Editing Surveyor program (section)

== Missions ==

=== Surveyor 1 ===
{{Main|Surveyor 1}}
[[File:Surveyor 1 Foot Pad.jpg|thumb|Image from Surveyor 1 of its footpad in order to study [[soil mechanics]] in preparation for the Apollo crewed landings.]]
'''[[Surveyor 1]]''' was launched May 30, 1966 and sent directly into a trajectory to the Moon without any [[parking orbit]]. Its [[Retrorocket|retrorockets]] were turned off at a height of about 3.4 [[Meter|meters]] above the lunar surface. 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''. This location was at {{Lunar coords and quad cat|2.474|S|43.339|W}}.<ref>"[https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/display.action?id=1966-045A Surveyor 1]". NASA Space Science Data Coordinated Archive.</ref>  This is within the northeast portion of the large crater called Flamsteed P (or the ''Flamsteed Ring'').  [[Flamsteed (crater)|Flamsteed]] itself lies within Flamsteed P on the south side.

Surveyor 1 transmitted [[video]] data from the Moon beginning shortly after its landing through July 14, 1966, but with a period of no operations during the two-week long lunar night of June 14, 1966 through July 7, 1966. 

The return of engineering information (temperatures, etc.) from Surveyor 1 continued through January 7, 1967, with several interruptions during the lunar nights. 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.<ref name="aa1967">{{cite web |title=Aeronautics and Astronautics, 1967 |url=https://history.nasa.gov/AAchronologies/1967.pdf |access-date=21 December 2021 |publisher=NASA |page=5}}</ref>

=== Surveyor 2 ===
{{Main|Surveyor 2}}
'''[[Surveyor 2]]''' was launched on September 20, 1966. A mid-course correction failure resulted in the spacecraft losing control.<ref>"Central Moon Landing Try for Surveyor 2". ''The Deseret News''. 19 September 1966. </ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Surveyor 2 |url=https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/display.action?id=1966-084A |website=NSSDCA Master Catalog}}</ref> Contact was lost with the spacecraft at 9:35 UTC, September 22.<ref name=":0" />

=== Surveyor 3 ===
{{Main|Surveyor 3}}
[[Image:Apollo12ConradSurveyor.jpg|thumb|Astronaut [[Pete Conrad]] near Surveyor 3 during Apollo 12, 1969. [[Apollo Lunar Module|Lunar Module]] in the background.]]Launched on April 17, 1967, '''[[Surveyor 3]]''' landed on April 20, 1967, at the [[Mare Cognitum]] portion of the [[Oceanus Procellarum]] (S3° 01' 41.43" W23° 27' 29.55"), in a small crater that was subsequently named [[Surveyor (crater)|Surveyor]]. It transmitted 6,315 TV images to the Earth, including the [[First images of Earth from space|first images to show what planet Earth looked like from the Moon's surface]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=First image of Earth from the surface of the Moon: Surveyor 3 |url=https://www.planetary.org/space-images/first-image-of-earth-from-surveyor-3}}</ref>

Surveyor 3 was the first spacecraft to unintentionally lift off from the Moon's surface, which it did twice, due to an anomaly with Surveyor's landing radar, which did not shut off the vernier engines but kept them firing throughout the first touchdown and after it. Surveyor 3's TV and telemetry systems were found to have been damaged by its unplanned landings and liftoffs.<ref name="auto" />

Surveyor 3 was visited by [[Apollo 12]] astronauts [[Pete Conrad]] and [[Alan Bean]] in November 1969, and remains the only probe visited by humans on another [[Astronomical object|world]]. The Apollo 12 astronauts excised several components of Surveyor 3, including the television camera, and returned them to Earth for study.<ref>{{Cite web |author1=Robert Z. Pearlman |date=2019-11-23 |title=50 Years On, Where Are the Surveyor 3 Moon Probe Parts Retrieved by Apollo 12? |url=https://www.space.com/apollo-12-surveyor-3-parts-50-years.html |access-date=2024-10-02 |website=Space.com |language=en}}</ref>

=== Surveyor 4 ===
{{Main|Surveyor 4}}
Launched on July 14, 1967, '''[[Surveyor 4]]''' crashed after an otherwise flawless mission; [[telemetry]] contact was lost 2.5 minutes before touchdown. The [[Solid-fuel rocket|solid-fuel]] [[retrorocket]] may have exploded near the end of its scheduled burn.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Surveyor 4 |url=https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/display.action?id=1967-068A |website=NSSDCA Master Catalog}}</ref> The planned landing target was [[Sinus Medii]] (Central Bay) at 0.4° north latitude and 1.33° west longitude.

