The Flickr Surveyorproject Image Generatr

A wonderful, erroneous, splashy, pseudo-psychedelic Surveyor program promotional image, ca. 1961/62. This is really striking…you rarely see period color photographs of anything to do with the Surveyor lander. The effort obviously put forth for this makes me think it’s of Hughes Aircraft Company origin, manufacturer of the spacecraft.
Unfortunately, the photograph of the moon is reversed, which is understood from an astrophotography standpoint. But I’d think you’d want it to be ‘naked eye’ representative for something like this. Therefore, upon further consideration, this is probably a NASA-produced image, with the graphics team (or whatever equivalent) responsible, being totally oblivious to the moon’s appearance.

Being an early optimistic design, the model depicted has multiple instruments on it that never materialized. Most obvious in the photo is the conspicuous yellow tubular neutron activator, and next to it, the lengthy vertical structure/framework of the lunar drill. The partially extended scissor-arm mounted “slowly driven geophysical probe” can be seen above the footpad to the right.

thespacereview.com/article/4304/1
Credit: The Space Review website

www.drewexmachina.com/2016/05/30/surveyor-1-americas-firs...

i0.wp.com/www.drewexmachina.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/0...
Credit: Andrew LePage/Drew Ex Machina website

forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic...
Credit: NASA Spaceflight Forum website

An engineering, structural, thermal…or something like that model/mock-up of a Surveyor lunar lander is lowered into/raised from? the black maw of a 50-foot-high space environment chamber at the Boeing Space Center near Seattle, Washington. Circa 1961-64?
Is the big round thing an early representation of a high gain antenna?

Although probably not uncommon, I nonetheless found it interesting that a Hughes Aircraft Company product was in a Boeing Company facility. I suppose if you’re the only one with a vacuum chamber & the other party has the money, it’s all good. In fact, in researching this symbiotic arrangement, Boeing currently touts its availability of just such a capability:

www.boeing.com/company/key-orgs/boeing-testing-services/e...
Credit: Boeing website

Exceedingly rare 1/8 scale NASA-manufactured model of the Surveyor lunar lander - precursor to Apollo.

Not unlike Surveyor III, a previous USPS-induced "landing" may have involved a bounce or three. I believe (not all seen here) that I have all of the pieces.
Fortunately, in a minor miracle, I came upon a second-generation copy of the plans/blueprints for this model (from someone else) some time after acquiring the model. Hopefully it’ll be of assistance in the highly anticipated restoration. Not by me of course.

“Surveyor C, the third United States spacecraft designed to soft land on the Moon was launched from Complex 36, Cape Kennedy, Fla., at 2:05 AM EST, April 17, 1967 by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The Surveyor launch will provide scientific and engineering data to support the Apollo manned landing program. Photographs are to be taken of an Apollo landing site and returned to Earth by a single survey television camera in addition to data provided by other onboard instrumentation.”

This is by far the best, highest resolution image of this vehicle’s launch I’ve ever come across.

“All of the instrumented Surveyor spacecraft which have landed on the Moon have been controlled in the final minutes before touch-down by Ryan landing radars. Ryan’s Doppler radar equipment provides the necessary velocity and altitude data to accomplish the “soft” landing.”

~8.5” x 11”. Printed on a lightweight, satin-like, lightly textured ‘presentation’ paper.

Plate number 5 of a Ryan Aeronautical / CMC (Continental Motors Corporation), Wisconsin Motor Corporation presentation portfolio. A really unique and dynamic pen/watercolor (I think) work by Robert C. Kinyon.
An unexpected “WIN” due to finding him at “THE UNITED STATES AIR FORCE COLLECTION”. At:

www.afapo.hq.af.mil/Public/Presentation/Artists/artistsde...

I’ve actually pulled a few other folks from here. Kudos!

“Photograph from National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Surveyor I spacecraft. Spherical mosaic of narrow-angle photographs of the Lunar scene at low sun illumination. Craters and fine detail of the surface enhanced by the low oblique lighting. Center of mosaic is southwest of spacecraft. Tilt of horizon is due to non-verticle mounting of the camera. The picture was received at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.”
Yes, “verticle”…I’ll leave it alone.

