Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- List of acronyms and abbreviations
- PART I Engineering issues specific to entry probes, landers or penetrators
- PART II Previous atmosphere/surface vehicles and their payloads
- PART III Case studies
- 21 Surveyor landers
- 22 Galileo probe
- 23 Huygens
- 24 Mars Pathfinder and Sojourner
- 25 Deep Space 2 Mars Microprobes
- 26 Rosetta lander Philae
- 27 Mars Exploration Rovers: Spirit and Opportunity
- Appendix Some key parameters for bodies in the Solar System
- Bibliography
- References
- Index
21 - Surveyor landers
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 August 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- List of acronyms and abbreviations
- PART I Engineering issues specific to entry probes, landers or penetrators
- PART II Previous atmosphere/surface vehicles and their payloads
- PART III Case studies
- 21 Surveyor landers
- 22 Galileo probe
- 23 Huygens
- 24 Mars Pathfinder and Sojourner
- 25 Deep Space 2 Mars Microprobes
- 26 Rosetta lander Philae
- 27 Mars Exploration Rovers: Spirit and Opportunity
- Appendix Some key parameters for bodies in the Solar System
- Bibliography
- References
- Index
Summary
The Surveyor spacecraft were a series of seven lunar soft-landing vehicles launched by the USA in the period 1966–1968. They were a second generation of lunar spacecraft, following the Ranger series that ran from 1961 to 1965, and paved the way for the later soft landings required for Apollo. The main aims of the Surveyor project were to accomplish a soft landing on the Moon, provide basic data in support of Apollo, and perform scientific operations on the lunar surface for an extended period. The Ranger 3, 4, 5 soft landing attempts having failed, Surveyor was to achieve the USA's first soft landings on another world. Orbital surveys by the Lunar Orbiter spacecraft complemented the in situ investigations by Surveyor.
Industrial studies for the project that became Surveyor began in mid 1960, with the Hughes Aircraft Company being chosen as prime contractor, under NASA JPL. The first launch was initially planned for late 1963 but a series of technical and programmatic issues forced an accumulated delay of nearly three years, by which time development of the Apollo landers was already well under way, and the Soviet Union had already made the first successful soft landing with Luna 9.
The main challenge for Surveyor was designing one of the first systems for performing a soft landing on another planetary body, with the associated terminal guidance and control problems of braking the spacecraft to land intact, and the then great uncertainty regarding the lunar surface's physical properties.
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- Information
- Planetary Landers and Entry Probes , pp. 263 - 266Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2007