Surveyor Landing Gear Surveyor 5 image of the footpad resting in the lunar soil. The trench at right was formed by the footpad sliding during landing. Surveyor 5 landed on the Moon on 11 September 1967 at 1.41 N, 23.18E in Mare Tranquillitatis. The spacecraft landed on the inside edge of a small rimless crater at an angle of about 20 degrees, explaining the sliding. The footpad is about half a meter in diameter.(Surveyor 5, 67-H-1340) radar reflectivity data. Surveyor 5 was equipped with an alpha-backscatter instrument to determine chemical composition of the soil and a small bar magnet in one of its landing feet to test for magnetic material. Even though it had developed a helium regulator leak and had to land using a hastily and radically re-designed descent profile, the landing was flawless and Surveyor 5 performed even better than its predecessors. Surveyor 5 landed on the lunar surface September 11, 1967. Image Credit: NASA/JPL Reference URL: http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA02978 + Return to previous page