Word: surveyor
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Faithfully obeying its distant masters at Pasadena's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Surveyor 3 last week continued to show remarkable versatility on the surface of the moon. It shot and transmitted hundreds of pictures, took the moon's temperature, did some scientific stargazing, dug trenches, uncovered a buried rock, and even played around with a bit of lunar soil...
With its facile, steel-tipped aluminum claw, which can be extended to 5 ft., Surveyor dug and photographed more trenches, helping to confirm its earlier finding that the soil at the surface in this area of the Ocean of Storms is dry and granular but has the cohesiveness of wet sand. By measuring the current drawn by the electric motors that operated the claw, JPL scientists determined that the surrounding surface has a bearing strength of 6 lbs. per sq. in., more than enough to support the Apollo astronauts...
...Drop. Looking skyward, Surveyor spotted Venus, photographed it and transmitted the pictures to scientists, who will use them to obtain a precise fix on the spacecraft. Knowing the position of Venus in the sky and the angle of the camera mirror at the time each picture was taken, scientists can determine Surveyor's exact location...
Still looking up, Surveyor later scored another space-age first, shooting 20 spectacular photographs of a solar eclipse that was unlike any ever before seen by man. Instead of being blotted out by the moon-as it is during solar eclipses seen on earth-the sun was temporarily hidden behind the earth. During the two hours that Surveyor was in the shadow cast by the eclipse, lunar midday temperatures plummeted from...
During preparations for its successful trip to the moon, Surveyor was spared a severe test that future unmanned spacecraft on missions to Mars and Venus will have to endure: dry-heat sterilization to prevent the contamination of other planets by earthly microorganisms. The terrestrial bugs can do little harm on the lifeless moon, but experts agree that their premature arrival on other planets could obliterate or alter possible native life forms before they could be studied. There is a growing feeling, nonetheless, that the U.S. may have accepted international sterilization standards that are unnecessarily high...