The sign accompanying the scoop. It reads
Surveyor 3 Scoop
From 1966 to 1968, NASA
sent seven Surveyor spacecraft to the Moon. The goals of the program
were to demonstrate the capability of soft landings on the Moon and make
mid-course corrections during transit. Surveyor 3 was the third lander in this
program and the first with a surface scoop.
Surveyor 3 landed on April 20, 1967 and sent images and soil data
back to Earth after digging four parallel trenches.
Apollo 12 astronauts Alan
Bean and Pete Conrad traveled to the Moon in November 1969. One of their
primary objectives was to land within walking distance of the Surveyor 3
spacecraft and bring back the scoop and television camera for research on
long-term exposure to the vacuum of space and the lunar surface environment.
The scoop in front of you was retrieved from the Moon on November 20 by the
Apollo 12 crew on their second moonwalk.