BULL'S-EYE FOR THE INTREPID TRAVELERS

I think I can see my crater, Hey, there it is! There it is!

FOUR months after the historic flight of Apollo 11, much of the mystery and tension that accompanied man's first landing on the moon seemed to be missing. But as Apollo 12's lunar module Intrepid swooped down toward the lunar surface last week, Charles ("Pete") Conrad's words conveyed the real excitement and significance of the second moon-landing mission: the newfound precision that enables the U.S. to pick a destination on the moon's rugged surface and reach it as reliably as a taxicab finds a street address in Manhattan. Directly ahead of Intrepid lay the five craters that form the familiar pattern of "Snowman." Guided unerringly by the spacecraft computer. Astronauts Conrad and Alan Bean headed straight toward the target picked months earlier in Houston: Surveyor Crater, which forms Snowman's torso and is the spot where 21 years ago the unmanned Surveyor 3 landed on the moon. Conrad could scarcely believe his eyes. "Son of a gun!" he said. "Right down the middle of the road."

Crater's Edge. Only 500 ft. above the surface, Navy Pilot Conrad took control of the LM for the final few seconds of the descent, while Bean read data from the instrument panel: "Forty-two ft., coming down at three [ft. per sec.]. Forty coming down at two. Looking good. Thirty-one, 30 ft., you've got plenty of gas, plenty of gas, Pete. Stay in there. Eighteen ft., coming down. He's got it made. Come on in there. Contact lights!" Although thick dust kicked up by the LM's rocket engine obscured his view during the last 30 to 40 ft. of the descent, Conrad coolly landed Intrepid a scant 20 ft. from the edge of

Surveyor Crater. "Conrad's Parking Lot"--the landing site chosen by Conrad --was on the opposite side of the crater, just 800 ft. away. The pinpoint landing on a target 230,000 miles away from the launch pad at Cape Kennedy boded well for the remainder of Apollo 12's mission. Even more important, it proved that U.S. space scientists had profited from the lessons of Apollo 11 --which overshot its target by four miles --and could now confidently plan for manned exploration of the more rugged highland regions of the moon.

As the dust settled down, Conrad could not contain his exuberance. "Holy cow, it's beautiful out here!" he shouted. Looking out over the Ocean of Storms, both he and Bean--unlike the relatively taciturn Apollo 11 crew--gushed. They described an undulating plain pocked by craters and filled with large boulders that looked gleaming white in the early-morning sun. "Damn, I can't wait to get outside," said Conrad. "Those rocks have been waiting 41 billion years for us to come and grab them."

Despite Conrad's impatience, the astronauts went through 41 hrs. of essential housekeeping before they could emerge. They checked out Intrepid's vital systems, ate lunch and took star sightings, meanwhile bantering with Houston flight controllers. They talked so continuously, as a matter of fact, that Astronaut Richard Gordon, in lonely lunar orbit aboard the command module 69 miles above, broke into the conversation: "This is Yankee Clipper. Tell them to get to work." Finally, sounding like a vaudeville team changing costumes in a phone booth, Conrad and Bean began wriggling into their life-support packs: "I thought you were going to undo it. O.K. Stay still, right there."

"Now you want this under this one flap, don't you?; "Yep." Snap, crackle, pop. The conversation inside the cramped lunar module was also frequently punctuated by a sound that was to become familiar to millions of listeners on earth: Pete Conrad's infectious, high-pitched giggle.

Emerging at last and stepping off the last rung of the LM's ladder onto lunar soil, the irrepressible 5-ft. 6 1/2-in. Conrad could not resist parodying the taller (5 ft. 11 in.) Neil Armstrong. "Whoopee, man, that may have been a small step for Neil," he cackled, "but that's a long one for me." Turning toward the crater, Conrad saw a welcome sight. "Boy," he called jubilantly, "you'll never believe it! Guess what I see on the side of the crater. The Surveyor!" There, on the floor of the crater, precisely where scientists had predicted, stood Surveyor 3, the unmanned spacecraft that soft-landed on the moon en April 19, 1967.

Topsy-Turvy View. As he prepared for Bean's exit from Intrepid, Conrad hummed to himself, whistled a tune through the gap between his front teeth (Whistle While You Work) and laughed repeatedly. "I could work out here all day," he said, as he collected a contingency sample of lunar rocks and passed them up to Bean. Conrad had only one gripe. The lunar surface was covered with black dust that clung to everything that touched it.

