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Surveyor program
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== Goals == {{Annotated image |caption=Landing sites of American Surveyor and Apollo programs, together with Soviet Luna program. |image-width=270 |width=270 |height=260 |imagemap= <imagemap> Image:Moon landing map surveyor.svg|270px default [[Image:Moon landing map surveyor.svg]] desc none </imagemap> }} The program performed several other services beyond its primary goal of demonstrating soft landings. The ability of spacecraft to make midcourse corrections was demonstrated, and the landers carried instruments to help evaluate the suitability of their landing sites for crewed Apollo landings. Several Surveyor spacecraft had robotic shovels designed to test lunar soil mechanics. Before the Soviet [[Luna 9]] mission (landing four months before Surveyor 1) and the Surveyor project, it was unknown how deep the dust on the Moon was. If the dust was too deep, then no astronaut could land. The Surveyor program proved that landings were possible. Some of the Surveyors also had [[Alpha particle scattering|alpha scattering]] instruments and magnets, which helped determine the chemical composition of the soil. The simple and reliable mission architecture was a pragmatic approach to solving the most critical space engineering challenges of the time, namely the closed-loop terminal descent guidance and control system, throttleable engines, and the radar systems required for determining the lander's altitude and velocity. The Surveyor missions were the first time that [[NASA]] tested such systems in the challenging thermal and radiation environment near the Moon.
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