Surveyor 7

Surveyor 7 was the seventh and final probe of 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 moon landing. Surveyor 7 healing should land on the moon and send images and data from there to the earth. She was like Surveyor 5 Surveyor 6 and equipped with an alpha particle X-ray spectrometer and an expanded instrumentation. Surveyor 7 was the fifth U.S. probe that landed softly on the moon and transmitted data and images.

Mission

Surveyor 7 was launched on January 7, 1968, on an Atlas - Centaur rocket from the launch pad LC - 36 of the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. A course correction on January 7 went smoothly. On January 9, Surveyor 7 landed about 40 kilometers north of the crater Tycho. In contrast to the previous probes, all of which had landed near the moon equator, had decided to continue south on this mission for a landing. This also data on other lunar regions should be collected. On the first lunar probe sent 20 993 images, some of which were created by using a polarizing filter. By the first use of the filter minerals have been identified on the basis of the refractive index. The spectrometer collected about 33 hours data from different points. Reactivation on the second lunar day was smooth and Surveyor 7 sent more pictures and data. On February 21, ended the radio signals. Overall, this probe sent 21,038 images.

The mission was a success.

External links and sources

Description of the mission Surveyor 7 nasa.gov (English)
Description of the Surveyor program

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