Daily News from New York, New York • 105

sir 11" 'Artist's sketch depicts extravehicular activity following first lunar highlands landing. Fair Yiruth By MARK BLOOM 1APE KENNEDY, April 11 Somewhere in Kj the first billion years or so of the earth's history, a steaming, turbulent period of which no trace remains, the first tentative building blocks of life began to form from primeval gases. In perhaps another billion years, these orgai.ic compounds reached the stage of nucleic acids, and began to produce simple protein molecules such as viruses a step between life and nonlif e. But none of this happened on tiie moon, at least In the areas visited by the astronauts of Apollos 11 and 12. The rocks and soil brought back to earth bore art the slightest chemical signs of even life's building blocks, much less a hint that the moon had ever sup- ported life.

Still, these two visits, brief and hurried as they were, have opened up dramatic new mysteries about the moon and apparently' confirmed its major scientific asset its ffreat age. possibly offers an untouched historical record dating back to the birth of the solar system, possibly a glimpse of what the first days of the earth were like. Adding to the scientific: excitement has been the discovery that in different places on the moon, as much as 2 billion years of its early history may be studied. Billions of Years Old On Apollo 11, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. landed in the Sea of Tranquility on the eastern face of the moon, and brought back rocks which, for ti most part, were 3.7 billion years old.

On Apollo 12, Pete Conrad and Alan Bean landed 950 miles to the, west in the Ocean of Storms, and preliminary dating of the rocks they returned suggest a general age of 2.5 billion years. It was also on this mission that the upper stage of the lunar module, after it completed its task of ferrying Conrad and Bean back to the command ship for the journey back to earth, was purposely crash on the moon to see how it would affect the nuclear-powered moonquake monitor left there. The long, puzzling signals radioed back to earth by the device are still reverberating in scientific circles because, by earth standards, they don't make sense. rlE TWO LUNAR explorations both brought back rocks in. which the chemistry and minerology were similar, yet different from earth rocks, a surprise to some.

Both sampled lowland areas of the moon, yet one area was geologically older than the other by a billion years, a bigger surprise. But one small chip of lunar rock brought back on Apollo 11 has created the most commotion of all. It was dated as being 4.6 billion years old. the age of the oldest discovered meteorites, an da billion years older than any earth rock ever found. It is beleived that this ancient rock was part of the debris blasted to the Ocean of Storms from the impact of a giant meteorite in the hills and highlands of the moon.

And it is to a hilly, highland area which Apollo 13 has set its sights an area called Fra Mauro, only 110 miles east of the Apollo 12 landing site, but possibly 2 billion years older. It was Apollo 12 last November which set tl.e stage for Apollo -13 demonstrating that pinpoint navigation could be carried out to a precise target. Now astronauts James Lovell and Fred Haise of Apollo 13, the third team of Americans to head fcr the moon's surface, can aim for their hilly target a ridge about 30 miles north of the Fra Mauro crater with confidence. A COMMANDER for this daring mission, the space agency turned to Lovell, the world's most experienced astronaut. He was aboard Apollo 8, man's first trip into lunar orbit; he is the first to return to the moon's vicinity.

The 42-year-old Navy captain also became the first man to make his fourth trip into space, having also been aboard Geminis -7 and 12. In all, the 10 days on Apollo 13 will give Lovell a total of 34 days in space, a full two weeks more than second-place Frank Borman. Haise, his moon-walking partner, is making his first flight, as is Jack Swigert, the last-minute substitute for Ken Mattingly. This trio, flying the command ship they call Odyssey snuggly attached to the lunar landing craft called Aquarius streak into a mile moon orbit Tuesday night at 7:38 just before the first of the major scientific events. Following up on the scientific mystery created by crashing the lunar module stage on Apollo 12, ground commands will steer the spent third stage of Apollo 13's hube Saturn 5 booster rocket into the moon, allowing the still-working Apollo 12 seismometer to pick up the impact.

