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Lot 308
[Apollo 12] THE FIRST ROBOTIC SPACECRAFT VISITED BY HUMANS ON ANOTHER WORLD: Surveyor III on the Ocean of Storms Alan Bean, 14-24 November 1969, EVA 2
14 – 28 April 2025, 12:00 CEST
Paris, Avenue HocheSold for €256 inc. premium
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[Apollo 12] THE FIRST ROBOTIC SPACECRAFT VISITED BY HUMANS ON ANOTHER WORLD: Surveyor III on the Ocean of Storms
Alan Bean, 14-24 November 1969, EVA 2
Printed 1969.
Vintage gelatin silver print on fibre-based paper [NASA image AS12-48-7121].
Numbered "NASA AS12-48-7121" in black in the top margin, with NASA caption numbered "AS12-48-7121" on the reverse (issued by NASA Manned Spacecraft Centre, Houston, Texas).
20.3 x 25.4 cm. (8 x 10 in.)
Historical context
Surveyor III—A solitary Monument to Technology on the Moon.
This beautiful photograph of Surveyor III highlights the stunning interplay of light and shadow on the lunar surface.
Alan Bean captured this shot from inside Surveyor Crater, standing just 15 feet from the robotic spacecraft. In the background, Block Crater, a small crater near the rim of Surveyor Crater, is visible at the upper left.
Apollo 12's mission was uniquely tasked with landing near Surveyor III, a robotic lander that had touched down in Surveyor Crater thirty months earlier. This provided NASA engineers a rare opportunity to study spacecraft parts that had been exposed to the harsh lunar environment for over two years—invaluable data for the future design of space stations and lunar bases.
Bean and Conrad spent over 40 minutes photographing the lander, capturing every detail for analysis. At the time, this became the most distant photoshoot in history—conducted over 239,000 miles from Earth.
Printed 1969.
Vintage gelatin silver print on fibre-based paper [NASA image AS12-48-7121].
Numbered "NASA AS12-48-7121" in black in the top margin, with NASA caption numbered "AS12-48-7121" on the reverse (issued by NASA Manned Spacecraft Centre, Houston, Texas).
20.3 x 25.4 cm. (8 x 10 in.)
Historical context
Surveyor III—A solitary Monument to Technology on the Moon.
This beautiful photograph of Surveyor III highlights the stunning interplay of light and shadow on the lunar surface.
Alan Bean captured this shot from inside Surveyor Crater, standing just 15 feet from the robotic spacecraft. In the background, Block Crater, a small crater near the rim of Surveyor Crater, is visible at the upper left.
Apollo 12's mission was uniquely tasked with landing near Surveyor III, a robotic lander that had touched down in Surveyor Crater thirty months earlier. This provided NASA engineers a rare opportunity to study spacecraft parts that had been exposed to the harsh lunar environment for over two years—invaluable data for the future design of space stations and lunar bases.
Bean and Conrad spent over 40 minutes photographing the lander, capturing every detail for analysis. At the time, this became the most distant photoshoot in history—conducted over 239,000 miles from Earth.
Footnotes
Pete Conrad on Surveyor III's changed appearance:
"The Surveyor was covered with a coating of fine dust, and it looked tan or even brown in the lunar light, instead of the glistening white that it was when it left Earth more than two years earlier. It was decided later that the dust was kicked up by our descent onto the surface, even though we were 600 feet away."
—Pete Conrad (NASA SP-350, p. 12)
Literature
Images from Space, The Camera in Orbit, Arnold, plate 3