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Questions about Apollo 12

Short answers, pulled from the story.

Who were the three astronauts on Apollo 12 and what was their military background?

The crew consisted of Commander Charles Pete Conrad, Command Module Pilot Richard Dick Gordon, and Lunar Module Pilot Alan Bean. All three men held the rank of commander in the United States Navy when they flew this mission.

When did Apollo 12 land near Surveyor 3 and how close was the touchdown to the probe?

Apollo 12 touched down at 110:32:36.2 UTC on the 19th of November 1969 just 180 meters from the Surveyor probe. Engineers had designated the site known as Surveyor crater for landing based on scientific goals rather than safety margins alone.

What caused the lightning strikes during the ascent of Apollo 12 and how did John Aaron fix them?

Lightning struck the Saturn V rocket thirty-six point five seconds after lift-off triggering a voltage transient that knocked all three fuel cells offline. John Aaron Electrical Environmental and Consumables Manager instructed the crew to switch the SCE to Aux which restored power to the spacecraft systems.

How many kilograms of lunar samples did the Apollo 12 astronauts collect during their two extravehicular activities?

The astronauts collected 34 kilograms of samples while traveling up to 720 meters from the LM during their second EVA. They deployed the Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Package and gathered material including a core tube full of lunar regolith.

When were the ALSEP experiments left on the Moon by Apollo 12 deactivated due to budgetary constraints?

All powered ALSEP experiments that remained active were deactivated on the 30th of September 1977 principally because of budgetary constraints. The Lunar Atmosphere Detector returned only a small amount of useful data before its power supply failed soon after activation.