Would it be safe for NASA to land humans on the moon?
It was Surveyor’s job to find out. Before Apollo, NASA’s Surveyor program tested methods of landing and sent back close-up images of the moon’s surface.
Surveyor 5 footpad on the lunar surface. Image Credit: NASA/JPL
One of the program’s spacecraft, Surveyor 5, was launched 49 years ago yesterday. The mission launched on September 8, 1967 and conducted the first analysis of soil on any other celestial body.
What was onboard the spacecraft?
The instruments consisted of a television camera, an instrument to discover the soil’s chemical composition known as an alpha-scattering surface analyzer and a small magnet on a footpad to discover if the moon’s soil had magnetic material. Mirrors were also onboard so that the area underneath the spacecraft could be seen.
Surveyor 5. Image Credit: NASA/JPL
The profile for how Surveyor 5 would descend to the lunar surface changed while the spacecraft was in transit. This was due to a loss in helium pressure, but despite the deviation from the originally intended profile, Surveyor 5 landed successfully and performed all of its experiments. In total, Surveyor 5 returned more than 19,000 images to Earth.
The spacecraft shut down during the first lunar night, September 24 to October 15, but resumed operating afterward until the second lunar night on November 1. During the third and fourth lunar days, transmissions resumed. The last one occurred on December 17, 1967. One of the most successful Surveyor missions, Surveyor 5 helped pave the way for humankind’s steps on another world.
Learn more about Surveyor at NASA.gov.