Mission Details
| Mission Name: Surveyor 5 |
| Mission Type: Lunar Lander |
| Operator: NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) |
| Launching State: United States |
| Location: Sea of Tranquillity |
| Latitude: 1.461 |
| Longitude: 23.195 |
| Launch Date: 8 September 1967, 07:57:00 UT |
| Landing Date: 11 September 1967, 00:46:44 UT |
| Objects on or Related to Site: Surveyor 5 |
| Image Source: NASA |
Description
The Surveyor program consisted of seven uncrewed lunar missions that were launched between May 1966 and January 1968. Five of these spacecraft, Surveyor 1, 3, 5, 6, and 7 successfully soft-landed on the lunar surface. In addition to demonstrating the feasibility of lunar surface landings, the Surveyor missions obtained lunar and cislunar photographs and both scientific and technological information needed for the Apollo manned landing program. Four spacecraft, Surveyor 1, 3, 5, and 6, returned data from selected mare sites from Apollo program support, and Surveyor 7 provided data from a contrasting rugged highland region.
The mission of Surveyor 5 was to demonstrate the technology necessary to achieve landing and operations on the lunar surface.
Read more:
https://www.lpi.usra.edu/lunar/missions/surveyor/
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/surveyor-5/in-depth/
Heritage Consideration
Surveyor 5 was the first human spacecraft to complete a soil analysis on another celestial boday other than Earth. The spacecraft returned over 20,000 photographs and confirmed that the Moon’s surface was likely basaltic and thus conducive to human exploration.
Object on or Related to Site
| Object Name: Surveyor 5 | |
| Cospar: 1967-084A | |
| Norad: N/A | |
| Location: Precise location unknown or undisclosed. | |
| Launch Date: 8 September 1967, 07:57:00 UT | |
| Landing Date: 11 September 1967, 00:46:44 UT | |
| Deployment: N/A | |
| End Date: 17 December 1967 | |
| Function: Lunar landing feasibility and data collection. | |
| Image Source: NASA |
Description
Surveyor 5 was the third spacecraft in the Surveyor series to achieve a successful lunar soft landing and the first mission to obtain in-situ compositional data on the Moon.
The specific objectives for this mission were to perform a soft landing on the Moon in Mare Tranquillitatis and obtain postlanding television pictures of the lunar surface.
The secondary objectives were to conduct a vernier engine erosion experiment, determine the relative abundances of the chemical elements in the lunar soil by operation of the alpha-scattering instrument, obtain touchdown dynamics data, and obtain thermal and radar reflectivity data.
Read more:
https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/display.action?id=1967-084A
