 At 7,000 feet, Intrepid nosed over into a near-upright position, and Conrad
could see the lunar surface for the first time. The principal landmark
identifying his landing point was a pattern of craters the astronauts called
"Snowman;" Surveyor III lay halfway up the eastern wall of the crater that was
the Snowman's torso. Intrepid was targeted for the center of the crater. As
soon as he could see out the window, Conrad exclaimed, "Hey, there it is!
There it is! Son of a gun! Right down the middle of the road!" Then,
as Bean called out altitude, velocity and quantity of fuel remaining, Conrad
maneuvered the craft with his hand controller to pick a smooth spot to land on.
The engine exhaust began kicking up dust about a hundred feet (30 meters) above
the surface, and by the time Intrepid reached 50 feet (15 meters), the cloud
obscured the surface completely. At 1:54:36 a.m. EST on November 19th, Pete
Conrad made a blind landing, exactly where, he could not tell, but certainly
close to the intended spot. Had there been windows in the back of the lunar
module, Conrad could have spotted the Surveyor as soon as the dust settled, 535
feet (163 meters) away. He had made a blind, pinpoint landing.
Five and half hours after landing, Conrad squeezed out the hatch, and then
clambered down the ladder to the bottom rung. Conrad knew that people would not
remember what was said by the third man to set foot on the moon, but he also
knew what he was going to say because he had a bet to win. An Italian
journalist he knew was convinced that NASA had told Neil Armstrong what to say,
and Conrad could not convince her otherwise. As proof this was not so, Conrad
had written down ahead of time what he was going to say and bet her $500 he
would say it. As he stepped off onto the landing pad, Conrad remarked the words
he had written in the summer of 1969, "Whoopee! Man, that [step] may have been
a small one for Neil, but it's a long one for me." According to Conrad, he was
never able to collect on the bet. One of the first things he noticed was that
he was going to get extremely dirty: the surface dust was finer and deeper than
he had expected.
 After Conrad had collected the contingency sample Bean joined him on the
surface, bringing the television camera with him. A few minutes later, Houston
reported that the camera was not working. Cursory attempts at troubleshooting
(including hitting it with a hammer) were fruitless, and television coverage
for the mission - desirable but not essential - had to be written off. Later
examination determined that the image-tube target in the camera had been
damaged by exposure to intense light. Apparently Bean had inadvertently pointed
the camera at the sun or a reflection off the lunar module while helping Conrad
set up a directional antenna.
The primary objective of their first excursion was to deploy the scientific
experiments. On the cuff of their left arm was a checklist for them to follow
during their EVA's on the moon. However, the backup crew of Dave Scott and Jim
Irwin had arranged for a few "additions." There, on the pages of the
checklist, were cartoons of Conrad and Bean as Snoopy, the beagle from the
comic strip "Peanuts." But what really made them laugh were the Playboy pinups
annotated with proper geological terminology: "Don't forget: Describe the
protuberance..."
 Conrad and Bean unloaded the scientific package easily, picked a spot 130
meters (425 feet) northwest of the Lander, and laid out the instruments without
any serious difficulty. After nearly four hours on the surface, the astronauts
returned to the lunar module, dusted each other off as best they could without
a brush or vacuum cleaner, and climbed back inside.
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