Mission Overview
Surveyor 1
Engineering test model of Surveyor
The flight time of the spacecraft from the moment of liftoff from Cape Kennedy, Florida, aboard an Atlas-Centaur rocket at 7:41 a.m. PDT on May 30, was 63 hours, 36 minutes and 35 seconds. At launch Surveyor 1 weighed 2,194 pounds. After jettisoning its burned-out retro-engine, the spacecraft weighed 620 pounds at landing.
During the night of June 1 and the morning of June 2, when Surveyor 1 took its first 144 pictures, commercial television networks relayed the "live" lunar program throughout the nation. The Early Bird communications satellite, also designed and built by Hughes, further relayed the pictures throughout Europe.
During 297 hours of operation during the first lunar day, Surveyor 1 transmitted a total of 10,150 close-up and long-range photographs of the lunar landscape. In addition, a number of special experiments were conducted. A gas jet was turned on to study its blast-erosion effect on the lunar surface. Sightings were made of the stars Canopus and Sirius and the planet Jupiter to assist in the determination of the spacecraft's angle and location on the lunar surface. Photographs were obtained of the solar corona at sunset followed by time-exposure photographs taken during lunar night using Earth-reflected light (Earthshine) for illumination.
Surveyor 1 takes picture of its own shadow against the moon's surface on June 13, 1966. Picture was taken less than 24 hours before the sun set on the site in the Ocean of Storms where the spacecraft landed on June 1.
The Surveyor program, undertaken by Hughes in 1961 for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, was directed by NASA's Office of Space Science and Applications. Management of the project was assigned to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
NASA's Lewis Research Center, Cleveland, Ohio, was responsible for the Atlas first-stage launch vehicle and the second-stage Centaur, both developed by General Dynamics-Convair, of San Diego, California.
The Surveyor program had three objectives. These were: (1) To accomplish a soft-landing on the moon; (2) to provide basic data in support of the U.S. manned lunar landing program; and (3) to perform operations on the lunar surface which would reveal new scientific knowledge about the moon.
Beginning with the successful landing of Surveyor 1 and the subsequent successes of Surveyors 3, 5 and 6, the validation of potential landing sites for the manned program was successfully completed. Their success permitted scientists to launch Surveyor 7 on a purely scientific mission to investigate the highland region of the moon and compare its findings with the results obtained from the earlier landings in the mare regions of the moon along the lunar equator.
Surveyor 3
Lunar photo taken of one of the several trenches carved in the moon's surface by the metal claw carried aboard Surveyor 3 when it landed in the Ocean of Storms on April 19, 1967, the second Surveyor to successfully land on the moon.
The spacecraft was launched from Cape Kennedy at 11:05 p.m. PST on April 16, 1967. It successfully landed in the eastern edge of the Ocean of Storms at 4:04 p.m. PST on April 19 after a space journey of 64 hours, 59 minutes, and 18 seconds. Surveyor landed at 2.94 degrees South latitude and 23.34 degrees West longitude, about 2.5 miles from the target landing site.
During the soft-landing the spacecraft "hopped" upon the initial touchdown when the vernier engines did not cut off at the 14-foot mark, but continued firing to the surface. Strain gages on the landing legs indicated the spacecraft rebounded three times from the lunar surface before finally coming to rest.
Evaluation of telemetry data later indicated that the vernier engines, radar-controlled to shut off at an altitude 14 feet above the surface, continued to burn as the radar beams swept over the lip of the crater. As a result, Surveyor 3 rebounded 35 feet from the surface on the first landing, touched down and bounced 11 feet a second time, then landed with the engines shut down and slid laterally about one foot. Throughout the hop, skip and jump descent the spacecraft maintained an upright attitude.
In this historic photo an Apollo 12 Astronaut approaches Surveyor 3 in the Ocean of Storms about 600 feet from the lunar module which carried Astronauts Charles Conrad and Alan L. Bean to man's second conquest of the Moon on November 18, 1969.
This NASA photo of the footprint of the Surveyor 3 spacecraft was made by the Apollo 12 astronauts when they visited the spacecraft on November 20, 1969. The unmanned spacecraft, one of five built by Hughes for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, did a hop-skip-and-jump when it landed in a small crater on April 19, 1967. Components retrieved from the spacecraft by the astronauts included the TV camera and the scoop-and-claw device which tested the bearing strength of the lunar surface. The dark shadow above the footpad masks the area where the trenching tool dug several furrows in the surface. Hughes scientists analyzed the components returned to Earth by the astronauts to determine what effect 2.5 years in the lunar environment had upon them.
