Surveyor 1

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Surveyor 1

Surveyor model on Earth
Mission type	Lunar lander
Operator	NASA
COSPAR ID	1966-045A
SATCAT no.	02185
Mission duration	7 months, 8 days (launch to last contact)
Spacecraft properties
Manufacturer	Hughes Aircraft
Launch mass	995.2 kilograms (2,194 lb)[1]
Landing mass	292 kilograms (644 lb)
Start of mission
Launch date	May 30, 1966, 14:41:01 (1966-05-30UTC14:41:01Z) UTC
Rocket	LC-36A
End of mission
Last contact	7 January 1967 (1967-01-08)
Lunar lander
Landing date	June 2, 1966, 06:17:36 UTC[2]
Landing site	2°28′26″S 43°20′20″W / 2.474°S 43.339°W / -2.474; -43.339[2]
Surveyor ← None Surveyor 2 →

Surveyor 1 was the first

probe.

Surveyor 1 was launched May 30, 1966, from the

system.

The Surveyor program was managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in Los Angeles County, California, and the Surveyor space probe was built by the Hughes Aircraft Company in El Segundo, California.

Mission description

space probe

The Surveyor series of

of the lunar "soil".)

Surveyor 1 was launched May 30, 1966 and sent directly into a trajectory to the Moon without any

itself lies within Flamsteed P on the south side.

The duration of the

system) was about 294.3 kilograms (649 lb).

Surveyor 1 transmitted

radio communications

with Surveyor 1 required only changes in ground stations as the Earth rotated. However, since it was solar-powered, Surveyor 1 had no electricity with which to function during the two weeks of the lunar night.

The return of engineering information (temperatures, etc.) from Surveyor 1 continued through January 7, 1967, with several interruptions during the lunar nights.

The landing of Surveyor 1 was carried live on some television networks, and the success of the first Surveyor landing was considered surprising, especially after the failure of a number of the Ranger spacecraft en route to the Moon. Justin Rennilson, formerly of Jet Propulsion Laboratory, stated, "We figured the probability of success at around 10 to 15 percent." Among hundreds of other challenges, an uninterrupted communication link for navigation and control was critical to success.^[4]

Science instruments

Television

The TV camera consisted of a

.

Each 600-line picture required about one second to be read from the vidicon tube, and they required a

. The television images were displayed on Earth on a slow-scan monitor coated with a long persistency phosphor. The persistency was selected to optimally match the nominal maximum frame rate. One frame of TV identification was received for each incoming TV frame, and it was displayed in real time at a rate compatible with the incoming image. These data were recorded on a video magnetic tape recorder. Over 10,000 pictures were taken by Surveyor 1's TV camera before the lunar sunset of June 14, 1966. Included in these pictures were wide-angle and narrow-angle panoramas, focus ranging surveys, photometric surveys, special area surveys, and celestial photography. Surveyor 1 responded to commands to activate the camera on July 7, and by July 14, 1966, it had returned nearly 1000 more pictures.

• 
  Surveyor 1's shadow against the lunar surface (upside-down image)
• 
  The mare surface
• 
  Another view of the mare surface
• 
  Irregularly shaped crater at the landing site
• 
  Mottled rock about 50 cm long near Surveyor 1

Strain gauge

Strain gauges were mounted on each leg shock absorber to record the peak axial forces at landing impact of the spacecraft. They were designed to accept a force of approximately 800 kgf (7.8 kN).

Legacy and status

On January 6, 1967, Surveyor 1 was reactivated for 12 hours. The spacecraft returned data on the motion of the Moon, which would be used to refine the map of its orbital path around the Earth as well as better determine the distance between the two worlds.^[7]

See also

• List of artificial objects on the Moon

References

External links

• Surveyor 1 digitized panorama with color photometric target, from Surveyor Digitization Project
• Surveyor 1: 50 Years Later on
  YouTube
• Panoramas of the Surveyor 1 landing site, from The International Atlas of Lunar Exploration by Philip J. Stooke
• Surveyor Program Results (PDF) 1969
• Surveyor I – A Preliminary Report – June 1, 1966 (PDF)
• Surveyor I mission report. Part II – Scientific data and results – Sep 1966 (PDF)
• Details of Surveyor 1 launch, and also more on the Surveyor program
• Surveyor I images at Lunar and Planetary Institute
• Surveyor Site 1 Lunar Map at Lunar and Planetary Institute
• Surveyor Site 1 Lunar PhotoMap at Lunar and Planetary Institute
• Lunar Orbiter 1 photo 192, showing the northeastern part of Flamsteed P crater, where Surveyor 1 landed