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Six landings, twelve moonwalkers

Apollo 11 through 17, and what they brought back.

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What the six landings did

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Longer stays, rovers and a professional geologist.

NASA’s statistical history lists six landings, twelve moonwalkers and 382 kilograms of returned rock and soil. [1]

Apollo 12 landed about 180 meters from Surveyor 3, which had sat there since 1967. Conrad and Bean cut off its camera and other parts and brought them home. [2][3] LRO later photographed both landers side by side. [4]

The last three missions carried the electric Lunar Roving Vehicle and stayed three days. On Apollo 15 David Scott dropped a hammer and a feather on live TV; they hit the ground together, as Galileo predicted for a vacuum. [5][6][7] Apollo 16 drilled more than two meters into the surface. [8]

The sources

  1. Apollo by the Numbers, NASA SP-4029 ↗

    NASA SP-4029, Apollo by the Numbers. Statistical reference for mission dates, durations and crews.

  2. NASA: Apollo 12, the pinpoint mission ↗

    Primary institutional record. Carried from the first edition and re-listed 23 October 2026; cited for the specific point in the text.

  3. NASA: Apollo 12 astronauts leave quarantine and Surveyor parts enter analysis ↗

    Primary institutional record. Carried from the first edition and re-listed 23 October 2026; cited for the specific point in the text.

  4. NASA: LRO looks at Apollo 12 and Surveyor 3 landing sites ↗

    Primary institutional record. Carried from the first edition and re-listed 23 October 2026; cited for the specific point in the text.

  5. NASA: Apollo 15 mission details ↗

    NASA article contains an erroneous radial-distance description. Avoid its distance record list; total rover distance is approximately27.9km.

  6. NASA: Three months until Apollo 15 and expanded science capability ↗

    Primary institutional record. Carried from the first edition and re-listed 23 October 2026; cited for the specific point in the text.

  7. NASA: Apollo 15 hammer–feather drop ↗

    Primary institutional record. Carried from the first edition and re-listed 23 October 2026; cited for the specific point in the text.

  8. LPI: Apollo 16 mission samples and the deep drill core ↗

    Research / institutional history. Carried from the first edition and re-listed 23 October 2026; cited for the specific point in the text.

The germ on the camera

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Did Earth bacteria survive on the Moon?

When the Surveyor 3 camera came home, scientists reported Streptococcus bacteria inside it and suggested the microbes had survived 31 months on the Moon. [1][2]

Later reviews, including NASA’s own, found it more likely the camera was contaminated after it returned, in a lab where people did not wear full protective clothing. [1]

The sources

  1. NASA JPL: Surveyor 3 Camera Returned from the Moon ↗

    Primary institutional record. Carried from the first edition and re-listed 23 October 2026; cited for the specific point in the text.

  2. Surveyor 3 returned material: surface organics analysis (1972) ↗

    Primary institutional record. Carried from the first edition and re-listed 23 October 2026; cited for the specific point in the text.

WHAT PEOPLE SAY ABOUT THIS FILE

The claims, rated.

2 claims people make about this file, each rated documented, partly true, disputed, unproven or false. Think a rating is wrong? Use Dispute or Support, or join the Discussion.

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