Apollo 12 Overview

The Apollo 12 mission was the second manned lunar landing mission. The scientific objectives of the Apollo 12 Mission were:

•	Make a precision landing in order to demonstrate that landing points in rough terrain of great scientific interest are feasible

•	To collect early in the first extravehicular activity (EVA-1) a sample, called the contingency sample, of lunar surface material that would ensure that some lunar material would be returned to earth.

•	To deploy the Solar Wind Composition Experiment

•	To deploy the Apollo lunar surface experiments at a safe distance away from the lunar module. Experiments included:

•	To collect additional samples including drive core samples

•	To perform a geology traverse of approximately 4300 ft during which documented samples, core tube samples, trench site samples, and gas samples were to be collected.

•	To visit, photograph, and gather parts from the Surveyor 3 lander.

The Apollo 12 landing site is on the northwest rim of the 200 m diameter Surveyor Crater in the Ocean of Storms. The landing site was approximately 120 km southeast of the crater Lansberg and due north of the center of Mare Cognitum. The landing site is near a ray associated with the crater Copernicus, which is situated approximately 370 km to the north. The landing site is characterized by a distinctive cluster of craters that range in diameter from 50 to 400 m. The traverses during the two EVA periods were generally made on or near th rims of these craters and on deposits of ejecta from them.

The Apollo 12 mission provided the first opportunity in scientific exploration of the Moon to sample extensively the rocks within a radius of 0.5 km of the landing site, to obtain geologic data from firsthand observations made on the Moon, to measure on the surface of the Moon the vector components of the lunar magnetic field, to measure the pressure of the lunar atmosphere, and to collect seismic data on the interior of the Moon from the impact of the LM ascent stage. During two extravehicular activity (EVA) periods, a total duration of 7.5 hr, the astronauts collected three core tubes of lunar soil and additional surface samples along a geologic traverse. They obtained material from the bottom of a shallow trench and brought back several items from the Surveyor 3 spacecraft. The astronauts caught some of the solar wind in an aluminum foil and they obtained extensive photographs of the lunar surface and of crew activities by using 70-mm Hasselblad cameras and a close-up stereoscopic camera.


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