Apollo 12

• Commander - Charles Conrad (3rd flight);
• Pilot command module - Richard Gordon (2nd flight);
• Pilot of the lunar module - Alan Bean (1st flight)

Conrad and Gordon are experienced astronauts who completed the Gemini program. Initially, Clifton Williams trained with them in the top three, but he died in a plane crash. At Konrad’s personal suggestion, starting with the backup crew of Apollo 9 , Williams was replaced by the previously not flying Alan Bean (Konrad knew Bean well from the beginning of the 60s when he worked as an instructor at the school of test pilots, and Bean was his student). All crew members were officers of the US Navy , which influenced the name of the ship and mission symbols.

• The ship included a command module (sample 108) and a lunar module (sample LM-6).
• For the command module, the astronauts chose the call sign "Yankee Clipper", for the lunar module - "Intrepid" - the names of the ships of the US Navy that distinguished themselves in battles.
• The emblem of flight is a sailboat ( clipper ) on the background of the moon. The fourth star in the flight emblem was added to commemorate Clifton Williams .
• The mass of the ship is 43.9 tons.
• To launch, the Saturn-5 rocket (AS-507 sample) was used.
• The purpose of the flight is to land on the moon with research on a wider program than during the flight of the Apollo 11 spacecraft.

They envisioned a Moon landing in the Storm Ocean approximately 1540 km west of the Apollo 11 spacecraft landing site, collecting lunar soil samples, photographing the surface of the Moon, installing scientific instruments on the Moon, photographing the surface of the Moon from a selenocentric orbit (in particular, some sites selected for future plantings ships "series Apollo " search automatic spacecraft " Surveyor-3 " (landed on the moon on April 20 1967 the year ), remove parts of this system and their delivery to See Liu to study the effect of long-term stays in lunar conditions, conducting TV sessions from the ship side and from the lunar surface.

The flight program was completed almost completely (due to a malfunction of the television camera, it was not possible to conduct two planned color television sessions from the moon).

Prelaunch preparation proceeded normally until November 12, when a leak was detected in a tank with liquid hydrogen for fuel cells. On November 13, the faulty tank was replaced by another one dismantled from the Apollo 13 ship, which at that time was being tested in a building of vertical assembly . After replacing the tank, prelaunch preparation was normal.

President Nixon was present at the Launch Control Center for guests of honor. At the launch site and in the surrounding areas, about 300 thousand people watched the launch.

Despite the meteorological conditions (rain, low thunderstorms), they decided not to postpone the launch, since at the next possible launch date they would have to abandon the landing in the area of ​​the Surveyor-3 apparatus.

The Apollo 12 spacecraft launched on November 14, 1969 at 16 hours 22 minutes GMT , 670 μs later than the estimated time.

In the first minute of the flight, an emergency occurred due to two atmospheric electric discharges (at the 37th and 53rd seconds of the flight). The discharges caused an emergency shutdown of the ship’s fuel cells (Bin turned them on again manually in the second minute of the flight) and disabled some of the ship’s sensors. The second category led to the fact that the gyroscopes of the guidance and navigation system of the ship landed. The gyro platform of the guidance and navigation system was re-tuned later according to the observations of stars. Electric discharges were not reflected in the operation of the launch vehicle guidance system; the ship was put into geocentric orbit close to the calculated one.

After the last stage of the launch vehicle with the ship entered the initial geocentric orbit, the crew checked the on-board systems for about two hours, paying particular attention to the search for possible damage due to electrical discharges. The check did not find any significant malfunctions.

At the third hour of the flight, the engine of the last stage was switched on a second time and brought the stage with the ship to the flight path to the moon.

After the maneuver of rebuilding the compartments, the ship was withdrawn to a safe distance from the last stage of the launch vehicle and began an independent flight to the moon.

During the flight, a check of the lunar module systems was not provided for by the initial program (in particular, they were afraid of damage by electric discharge when the electronic radar system was launched). Verification showed that the onboard systems of the lunar module are operational.

