+ 1970 News Releases (7.6 Mb PDF file) - NASA

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MSC 70-111
The proposed landing site is on the crater rim (40 degrees 56 minutes
south and 11 degrees 15 minutes west) near the area where Surveyor Vii
landed January 10_ 1965. No other crater is like Tycho in that it is the
focus of the most extensive system of bright rays on the lunar earthside.
Tycao is also the last major impact event in lunar history. Samples from
ejeeta of the crater could provide material from 5 to 10 kilometers (3 to
6 miles) beneath the lunar highlands.
Tycho is farther from the lunar e$_ator than any landing site thus
far proposed and would require a spacecraft trajectory far removed from
a free-return flight path. It is also the most difficult landing terrain
to be considered.
The risks of landing at Tyeho would have to be weighed against the
scientific return from this very interesting site_ returns which may, in
part De obtainable at other sites.
The crater Copernicus is similar in many respects to Tycho. It is
a large crater (diameter 95 kilometers or about 57 miles) with terraced
walls, central peaks and _rightly _ayed ejecta. The proposed landing
site is on the crater floor about 5hree kilometers (less than two miles)
from one of the central peaks (9 degrees 52 minutes north and 19 degrees
55 minutes west). Scientists believe Copernicus may have been formed
by the explosive impact of a meteorite which punched a hole through the
lunar crust_ exposing underlying mater_al and causing the floor of the
crater to rebound and ,JplJft into the central peaks which have dravm
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