Surveyor 3 came to rest on a 10-degree slope in a small unidentified crater about 50 yards in diameter and about 15 to 20 feet deep. The spacecraft landed with footpad No. 2 facing 60 degrees east.
During its first lunar day of operation from April 19 to May 3, the spacecraft returned 6,315 high quality television pictures showing the operation of the surface sampler as well as near and distant views of the lunar surface in the vicinity of the spacecraft.
The surface sampling device dug four trenches, made seven bearing strength tests and 14 penetration tests before Surveyor entered lunar night on May 3. Efforts to revive the spacecraft at the end of the lunar night were without success.
Surveyor 5
Surveyor 5, the first in the Surveyor series of soft-landers to carry a scientific instrument for analysis of the chemical composition of the moon's surface, successfully landed on the moon at 5:46 p.m. PDT, on September 10, 1967. It was launched from Cape Kennedy at 12:57 a.m. on September 8. Flight time was 64 hours, 46 minutes, and 45 seconds.
The spacecraft landed in the Sea of Tranquility near the lunar equator at 1.50 degrees North latitude and 23.19 degrees East longitude, a site approximately 18 miles northwest of the target landing area.
The landing was accompanied by tense moments following discovery of a helium leak some 40 hours before touchdown. The leak threatened to cripple the operation of the smaller vernier engines of the spacecraft and raised the odds against a successful landing to 1,000 to 1.
In the tense drive that followed to save the mission, time-pressed engineers using pencils instead of computers to do mass calculations that would determine the minimum amount of helium pressure and propellant required for an emergency landing. It meant reprogramming the spacecraft for a risky, nonstandard landing with burnout of the main engine occurring at 26 miles instead of the normal 52-mile altitude above the moon.
When Surveyor 5 landed in the lunar Sea of Tranquility on September 10, 1967, this is the miniature chemical laboratory that was dropped from the spacecraft to analyze the chemical composition of the moon's soil. In this picture, transmitted to Earth on September 11, alpha unit is resting on the moon's surface.
One of three vernier engines
Confidence grew as engineers determined the minimum pressure that would still force fuel into the vernier engines and permit them to function. It involved braking Surveyor dangerously close to the moon with its main retro-rocket so that vernier engine cushioning would occur in the final 4,000 feet above the moon.
When the command to fire the main engine was sent, two-tenths of a second in timing spelled the difference between success and disaster. But calculations proved correct and Surveyor 5 successfully soft-landed.
Surveyor 5 landed on a 19.9 degree slope inside a small crater about 30 feet in diameter and about five feet deep. One of the spacecraft's three landing legs rested on the rim of the small crater. Within 1 hour and 18 minutes, the first series of new lunar pictures were being transmitted.
During the two-week-long lunar day, Surveyor 5 operated perfectly and transmitted a total of 18,006 television pictures, a number exceeding the combined total from two previously successful Surveyors. Later, during the second lunar day, Surveyor 5 was re-awakened and transmitted 1,043 additional moon pictures.
Preliminary analysis of 93.5 hours of lunar surface data, accumulated during operation of the alpha back-scattering instrument which analyzed the chemical content of the lunar surface soil, indicated that the lunar surface in the vicinity of the spacecraft was composed of a basaltic rock similar to that found in various places on Earth including North and South America, Asia and Greenland.
Surveyor 6
Diagram of liftoff from lunar surface by Surveyor 6
Television photo taken by Surveyor 6 immediately after the translation experiment on November 17, 1967, during which vernier engines fired for 2.5 seconds lifting spacecraft 12 feet above surface and moving it sideways for 8 feet.
Surveyor 6 was launched November 6, 1967 at 11:39 p.m. PST aboard an Atlas-Centaur rocket from Cape Kennedy, Florida. The spacecraft successfully soft-landed on the moon at 5:01 p.m. PST November 9 in Sinus Medii (Central Bay) at 0.47 degrees North latitude and 1.48 degrees West longitude.
The spacecraft landed approximately 2.5 miles west of the midcourse maneuver aiming point, touching down in a heavily cratered area strewn with small rocks. The first television pictures (200-scan-line mode) were received from the spacecraft 50 minutes after the landing.
By November 15, Surveyor 6 had transmitted 9,741 600-scan-line television pictures and had accumulated 16 hours of data with the alpha back-scattering instrument.
