United States — NASA
Surveyor 5: Lunar Landing

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

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Surveyor 7: Lunar Landing
The mission of Surveyor 7 was to explore a region of the Moon other than lunar maria and into the lunar highlands. Surveyor 7 was the first probe to detecet the faint glow on the lunar horizon after dark that is now thought to be light reflected from electrostatically levitated
Surveyor 6: Lunar Landing
The mission of Surveyor 6 was to demonstrate the technology necessary to achieve landing and operations on the lunar surface. Before termination of operations, on Nov. 17, 1967, Surveyor 6 was commanded to fire its three main liquid propellant thrusters for 2.5 seconds.
Surveyor 4: Lunar Landing
The mission of Surveyor 4 was to demonstrate the technology necessary to achieve landing and operations on the lunar surface. Radio signals from the spacecraft stopped a few minutes before landing and contact was never reestablished.
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