PhantomWolf
Penultimate Amazing
- Joined
- Mar 6, 2007
- Messages
- 21,203
has, sadly, passed away after a short illness. He was 86.
He was the LM Pilot of Apollo 12, and became the fourth man to walk on the moon, following Armstrong and Aldrin in Apollo 11, and then Pete Conrad, his Commander on Apollo 12.
He would not have flown at all if not for the tragic death of Clifton Williams who was scheduled to fly as Conrad's pilot. Conrad suggested Bean, who was at the time was in the NASA Apollo Applications Program after not having a place in the program itself. This lead to the all navy crew having 4 stars in their mission patch, one for each of the three Astronauts, Conrad, Bean, and CM pilot, James Irwin, and one for Williams.
Sadly there isn't a lot of TV Footage, as the light sensor in the camera was burned out early in the mission as the camera was moved and accidently pointed at the sun. This lead to the cameras on the following flights being equipped with a light sensitive iris that shut if there was too much light, avoiding damage to the camera.
On the whole it was a bad trip for cameras with Conrad's Hasselblad camera developing a trigger fault meaning that they ended up having to share Bean's to take the still photos, and a Timer they had taken with them to share a photo while having the close encounter with another spacecraft, Surveyor 3, being lost until they were back at the LM, and then again sadly they threw it away instead of taking the double picture there and then.
Finally Bean was struck in the head by the 12mm camera on landing after forgetting to remove it from its bracket. He was knocked out for a short time and received six stitches and a concussion.
Bean went on to become a prolific artist, painting many of the scenes that he saw while on the moon, and using other Apollo missions as inspirations as well. He was well known for adding trace amounts of moon dust into the paints of his artworks.
He will be missed.
He was the LM Pilot of Apollo 12, and became the fourth man to walk on the moon, following Armstrong and Aldrin in Apollo 11, and then Pete Conrad, his Commander on Apollo 12.
He would not have flown at all if not for the tragic death of Clifton Williams who was scheduled to fly as Conrad's pilot. Conrad suggested Bean, who was at the time was in the NASA Apollo Applications Program after not having a place in the program itself. This lead to the all navy crew having 4 stars in their mission patch, one for each of the three Astronauts, Conrad, Bean, and CM pilot, James Irwin, and one for Williams.
Sadly there isn't a lot of TV Footage, as the light sensor in the camera was burned out early in the mission as the camera was moved and accidently pointed at the sun. This lead to the cameras on the following flights being equipped with a light sensitive iris that shut if there was too much light, avoiding damage to the camera.
On the whole it was a bad trip for cameras with Conrad's Hasselblad camera developing a trigger fault meaning that they ended up having to share Bean's to take the still photos, and a Timer they had taken with them to share a photo while having the close encounter with another spacecraft, Surveyor 3, being lost until they were back at the LM, and then again sadly they threw it away instead of taking the double picture there and then.
Finally Bean was struck in the head by the 12mm camera on landing after forgetting to remove it from its bracket. He was knocked out for a short time and received six stitches and a concussion.
Bean went on to become a prolific artist, painting many of the scenes that he saw while on the moon, and using other Apollo missions as inspirations as well. He was well known for adding trace amounts of moon dust into the paints of his artworks.
He will be missed.
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