It’s a cool image & historic, but I don’t like it being cropped at the horizon. Actually, I don’t like any of the cropping they did. Why?

The mosaic (for all intents & purposes), labeled as ‘Surveyor 1-20’ by the Lunar and Planetary Institute (LPI), were taken/assembled in order to provide an identical view to ‘Surveyor 1-19’, but at a different illumination angle. It/they were also then combined with ‘Surveyor 1-21’ in order to provide a complete 360-degree view of the landing site.

All per/at the wonderful LPI website:

www.lpi.usra.edu/resources/mapcatalog/Surveyor/press_rele...

Specifically:

“Surveyor 1-19

Spherical mosaic of narrow-angle photographs of the lunar scene taken by Surveyor I on June 12, 1966, two days before nightfall on the moon. Each photo chip is two inches square and represents a six-degree field of view as seen by Surveyor’s TV camera. The pictures are arranged on the concave surface of a three-foot hemisphere to form the panorama. The sun is shining from the west (right). Tilt of the horizon is due to off-vertical mounting of the camera on the spaceframe. The scene portrayed is the same as that shown 24 hours later with the sun at a lower angle in picture #20.”

Image at:

www.lpi.usra.edu/resources/mapcatalog/Surveyor/press_rele...

“Surveyor 1-20

Mosaic of narrow-angle pictures of moon taken by Surveyor I’s television camera forms a panoramic view of lunar terrain stretching approximately 130 degrees across horizon. Each photo chip is two inches square and represents a six-degree field of view as seen by the camera. The pictures are mounted in overlapping fashion against the concave surface of a three-foot hemisphere. When completed, the hemispheres in pictures #20 and #21 will form a complete 360-degree view from Surveyor. The narrow-angle survey was made June 13, about 24 hours before sundown on the site pictures.”

Image at:

www.lpi.usra.edu/resources/mapcatalog/Surveyor/press_rele...

“Surveyor 1-21

Mosaic of narrow-angle pictures of moon taken by Surveyor I’s television camera forms a panoramic view of lunar terrain stretching approximately 115 degrees across the horizon. Dramatic elongated shadow of the spacecraft was created by the low sun sinking on the horizon behind Surveyor. Each photo chip is two inches square and represents a six-degree field of view as seen by the camera. The pictures are mounted on the concave surface of a three-foot hemisphere. When completed, the hemispheres in pictures #21 and #20 will form a complete 360-degree view from Surveyor. Parts of the spacecraft identifiable at left are (from top) one of the antenna booms, helium tank, nitrogen tank (cantilevered on braces) the auxiliary battery. The survey was made June 13, about 24 hours before sundown on the site pictured.”

Image at:

www.lpi.usra.edu/resources/mapcatalog/Surveyor/press_rele...


Also:

www.smithsonianmag.com/air-space-magazine/surveyor-1-amer...
Credit: Smithsonian Magazine online website

Last, but NOT least:

“EUGENE M. SHOEMAKER, Chief, Astrogeology Branch, U.S. Geological Survey, commented on the scene:

"It shows the intricately cratered surface of the Oceanus Procellarum. It is a gently undulating surface pockmarked with craters, ranging from a few centimeters to several hundred meters in diameter, and littered with blocks and fragments, ranging from less than a millimeter to more than a meter across. The craters and the fragmental debris were probably formed by bombardment of the lunar surface by meteoroids and by pieces of the Moon itself, hurled through space from larger craters.

"The pitted appearance of the lunar surface [which one observer has likened to that of a World War I battlefield] is enhanced by the presence of long shadows, extending away from the spacecraft's foot and the more prominent blocks, due to the low angle of incidence of the rays of the evening Sun."

Above at/from:

history.nasa.gov/SP-168/section2a.htm

“PASADENA, Calif., -- The National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Surveyor I photograph of the moon’s surface was transmitted to Earth and received at NASA’s contracted Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Mountain chain northeast of the Surveyor spacecraft which forms the rim of a very large ancient crater. These mountains are visible through large telescopes from Earth.”

Pretty cool. I've rarely seen Surveyor photographs with the peripheral technical data incorporated.

Possible contractor(?) (Hughes Aircraft Co.) produced graphic depicting the intended Surveyor 2 flight profile. Unfortunately, there was some deviation from it.

