surveyor 1 landing site

The scene shows the spacecraft (annotated with an arrow) just south of a subdued 40 m diameter crater and about 110 m northwest of a 190 m diameter crater lined with boulders. The landing site was at 2.4745 S, 316.6602 E (as determined from Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter images) on a flat area inside a 100 km crater north of Flamsteed Crater in southwest Oceanus Procellarum.

The TV camera consisted of a vidicon tube, a zoom lens operated at either end of its range resulting in 25 millimeter and 100 millimeter focal-lengths, resulting in optical fields of view of 25.3 or 6.43 degrees, a shutter, several optical filters, and iris-system mounted along an axis inclined approximately 16 degrees from the central axis of Surveyor 1. Frame-by-frame coverage of the lunar surface was obtained over 360 degrees in azimuth and from +40 degrees above the plane normal to the camera's axis to -65 degrees below this plane.

Over 100 engineering sensors were on board each Surveyor. The remaining transmissions were of 600-line pictures over a directional antenna, and each frame was scanned every 3.6 seconds. Surveyor 1's first hour on the Moon was spent performing engineering tests. Their television systems transmitted pictures of the spacecraft footpad and surrounding lunar terrain and surface materials. Surveyor 1 responded to commands to activate the camera on July 7, and by July 14, 1966, it had returned nearly 1000 more pictures. The data transmissions were converted into a standard TV signal for both closed-circuit TV and broadcast TV.

Surveyor 1, the first of a series of seven robotic spacecraft sent to the moon to gather data in preparation for NASA's Apollo missions, was the first spacecraft to make a true soft landing on the moon.

The camera was mounted under a mirror that could be moved in azimuth and elevation. This is because the image plane and scanning raster of the vidicon are stationary with respect to the mirror azimuth axis. Surveyor 1's lunar launch weight was about 995.2 kilograms (2,194 lb), and its landing weight (minus expended maneuvering propellant, its solid-fueled retrorocket (which had been jettisoned), and its radar altimeter system) was about 294.3 kilograms (649 lb). 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. Surveyor 1 transmitted 11,237 still photos of the lunar surface to the Earth by using a television camera and a sophisticated radio-telemetry system.

Surveyor 1's shadow against the lunar surface (upside-down image), Irregularly shaped crater at the landing site, Mottled rock about 50 cm long near Surveyor 1. Strain gauges were mounted on each leg shock absorber to record the peak axial forces at landing impact of the spacecraft. Flamsteed itself lies within Flamsteed P on the south side. (Later Surveyor space probes, beginning with Surveyor 3, carried scientific instruments to measure the composition and mechanical properties of the lunar "soil".).

Among hundreds of other challenges, an uninterrupted communication link for navigation and control was critical to success.[3]. The camera was mounted under a mirror that could be moved in azimuth and elevation. Included in these pictures were wide-angle and narrow-angle panoramas, focus ranging surveys, photometric surveys, special area surveys, and celestial photography. Part II - Scientific data and results - Sep 1966 (PDF), Details of Surveyor 1 launch, and also more on the Surveyor program, Commercial Orbital Transportation Services, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Surveyor_1&oldid=959813755, Spacecraft launched by Atlas-Centaur rockets, Articles needing additional references from May 2020, All articles needing additional references, All Wikipedia articles written in American English, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, 7 months, 8 days (launch to last contact), Missions are ordered by launch date. Surveyor 1 was launched May 30, 1966 and sent directly into a trajectory to the Moon without any parking orbit. These spacecraft carried two television cameras — one for its approach, which was not used in this case, and one for taking still pictures of the lunar surface. Surveyor 1 was the first lunar soft-lander in the uncrewed Surveyor program of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA, United States). xmlns:xsl='http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform'">, The Surveyor 1 spacecraft sitting silently on Oceanus Procellarum. Crewed missions are in, This page was last edited on 30 May 2020, at 19:12. from Surveyor 1 continued through January 7, 1967, with several interruptions during the lunar nights. The rotation of the mirror in the azimuth direction, while providing azimuth cover… The Surveyor program was managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in Los Angeles County, California, but the Surveyor space probe was designed by Gary Mizuhara of EOS (Electrical Optical Systems, Covina, Ca.) The persistency was selected to optimally match the nominal maximum frame rate. Its retrorockets were turned off at a height of about 3.4 meters above the lunar surface. The Surveyor 1 landing site is also one of the areas identified by Project Constellation as a high-priority target for future human lunar exploration. Justin Rennilson, formerly of Jet Propulsion Laboratory, stated, "We figured the probability of success at around 10 to 15 percent." [1] This is within the northeast portion of the large crater called Flamsteed P (or the Flamsteed Ring). Surveyor 1 was launched May 30, 1966, from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at Cape Canaveral, Florida, and it landed on the Moon on June 2, 1966.

Because the Moon always presents the same face to Earth, "line-of-sight" radio communications with Surveyor 1 required only changes in ground stations as the Earth rotated.

The return of engineering information (temperatures, etc.) The image was taken in the lunar afternoon, such that the sun is low on the western horizon and the 3.3 meter tall spacecraft casts a long shadow (almost 15 m long) to the east. The TV camera consisted of a vidicon tube, a zoom lens operated at either end of its range resulting in 25 millimeter and 100 millimeter focal-lengths, resulting in optical fields of view of 25.3 or 6.43 degrees, a shutter, several optical filters, and iris-system mounted along an axis inclined approximately 16 degrees from the central axis of Surveyor 1. 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. This lunar soft-lander gathered data about the lunar surface that would be needed for the crewed Apollo Moon landings that began in 1969. Surveyor 1 fell freely to the surface from this height, and it landed on the lunar surface on June 2, 1966, on the Oceanus Procellarum. Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center/Arizona State University, http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LRO/multimedia/lroimages/lroc_20090930_surveyor1.html. The rotation of the mirror in the azimuth direction, while providing azimuth coverage capability results in an image rotation proportional to the angular azimuth position of the mirror.

These spacecraft also acquired data on the radar reflectivity of the lunar surface, the load-bearing strength of the lunar surface, and the temperatures for use in the analysis of the lunar surface temperatures. As such, it was one of the great successes of NASA's early lunar and interplanetary program.

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