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