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The Surveyor series of spacecraft was designed to carry out soft landings on the Moon and provide data about its surface and possible atmosphere. This collection consists of one "Surveyor Standard Practices Handbook" issued by Hughes Aircraft Company, Aerospace Division.
The Surveyor series of spacecraft was designed to carry out soft landings on the Moon and provide data about its surface and possible atmosphere. These were the first US probes to soft-land on the Moon. Once landed they provided detailed pictures of the surface by means of a TV camera carried on each of the spacecraft. Later Surveyors carried an instrumented soil mechanics surface scoop. These were used to study the mechanical properties of lunar soil. Some of the spacecraft were also equipped to perform simple chemical analyses on lunar soil by means of alpha particle scattering. There were seven Surveyor launches starting in May, 1966, all launched by the Atlas-Centaur rocket. All but two successfully achieved program goals returning over 88,000 high-resolution photographs and invaluable detailed data on the nature and strength of the lunar surface. The Surveyors were designed and built by Hughes Aircraft Company, Aerospace Division. Harry H. Nelson was an engineer with Hughes for over twenty years and during his time there, he worked on the Surveyor Program.
NASM.2010.0043
Hughes Aircraft Co
1963
Mary E. Nelson, Gift, 2010, NASM.2010.0043
0.05 Cubic feet (1 folder)
National Air and Space Museum Archives
This collection consists of one "Surveyor Standard Practices Handbook" issued by Hughes Aircraft Company, Aerospace Division, on March 1, 1963 to Harry H. Nelson. The handbook is bound in a black cardstock cover and measures approximately 9 x 11.5 inches, the pages inside are not numbered. The handbook, which contains a variety of detailed information including drawings and charts, includes an introduction and the following sections: Operating Principles; Electronic Fabrication; Hardware; Special Processes; Quality Assurance; Reference Documents; Glossary of Terms; and Appendices.
Collection is in original order.
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Surveyor Program Standard Practices Handbook, NASM.2010.0043, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution.
Astronautics
Space flight
Technical manuals
Collection descriptions
Archival materials