posted 08-20-2005 08:40 AM               

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Ronald Scott, who designed a scoop that collected lunar soil during an unmanned moon mission, has died. He was 76.

Scott died Tuesday at his home in neighboring Altadena after a long battle with cancer, the California Institute of Technology said in a statement.

Scott was a civil engineering professor at Caltech when he figured out a way to gather lunar soil in anticipation of the Apollo landings.

His design was worked into the unmanned Surveyor 3 mission that landed below the rim of a small crater in April 1967. The probe used its scoop to dig a trench and collect soil for testing. The mission provided critical details about the strength and texture of the surface that astronauts walked upon two years later.

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