The Serviar program was entirely devoted to exploring flat sites on the surface of the moon, and to check whether manned landings were possible there. In this program there were seven launches, two spacecraft failed and the rest succeeded above the estimate.
The Surveyor program was entirely dedicated to exploring flat sites on the surface of the moon, and to check whether manned landings are possible in them. In this program there were seven launches, two spacecraft failed and the rest succeeded above the estimate. First time a thorough study of certain lunar regions was conducted. The advantage of these spacecraft compared to their predecessors is that they allowed for the first time photography from the ground. The physical and chemical tests made it possible to learn about the structure of the moon's surface, its strength and composition. The spacecraft were equipped with miniature excavators for these tests. In Surveyor 3 and Surveyor 7 they dug into the lunar soil, weighed it and dug trenches. In Surveyor 3, Surveyor 6 and Surveyor 7 tested what the soil and rocks of the moon are made of.
In four sites far from each other it was found that the ground and the structure are uniform. The planners of the Apollo program concluded that future astronauts would be able to step on solid ground. The typical soil of the "days" is made of extremely fine grains with a diameter of 0.025 mm and they are mixed with larger grains and stones. Survivor 6 and Survivor 7 were jumped off the ground. It was a sort of rescue attempt for astronauts who cannot operate their spacecraft on their own.
The structure of the spaceship
The weight of the spaceship is 998 kg and it is reduced to 270 kg after landing following the utilization of most of the fuel stock. The thrust force of the main engine is 4,536 kg and the weight of each of the navigation engines is 47 kg. The height of the spacecraft is 3.05 meters and it has three legs. A landing pad made of aluminum honeycomb is attached to each leg. The spacecraft is in the form of a triangle and the skeleton is made of aluminum. 3,960 solar cells are arranged on a surface and provide all the power needed to operate the equipment - 89 watts. The main power bank is a 14-cell silver-zinc battery. The dimensions of the sun shelf are 0.75 x 1 meter. One television camera in the spacecraft. Instead of rotating the entire camera, it points upwards at a mirror driven by an electric motor according to instructions from Earth and scans its surroundings. The mirror range is 360 degrees and the focus of the camera ranges from 12 meters to infinity in narrow and wide shooting angles. The launcher is an Atlas Centaur.
Landing
The landing begins at a distance of 3,200 km from the surface of the moon and about 31 minutes before touching the ground. During the landing, carefully planned maneuvers are carried out with the aim of adjusting the braking engine to the descent line. 28 minutes later the altimeter sensed the approaching moon. At an altitude of 95.75 km, an automatic timing mechanism is activated that first activates the tiny navigation engines and then the main engine. The speed of the spacecraft at that time is 9,400 km/h. The main engine runs for 40 seconds. At a distance of 40 km to a distance of 10.7 km, the speed slows down to 430 km/h. At an altitude of 9.5 km, the main engine stops automatically and the navigation engines slow down the flight speed until landing. At an altitude of 300 meters the speed is 115 km/h and at a distance of three meters they stop operating. From here the spaceship falls freely until it touches the ground with a slight bounce.
Surveyor 1
On May 30, 1966, Serviar 1 was launched. 63 hours and 36 minutes after the launch on June 2, and while making a tiny correction to the flight path, the spacecraft landed in the Ocean of Storms, 15 km from the landing site. The landing pads penetrated into 2.5 cm of the lunar soil. The first photographs showed that Serviar 1 landed inside a shallow crater with a diameter of 100 km. The landing was on a dark area and around in all directions stretches a strange landscape, scattered with small craters whose diameter is between centimeters and hundreds of meters. Rough rock blocks and innumerable pebbles are strewn across the rims of the craters and the surrounding areas.
After the landing, all the systems were checked and it turned out that the spacecraft stood up well to the shock of the landing. At the end of the tests, the spacecraft took a first series of 14 photographs. A total of 12.5 photographs were taken during its 10,338 days of operation. During the lunar night on June 16, the spaceship's activity was stopped in the hope that it would be able to withstand the intense cold. That night the batteries were charged and used to heat the systems. On June 28, an order was broadcast to activate the transmitter, but there was no response. After several attempts on July 6, a tracking station in Canberra, Australia managed to wake up the spacecraft.
