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Apollo 12
Mission insignia
Mission statistics
Mission name Apollo 12
Command Module CM-108
callsign Yankee Clipper
mass 28,838 kg
Service Module SM-108
Lunar Module LM-6
callsign Intrepid
mass 15,235 kg
Crew size 3
Booster Saturn V SA-507
Launch pad LC 39A
Kennedy Space Center
Florida, USA
Launch date 14 November 1969
16:22:00 UTC
Lunar landing
19 November 1969   06:54:35 UTC
Oceanus Procellarum/Mare Cognitium
(Ocean of Storms/Known Sea)
3° 0' 44.60" S   23° 25' 17.65" W
Lunar EVA duration First 3 h 56 m 03 s
Second   3 h 49 m 15 s
Total 7 h 45 m 18 s
Lunar surface time 31 h 31 m 11.6 s
Lunar sample mass 34.35 kg (75.729 lb)
Number of lunar orbits 45
Time in lunar orbit 88 h 58 m 11.52 s
Landing 24 November 1969
20:58:24 UTC
15°47′S, 165°9′W
Mission duration 10 d 4 h 36 m 24 s
Apogee 189.8 km
Perigee 185 km
Apolune 257.1 km
Perilune 115.9 km
Orbital period 88.16 m
Orbital inclination 32.54°
Crew photo
Left to right: Conrad, Gordon, Bean
Left to right: Conrad, Gordon, Bean
Related missions
Previous mission Next mission
Apollo 11 Apollo 13

Apollo 12 was the sixth manned mission in the Apollo program and the second to land on the Moon.

Contents

[edit] Crew

Number in parentheses indicates number of spaceflights by each individual prior to and including this mission.

[edit] Backup crew

[edit] Support crew

[edit] Flight directors

  • Gerald Griffin, Gold team
  • Pete Frank, Orange team
  • Cliff Charlesworth, Green team
  • Milton Windler, Maroon team

[edit] Mission parameters

  • Landing Site: W [1]3.01239 S - 23.42157 W] or
    3° 0' 44.60" S - 23° 25' 17.65" W

[edit] LM — CSM docking

[edit] EVAs

[edit] EVA 1 start: 19 November 1969, 11:32:35 UTC

  • Conrad — EVA 1
  • Stepped onto Moon: 11:44:22 UTC
  • LM ingress: 15:27:17 UTC
  • Bean — EVA 1
  • Stepped onto Moon: 12:13:50 UTC
  • LM ingress: 15:14:18 UTC

[edit] EVA 1 end: 19 November, 15:28:38 UTC

  • Duration: 3 hours, 56 minutes, 03 seconds

[edit] EVA 2 start: 20 November 1969, 03:54:45 UTC

  • Conrad — EVA 2
  • Stepped onto Moon: 03:59:00 UTC
  • LM ingress: 07:42:00 UTC
  • Bean — EVA 2
  • Stepped onto Moon: 04:06:00 UTC
  • LM ingress: 07:30:00 UTC

[edit] EVA 2 end: 20 November, 07:44:00 UTC

  • Duration: 3 hours, 49 minutes, 15 seconds

[edit] Quotations

Whoopie! Man, that may have been a small one for Neil, but that's a long one for me. — Pete Conrad (somewhat shorter in stature than Armstrong) as he stepped onto the lunar surface for the first time. Conrad had actually come up with the quote some time before the mission, to prove to reporter Oriana Fallaci that Neil Armstrong had not been told by NASA what to say as he stepped onto the Moon. He had bet Fallaci $500 that he would say the quote, but later claimed he was never able to collect the money.

[edit] Mission highlights

Alan Bean descends from the LM. (NASA)
Alan Bean descends from the LM. (NASA)
Alan Bean pictured by Pete Conrad (echoed in Bean's helmet) (NASA)
Alan Bean pictured by Pete Conrad (echoed in Bean's helmet) (NASA)
Bean, Surveyor 3 and the LM Intrepid (NASA)
Bean, Surveyor 3 and the LM Intrepid (NASA)
Conrad jiggles the Surveyor III craft. (NASA)
Conrad jiggles the Surveyor III craft. (NASA)
Photograph of the plaque attached to the Apollo 12 LM
Photograph of the plaque attached to the Apollo 12 LM

Apollo 12 launched on schedule, during a rainstorm. 36.5 seconds after lift-off from Kennedy Space Center, the Saturn V rocket body was hit by a bolt of lightning. The CM's instruments momentarily went off-line and Mission Control lost the telemetry feeds from the spacecraft for several seconds. When ground control regained telemetry lock with the spacecraft, the feeds were garbled and reported incomplete and possibly inaccurate information. EECOM John Aaron thought that the garbled telemetry might be caused by a malfunction in the launch vehicle's Signal Conditioning Equipment (SCE), since the SCE converted raw instrument data into forms usable by spacecraft instrument displays and ground telemetry equipment, and it would have automatically gone off-line in response to the kind of disruption to the spacecraft's electrical systems that a lightning strike would cause.[2]

With this in mind, Aaron suggested the crew "Try SCE to aux" – thereby forcing the backup SCE on-line. The command was a relatively obscure one and neither the Flight Director, nor CAPCOM, nor Mission Commander Conrad could immediately recall how to implement it; however, lunar module pilot Alan Bean remembered that the SCE switch was on his panel because of a training incident a year prior to launch where just such a failure had been simulated. Aaron's quick thinking and Bean's memory were able to salvage what otherwise would have been an aborted mission (at the time of the failure, the flight had just entered abort mode One Bravo). With telemetry restored, the crew proceeded to parking orbit and was able to restore and verify the functionality of their spacecraft before re-igniting the S-IVB third stage for trans-lunar injection.