Conrad and Bean entered the lunar module about four hours before the module was undocked from the command module. The undocking took place at the one-hundred-and-eighth hour of flight. The modules were allotted about five kilometers apart.

At the hundred and tenth hour of the flight, the engine of the lunar module landing stage was turned on, and the development of the automatic landing program began.

At an altitude of 162 meters above the lunar surface, the development of a semi-automatic landing program began. The onboard equipment of the lunar module worked extremely efficiently (in particular, Konrad reported that if the automatic landing program continued (the possibility was provided), the lunar module would descend directly onto the Surveyor-3 device).

Conrad decided to fly over the Surveyor-3 apparatus and land the lunar module at the opposite edge of the crater in which the apparatus stood. Conrad watched the area through the window, and Bean at that time was reading aloud instrument readings. At an altitude of about 40 meters (a little over 130 feet), the jet of engine began to lift a cloud of dust from the surface of the moon, then the raised dust almost covered the surface, and as a result, Conrad put the module closer to the edge of the crater than intended.

The moon landing took place on November 19, 1969 at 6 hours 54 minutes 43 seconds GMT . On-board landing time 110 hours 32 minutes 43 seconds. The lunar module descended forty-five meters from the edge of the crater at a distance of about two hundred meters from the Surveyor-3 apparatus.

After landing, the astronauts for several minutes were ready to make an emergency launch from the moon. Since the emergency start situation did not require, the astronauts received permission from the Control Center and began to prepare for their first moon exit.

Conrad was the first to descend to the lunar surface in flight time 115 hours 22 minutes. They expected a historical phrase from him, similar to that made by Neil Armstrong (“This is one small step for a man, but a giant leap for all mankind”), but Conrad, recalling Armstrong’s words and hinting at his small stature, said:

He may have been small for Neal, but big for me.

Original text

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

Later, already on Earth, he admitted that he argued for $ 500 with Oriana Fallaci that he would say just that to prove to her that Armstrong’s phrase had not been imposed on him in advance and that NASA’s leadership did not program the astronauts when and what to say. He added that he was not going to take money at all ^[1] . But if it’s absolutely accurate, Armstrong’s phrase referred to the first step, and Konrad uttered his words by jumping from the last step (flight time - 115: 22:16), while the step was at the level of his belt (the word “step” he did not spoke). When he took a step (115: 22: 24), he added: “Oh, she is soft and tender” ^[2] .

Conrad collected the first samples of lunar soil. His legs fell deep into the moon dust, and he had to raise them high while walking. Dust settled on the suit and all the objects that astronauts used. According to their estimates, the depth of the dust layer was much greater than at the landing site of the Apollo 11 ship.

Bean descended to the surface of the moon about half an hour after Conrad and proceeded to move the color television camera for mounting on a tripod . At the same time, the camera failed (after working for about half an hour). All attempts to fix the camera were unsuccessful. One of the astronauts even slightly hit the camera with a hammer, which caused the color bars to appear on the screen, but then the image disappeared again.

Experts on Earth assumed that the photosensitive layer of the tube was damaged as a result of the fact that the camera was accidentally directed for 10-15 seconds at the Sun or at the lunar module body, reflecting the sun's rays. Attempts to correct the camera continued during the second astronaut exit to the lunar surface, but also failed. The camera was returned to Earth to analyze the causes of the malfunction (for this astronauts were subsequently forced to leave about six kilograms of lunar soil collected on the moon during the first exit).

Bin and Conrad installed scientific instruments on the lunar surface, collected an additional set of samples of the lunar soil, Bin threw up a foam capping of one of the instruments from mischief (according to him, it reached a height of about one hundred meters).

The astronauts first trip to the lunar surface lasted about four hours. At the same time, the reserves of the autonomous knapsack life-support system were far from exhausted.

