Apollo 12: Surveyor 3 and Intrepid
Credit & Copyright: Apollo 12,
NASA
(Image scanned by Kipp Teague)
Explanation:
On April 20, 1967, NASA's robot spacecraft
Surveyor 3 landed on the moon,
touching down on the inside slope of a small lunar crater in the
Ocean of Storms.
Over 2 1/2 years later, on November 19, 1969,
the lunar module Intrepid, piloted by
Apollo 12 astronauts
Pete Conrad and Alan Bean, flew overhead and
landed nearby in the second visit by
humans to the lunar surface.
Intrepid touched down about 600 feet away and the
moon walking astronauts were easily able to reach the
Surveyor and examine
the remote explorer that had preceded them.
Intrepid is seen in the background of this striking
high resolution picture of Surveyor 3.
Surveyor's leftmost foot pad appears dug in while
its foreground foot pad has made two distinct imprints in the
powdery lunar soil -
clear indications that the Surveyor slid and bounced on landing.
Using bolt cutters, the
astronauts removed Surveyor's TV camera
(the cylinder shape at the right of the tall solar panel mast) and
its sampling scoop (on the arm extended to the right), returning
them to Earth for study.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
