[FPSPACE] Microbes presumably brought back by Apollo 12 from Surveyor 3 may not have been on the Moon at all

[LARRY KLAES]

Moon Microbe Mystery Finally Solved

Leonard David, SPACE.com's Space Insider Columnist
Date: 02 May 2011 Time: 07:25 AM ET
 
 
 
 
There has been a long-lived bit of Apollo moon landing folklore that now appears to be a dead-end affair: microbes on the moon.  
The lunar mystery swirls around the Apollo 12 moon landing and the return to Earth by moonwalkers of a camera that was part of an early NASA robotic lander – the Surveyor 3 probe.
 
On Nov. 19, 1969, Apollo 12 astronauts Pete Conrad and Alan Bean made a precision landing on the lunar surface in Oceanus Procellarum, Latin for the Ocean of Storms. Their touchdown point was a mere 535 feet (163 meters) from the Surveyor 3 lander -- and an easy stroll to the hardware that had soft-landed on the lunar terrain years before, on April 20, 1967. [Video: Apollo 12 Visits Surveyor 3 Probe] 
 
Full article here:
 
http://www.space.com/11536-moon-microbe-mystery-solved-apollo-12.html
 
 
 
  		 	   		  
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