In preparation for the filming activity on the second lunar day, a signal was broadcast to activate the camera. The 24 photographs that were broadcast to Israel showed that the camera was in working order. The tracking station in Johannesburg, South Africa lost contact with the lander. On July 13, at the end of the second lunar night, the lander managed to transmit 812 more photographs and the telemetry data showed that the battery was getting depleted. No one expected the lander to survive the second night. The lander was surprised when it woke up in October and November for short periods according to signals from Earth. On her 220th day (Earth days), on January 6, 1967, the relationship with her was renewed for the last time. Although the signals received from it were extremely weak, it managed to transmit for another 12 hours and transmitted important data about the movement of the moon. On January 7, contact with the lander was finally cut off.
A total of 11,150 photographs from the horizon of the mountains to close-up photographs of its appearance were broadcast from the lander. Some of the photographs were in color. The surface of the moon at the landing site is dark gray. Two days after the landing, on June 4, the navigation engines were activated but no clouds of dust rose. This means that the surface of the moon is solid.
Serviar B
On September 20, 1966, Serviar B was launched. During a maneuver to correct the flight path, one of the navigation engines did not ignite. The spacecraft lost its orbit and started rolling until it crashed on September 23 on the moon. The crash site was southeast of the Copernicus Crater. If the mission had been successful the name of the spacecraft would have been Survivor 2.
Surveyor 3
On April 17, 1967, Serviar 3 was launched. An hour after launch, the spacecraft deployed its landing legs and antennas, some of which were directed towards the sun. This spacecraft filled the place of Survivor 2 and in addition dug several holes in the ground. The purpose of the excavation was to check if the ground is strong enough to absorb the shocks of a manned spacecraft during a landing. Serviar 3 could dig holes 30 cm long and 45 cm deep. Also, she could dig a pit with a volume of 2.2 mm1 and lift a load weighing XNUMX kg.
65 hours after launch, the spacecraft landed in the ocean of storms. After landing, two malfunctions arose that almost disrupted the entire plan. One of the electric motors continued to operate after landing and could have drained the batteries. This meant a complete paralysis of the cameras. There was also a shortage of electricity. There was concern that the spacecraft would not be able to dig into the lunar soil. The malfunctions were repaired and the spaceship completed all the tasks assigned to it. The photos were bright and clear. It turned out that the spacecraft had landed in a crater. One of the photographs shows a hill that is 500 meters high and 32 km away from it. A total of 6,315 photographs were broadcast.
Two things were concluded from the excavations:
1. The deeper you dig, the more solid the ground becomes.
2. The landing site of Serviar 3 is also suitable for manned landings.
Surveyor 4
On July 14, 1967, Survivor 4 was launched to land in the Martian sinus on the 16th of the month. The spacecraft was equipped with a small digging device, a TV camera and a magnet. Two minutes before landing at an altitude of 11 km from the lunar surface, contact with the spacecraft was lost. It was believed that the brake motor had exploded during ignition. The crash was in the Martian sinus.
Surveyor 5
On September 8, 1967, Serviar 5 was launched and on September 10, it landed on the southeast side of the Pacific Ocean. A slight correction was made to the flight path. After that, helium began to leak from one of the valves (the helium creates pressure that compresses the fuel into the spacecraft's braking engine), and there was concern that the entire operation would fail. It was decided to use an emergency plan. The braking engine was activated at a lower altitude from the surface than planned, the activation was when the spacecraft was one-tenth of the original plan from the lunar surface. This leaves enough fuel for the navigation engines to slow down the fall speed by five kilometers. The landing speed was a little more than three and a half kilometers. Thanks to this method, they were able to land the spaceship safely when it is standing on the ground at an angle of 15 degrees.
The load gauges on the three spring landing legs showed that the landing was quite soft and could allow the cameras and chemical systems to be activated. 75 minutes after landing the TV cameras broadcast very good quality photos. In the first photo one of the legs of the spaceship was seen intact and undamaged. Photographs of the landing site were then broadcast. It turned out that the peace is strewn with small craters and stones. One of the photographs shows a bright object with an almost circular shape. He was under the spaceship.
The first experiment was conducted with a special crane that lowered a square box to the ground, open at the bottom and coated with gold to reflect sunlight. In the box was a small amount of kyrium 242 (a radioactive substance that emits alpha rays). The radiation was directed towards the ground. When the radiation hit the nuclei of the atoms, the rays were reflected and their energy was measured in special radiation counters in the box. Certain atomic nuclei emitted protons as a result of the damage of the alpha radiation. The protons were recorded and their energy was measured. All the data obtained in this way were recorded on a film that was transferred to the spacecraft and from there they were transmitted to Earth.