Unfortunately, earthbound television viewers were never able to see how dirty the astronauts got--or anything else that happened during the two lunar walks. For 44 minutes, Intrepid's tiny (12 Ib.) color TV camera worked, showing Conrad's descent and early activities and then, after Conrad turned the camera upside down, a topsy-turvy view of Bean leaving Intrepid. But when Bean removed the camera from its mounting inside Intrepid's equipment bay to set it up on a tripod, TV watchers saw a bobbing moon landscape, a brief view of the sun and, suddenly, a meaningless pattern that remained fixed. The camera had failed. As the first extraterrestrial TV repairman, Bean passed his gloved hand in front of the lens, fiddled with the aperture, lifted the camera and then shook it. In exasperation, he finally tapped it with a hammer. Nothing happened. Technicians in Houston speculated that Bean may have burned out the sensitive vidicon tube by accidentally pointing the camera directly into the glaring sun.

The TV failure disappointed millions of viewers on earth, including President Nixon, who had risen early to watch the beginning of the lunar walk. But the astronauts had no more time to spare for the balky camera. Moving easily in the weak lunar gravity, they hurriedly erected an American flag ("Hope everyone down there is as proud as we are to put it up," said Conrad), and set up the aluminum-foil rig of their solar-wind experiment to trap particles that stream down on the moon from the sun. Then Bean lugged the barbell-shaped ALSEP (for Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Package) 600 ft. northwest of Intrepid, where he and Conrad proceeded to set up the devices well out of range of the hot exhaust that would be produced by Intrepid's ascent engine during blastoff.

In addition to its five automatic experiments, man's first continuously functioning observatory on another world consists of a central station with a transmitter, receiver and data-processing equipment to send and receive information. Far more complex than the simple laser reflector and solar-powered seismometer left by the Apollo 11 astronauts at Tranquility Base, the elaborate ALSEP array is powered by a 63-watt nuclear generator that should keep the observatory operating for at least a year.

The generator is fueled by a core of radioactive plutonium 238, which decays and produces heat that is converted directly into electricity. At week's end ALSEP was operating efficiently, transmitting data that should give scientists invaluable information about the origin and composition of the moon. ALSEP's instruments:

SEISMOMETER. By recording lunar rumblings, the Ocean of Storms seismometer should reveal much about the still unknown internal structure of the moon. Scientists may also learn if there really are moonquakes. Their presence would suggest that the moon's interior, like the earth's, is still "hot"-- geologically active.

SOLAR-WIND SPECTROMETER. Besides light, the sun gives off high-speed charged particles known as the solar wind. By measuring their energy, velocity and di rection, the spectrometer could provide significant data on the sun's com position. Such observations are impractical on earth because the solar wind is deflected by the earth's magnetism.

MAGNETOMETER. Though the moon is thought to have only negligible magnetism of its own, magnetic fields may be created by its inter action with the solar wind. Moreover, such fields would vary as the moon rotates. By studying these fields, scientists should not only learn about the moon's electrical conductivity, but also discover whether the lunar interior contains significant amounts of magnetic material like iron.

LUNAR-ATMOSPHERE DETECTOR. It will measure the pressure of any lunar atmosphere by studying neutral, or uncharged, particles at the lunar surface. It could, for example, detect vapors given off by any subsurface water.

LUNAR-IONOSPHERE DETECTOR. By identifying positive ions--atoms with missing electrons--near the surface, scientists could detect traces of gaseous elements. Since any such "atmosphere" would probably be the result of out-gassing, the detector would provide still more evidence about the interior.

What turned out to be one of Apollo 12's most valuable tools--the hammer--again came in handy before the deployment of ALSEP. While Bean offered encouragement ("Pound harder. Keep going, baby"), Conrad tapped on the plutonium core, which had become stuck in its protective cask. Finally loosened, the core was removed and inserted into the generator. Without the core, the generator would have been unable to provide electricity to power ALSEP's experiments and its radio gear.

By now, Conrad and Bean had already exceeded the 2 hr. 21 min. lunar walk taken by Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin. But they hardly noticed the passage of time. With the enthusiasm of Tenderfoot Boy Scouts, they photographed and collected rocks, took a sample core of the lunar soil, poked into innumerable small craters and fascinated geologists with their descriptions of small, strange-looking mounds. "Don't take this the wrong way," Bean cautioned, "but they look like small volcanoes--only they're just about 4 ft. high." After four hours of exploring, during which they strayed about 800 ft. from Intrepid, the astronauts were ordered back to the lunar module for the day. As he helped haul the rock samples aboard, a weary Conrad said: "Not going to have any trouble sleeping tonight."

Twelve hours later, the astronauts again suited up, left Intrepid and headed back to check the ALSEP experiments. As Conrad approached the ion detector, the instrument sensed his presence and reported it to earth. "Can the guy with the seismometer hear me running?" Conrad asked. Responded Houston: "Looks as though you're really thundering by it." Conrad also tested the seismometer by tossing a rock--he called it an "extra grapefruit-size goody"--into a small crater. The instrument promptly signaled to Houston that it had detected the lunar version of the rolling stones.

