When Alan Bean went to the moon, he left some things he'd brought with him, and gained some thing to bring back to Earth.
He and his Apollo 12 commander Pete Conrad, for example, brought back parts from the Surveyor III lander. The unmanned Surveyor spacecraft had landed on the moon two years earlier, and the Apollo 12 astronauts landed close enough to walk over to it and inspect it -- the only time astronauts have visited a probe sent to explore another world. A Surveyor camera they returned to Earth was later found to contain bacteria, causing speculation that the bacteria had actually survived, dormant, on the moon for more than two years.
As with other Apollo crews, among the things left behind were a collection of the equipment used on the moon. In order to lighten the load for the trip back into lunar orbit, and to save space in the cramped Apollo command module, anything that wasn't needed was left behind when the ascent stage of the lunar module lifted off.
That, of course, made room for one of the most important things they brought back -- 76 pounds of lunar material collected by Conrad and Bean during their moonwalks. One of these moon rocks is on display in the Davidson Center for Space Exploration at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center. The rock has long been on display at the center, and Bean noticed it during a visit there almost a decade ago for the 30th anniversary of his Skylab II flight. During that visit, Bean took a marker and made a note on the rock's display, that he remembered that rock and that it was one of his favorites. Today, visitors can see not only the moon rock, but also Bean's handwritten note, which was preserved when the rock was moved into its new home in the Davidson Center.
Also left behind on the moon was Bean's silver astronaut pin. The pins, in silver or gold, are given exclusively to astronauts, and Bean's trip to the moon meant that he no longer needed his silver pin, so he threw it into a crater and left it on the moon. The silver color denoted an astronaut who had not yet flown into space, and Bean's participation in Apollo 12 meant that, upon his return to Earth, he would be given a new gold pin as a flown astronaut.
Bean brought back one other incredibly important thing with him, which in the years since his flight he has combined with one of the unique things he took with him. As one of only 12 men to walk on the moon, Bean brought back a very rare set of experiences and memories, a rare perspective on what it's really like to visit another world. Among the 12, That perspective is made unique among the 12 because of Bean's experience as an artist. Over the years since his flight, Bean has used his artist's eye and his painting skills to try to capture for the world what it was like to walk on the moon in a way that no one else can. He's created a series of paintings -- some literal and some more creative -- designed to give viewers a glimpse into what he felt on the lunar surface.
Ironically, one of Bean's rare mistakes as an astronaut kept people from seeing what the moon was like -- he accidentally blinded the mission's color television camera by pointing it toward the sun. By showing Earth's citizens the moon in a way that no one else could, he's more than made up for that.
Contributing Author: David Hitt