On November 17, a lateral translation of the spacecraft was conducted during which Surveyor 6 performed the first lift-off ever conducted from an extra-terrestrial body.
The vernier engine system was turned on at 2:32 a.m. PST, burned for 2.5 seconds producing 150 pounds of thrust and lifted the spacecraft 12 feet above the surface of the moon and moved it in a westerly direction for 8 feet. Flight time for the maneuver was 6.5 seconds.
The spacecraft landed upright and picture-taking commenced 35 minutes later. Stereo pictures were obtained and showed the imprint of the footpads at the original landing site. During the flight maneuver, the alpha instrument over-turned and landed on its side as the spacecraft touched down. The instrument was then used to record cosmic radiation data.
Still in operation when lunar sunset descended upon the spacecraft at 6:42 a.m. PST on November 24, Surveyor 6 continued to respond to engineering interrogation, took pictures of the solar corona, and responded to commands to reposition the solar panel and planar antenna for the next lunar day.
At the end of the first lunar day Surveyor 6 had taken 30,027 television pictures and had accumulated 31 hours of alpha instrument data.
Surveyor 7
Spherical mosaic of 212 lunar pictures taken by Surveyor 7's television camera forms a panorama of the rock-strewn highlands about 18 miles north of the crater Tycho. Distance from Surveyor to center of horizon is about 8 miles. Spacecraft footpad can be seen at lower right.
The spacecraft touched down in a perfect landing at 40.89 degrees South latitude and 11.37 degrees West longitude, 18 miles northwest of crater Tycho in the moon's south-central highlands on January 9 at 5:05 PST. The journey took 66 hours and 35 minutes. Surveyor 7 landed 1.5 miles southwest of its aiming point in the boulder-strewn region.
The spacecraft touched down at a vertical velocity of nine miles per hour and a lateral velocity of less than one mile per hour. Strain gages on the landings legs indicated that the three feet touched the surface within 5/100ths of one second and that all three rebounded, possibly as much as nine inches, with the spacecraft making a second touchdown 1.5 seconds after the first.
It was the third spacecraft in the series equipped with the alpha back-scattering instrument and the first Surveyor to carry both the alpha instrument and the surface sampling claw-and-scoop device together. The surface sampler had been carried previously aboard Surveyor 3 and 4 while the alpha instrument was carried previously by Surveyor 5 and 6.
The spacecraft also carried additional viewing mirrors, including seven small reflective surfaces, about the size of a dime, which were mounted in various positions on the vehicle. These were used to measure the accumulation of lunar dust on the spacecraft after landing.
Deployment of the alpha instrument to the lunar surface was commanded during the second day of operation, but pictures of the unit, after the command had been transmitted, revealed that the sensor head had not lowered to the surface.
Efforts to free the alpha instrument by using the surface sampler to push it downward with a slight pressure were successful, however, and the instrument was finally lowered.
Meanwhile, other lunar experiments conducted by the spacecraft included trenching and bearing strength experiments with the surface sampler. In one place the claw device sank into the lunar soil an inch or two while in another it barely made a dent despite exerting seven times the normal pressure. The sampler unit was also used to lift and re-deploy the alpha instrument to three different locations within the operational area between spacecraft legs No. 2 and No. 3.
On January 20, two laser beams were aimed toward the landing site of Surveyor 7 and were photographed by the spacecraft's television camera. The originating points for the laser beams were Kitt Peak National Observatory, Tucson, Arizona, and Table Mountain at Wrightwood, California. An optical argon laser, developed by Hughes, was used at the Table Mountain site. Four other laser stations on the East Coast participated in the test but were not detected. Approximately 50 pictures were taken during the experiment.
During the first lunar day of operation, Surveyor 7 transmitted a total of 21,046 television pictures, the second highest number of pictures taken by any Surveyor. The total number of pictures obtained from all Surveyors (1, 3, 5, 6 and 7) was 86,364.
First lunar day operations for Surveyor 7 ended on January 26 at 6:11 a.m. PST, some 80 hours after sunset, when the spacecraft was placed in a standby condition for the two-week-long lunar night.
On February 12, about 120 hours after lunar sunrise, Surveyor 7 responded to the first command sent for the second lunar day operation. The command was transmitted from the Madrid station at 11:00 a.m. PST and the spacecraft responded within 56 seconds of the transmission.
Engineering data indicated some damage to the spacecraft's battery had been incurred during the -250 degree lunar night. However, Surveyor responded to commands to operate the television camera and alpha scattering instrument by using power generated by the solar panel.