Returning to the lunar module after the first exit, the astronauts recharged autonomous backpack life-support systems with water and oxygen .

After eating, sleeping (Conrad was sleeping in a spacesuit, fearing, removing it, to spread the moon dust through the cockpit) and another meal, the astronauts began to prepare for a second exit to the surface of the moon.

The hatch was opened at 131 hours 32 minutes 00 seconds onboard time. Conrad descended to the surface of the moon, after about eight minutes, Bean - after fifteen.

Astronauts corrected one of the scientific instruments (fallen ionization manometer ) and began collecting soil samples, while commenting on the nature of the terrain. Conrad twice rolled small stones into the craters, which was recorded by a seismometer installed by astronauts during the first exit.

Astronauts found that collecting samples is easier not with tools, but with hands. When one of them bent down to take a sample, the second held it by the strap. Once Conrad fell, but, as he noted, the fall on the moon is so slow that there is no danger of tearing the spacesuit on the stones.

Approaching the edge of the crater where the Surveyor-3 apparatus was located, the astronauts began their descent. The soil on the slope turned out to be solid and loose, so there was no need to secure it with a rope. Approaching the device, astronauts reported that it was not white in color, as at launch, but brown, while the soil around it was gray. Astronauts photographed and inspected the device, and, as provided, dismantled some of its details, including the camera.

On the way back to the lunar module, astronauts continued to collect samples. During the second exit, the total length of the astronaut route was approximately one and a half kilometers, the duration of the exit was 3 hours 54 minutes.

About an hour after the end of the second exit, astronauts again depressurized the lunar module cabin and opened the hatch for throwing out objects that became unnecessary. At the same time, one film was thrown out by mistake. Initially, it was assumed that astronauts threw away the captured film, but later it turned out that the unexposed was thrown out.

The start from the moon was made at 142 hours 03 minutes 47 seconds of flight time. The time spent on the moon was 31 hours 31 minutes 04 seconds.

The docking of the takeoff stage of the lunar module and the command module was carried out at one hundred forty-sixth hour of flight. The rapprochement shot from the command module by Richard Gordon was broadcast on television.

Conrad and Bean, after vacuuming their suits and items transported to the crew compartment, two hours after docking, moved to this compartment.

After about an hour, the command module and the take-off stage of the lunar module were undocked, the command module with the help of auxiliary engines was taken to a safe distance.

Then, at the command of the Earth, the take-off engine was switched on for braking, and it, as provided, fell on the Moon. The fall was recorded by instruments installed by the crew on the moon.

At the one hundred seventy-third hour of the flight, during the forty-sixth turn of the command module around the moon, the main engine was turned on, which put the ship on the flight path to Earth.

The separation of the crew compartment from the service compartment of the command module occurred at two hundred and forty-five hours of flight.

The crew compartment splashed down at 244 hours 25 minutes 46 seconds of flight time 4.5 kilometers from the Hornet aircraft carrier (CV-12) in the Pacific Ocean .

The coordinates of the landing site are

On the water, the crew compartment was initially set in an off-design position (bottom up), but after a few minutes, using inflatable balloons-floats, it was turned into its calculated position.

When turning over, the movie camera fell off the bracket and cut an eyebrow for Bina (later the astronaut had two stitches).

Light divers were brought under the pontoon compartment, astronauts were given clean overalls and masks with respirators through the hatch (when flying Apollo 11, 12, 14, quarantine measures were taken out of fear of bringing dangerous microorganisms to Earth, but since no microorganisms were found, starting from the flight of the Apollo 15 spacecraft, strict after - flight quarantine measures for astronauts and samples were canceled).

The helicopter delivered the crew to the aircraft carrier 1 hour 10 minutes after the splashdown.

The advantages of exploring the moon with the participation of astronauts were demonstrated - without their participation, it would not be possible to install the instruments in the most suitable place and ensure their normal functioning.

