Robert Pearlman is a space historian, journalist and the founder and editor of collectSPACE.com, an online publication and community devoted to space history with a particular focus on how and where space exploration intersects with pop culture. Pearlman is also a contributing writer for Space.
A satellite clock used to keep a Mercury astronaut's flight on time and a scoop used to collect the largest moon rock ever brought back to Earth are up for sale among 400 other space exploration and aviation lots being offered by RR Auction.The clock is ticking again on an auction of space exploration artifacts, though this time it is not just any timing device driving the bids.
Carpenter referenced the clock throughout his nearly five-hour mission. In one such instance as he prepared to come to back Earth, Carpenter called down to Mission Control and made mention of one of the displays."Five minutes to retrograde, light is on. I have a rate of descent, too, of about 10, 12 feet per second."
Surrounding the original artifact is a list of key times from the MA-7 flight, including liftoff, booster engine cutoff, sustainer engine cutoff, capsule separation, apogee, perigee, retro fire, drogue chute deploy, main parachute deploy and splashdown . The front plate also contains four more buttons and switches, and a two-prong power cord extends out from the clock's paneled base, which can be opened to reveal the clock's inner workings.
Among other notations and a power system schematic, the inside of the clock's display base hides an inscription for pad leader Guenter Wendt.Inside is a power supply schematic and handwritten notes by the craftsman who built the clock's presentation case and Guenter Wendt, who oversaw each of the Mercury astronauts as they climbed into their spacecraft for launch. Wendt, who died in 2010, wrote in jest,"Keep your #6I/#@ hands off!! Ye old PAD FUHRER.
"From the moment Charlie Duke offered this scoop to us, I knew it was the most important lunar artifact we've ever offered," said Bobby Livingston, executive vice present at RR Auction, in a statement."This shovel not only spent time on the lunar surface, it spent time three feet inside the lunar surface, which makes it an exceptional collectable.
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