Farewell to the first artist on the moon

Man on the moon: Alan Bean in London in 2014

Alan Bean, the fourth man to walk on the moon and the last surviving member of the Apollo XII mission, has died at 86.

In the kicker to his book Painting Apollo, Bean referred to himself as the first artist on another world, and when he attended an Astronauts Weekend in London four years ago he used the phrase "the first artist on the moon". In his hour-long talk at the event he explained why.

During his hours on the moon in late 1969 he had not set up an easel to paint the lunar landscape or his fellow moonwalker, the late Pete Conrad. But after retiring from Nasa in 1981 he spent much of his time creating paintings that depicted his own experience on the moon, and recreating other scenes - including an image of Neil Armstrong on the surface of the moon.

As Heather and I made our way to the top level atrium of the Radisson Blu Edwardian Heathrow Hotel for a cocktail reception at Autographica's Astronauts Weekend, Bean was standing beside the elevators in the lobby. A short while later he was at the reception chatting to fellow Apollo astronaut Buzz Aldrin. The following day we learnt more about Bean's contribution to the space programme when he gave a sellout lecture.

He described how in later life he had become an artist, painting space mission scenes and striving for accuracy, which brought him to a story about his painting of Armstrong on the moon. The painting was among those exhibited at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, Washington DC, in 2009 to mark the 40th anniversary of the moon landings. In attendance were many Apollo mission veterans, including Armstrong. One of the guests studied Bean's painting and spotted Armstrong was portrayed wearing a wristwatch. The guest wasn't convinced that Armstrong had worn his watch on the moon's surface and said so to Bean, who was caught off guard by the observation and wondered if he had got the detail wrong. Bean suggested the guest go and find Armstrong, who was elsewhere in the museum, and ask him if he had been wearing a watch.

It should be pointed out here that there are very few photographs of Armstrong on the moon because he was the one issued with the camera during the mission. As a result most of the iconic moon landing photos show colleague Aldrin on the surface. There is one full-body picture of Armstrong on the moon, however, he has his back to the camera and it is not clear if he is wearing his watch or not.

Ready to go: Bean at the time of the Apollo XII mission

The inquiring guest tracked down Armstrong and asked him about Bean's painting and whether or not he had worn a wristwatch on the moon's surface. Armstrong said, "Has Alan painted me wearing one?" The reply was "Yes," to which Armstrong responded, "Well, that's how it was." It was a good answer, but it wasn't how it had been on the moon. In reality Armstrong had taken off his watch and left it inside the lunar module as a back-up because the onboard mission timer was not working. Many months later, having researched the facts himself, Bean painted out the watch from the portrait.

The weekend event was attended by a number of astronauts including Commander Robert "Hoot" Gibson and a number of his fellow veterans from the Space Shuttle missions. One of them was the late Bruce McCandless, who made history with the first untethered space walk in 1984. He is the man in the famous picture (taken by Gibson) floating in the void of space wearing a jet backpack.

McCandless was working at mission control in 1969 during the Apollo programme and was one of the key contacts for Apollo XI astronauts Armstrong and Aldrin during their landmark first landing on the moon. He also had a story about the follow-up Apollo XII mission, which took Bean and Conrad to the lunar surface, with Richard Gordon piloting the orbiting command module.

He recounted that as the Saturn V rocket soared upwards through the Earth's atmosphere it was hit by either lightning or a self-induced electrical discharge. "They lost all power to the command module," said McCandless. "The computer in the Saturn V redundant for the very first time, so they switched over to the back-up computer and they kept on flying. It was Alan Bean who painstakingly restored power to the command module, brought the fuel cells back online and shortly thereafter they made it successfully into orbit, aligned the platform, got a go to proceed to the moon and had a very successful mission.

"And I think that in today's environment we have probably become so risk adverse that had we had a similar incident with the shuttle we would have insisted on immediately terminating the mission and coming home. It's a real tribute to Alan and Pete Conrad and Dick Gordon that they were able to salvage the mission even after a near catastrophe like this."

Bean died today in Houston after a short illness. Farewell Captain Bean - the first artist on another world.