Surveyor 6
NSSDC ID: 67-112A
Description:
This spacecraft was the fourth of the Surveyor series to successfully achieve a soft
landing on the moon, obtain postlanding television pictures, determine the abundance
of the chemical elements in the lunar soil, obtain touchdown dynamics data, obtain
thermal and radar reflectivity data, and conduct a Vernier engine erosion experiment.
Virtually identical to Surveyor 5, this spacecraft carried a television camera, a
small bar magnet attached to one footpad, and an alpha-scattering instrument as well
as the necessary engineering equipment. It landed on November 10, 1967, in Sinus
Medii, 0.49 deg in latitude and 1.40 deg w longitude - the center of the moon's visible
hemisphere. This spacecraft accomplished all planned objectives and also performed
a successful 'hop' rising approximately 4 m and moving laterally about 2.5 m to a
new location on the lunar surface. The successful completion of this mission satisfied
the Surveyor program's obligation to the Apollo project. On November 24, 1967, the
spacecraft was shut down for the 2-week lunar night. Contact was made on December
14, 1967, but no useful data were obtained. |
Launch Information:
Launch Date/Time: 1967-11-07 at 07:39:00 UTC
Launch Site/Country: Cape Canaveral, United States
Launch Vehicle: Atlas-Centaur |
Orbital Information:
Orbit: Lander
Central Body: Moon
Epoch start date/time: 1967.314:01:01:06 (10
Nov.)
Latitude: 0.46 degrees
Longitude: 358.63 degrees |
Project Scientist
Dr. Leonard D. Jaffe
Mail Stop 301-485
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
4800 Oak Grove Drive
Pasadena, CA 91109 |
Discipline(s)
Planetary Science |
Sponsoring Agencies/Countries
NASA-Office of Space Science Applications/United
States |
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