Astronautics and Aeronautics, 1967 - NASA's History Office

September 8-30 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS, 1967
September 8-30: First chemistry set on the moon, Surveyor V's alpha-backscattering in-
strument slid several inches downhill Sept. 12 when it was gently nudged by firing
of the spacecraft's three vernier rockets. The picture at left shows the instrument as
deployed Sept. 11. The picture at right, after half-second engine firing, shows edge of
instrument's flange covered with lunar soil. Fragments against uphill edge of instrument
range from a few tenths to one inch in size.
commands to turn its transmitter to low power. Spacecraft telemetry indi-
cated that all systems were operational. The Surveyor V midcourse cor-
rection was accomplished at 21:45 EDT Sept. 8. Immediately after the
correction, the pressure in the helium supply tank was determined to be
decreasing, indicating that the regulating vahe did not make a positive
closure. Correction of leak was not possible; a descent strategy was
developed to overcome the resultant degradation of the vernier engine
retrograde capability.
Surveyor V softlanded on the moon at 20:46:38 EDT on Sept. 10.
The landing site was in the Sea of Tranquility at approximate coordinates
23.19"E7 1.52"N, some 18 mi from the target point. The spacecraft
took 200- and 600-line pictures of the lunar surface and conducted an
alpha backscattering experiment. At lunar sunset, 6:40 am EDT, Sept.
24+, 18,006 high-quality lunar photographs had been obtained (more
than the combined totals from Surveyors I and 111). The alpha-backscat-
tering instrument had operated for 83 hours on the lunar surface, pro-
viding excellent data on the relative abundance of chemical elements in
lunar material. To optimize the conditions for lunar-night survival, the
spacecraft was operated for short periods at 21/2-hr intervals, using com-
partment heaters, until the battery charge was down to 30 ampere hours,
about 4-6 days after lunar sunset. The spacecraft then would be placed
in hibernation for the remainder of the lunar night.
The vernier engine erosion experiment was conducted at 01.38 EDT
on Sept. 13, to obtain information on effects of impingement of a high
velocity jet-gas stream on the lunar 'surface. TV pictures were taken of the
area under study before and after vernier engine firing. Initially no sig-
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