The S-IVB was originally intended to be put into a solar orbit by venting the remaining propellant. However, an extra long burn of the ullage motors meant that venting the remaining propellant in the tank of the S-IVB did not give the rocket stage enough energy to escape the Earth-Moon system and instead the stage ended up in a semi-stable orbit around the Earth after passing by the Moon in November 18, 1969. It finally entered into solar orbit 1971, but returned to Earth orbit (briefly) 31 years later. It was discovered by amateur astronomer Bill Yeung and he gave it the temporary designation J002E3 before it was determined to be an artificial object.

The Apollo 12 mission landed on an area of the Ocean of Storms that had been visited earlier by several unmanned missions (Luna 5, Surveyor 3, and Ranger 7). The International Astronomical Union, recognizing this, christened this region Mare Cognitium (Known Sea). The landing site would thereafter be listed as Statio Cognitium on lunar maps (Conrad and Bean did not formally name their landing site, interestingly enough, though the intended touchdown point was nicknamed Pete's Parking Lot by Conrad).

The second lunar landing was an exercise in precision targeting, using a Doppler Effect radar technique developed to allow the pinpoint landings needed for future Apollo missions. Most of the descent was automatic, with manual control assumed by Conrad during the final few hundred feet of descent. Unlike Apollo 11 where Neil Armstrong took manual control of the lander and directed it further down range when he noticed that the intended landing site was strewn with boulders, Apollo 12 succeeded, on 19 November, in landing within walking distance (less than 200 meters) of the Surveyor 3 probe, which had landed on the Moon in April 1967.

[edit] EVA 1

The LM cabin was depressurized about four hours and 35 minutes after landing. After opening the hatch, Conrad began to make his way outside. His first task, while still on the porch, was to pull a D-ring which would deploy the Modular Equipment Stowage Assembly (MESA). With the deployment of the MESA, mission control was able to recieve the first television pictures from the camera mounted on it. Conrad and Bean then deployed the Lunar Equipment Conveyer (LEC) which was used to transfer equipment to and from the LM cabin and Lunar surface. Conrad continued down the ladder. As he jumped from the bottom rung to the foot pad he said:

Whoopie! Man, that may have been a small one for Neil, but that's a long one for me.

After testing his mobility on the Lunar surface, Corad then proceeded to collect the contingency sample. Should the EVA have to be ended early, the contingency sample would guarantee they would not have to leave empty-handed. After collecting contingency sample collection, Bean got a warning tone indicating there may have been a problem with his Portable Life Support System (PLSS). Meanwhile, Conrad adjusted the MESA so it could be easily worked from. Conrad began loading the Equipment Transfer Bag (ETB) with consumables and the contingency sample to be transferred to the LM cabin. The problem with Bean's spacesuit was solved. The ETB was then transferred to the LM cabin via the LEC. Bean began emptying the ETB's content and putting in Hasselblad cameras and film magazines. While Bean was working with the ETB, Conrad began initial deployment of the television camera. This included unlocking it from the MESA and setting up the tripod. The ETB was then transferred back to the surface.

Bean was given a Go to exit the LM. As he did, Conrad photographed him as he climbed down the ladder.

[edit] EVA 2

Conrad actually landed Intrepid 580 feet short of Pete's Parking Lot because the planned landing point looked rougher than anticipated during the final approach to touchdown. The planned landing point was a little under 1180 feet from Surveyor 3, a distance that was chosen to eliminate the possibility of lunar dust (being kicked up by Intrepid's descent engine during landing) from covering Surveyor 3. But the actual touchdown point — 600 feet from Surveyor 3 — did cause a thin film of dust to coat the probe, giving it a light tan hue.

To improve the quality of television pictures from the Moon, a color camera was carried on Apollo 12 (unlike the monochrome camera that was used on Apollo 11). Unfortunately, when Bean carried the camera to the place near the lunar module where it was to be set up, he inadvertently pointed it directly into the Sun, destroying the vidicon tube. Television coverage of this mission was thus terminated almost immediately.

Conrad and Bean removed pieces of the Surveyor 3, to be taken back to Earth for analysis, and took two Moon-walks lasting just under four hours each. It is widely claimed that a common bacterium, Streptococcus mitis, was found to have accidentally contaminated the spacecraft's camera prior to launch and survived dormant in this harsh environment for two and a half years.[3] However, this claim is no longer taken seriously by NASA (see Reports of Streptococcus mitis on the moon).