Time to Pick Landing Site At midnight, Apollo 13 will carry out a different maneuver from previous flights. Instead of changing the orbit to a circular 70 miles, the steering rocket will fire a precisely calculated burst to lower the path to 8 by 70 miles. By this step, Lovell and Haise will be able to gain an additional 14 seconds of hovering time just above the Fra Mauro terrain to use to find a smooth landing site when they descend. The descent to the moon for Lovell and Haise begins Wednesday at 9:44 p.m., about four hours after they separate Aquarius from the command ship. Touchdown on the lunar surface for Apollo IS is scheduled for 9:56 p.m., and the moon is due to be populated for the next 33 hours and 27 minutes.

During that time, Lovell and Haise plan: Two walking tours of the surface, each lasting up to five hours, each an hour longer than the Apollo 12 excursions. The first starts at 2:29 a.m. Thursday, the second at 10:11 p.m. Color television of the walks with a eamYa which has a lens cap to avoid the mishap of Apollo 12 when the camera was burned out by pointing it at the sun. For identification by both scientific and lay viewers, Lovell will be wearing red stripes around his elbows and knees.

Collection of about 95 pounds of lunar material during their excursions for return to earth, Deposit of an automated five-experiment, nuclear-powered scientific laboratory, including another seismometer, which is expected to continue working for at least a year. Planting the third American flag on the moon. AT 7:22 A.M. on Friday, their work completed, Lovell and Haise are to launch the ascent stage Aquarius from the moon, and head for rendezvous and linkup with Odyssey, expected to be completed at 10:58 a.m. After climbing back into Odyssey, they will send the discarded Aquarius ascent stage crashing back Into the moon, and eager scientists on earth will be waiting to see if the effect is as dramatic with a pair of seismometers as it was on Apollo 12 with one.

After another day in lunar orbit taking pictsrM of future Apollo landing sites, a burst from the main rocket at 1:42 p.m. Saturday puts Odyssey on course for home, and a splashdown in the South Pacific at 3:17 p.m. April 21 a mission of 10 days, one hour and four minutes. Astos Wow Hadlgj (f Apollo. By JEAN CRAFTON Legend has it that a Greek astronaut named Annllo (the HrppVs nroforrei ii him a god) used to streak across the sky in a flaming chariot pulled by three galloping siccus wiwi iiowiiig manes ana nppung muscles.

When the Apollo 13 astro nauts streak toward their lunar landing, they'll be wearing a kind of tribute to this ancient myth in the form of a round patch on their uniforms. It's a far cry from Charlie Brown and Snoopy of Apollo 10, but the man who designed the patch, artist Lumen Martin Winter, figures it's about time they put a little class into the space effort. Or, as Winter expressed it: "It puts the space administration on a higher plane than the soap opera The patch Winter designed de Winter considers himself in the avant-garde of space artists. Back in 1932 when the country's financial resources made anything like a space program laughable, he was drawing- and sketching things like going to the moon and space exploration. When he was asked how old he was, Winter wrinkled his nose distastefully, said he was 62 and hastily added: "Age has nothing to do with art.

I've seen a lot of kids do better art than some of the old masters. "I'm all for the Any new generation is reaching for something. When they stand back, most of what they've done i no, good is, And t. i Sciential (From the Moon, Knowledge)." Winter, a white-haired sculptor who works out of a dusty loft studio at 36 E. 23d first sketched the patch on the back of a menu at the St.

Regis Hotel. He was sitting there with his friend, Apollo 13 Commander James Lovell and golf pro Danny Lawler, when Lovell suggested that he come up with something appropriate for the astronauts to wear on their uniforms. In addition to the patch, the Apollo emblem has been stamped on 200 half-dollar-size discs which will be taken on the lunar mission and, brought' back to earth and given, to various VIPs, as Winter described them. picts the three galloping steeds streaking from, to moon the legend: "Ex, Luna, NEWS photo by Georee Mattsan Lumen.