Earth Bugs. Later, as they bounded across the lunar landscape, Conrad asked Bean: "Ever see those giraffes in slow motion? That's exactly what I feel like." Fanning out 1,300 ft. from Intrepid, they visited half a dozen craters, sank more cores and tried to collect any gases that might be venting from beneath the lunar surface by holding a small can in a 6-in.-deep trench. AH the while, Conrad filled the airwaves with ho-ho-hos, dum-de-dum-dums, cackles and other sounds of pure enjoyment. "We could work out here for eight or nine hours," said Bean. "The work is no strain at all," agreed Conrad. The astronauts tried to compensate geologists for the loss of TV views by conscientiously describing everything they saw: glazed rocks at the centers of craters, soil built up at the base of rocks, bedrock under the black dust, and a radial spray pattern around the 40-ft.-wide Sharp Crater.

Eventually, the astronauts reached the southern rim of the 656-ft.-wide Surveyor Crater. Descending slowly, they walked to the Surveyor spacecraft. Except for a thin coating of lunar dust and white paint that may have turned tan in the intense sunlight, it had apparently been unharmed by its long exposure on the lunar surface. While Dean photographed the spacecraft, Conrad picked up some valuable souvenirs. First, he clipped off some of Surveyor's insulated TV cable, which had contained a known quantity of microorganisms when it left the earth; by examining the cable after it is returned to Houston, biologists will learn if any terrestrial bugs survived and multiplied on the moon. Conrad also removed Surveyor's TV camera; a study of its "aging" could help in the design of future lunar equipment. Then he snipped off some glass and shiny tubing for evidence of micrometeorite bombardment. Finally, he removed Surveyor's mechanical scoop, which still contained the dirt that had been photographed by the spacecraft's TV camera 31 months ago. Their mission accomplished, the astronauts headed back to the LM with their Surveyor parts and the new collection of rocks. Conrad fell during the walk--the first fall by a human on the moon--but was quickly helped to his feet by Bean. "It was no big deal," Conrad assured NASA scientists, who had feared that a fall might rip an astronaut's space suit or vital life-support pack. In all, Conrad had spent 8 hr. 44 min. outside the LM. Before following Bean on board, Conrad singsonged: "Dum-de-de-dum-de-dum. Have I forgotten anything?" He had. A roll of color film, containing shots taken during Intrepid's undocking and descent, had been left in a bag outside the lunar module. The discovery came too late; the astronauts had discarded their life-support packs and could not emerge again.

Final Mission. Blasting off after a 31-hr. 31-min. stay on the moon, Intrepid's ascent stage quickly gathered speed as it rose above the Ocean of Storms. "Wow, we're really smoking along," Conrad shouted. Within minutes, Intrepid was successfully inserted into a low lunar orbit with an apolune (high point) of about 50 miles. Three hours later, Intrepid was so close to Yankee Clipper that the command module's color TV camera caught a picture of Conrad's face, visible in an LM window. "Stand by to receive the skipper's gig," Conrad told Navy Man Gordon, who was now completing his 19th solo orbit of the moon. While the Yankee Clipper's camera recorded the event with breathtaking clarity, Gordon slowly eased his ship against Intrepid. There was a slight jolt, and the spacecraft were again locked together.

Before they crawled back into the mother ship with their booty of moon film, Surveyor parts and an estimated 90 Ibs. of lunar rocks and soil, Conrad and Bean programmed Intrepid's computers for its final mission: a plunge to the lunar surface. Instead of striking the moon at a point about five miles from Surveyor Crater, Intrepid crashed 45 miles away with a force equivalent to the explosion of one ton of TNT. As expected, the ALSEP seismometer recorded the shock about 51 min. later.

But then came the greatest scientific surprise of the trip. The tremors continued far beyond expectations. "It is as though someone struck a bell in the belfry of a church and it kept reverberating for 30 minutes," explained Maurice W. Ewing, director of Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory. Later scientists said that reverberations had lasted as long as 55 minutes. "We've never seen anything like it on earth," said M.I.T. Geophysicist Frank Press. "We're not sure what it means, but probably it will represent a major discovery completely unanticipated about the moon." It could mean, for example, that the structure of the moon's interior is highly unstable and that Intrepid's impact set off a continuing series of collapses.

Voyage Home. Instead of heading home immediately, the three astronauts spent another day in lunar orbit. The delay gave them time to take photographs of prospective landing sites for future Apollo missions. At week's end, after being flung out of lunar orbit by its powerful engine, Yankee Clipper began its long three-day voyage home.

Before their scheduled splashdown in the South Pacific early this week, the astronauts were to send two more telecasts to earth. One of these would include the first press conference in space. Mission Control was to relay reporters' questions to the astronauts, who would respond before a worldwide TV audience. Yet even before that briefing, it was clear that the mission of Apollo 12 had given man new confidence about his role in space. It has also proved, as Wernher von Braun said, that man can live and work on the moon, and that it can indeed be quite hospitable to visitors from earth.

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