Word: mooning
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Most striking of all are the closeups of Surveyor 3, which had not been seen by man since it was sent to the moon some 2½ years ago. In one shot, Astronaut Conrad is shown examining Surveyor as it stands in its crater. In the background, protruding above the crater's edge, only 600 ft. away, Intrepid and the nearby umbrella antenna gleam in the sunlight. To the dismay of scientists-who wanted to study the discoloration of Surveyor's white paint-all of the Surveyor pictures are in black and white; while photographing the little craft...
Scientists were just as elated over what the astronauts had left behind. Performing well at the Ocean of Storms base, ALSEP (for Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Package) had begun transmitting valuable data even before the astronauts left the moon. For the time being, earth controllers commanded two of the instruments-designed to investigate any traces of lunar atmosphere-to go into a stand-by mode; that would allow earthly gases left within them to bake out during the torrid two-week-long lunar day (maximum temperature: 240° F.). Once freed of these vapors, which interfere with their high-voltage...
...other three instruments were anything but idle. Radioing data constantly, ALSEP's magnetometer indicated that the moon's magnetic field-which could offer important clues to the lunar interior-may be considerably stronger than had been believed. Palmer Dyal, one of the magnetometer experimenters, had an esoteric, but speculative explanation: after a period of vulcanism, the moon cooled more rapidly than scientists had heretofore thought, thus preserving a larger portion of its primordial magnetic field...
Echo Chamber. The solar-wind spectrometer was also working well, even though it had, for the moment, little to detect; the moon was passing through the earth's magnetic tail (April 22, 1966), which shielded the lunar surface from the high-velocity solar particles that normally bombard it. Meanwhile, the seismometer had recorded an unexplained, two-minute tremor. And scientists were still trying to explain the strange vibrations recorded for 55 minutes by the instrument immediately after Intrepid's ascent stage impacted into the Ocean of Storms...
...bedrock in the floor of the Ocean of Storms and a solid cover of fine material deposits above. Lacking dampening fluids or gases, the layer of rubble may have acted as an echo chamber in which the seismic waves reverberated. If so, the next big seismic event on the moon should be a scientific spectacular; the third-stage rocket of Apollo 13's Saturn 5 will be sent crashing into the lunar surface, creating an impact equivalent to the explosion of 8½ tons...