The artist and the professor who have walked on the moon

The recent death of Apollo astronaut Alan Bean made me wonder how many men who have walked on the moon were civilians. – N.

Alan Bean was the fourth man to walk on the Moon, as lunar module pilot on Apollo 12.

Of the 12 men who reached the lunar surface – Neil Armstrong, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, Charles “Pete” Conrad, Alan Bean, Alan Shepard, Edgar Mitchell, David Scott, James Irwin, John Young, Charles Duke, Gene Cernan and Harrison “Jack” Schmitt – only two were civilians.

Of the two, Apollo 11 astronaut and the first man on the Moon, Neil Armstrong, had previously served as a US Navy pilot, and he saw action in the Korean War.

The only other non military man was Schmitt, lunar module pilot of Apollo 17, who was a professor of geology at Harvard University.

Six of the other 10 astronauts were in the US Navy, and four were Air Force pilots.

Alan Bean was a Navy pilot and he and his Apollo 12 crewmates, Charles “Pete” Conrad and Dick Gordon, flew made the second lunar landing on November 19-20, 1969.

Bean and Conrad spent 31 hours on the moon, and took part in two moonwalks, lasting a total of 7 hours and 45 minutes.

Bean resigned from NASA in June 1981 to devote his time to painting.

He said his decision was based on the fact that, in his 18 years as an astronaut, he was fortunate enough to visit worlds and see sights no artist’s eye, past or present, has ever viewed firsthand and he hoped to express these experiences through his art.