Surveyor 5
| Surveyor 5 | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Start of Surveyor 5 |
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| NSSDC ID | 1967-084A | |||||||||
| Mission goal | Preparation of manned moon landings | |||||||||
| Client | NASA | |||||||||
| Launcher | Atlas - Centaur AC-10 / 290D | |||||||||
| Course of the mission | ||||||||||
| Start date | September 8, 1967, 07:57 UTC | |||||||||
| launch pad | CCAFS LC-36 | |||||||||
| End date | 17th December 1967 | |||||||||
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Surveyor 5 was the fifth probe of the US space agency NASA as part of the Surveyor program . The Surveyor program was the successor to the Ranger program . The results of the program should prepare the first manned moon landing . Surveyor 5 was supposed to land undamaged on the moon and from there transmit images and data to earth. Unlike the previous probes, it was equipped with an alpha particle X-ray spectrometer and extended instrumentation. Surveyor 5 was the third US probe to land softly on the moon and transmit data and images. It was the first probe to analyze the surface and send it to Earth.
mission
Surveyor 5 was launched on 8 September 1967 aboard a Atlas - Centaur rocket from the launch pad LC-36 of the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station . A course correction carried out on September 9th went smoothly. Due to problems with the helium pressure in the fuel tanks, the deceleration phase was only initiated at an altitude of 1,300 meters and a speed of 30 m / s instead of the planned height of 10,700 meters and a speed of approx. 135 m / s. On September 11, 1967 at 00:46 UTC, Surveyor 5 landed gently in Mare Tranquillitatis on an area with a gradient of 20 degrees and only 29 kilometers from the calculated target point, despite the malfunction . On the first lunar day it sent 18,006 images, and the alpha-ray spectrometer was the first to transmit analyzes of an extraterrestrial body.
On September 13, the Vernier engines were ignited for a short time with low thrust. The probe did not take off. This ignition was intended to investigate the behavior of the lunar surface. In the next lunar days, Surveyor 5 transmitted further images and data from the alpha-ray spectrometer and also used the excavator arm. The evaluations showed that the structure of the moon's surface is similar to that of terrestrial basalt : 53% to 63% oxygen, 15.5% to 21.5% silicon, 10% to 16% sulfur, iron, cobalt and nickel, 4.5% to 8.5% aluminum and small amounts of magnesium, carbon and sodium.
On December 17, 1967, radio contact with the probe was broken off. Images were transmitted on the first, second and fourth lunar days. In total, the probe sent 19,118 images.
The mission was a success.
Web links and sources
- Surveyor 5 in the NSSDCA Master Catalog (English)
- Bernd Leitenberger: Description of the surveyor program