Lunar Module Intrepid
:-: Apollo 12 astronaut Alan Bean climbs down the lunar module Intrepid, joining Pete Conrad on The Moon, November 19, 1969.
The Apollo 12 Lunar Module (LM) "Intrepid" was the second crewed vehicle to land on The Moon. It carried two astronauts, Commander Charles P. "Pete" Conrad and LM pilot Alan L. Bean, the third and fourth men to walk on The Moon. Also included on the LM was the Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Package (ALSEP) containing scientific experiments to be deployed and left on the lunar surface and other scientific and sample collection apparatus. The experiments performed on The Moon, in addition to the ALSEP suite, were geologic sample collection, surface photography, soil mechanics investigations to study the physical properties of the lunar regolith, the solar wind composition experiment which collected samples of solar wind for return to Earth, and collection of parts of the Surveyor 3 spacecraft.
Mission Profile
The LM separated from the Command/Service Module (CSM) at 04:16:03 UT and landed at 06:54:35 UT (1:54:35 a.m. EST) on 19 November 1969 in the Oceanus Procellarum area at 3.0128 S latitude, 23.4219 W longitude (as determined from Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter images, DE 421 mean Earth/polar rotation axis reference frame) within about 180 meters of the Surveyor 3 spacecraft, which had landed on April 20, 1967. Conrad and Bean took two Moon walks of a total duration of 7 hours 45 minutes covering a total traverse distance of 1.35 km. The first was from 11:32:35 to 15:28:38 UT (6:32 a.m. to 10:28 a.m. EST) and involved sample collections in the vicinity of the LM and deployment of the ALSEP and solar wind composition foil collector. The TV camera was inadvertently pointed towards the Sun when it was being set up and the vidicon tube was damaged rendering the camera inoperable. On the second of these walks, on November 20 from 03:54:45 to 07:44:00 UT (10:54 p.m. Nov. 19 to 2:44 a.m. Nov. 20 EST) they completed a 1.3 km geology traverse, collecting samples and taking photographs, and visited the Surveyor 3 spacecraft , bringing back about 10 kg of parts for later examination on Earth. They collected a total of 34.35 kg of rock and soil samples and also collected the solar wind foil. The LM lifted off on 20 November at 14:25:47 UT (9:25 a.m. EST) after spending 31 hours 31 minutes on The Moon. After docking with the CSM (piloted by Richard F. Gordon Jr.) at 17:58:22 UT, the LM was jettisoned at 20:21:30 and intentionally crashed into The Moon, striking at 3.94 S, 338.80 E, about 60 km from the seismic station at the Apollo 12 landing site, creating the first recorded artificial moonquake.