of one . It wasn't because it was untasty . It's just because of , of a , uh . Maybe a lack of , uh , interest in eating , uh , and using that time during the EVAs . Uh , we , I think after the EVA , before and after EVAs and the limb , uh , ate very well . There were some things , though , we did not , uh , we avoided , and I guess in my case , uh , after one . Having corn chowder once and that's stimulating a major bowel movement , although not a loose one . I tend to not , I did not eat corn chowder . I did not eat the cocoa because I tended to feel like I got a little more , uh , uh , gas from cocoa and an aftertaste , I did not eat the , uh , Uh , Shrimp , uh , the seafood , uh , items , shrimp and the lobster bisque and these sort of things , uh , because of , uh , pre-flight I had noticed that they tended to have a long aftertaste . But otherwise , I think all the other foods were certainly acceptable . Yeah , although , uh , many times I did not eat , uh , potato based foods . Because of , uh , just , uh , they were very filling . I was going . 33 day hold on that . OK , food , waste , storage . I don't know how the Germanidal tablet worked . Uh , the , the pouch was OK , uh . Would have been nice to have a little uh dispenser that was easier to use than the pouch . I don't know whether that would be possible to do or not . It seems to me it would a little tube dispenser of some kind where they came out more easily and you didn't . Tend to , we generally just cut the corner off a pouch and and squeezed them out , but it did , uh , it was a little inconvenient , no , nothing major . We use the germicidal tablets , I did at any rate , and , uh , and all the juice bags and the food spoon bowl bags and the wet packs . Uh , I did not use them in the tea and coffee . Undesirable odors really except for The uh . Passing of gas occasionally , uh , By the other crewmen and some occasionally by myself , uh . Uh , Undesirable odors were at a minimum . I did not , uh , find that the , uh , atmosphere was , uh , unpleasant , uh , as a general rule . I might say that I , uh , generally had a , uh , continuous , uh , almost continuous , uh , passage of gas , most of which apparently was not , uh , with significant odor . Only occasionally that , uh , it seemed to be , uh , Objectionable to the other crewmen . And I think most of that was the water gas . And the reason I think that . It's a , Upon eating Upon starting to eat . It would be an increased desire to pass gas . Increased pressure in my stomach apparently was transmitted almost immediately into the bowels . And I would , after eating , would pass gas for a couple hours to 3 hours . And just before eating the next time , the desire would , uh , have , have pretty well dissipated and then it would start again immediately , I mean , immediately upon eating before any digestion was possible , I'm sure . So I suspect water gas was the main , uh , Culprit in uh in the LNP's uh gas problems . Which were not significant . Quantity of food eaten on the lunar surface , I think was , was high , although , uh , probably no more than half of that food that was available . It's hard to say exactly , and I think that could be worked out . Maybe with a detailed look at the menus if that uh If that is desirable . And to estimate the quantity would be very difficult . Food , food , quantity of food discarded . On the lunar surface . It'll be difficult without looking at the detailed menus and checking off those items that I'm sure we ate , that I ate at any rate . Skylab eco container . I remember we had that . Though she did , but . We use a blue bag . Oh , that's right . We , we've been on 14 I guess . The blue bag is not a bad way to , uh , to defecate unless the stool is loose . If it's loose , it's just about impossible to use . And , uh , I don't know what you do . In geogravity . For loose stools , I don't know of any clever way . To prevent that being a problem , and I'm not even sure whatever the Skylab people are using will prevent that from being a problem . The best thing you can do is to work out prevention of loose stools rather than trying to handle them after you get them . It is . Um , loose stool is one of the major , Hygiene and sanitary , And operational problems that you can have on a flight . I can't emphasize that more . You can , if it happened on a regular basis , on a daily basis . You would , I think , eventually cut the efficiency of the crew member with the problem , uh , by a significant percentage , possibly as much as 30% , depending on the magnitude of the problem . I think it's important to try to understand why . Uh , Apollo 17 was different than uh 16 and at least in the . Uh , delay of a problem with loose stools until about the 11th or 12th day . And in the case of the commander , no problem with loose stools , and my personal opinion at this point based on Very little , uh , information other