Subsequent data received from the spacecraft indicated that landing leg No. 1 had sagged or deflected about 24.5 degrees. Deflection of the landing leg caused an eight-degree tilt of the spacecraft in a southerly direction.
The spacecraft was intermittently operated during the next several days during which 45 200-scan-line television photos were transmitted. During this period an additional 20 hours of alpha data was accumulated.
At 4:24 p.m. PST on February 20, 1968, about 17.5 hours before Surveyor's second lunar sunset, radio content with the spacecraft was lost. Efforts by ground controllers to reestablish contact with the spacecraft ended about 6.5 hours later.
| Commands Through Touchdown | Commands Through Lunar Day 1 | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Surveyor 1 | 297 | 134,216 | 158,084 |
| Surveyor 2* | 371 | -- | 371 |
| Surveyor 3 | 346 | 57,848 | 60,184 |
| Surveyor 4** | 322 | 4,837 | 5,105 |
| Surveyor 5 | 725 | 104,935 | 129,864 |
| Surveyor 6 | 359 | 162,893 | 168,319 |
| Surveyor 7 | 409 | 137,824 | 137,824 |
| ***Total | 771,753 | ||
| * Lost signal during retro-engine burn following attempts to
correct mid-course tumble ** Lost signal just prior to retro-engine burnout during terminal descent ***Includes unanswered commands |
|||
Summary of Surveyor 2 and 4 Missions
Of the seven Surveyor missions undertaken from June 1966 through January 1968, only two failed to achieve the primary objective of soft-landing on the moon.
These two missions, involving Surveyors 2 and 4, were particularly disappointing as both launches were perfect and each spacecraft appeared destined for a successful landing.
Surveyor 2 was launched September 20, 1966, towards Sinus Medii (Central Bay) in the center of the moon. When one of the three vernier engines failed to ignite during the programmed midcourse maneuver, the resulting imbalance caused the spacecraft to tumble. Despite ground control efforts to control the tumbling, the situation could not be corrected.
Following a series of engineering experiments during the following 48 hours to obtain valuable data on the functioning of the various systems aboard the spacecraft, the main retro-engine was fired on September 22, at 2:34 a.m. (PDT). Total loss of signal from the spacecraft occurred one minute later. A receiver search for the spacecraft was conducted without success and the mission was officially terminated by NASA at 2:53 a.m. The spacecraft impacted the moon southeast of the crater Copernicus at a velocity of nearly 6,000 miles per hour.
The fourth mission of Surveyor occurred on July 14, 1967, when Surveyor 4 was launched from Cape Kennedy and aimed for a landing in Central Bay. It was the second attempt to land a Surveyor in the center of the moon.
Following a successful midcourse correction maneuver 38 hours after launch, Surveyor 4 approached the moon in perfect condition at the beginning of the terminal descent. Two-and-a-half minutes from touchdown, and only 7 miles above the lunar surface, Surveyor 4 was perfectly stabilized for what appeared to be the third successful soft-landing on the moon.
The mission was proceeding normally until the final seconds of the 40-second burn of the retro-engine when the signal abruptly terminated and the spacecraft went silent. Repeated efforts to establish contact with the spacecraft failed.
Whether the spacecraft crashed or landed intact will remain unknown until man sets foot on the moon in that region. The spacecraft came down on the lunar surface near 0.43 degrees North latitude and 1.50 degrees West longitude.
Surveyor Achievements
Surveyor 1
- Made first fully controlled lunar soft-landing
- Established that lunar surface can support spacecraft and men
- Made the first pictures of solar corona from the moon
- Made first on-surface color pictures of the lunar surface
Surveyor 3
- Made first excavation ever performed on an extra-terrestrial body
- Made first color pictures of Earth from Moon
- Made first controlled bearing tests of lunar surface
Surveyor 5
- Made first on-site chemical analysis of lunar surface
- Discovered lunar rock has basaltic composition similar to that on Earth
- Made first detection of magnetic particles in lunar soil
- Made first restart of rocket motor on Moon
Surveyor 6
- Made first launch from lunar surface
- Made first controlled movement across surface of the Moon
- Established that lunar maria are remarkably uniform chemically as well as in physical properties and topography
Surveyor 7
- Made first soft-landing in lunar highland region
- Discovered larger rocks, fewer craters, thinner debris than on maria
- Established that fine particles and rocks near crater Tycho have higher albedo than on maria
- Revealed highland material has lower iron content than mare material
- Detected and photographed laser beams from Earth
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