Exploring The Planets - Tools of Exploration

Surveyor 3 on display in Lunar Exploration Vehicles (gallery 112) in the National Air and Space Museum.
© Smithsonian Institution photo #77-1759

Five Surveyor spacecraft landed on the Moon between July 2, 1966, and January 10, 1968. Each transmitted data to Earth for at least two weeks. The Surveyors photographed the lunar surface and measured its mechanical, electrical, and thermal properties. The last three missions also analyzed the chemical composition of the surface materials.

Surveyor 3 television camera
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Smithsonian photograph

The Surveyor 3 television camera landed on the Moon as part of Surveyor 3 on April 20, 1967. On November 24, 1969, the crew of Apollo 12 carried the camera back to Earth. This camera is on display in the Exploring The Planets exhibit in the National Air and Space Museum.

Alan Bean retrieves Surveyor 3 camera
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NASA photo #AS12-48-7134

This photo shows Apollo 12 astronaut Alan Bean grasping the Surveyor 3 camera with his right hand. The Apollo 12 Lunar Module is on the horizon, about 100 meters (330 feet) away.

© Smithsonian Institution Photo #80-3070 Viking Lander in the Milestones of Flight gallery in the National Air and Space Museum.	Two Viking spacecraft landed on the surface of Mars in 1976. The Vikings included instruments for detection of life, chemical analysis, meteorological measurements, and a seismograph. To read about the mission and some of the lander experiment results go to The Viking Mission in the Mars section of the gallery.
	211k GIF -- NASA photograph #76-HC-620 Image of the Martian surface taken by Viking 1 in Chryse Planitia (Plains of Gold). The dunes show that winds in the thin Martian atmosphere are able to move dust or sand on the surface. The large boulder on the left is about 1 meter (3 feet) high and 3 meters (10 feet) long.

Venera

Venera 14 image of the surface of Venus
courtesy Garvin, Brown University

Between 1967 and 1983, the (then) USSR sent 12 spacecraft called Venera (4-16) to the planet Venus. Each spacecraft included a lander designed to withstand the intense heat and acidic atmosphere of Venus long enough to make it to the surface and return data. Venera 8, 9, 10, 13, and 14 were among the landers that successfully reached the surface and returned data. All but Venera 8 returned images of the surface. Venera 9 and 10 landed in October of 1975 and returned the first images from the surface of another planet. The above image is from the Venera 14 landing site.

More Information about the Venera missions can be found at: NASA - Planetary Missions.

Mars Pathfinder

NASA Photograph

The stationary component of the Mars Pathfinder mission, the Mars Pathfinder Lander set down on the red planet on July 4, 1997. Armed with a Stereoscopic Imager and an Atmospheric Structure Instrument/Meteorology package, the lander spent 3 months investigating the martian surface, atmosphere, and weather. The Lander also provided support to the mission's rover as a communications relay station and by sending images of the rover's activities back to Earth. By the end of the mission, the lander had sent back 550 images. These images revealed details of Pathfinder's landing site in Ares Vallis, one of the largest outflow channels on Mars.

Mars Pathfinder website at JPL