=== Surveyor 5 ===
{{Main|Surveyor 5}}
[[File:Surveyor 5 Fig 7-41c2.jpg|thumb|Lunar surface imaged by [[Surveyor 5]]]]
'''[[Surveyor 5]]''' was launched on September 8, 1967 from Cape Canaveral.<ref>{{Cite web |title=NASA - NSSDCA - Spacecraft - Telemetry Details |url=https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/displayTrajectory.action?id=1967-084A |access-date=March 30, 2019 |website=nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov}}</ref> It landed on [[Mare Tranquillitatis]] on September 11, 1967. The spacecraft transmitted excellent data for all experiments from shortly after touchdown until October 18, 1967, with an interval of no transmission from September 24 to October 15, 1967, during the first lunar night. Transmissions were received until November 1, 1967, when shutdown for the second lunar night occurred. Transmissions were resumed on the third and fourth lunar days, with the final transmission occurring on December 17, 1967. A total of 19,118 images were transmitted to Earth.<ref>{{Cite web |title=NASA - NSSDCA - Spacecraft - Details |url=https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/display.action?id=1967-084A |access-date=March 30, 2019 |website=nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov}}</ref> 

=== Surveyor 6 ===
{{Main|Surveyor 6}}
[[File:Surveyor 6 Effects-of-the-vernier-rock.jpg|thumb|Surveyor 6 effects of the vernier-rocket engine blast on the double imprint previously made in the lunar surface by one of the spacecraft's crushable blocks during the initial touchdown]]
'''[[Surveyor 6]]''' was the first spacecraft planned to lift off from the Moon's surface.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Siddiqi |first1=Asif A. |url=https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/beyond-earth-tagged.pdf |title=Beyond Earth: A Chronicle of Deep Space Exploration, 1958–2016 |publisher=NASA History Program Office |year=2018 |isbn=9781626830424 |edition=second |series=The NASA history series |location=Washington, DC |page=1 |lccn=2017059404 |id=SP2018-4041 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190424211923/https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/beyond-earth-tagged.pdf |archive-date=2019-04-24 |url-status=live}}</ref>

It was launched on November 7, 1967, and landed on November 10, 1967 in Sinus Medii (near the crash site of [[Surveyor 4]]). The successful completion of this mission satisfied the Surveyor program's obligation to the Apollo project.

Surveyor 6's engines were restarted and burned for 2.5 seconds in the first lunar liftoff on November 17 at 10:32 UTC. This created 150 lbf (700 N) of thrust and lifted the vehicle 12 feet (4 m) from the lunar surface. After moving west eight feet, (2.5 m) the spacecraft once again successfully soft landed and continued functioning as designed. On November 24, 1967, the spacecraft was shut down for the two-week lunar night. Contact was made on December 14, 1967, but no useful data was obtained.

=== Surveyor 7 ===
{{Main|Surveyor 7}}
[[File:Tycho Crater Panorama.jpg|thumb|Photomosaic of lunar panorama near the Tycho crater taken by Surveyor 7. The hills on the center horizon are about eight miles away from the spacecraft.]]
'''[[Surveyor 7]]''' was launched on January 7, 1968, landing on the [[lunar surface]] on January 10, 1968, on the outer rim of the [[Tycho (lunar crater)|crater Tycho]]. Operations of the spacecraft began shortly after the soft landing. On January 20, while the craft was still in daylight, the TV camera clearly saw two laser beams aimed at it from the night side of the crescent Earth, one from Kitt Peak National Observatory, Tucson, Arizona, and the other at Table Mountain at Wrightwood, California.<ref>{{cite web |title=Boeing: Satellite Development Center - Scientific Exploration - Surveyor |url=http://www.boeing.com/defense-space/space/bss/factsheets/scientific/surveyor/surveyor.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100207072958/http://boeing.com/defense-space/space/bss/factsheets/scientific/surveyor/surveyor.html |archive-date=2010-02-07 |access-date=2010-03-31}} Notes on the laser experiment.</ref><ref>[http://www.w7ftt.net/laser2.html] photo of the beam from the 2-watt green argon Hughes laser at Table Mountain</ref>

Operations on the second lunar day occurred from February 12 to 21, 1968. The mission objectives were fully satisfied by the spacecraft operations. Battery damage was suffered during the first lunar night and transmission contact was subsequently sporadic. Contact with Surveyor 7 was lost on February 21, 1968.<ref>{{cite web |date=28 November 2017 |title=Surveyor VII |url=https://www.lpl.arizona.edu/sic/surveyor/7 |access-date=11 April 2021 |website=University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory}}</ref>