In the international yearbook "Science and Humanity" for 1970 (the chairman of the editorial board, academician of the USSR M.D. Millionschikov , members of the board of 12 academicians of the USSR, including M.V. Keldysh , I.I. Artobolevsky , B.V. Gnedenko , etc. .) in the “Space Diary” section, it is noted ^[3] that after undocking the command module and the take-off stage of the lunar module, the take-off engine was switched on for braking by command from the Earth. The step of the lunar module weighing approximately 2.5 tons fell on the moon at a distance of 62 km from the landing point of the lunar module "Apollo 12". The speed at the time of the collision was 6030 km per hour. The seismograph recorded oscillations of the lunar surface. In the first 7–8 minutes, intense oscillations were observed with a frequency of 1–1.5 oscillations per second, and then damped oscillations were recorded for 30 minutes or more. Как отмечается в разделе, такие длительные остаточные колебания не могут быть объяснены в рамках существующей лунной модели. Одновременно, была получена «интересная» телеметрическая информация от магнитометра. Согласно измерениям, напряженность магнитного поля Луны оказалась в 20 раз сильнее, чем считалось ранее. Ученые предполагают, что полученные измерения "связаны с локальным магнетизмом, например с крупной намагниченной массой в подповерхностном слое Луны в районе посадки лунного модуля «Аполлона-12». Возможно, существует какая — то связь между полученными измерениями и загадочными масконами — «концентрациями масс», которые возможно «оказывают возмущающее воздействие на селеноцентрические орбиты космических кораблей и аппаратов». Неожиданно странным оказался тот факт, что слой лунной пыли в месте прилунения лунного модуля «Аполлона −12» казался толще, чем в месте прилунения модуля «Аполлона-11» ^[4] . Анализ лунного грунта, доставленного экипажем «Аполлона-12» из Океана Бурь, обнаружил большие отличия от результата анализа лунных пород из Моря Спокойствия, доставленных на Землю экипажем «Аполлона-11». В частности, анализ образцов с помощью калий-аргонового датирования установил, что возраст пород из Океана Бурь составляет примерно 2,3—2,5 млрд.лет. Полученные данные, «поставили перед учеными больше новых загадок, чем дали ответы на старые» ^[5] .

Изучение демонтированных астронавтами деталей аппарата «Сервейер-3» показало, что примерно за тысячу суток пребывания на Луне они подверглись весьма незначительному воздействию метеорных частиц. В куске пенопласта, помещённом в питательную среду, были обнаружены бактерии из числа обитающих в полости рта и носа человека. Очевидно, бактерии попали в пенопласт при предполётном ремонте аппарата с выдыхаемым воздухом или слюной одного из техников. Таким образом, выяснилось, что, попав вновь в селективную среду, земные бактерии способны к размножению после почти трёхлетнего пребывания в лунных условиях ^[6] . Однако существует также предположение, что бактерии были занесены на деталь уже после её возвращения на Землю ^[7] .

В первой половине 1970 года НАСА организовала раздачу 1620 образцов лунного грунта, доставленных астронавтами, общей массой 13 килограмм для исследования в лабораториях Австралии, Бельгии, Канады, Чехословакии, Финляндии, Западной Германии, Японии, Кореи, Испании, Швейцарии, Великобритании, Южной Африки, Италии, Франции, Норвегии, Индии и США ^[8] .

Лунный музей

• Программа «Аполлон». Часть II. Обзор по материалам открытой иностранной печати. Составитель: Гольдовский Д. Ю. ГОНТИ—1. Июль 1971. Тираж 650 экз. Экз.№ 0016

• Раздел о полёте «Аполлона-12» на сайте NASA
• Карта перемещений экипажа «Аполлона-12» по поверхности Луны
• Статья с критикой «теории фальсификации» полётов на Луну
• Note on auctioning of geological instructions for the lunar expedition at Apollo 12
• Geological instruction for the lunar expedition to Apollo 12