Word: conrade
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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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...
...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...
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...
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...