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  Surveyor, Lunar Exploration Program: The NASA Mission Reports (Apogee)

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Author Topic:   Surveyor, Lunar Exploration Program: The NASA Mission Reports (Apogee)
cspg
Member

Posts: 6210
From: Geneva, Switzerland
Registered: May 2006

posted 04-23-2010 09:19 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for cspg   Click Here to Email cspg     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Surveyor: Lunar Exploration Program: The NASA Mission Reports
Edited by Robert Godwin
The beginning of 1966 heralded the birth of the era of direct planetary exploration. Once again the Russians had upped the stakes by placing the first robotic spacecraft, Luna IX on another world.

At this time the United States of America’s National Air and Space Administration was engaged in the most ambitious scientific project in human history; to place a man on the moon.

In order to safely perform this task some very fundamental questions needed to be answered in advance of the journey.

Could a spacecraft safely land on the Moon and not be swallowed up by lunar dust? Could the extreme temperatures and surface radiation disable the hardware? Could an accurate trajectory be calculated? Were there places that were flat enough and debris-free to allow a safe landing?

These and many other important questions would be answered between 1966 and 1968 by five robotic spacecraft, built by the Hughes Aircraft Corporation, and named Surveyor.

This short, but critically important program consumed $426 million of NASA’s budget in just two years but it not only proved the worthiness of new hardware, such as the hydrogen-propelled Centaur booster stage, but also that of the robust and ingenious Surveyor probes.

Mankind sent explorers to six different lunar locations but the Surveyors visited five entirely different landing sites, and returned over 87,000 pictures from the lunar surface. This book contains previously unavailable documentation from this important program and is accompanied by a further 1800 pages of material on the accompanying CDROM.

Note: Originally published in 2006.

E2M Lem Man
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Posts: 846
From: Los Angeles CA. USA
Registered: Jan 2005

posted 04-23-2010 02:07 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for E2M Lem Man   Click Here to Email E2M Lem Man     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
If it is as good as the original edition, it fills in many of the holes about unmanned lunar exploration. a sold 10 - you gotta have it!

hermit
Member

Posts: 186
From: Scotland
Registered: Jun 2009

posted 04-24-2010 09:51 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for hermit   Click Here to Email hermit     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
If I may blow my trumpet, you could always check out my 'Paving the Way for Apollo 11,' which has a comprehensive account of the Ranger, Surveyor and Lunar Orbiter missions.

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