📅 58 years ago #OTD...
🛰 Surveyor 3 launched
🌕 Second US spacecraft to soft-land on the Moon
📸 Returned close-up images of lunar surface
🛰 Conducted key analysis to support Apollo landings
🏆 1st craft to carry surface-soil scoop
On Monday, 17 April 1967, NASA launched Surveyor 3 - the third lander of the Surveyor Program and only the second US spacecraft to achieve a soft landing on the Moon.
It's landing was not straight-forward though: reflective rocks confused the lander's descent radar causing it's engines to cut-out prematurely - with the lander descending quicker than intended and bouncing twice on the surface before settling with a soft touch-down.
The spacecraft was designed to perform sampling of the surface and was fitted with a number of cameras to image the surface and samples taken. The cameras returned 6,326 pictures between 20 April and 3 May, when it was shutdown for lunar night - and after which could not be reactivated.
These images provided crucial information about the Moon's geology and topography and included views of the spacecraft, panoramic lunar surveys, the mechanical surface digger at work and of an eclipse of the Sun by the Earth on 24 April.
The craft dug four trenches and collected samples in view of it's cameras and based on experiments, provided evidence to conclude the lunar surface was solid enough to support the landing of a Lunar Module.
Notably Surveyor 3 became famous when chosen as the landing site for Apollo 12 - who successfully landed within walking distance and photographed the probe, retrieved samples, sensors and equipment - including the cameras which held further images than already returned.
Images, Credit: NASA
1. Charles Conrad, of Apollo 12, inspecting Surveyor 3 with lunar module in the distance.
2. Surveyor 3 photographed during second Apollo 12 extravehicular activity.
3. Panorama returned of the Mare surface
4. Angular rocks photographed around a sharp-rim crater
