I recently read this article on strange transcripts from the moon landings, but couldn't figure out the context.
Things like 'mining' the crater and people 'living' there seem to be very odd.
What's the rational explanation for these?
03 08 20 42 CMP Boy, there must be nothing more desolate than to be inside some of these craters, these conical ones
03 08 20 50 CDR People that live in there probably never get out.
That reads very much like a joke to me. It's not like the astronauts were humorless, the Apollo recordings are filled with the funny.
When Apollo 12 commander Pete Conrad stepped out on the moon for the first time, he said, "Whoopee! Man, that may have been a small one for Neil, but that's a long one for me." This was in order to win a bet with an Italian journalist who believed NASA scripted what they said.
Or the rather hilarious occasion when free-floating turds were suspended in the cabin during Apollo 10.
Source: Conrad, Nancy and Klausner, Howard. Rocketman: Astronaut Pete Conrad's Incredible Ride to the Moon and Beyond