Surveyor 6

Surveyor 6 was the sixth probe by the U.S. space agency NASA as part of the Surveyor program. The Surveyor program was the successor of the Ranger program. The results of the program should prepare the first manned lunar landing. Surveyor 6 should undamaged land on the moon and send images and data from there to the earth. She was like Surveyor 5 equipped with an alpha particle X-ray spectrometer and an expanded instrumentation. So they had a magnet to check whether the moon rock reacts magnetic. Surveyor 6 was the fourth U.S. probe that landed softly on the moon and transmitted data and images.

Mission

Surveyor 6 launched on 7 November 1967, on an Atlas - Centaur rocket from the launch pad LC - 36 of the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

A running course correction on 8 November went smoothly. On November 10, the probe landed in the sinus Medii, just 5 kilometers from the planned touchdown point. By 17 November, the probe sent 14,500 images of the lunar surface. Later that day, the vernier engines were started for 2.5 seconds. Surveyor 6 thus reached a height of about 4 meters and land tete 2.4 meters west again. This " hop " presented the first start of the lunar surface dar. This maneuver should research on the primary landing site and the reaction of the lunar surface be allowed to thruster firings. In addition, the displacement of the camera position allowed stereoscopic images of the surface for the first time. The spectrometer used sent similar results to Surveyor 5

On November 14, the probe measured at the surface a temperature of 120 ° C. That was the highest measured temperature on the surface of the moon. The last data was submitted on December 14 at 19:14 UTC clock. Overall, the probe sent 29 952 pictures and about 20 hours of data of the spectrometer.

The mission was a success.

External links and sources

Description of the mission Surveyor 6 on nasa.gov (English)
Description of the Surveyor program

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