than observation in flight and thinking about , Levels of Of electrolyte intake . Is that with the , uh , electrolyte quantity down from that , uh , imposed on Apollo 16 that we did not reach an electrolyte saturation level until the 11th or 12th day . In terms of this CMP and the LMP , and in terms of the commander , because his electrolyte intake was generally less , I think , and that can be documented , he didn't , he did not reach a saturation level at all . And when that saturation level was reached , however , in the case of the CMP and LMP , I suspect that the electrolytes we were eating were dumped in a sense or concentrated in the intestines and tended to act pretty much as a laxative . And as a , uh , an Epsom salt type laxative , if you will , and concentrate water in the stool . I think it's important for Skylab that , uh , first of all , we probably reduce the electrolyte intake so that saturation is never reached . And secondly , that if a loose stool problem develops , it appears to be an electrolyte problem rather than any other biological problem . Uh , That , uh , That , uh , we , uh , Uh , decrease the , uh , intake of electrolytes . This is what I did on my own and , and , uh , whether or not it worked or not it's hard to say because the flight was terminated before any , uh , other , uh , stools . Occurred . OK , water , chlorientation odor was not apparent to me except during chlorination . Iodine taste and odor is very slight , apparent in the limb water , but not . Not of any significance to the LNP ? Physical discomfort . No physical discomfort for the LNP other than , uh , tiredness on occasion and , uh , In the case of the Of the , uh , EVA work , uh , sore muscles and , uh , The bruises under the fingernails . Gas water separator didn't work very effectively , and I'm sure that's been discussed elsewhere . Uh , intensity of thirst during mission , never really , uh , thirsty , uh , extensively thirsty , even during the , uh , EVAs , although I did , uh , stop to take a drink of water occasionally . But I never drunk , I never drank all the water in the in-flight , uh , drink bag , in suit drink bag . Work , rest and sleep . OK . Hey Tex , could you try to call the uh . Called the trailer . What was I ? Work , rest , sleep for the LNP . Uh , the difficulty in going to sleep was variable . And when Seconal was used , uh , generally no difficulty in going to sleep . When it was not used , I guess there was a tendency to stay awake a little bit longer , but on other occasions , uh , The absence seekconal did not seem to , to affect the rate of going to sleep . There was a tendency on a couple , on several nights to go to sleep and then wake up fairly soon after going to sleep within an hour , and then the second time took a little bit , maybe sometimes took up to an hour to go back to sleep . Uh , but I feel that the medical log reports that for the LNP were , uh , generally valid , that probably an average of 5.5 to 6 hours of sleep per night was good , and I don't think , except for maybe one night somewhere in there , uh , did I go much below that , but the sleep was rarely probably never continuous for more than , uh , 3 hours without waking up . Uh , I feel that 6 hours is , uh , is adequate sleep for the kind of work we were doing in space . Uh , however , the programming of 8 hours is is necessary in order to get 6 hours because of the . Periods of wakefulness , uh , when , uh , during sleep periods , and for just the difficulty in getting the cabin organized and , and everybody to bed at the program time . So maintaining an 8 hour sleep period is , is , I think , mandatory in order to , uh , obtain the 6 hours that is probably , uh , all that is required , uh , to , to perform the mission . Uh , Without getting , uh , tired or getting behind the power curve , as I say with respect to sleep . Restraints , uh , I had the feeling that , uh , finding by the way ? Hm . I had the feeling , uh , that I wanted to have my head , And limbs restrained in order to get a good sleep , although I did sleep at times without , without that restraint . I , if I were rebuilding the sleep restraints , uh , for my personal use , I would make them smaller with a somewhat more , uh , uh , feeling of restraint . They're a little bit large , I would say , for , for use . Um , When I slept on the couch , I tended to put a shoulder strap over my head and cinch it down very lightly so that I had that feeling of head restraint . Uh , probably the biggest two things that made sleep difficult . When it was difficult was the loss of sensory , uh , perception of limb position in zero gravity when , when they were not being moved . That perception came back immediately upon moving them . But when they were just static and , and in rest position , uh , there tended to be , uh , for , for the LNP , at any rate , a loss of sensory perception of the position of the ,