Second Steps
Today marks the fortieth anniversary of the launch of Apollo 12. This second landing on the moon in the Apollo program was destined ever to live in the shadow of the first. Yet it is worth remembering not only for the achievement represented by the mission itself, but for its role in history. With Apollo 12, the miraculous became the expected. The novel became the norm.
The crew was as exuberant and fun-loving as Apollo 11's crew had been taciturn. The solemnity of the previous mission gave them the perfect foil. When commander Pete Conrad stepped onto the moon his first words were 'Whoopee! That may have been a small one for Neil but it was a long one for me!' The overall impression was a relaxed approach to space exploration that, combined with the reduced press attention, had commentators remarking in his coverage on the flight's feeling of 'routine'.
Bean brought down the lunar module, Intrepid, in Apollo's first precision landing. When Apollo 11 landed the world had celebrated but scientists spent some time figuring out exactly where Armstrong had parked the Eagle. Apollo 12's more unforgiving flight plan called for a exactingly executed descent. One goal of the Apollo 12 mission was to visit the Surveyor, an unmanned soft lander that Nasa had sent to the moon a few years earlier, and see how it had held up. Naturally, the Intrepid had to be brought down within easy walking distance. The precision landing was achieved, and Conrad and Bean were able to examine Surveryor and bring back pieces for examination.
Apollo 12 was the first mission to feature multiple moon walks. Improvements had been made to space suits and lunar module enabled a longer stay, with the result that Conrad and Bean were able to triple the time Apollo 11's astronauts had spent on the surface.
Mission planners included a few surprises in the multi-page task list taped to the arm of Conrad's suit. As he moved through his check list during his first moonwalk he found Snoopy cartoons and images of naked women. Conrad audibly laughed at each new discovery and acknowledged his findings with oblique remarks to Mission Control.
The mission also featured an improved camera with more pronounced colour. Sadly, little benefit was gained from this in the case of Apollo 12 because Alan Bean pointed the camera at the sun soon after stepping onto the surface.
Pete Conrad died in his 60s in a motorcycle accident. Many supporters of space exploration have wondered how different public perception of Apollo might have been had this crew, rather than the more withdrawn Apollo 11 crew, been the first on the moon.
Bean has made up for his loss of the camera by becoming a painter.
On their return trip to earth the Apollo 12 astronauts were the first human beings ever to witness a total eclipse of the sun by the earth. The 'diamond ring' effect was spectacular.
The period of totality was too dark to photograph well. Bean later painted the scene. A thin rainbow-coloured ring circled the darkened earth as sunlight filtered through the atmosphere. As their eyes adjusted to the darkness the astronauts could see a band of dim light at the equator. They recognized this band of light as lightning. A spot of white light glowed at the centre of the darkened planet, though, that had them mystified. They mentioned the white spot to a scientist when they returned. 'The full moon was behind you,' he said. 'You saw its reflection on the ocean.'
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