Astronauts Conrad and Bean also collected rocks and set up equipment that took measurements of the Moon's seismicity, solar wind flux and magnetic field, and relayed the measurements to Earth. (By accident Bean left several rolls of exposed film on the lunar surface.) Meanwhile Gordon, on board the Yankee Clipper in lunar orbit, took multispectral photographs of the surface.

The lunar plaque attached to the descent stage of Intrepid is unique in that unlike the other lunar plaques, it (a) did not have a depiction of the Earth, and (b) it was textured differently (the other plaques had black lettering on polished stainless steel while the Apollo 12 plaque had the lettering in polished stainless steel while the background was brushed flat).

Intrepid's ascent stage was dropped (per normal procedures) after Conrad and Bean rejoined Gordon in orbit. It impacted the Moon on 20 November 1969 at 3.94 S, 21.20 W. The seismometers the astronauts had left on the lunar surface registered the vibrations for more than an hour.

The crew stayed an extra day in lunar orbit taking photographs, for a total lunar surface stay of thirty-one and a half hours and a total time in lunar orbit of eighty-nine hours.

Yankee Clipper returned to Earth on 24 November 1969, at 20:58 UTC (3:58pm EST, 10:58am HST), approximately 500 miles (800 km) east of American Samoa. During landing, a 16 mm camera dislodged from storage and struck Bean in the forehead, rendering him briefly unconscious. He suffered a mild concussion, and needed six stitches.

The Yankee Clipper is displayed at the Virginia Air and Space Center, Hampton, Virginia. Its recovery ship, the USS Hornet, is now open to the public as a museum in Alameda, California.

The Surveyor 3 camera retrieved by the Apollo 12 astronauts now resides in the Exploring the Planets gallery at the National Air and Space Museum. [4]

[edit] Attempted stunts

  • Alan Bean smuggled a camera-shutter self-timer device on to the mission with the intent of taking a photograph with himself, Pete Conrad and the Surveyor 3 probe in the frame. As the timer was not part of their standard equipment, such an image would have thrown post-mission photo analysts into confusion over how the photo was taken. However, the self-timer was misplaced during the EVA and the plan was never executed.
Centerfold in lunar checklist
Centerfold in lunar checklist
  • The Apollo 12 backup crew managed to insert into the astronaut's lunar checklist (attached to the wrists of Conrad's and Bean's spacesuits) reduced sized pictures of Playboy centerfolds, surprising Conrad and Bean when they looked through the checklist flip-book during their first EVA. [5]The Lunar Surface Journal website contains a PDF with the photocopies of their cuff checklists showing these photos. [6] The checklists also contains two pages of pre-prepared complex geological terminology at the back, to be used for the confusion of the ground crew.
  • The artist Forrest (Frosty) Myers claims to have installed the art piece "Moon Museum" on "a leg of the Intrepid landing module with the help of an unnamed engineer at the Grumman Corporation after attempts to move the project forward through NASA's official channels were unsuccessful." [7]. The piece, as described, is a 3/4" x 1/2" x 1/40" (19.05 x 12.7 x 0.635 mm) iridium-plated ceramic wafer with artwork by Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, David Novros, Forrest "Frosty" Myers, Claes Oldenburg, and John Chamberlain etched onto the surface.
  • Another idea that did not materialize was that Conrad — who loved collecting baseball caps — had a giant one made that would fit over his space helmet. He wanted to wear it during his lunar EVAs, but there was no way that it could be smuggled on board Apollo 12 without its being discovered.

[edit] Mission insignia

The Apollo 12 mission patch shows the crew's Navy background. It features a clipper ship arriving at the moon. The ship trails fire and flies the flag of the United States. The mission name APOLLO XII and the crew names are on a wide gold border, with a small blue trim. Blue and gold are traditionally Navy colors. The patch has four stars on it — one each for the three astronauts who flew the mission and one for Clifton Williams. Williams was killed on 5 October 1967, after a mechanical failure caused the controls of his T-38 trainer to stop responding. He had been assigned to the back-up crew for what would be the Apollo 9 mission and would have most likely been assigned as Lunar Module pilot for Apollo 12.

[edit] Capsule location

Apollo 12 recovery by the USS Hornet
Apollo 12 recovery by the USS Hornet

The Apollo 12 Command Module "Yankee Clipper" is on display at Virginia Air and Space Center, Hampton, Virginia.

The Lunar Module "Intrepid" impacted the Moon November 20, 1969 at 22:17:17.7 UT (5:17 PM EST)3.94 S, 21.20 W.

[edit] Depiction in fiction

Portions of the Apollo 12 mission are dramatized in the miniseries From the Earth to the Moon episode entitled "That's All There Is". Conrad, Gordon and Bean were portrayed by Paul McCrane, Tom Verica and Dave Foley, respectively. Conrad had been portrayed by a different actor, Peter Scolari, in the first two episodes.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Lunar sites
  2. ^ source NASA History
  3. ^ NASA Headlines
  4. ^ National Air and Space Museum
  5. ^ Boing Boing
  6. ^ NASA
  7. ^ Moon Museum

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] External links

v • d • e
Missions of the Apollo program
Apollo Program insignia