National Air and Space Museum Archives

Surveyor Program Standard Practices Handbook

Summary

Collection ID:
NASM.2010.0043
Creators:
Hughes Aircraft Co
Dates:
1963
Languages:
English
.
Physical Description:
0.05 Cubic feet
1 folder
Repository:
The Surveyor series of spacecraft was designed to carry out soft landings on the Moon and provide data about its surface and possible atmosphere. This collection consists of one "Surveyor Standard Practices Handbook" issued by Hughes Aircraft Company, Aerospace Division.

Scope and Contents

Scope and Contents
This collection consists of one "Surveyor Standard Practices Handbook" issued by Hughes Aircraft Company, Aerospace Division, on March 1, 1963 to Harry H. Nelson. The handbook is bound in a black cardstock cover and measures approximately 9 x 11.5 inches, the pages inside are not numbered. The handbook, which contains a variety of detailed information including drawings and charts, includes an introduction and the following sections: Operating Principles; Electronic Fabrication; Hardware; Special Processes; Quality Assurance; Reference Documents; Glossary of Terms; and Appendices.

Arrangement

Arrangement
Collection is in original order.

Biographical / Historical

Biographical / Historical
The Surveyor series of spacecraft was designed to carry out soft landings on the Moon and provide data about its surface and possible atmosphere. These were the first US probes to soft-land on the Moon. Once landed they provided detailed pictures of the surface by means of a TV camera carried on each of the spacecraft. Later Surveyors carried an instrumented soil mechanics surface scoop. These were used to study the mechanical properties of lunar soil. Some of the spacecraft were also equipped to perform simple chemical analyses on lunar soil by means of alpha particle scattering. There were seven Surveyor launches starting in May, 1966, all launched by the Atlas-Centaur rocket. All but two successfully achieved program goals returning over 88,000 high-resolution photographs and invaluable detailed data on the nature and strength of the lunar surface. The Surveyors were designed and built by Hughes Aircraft Company, Aerospace Division. Harry H. Nelson was an engineer with Hughes for over twenty years and during his time there, he worked on the Surveyor Program.

Administration

Author
Jessamyn Lloyd
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Mary E. Nelson, Gift, 2010, NASM.2010.0043
Processing Information
Arranged and described (2010) and encoded (2020) by Jessamyn Lloyd.

Using the Collection

Conditions Governing Use
Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests.
Conditions Governing Access
No restrictions on access
Preferred Citation
Surveyor Program Standard Practices Handbook, NASM.2010.0043, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution.

Keywords

Keywords table of terms and types.
Keyword Terms Keyword Types
Astronautics Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Space flight Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Technical manuals Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid

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