A visit from astronauts
On November 18, 1969, Apollo 12 astronauts Charles Conrad Jr. and Alan L. Bean landed the Intrepid Lunar Module approximately 197 yards (180 metres) from me. I had been inactive for more than two years, but I was close enough for the astronauts to visit.
During their second extra-vehicular activity on November 19, the astronauts walked to my location and recovered parts, including my soil scoop and camera system. The returned hardware gave scientists the opportunity to evaluate how nearly two-and-a-half years of exposure to the lunar surface had affected it.
Why this mattered
My story became unusual: I was a robotic spacecraft that astronauts later visited in person. The recovered components allowed researchers to examine real hardware that had spent nearly two-and-a-half years exposed to the lunar environment.
Mission facts on this page are drawn from the supplied NASA mission record and Asif A. Siddiqi, Beyond Earth: A Chronicle of Deep Space Exploration, 1958–2016 (NASA History Program Office, 2018). Surveyor 3 · NASA / Jet Propulsion Laboratory mission.