Editing Apollo 12 (section)

===Lunar surface activities===
When Conrad, the shortest man of the initial groups of astronauts, stepped onto the lunar surface his first words were "Whoopie! Man, that may have been a small one for Neil, but that's a long one for me."{{sfn|Chaikin 1995|pp=261–262}} This was not an off-the-cuff remark: Conrad had made a {{USD|500}} bet with reporter [[Oriana Fallaci]] he would say these words, after she had queried whether NASA had instructed Neil Armstrong what to say as he stepped onto the Moon. Conrad later said he was never able to collect the money.{{sfn|Chaikin 1995|pp=261–262, 627}}

[[File:Astronaut Alan L. Bean is about to step off the ladder of the Lunar Module (flopped).jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.36|Bean prepares to step onto the lunar surface.]]

To improve the quality of television pictures from the Moon, a color camera was carried on Apollo 12 (unlike the monochrome camera on Apollo 11). When Bean carried the camera to the place near the LM where it was to be set up, he inadvertently pointed it directly into the Sun, destroying the [[Apollo TV camera#Westinghouse Lunar Color Camera|Secondary Electron Conduction (SEC) tube]]. Television coverage of this mission was thus terminated almost immediately.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a12/a12.tvtrbls.html#1161412 |title=TV troubles |date=August 4, 2017|editor-last=Jones |editor-first=Eric M. |work=Apollo 12 Lunar Surface Journal |publisher=NASA |access-date=January 24, 2021}}</ref>{{sfn|Chaikin 1995|p=264}}

After [[Lunar Flag Assembly|raising a U.S. flag on the Moon]], Conrad and Bean devoted much of the remainder of the first EVA to deploying the Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Package (ALSEP).{{sfn|Orloff & Harland 2006|p=335}} There were minor difficulties with the deployment. Bean had trouble extracting the RTG's plutonium fuel element from its protective cask, and the astronauts had to resort to the use of a hammer to hit the cask and dislodge the fuel element. Some of the ALSEP packages proved hard to deploy, though the astronauts were successful in all cases.{{sfn|Mission Report|pp=9-12–9-14}} With the PSE able to detect their footprints as they headed back to the LM, the astronauts secured a [[core sample|core tube]] full of lunar material, and collected other samples. The first EVA lasted 3 hours, 56 minutes and 3 seconds.{{sfn|Orloff & Harland 2006|p=335}}

Four possible geologic traverses had been planned, the variable being where the LM might set down. Conrad had landed it between two of these potential landing points, and during the first EVA and the rest break that followed, scientists in Houston combined two of the traverses into one that Conrad and Bean could follow from their landing point.{{sfn|Phinney 2015|p=106}} The resultant traverse resembled a rough circle, and when the astronauts emerged from the LM some 13 hours after ending the first EVA, the first stop was [[Head (crater)|Head crater]], some {{convert|100|yard}} from the LM. There, Bean noticed that Conrad's footprints showed lighter material underneath, indicating the presence of ejecta from [[Copernicus (lunar crater)|Copernicus crater]], {{convert|230|mi}} to the north, something that scientists examining overhead photographs of the site had hoped to find. After the mission, samples from Head allowed geologists to date the impact that formed Copernicus{{sfn|Chaikin 1995|pp=272–274}}—according to initial dating, some 810,000,000 years ago.{{sfn|Harland 2011|p=339}}

[[File:Apollo AS12-47-6897.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|right|Conrad with the U.S. flag]]

The astronauts proceeded to [[Bench (crater)|Bench crater]] and [[Sharp-Apollo (crater)|Sharp crater]] and past [[Halo (crater)|Halo crater]] before arriving at [[Surveyor (crater)|Surveyor crater]], where the Surveyor 3 probe had landed.{{sfn|Lattimer 1985|p=74}} Fearing treacherous footing or that the probe might topple on them, they approached Surveyor cautiously, descending into the shallow crater some distance away and then following a contour to reach the craft, but found the footing solid and the probe stable. They collected several pieces of Surveyor, including the television camera, as well as taking rocks that had been studied by television. Conrad and Bean had procured an automatic timer for their [[Hasselblad]] cameras, and had brought it with them without telling Mission Control, hoping to take a [[selfie]] of the two of them with the probe, but when the time came to use it, could not locate it among the lunar samples they had already placed in their Hand Tool Carrier.{{sfn|Chaikin 1995|pp=277–279}} Before returning to the LM's vicinity, Conrad and Bean went to [[block (crater)|Block crater]], within [[Surveyor (crater)|Surveyor crater]].{{sfn|Mission Report|p=3-26}} The second EVA lasted 3 hours, 49 minutes, 15 seconds, during which they traveled {{convert|4300|ft}}. During the EVAs, Conrad and Bean went as far as {{convert|1350|ft}} from the LM, and collected {{convert|73.75|lb}} of samples.{{sfn|Orloff & Harland 2006|p=336}}