The artifact is an engineering model, S-10, used for thermal control tests. It was reconfigured to represent a flight model of Surveyor 3 or later, since it was the first to have a scoop and claw surface sampler. The Surveyor series was designed to carry out soft landings on the Moon and provide data about its surface and possible atmosphere. These were the first U.S. probes to soft-land on the Moon. Created by Eric Long Date Created 12/10/2016 Source Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Keywords Exploration; Moon; Robots; Science; Solar System; Space; Spacecraft Rights and Restrictions CC0
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