Historical Photo of the Month - February 2009

Astronaut Alan Bean and Surveyor 3
Photograph Number P-10760B

During the 1960s, JPL contributed to and benefitted from the Apollo missions. JPL's Ranger and Surveyor spacecraft collected information about the Moon's surface, showing that it could safely support a spacecraft and astronauts.

In November 1969 the Apollo 12 Lunar Module Intrepid landed less than 600 feet from the Surveyor III spacecraft which had landed on the Moon in April 1967. Astronauts Alan Bean and Pete Conrad had trained with a mockup of the spacecraft and were given very specific instructions about where and how to take photographs of the lander. They used modified bolt cutters to remove the camera, some cable and tubing, and the trenching scoop from Surveyor III and brought them back to Earth so that the effects of prolonged lunar exposure could be examined.

In addition to a debriefing that took place in Houston, Alan Bean visited JPL in February 1970 to describe for JPL staff what he and Conrad saw and did during their time at the Surveyor III site. Bean is pointing at the spacecraft and Leonard Jaffe (Lunar and Planetary Sciences Section) is at Bean's right. Photos of the returned camera, personnel viewing lunar samples, and Bean's visit can be found in the online photo albums. (JPL internal access only)

For more information about the history of JPL, contact the JPL Archives for assistance. For detailed photos and transcripts of Apollo 12/Surveyor III activities, see NASA Links About Apollo. See previous Historical Photos of the Month to learn more about JPL's role in manned space exploration. [Archival sources: photo index; JPL History Collection documents 6-91, 6-119, 6-132.]