According to this test, it was determined that the lunar soil consists of 53-63% oxygen, 15-25% nitrogen, 10-16% sulfur, cobalt and nickel, 5-9% aluminum, small amounts of magnesium, carbon and sodium were also discovered . Another experiment was designed to measure the amount of iron on the surface of the moon. Two three cm long metal strips were attached to one of the legs of the spacecraft in the reception area of the television camera. One of the metal strips was magnetic and in the photographs you could see that a little material was stuck to it. The second, non-magnetic strip remains clean. Based on this they concluded that the amount of iron on the surface of the moon is small.
These findings led to additional conclusions. The composition of the moon is the same as that of the earth because it was a part of it that broke off in a very early period. The craters were not created by meteorite impacts, but by the mouths of volcanoes that were active in a very ancient period. The abundance of elements on the moon is similar to that of basalt rocks and confirms the activity of volcanoes. The radioactivity on the surface of the moon is very low. Surveyor 5 transmitted 18,000 photographs.
Surveyor 6
On November 7, 1967, Surveyor 6 was launched by the Atlas Centaur launcher, equipped with a television camera and equipment for chemical testing of the soil. 65 hours after the launch on November 9, the spacecraft landed in the central gulf region - the equatorial region - littered with rocks and craters. The spacecraft missed its target in the Martian sinus by six and a half kilometers. On November 17, the spacecraft received an order to "jump" from its position. Three navigation engines were ignited, lifting the spacecraft to a height of three meters and moving it a distance of 2.4 meters. This flight lasted six seconds. The photographs before and after the landing together created a relief image.
Photographing the footprint gave the researchers the opportunity to determine the hardness of the moon and the depth of the footprint. This depth is determined based on landing speed and weight. When the spacecraft was returned to the ground it became clear that the bright color of the lunar soil is limited to the upper layer only. Where the top layer was removed, the ground was darker. This phenomenon was explained by the effect of the sun's radiation concentrating the reddish trivalent iron ions into divalent iron which is lighter in color.
The flight of Survivor 6 was of utmost importance. First, the theory regarding the reality of a very deep dust layer on the surface of the moon was disproved. Second, it became clear that spaceships could be operated from Earth without human contact. Surveyor 6 broadcast 30,027 photographs in excellent quality to Israel.
Surveyor 7
On January 7, 1968, Serviar 7 was launched by the Atlas-Centaur launcher and 66.5 hours later it landed at a place located 40 km north of Tycho Crater, a rocky area with small and large craters. Landing angle 5 degrees. The spacecraft missed the landing site by two and a half kilometers. The goal was to explore a place on the edge of Tycho Crater. This area is not suitable for manned landings but it is of great scientific interest from a geological point of view.
There are several instruments in the spacecraft and they are:
1. A device with an arm at the end of which digs for digging in the ground and taking soil and stone samples.
2. A box is placed on top of this facility and inside it is a laboratory for analysis and it bombards the ground with alpha particles.
3. TV camera.
4. Magnets for testing the iron content on the surface of the moon.
Immediately after the landing, images from the surface were broadcast to Israel. At first the legs of the spacecraft were visible. It turned out that they were not damaged during the landing. Many stones were found near the spacecraft, one of which, next to the spacecraft, was 30 cm in diameter. In the event that one of the legs of the spaceship would hit it, the spaceship would be hit and turn over. The camera was then pointed to the horizon and took many pictures of the lunar landscape. A total of 21,000 photographs were broadcast to Earth.
Several tests of the lunar surface and several "jumps" of the spacecraft were conducted. At one point the arm of the spaceship was pressed and penetrated to a depth of five centimeters and at another point it did not even manage to scratch the surface of the ground, despite the great pressure exerted on it. The photographs showed that the landing site is rich in hard rocks. In one of these stages of operation, a malfunction occurred that could have sabotaged the experiments. The laboratory was taken out of the spacecraft and began to descend using a nylon cable. A disruption in the lowering operation left the box hanging on the cable at a height of one meter above the ground. To continue the proper operation of the spacecraft, the mechanical arm was activated. This arm shook the lab and applied downward pressure on it. This operation lasted for three days until the laboratory was able to descend safely to the surface of the ground. When the laboratory arrived at its new location, it began to operate as planned.
On January 20, the spacecraft picked up laser beams transmitted to it from Kit Peak Observatory in Arizona and Cable Mountain in California.