Per Wikipedia:

"The target area proposed was within Sinus Medii. The Atlas-Centaur had placed Surveyor 2 on a path to the moon that was only 130 km from its aim point. During the midcourse correction maneuver, one vernier engine failed to ignite, resulting in an unbalanced thrust that caused the spacecraft to tumble for its remaining 54 hours. Attempts to salvage the mission failed. Contact was lost with the spacecraft at 9:35 UTC, September 22. The spacecraft was targeted at Sinus Medii, but crashed near Copernicus crater. The spacecraft was calculated to have impacted the lunar surface at 03:18 UTC, September 23, 1966. Its weight on impact was 644 lb (292 kg), and speed was about 6000 miles an hour (2.6 km/s = 5840 mph), slightly over lunar escape velocity (2.4 km/s) and similar to the impact velocities of the Ranger program spacecraft."

At:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surveyor_2

See also:

www.lpi.usra.edu/lunar/missions/surveyor/

One of the few black & white photos on 'A KODAK PAPER’.

“This is the first photograph of two American spacecraft on an alien world. Surveyor III, foreground, was launched from Cape Kennedy on April 17, 1967, and made a soft landing in a gently-sloped crater on the Moon’s Ocean of Storms on April 19, 1967. In the background is the lunar module Intrepid which carried Apollo 12 astronauts Charles Conrad and Alan Bean down to the moon’s surface nearby on November 19, 1969. To the right of the lunar module may be seen the inverted “umbrella” of an erectable S-band antenna.”

And/or:

This unusual view shows two National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) spacecraft on the surface of the moon. In the center foreground is the unmanned Surveyor 3 spacecraft, which soft landed on the lunar surface on April 19, 1967. Just 600 feet away from the Surveyor 3 spacecraft, pictured here in the background, is the Apollo 12 Lunar Module (LM), which landed on the lunar surface on Nov. 19, 1969. This photograph was taken the following day, during the second Apollo 12 extravehicular activity (EVA) in which astronauts Charles Conrad Jr., commander, and Alan L. Bean, lunar module pilot, participated. Pictured to the right of the LM are the deployed S-Band antenna and the United States flag, which was unfurled on Nov. 19, 1969. While Conrad and Bean descended from lunar orbit in their Apollo 12 LM, astronaut Richard F. Gordon Jr., command module pilot, remained with the Command and Service Modules (CSM).

spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/apollo/apollo12/html/...

"Composite of two narrow angle pictures – six degree field of view – taken by Surveyor I this morning shows the crest of a small mountain range on the moon about 12 miles northeast of the spacecraft. Only the top of the small mountain shows above the near horizon which is probably less than a mile away. The observable crest of the mountain range is slightly less than three miles long and rises approximately 500 feet above the extension of the near horizon. This small mountain is part of the rim of a nearly buried ancient crater over 60 miles in diameter. Surveyor I landed inside the rim. Scattered rocks in the foreground are probably associated with a crater which lies just to the right of the field of view and only a few hundred yards from the spacecraft."

www.lpi.usra.edu/resources/mapcatalog/Surveyor/press_rele...
Above credit: LPI website

A beautiful compilation of panoramas from the Surveyor I landing site:

publish.uwo.ca/~pjstooke/atlas7.jpg
Credit: The International Atlas of Lunar Exploration by Philip J. Stooke

An amazing work, and a plethora of wonderful articles and observations by Mr. Stooke are available. I HIGHLY encourage pursuing any reading of his works.

Lastly, from "EXPLORING SPACE WITH A CAMERA (SP-168)", a thoroughly enjoyable work in its own right...with the associated extract:

"One of Surveyor l's most interesting telephoto views [at top] was of a mountain range about 16 miles northeast of the spacecraft. E. C. MORRIS, of the U.S. Geological Survey, described it as follows:

"The landing site was within a large, ancient crater, more than 60 miles in diameter, buried by mare material. "The mountain range shown here is part of the rim of this nearly buried crater. The highest peak rises more than 1300 feet above the lunar surface, but only the upper 600 feet project above the near horizon, which is little more than a mile away. The observable crest of the range extends approximately 3 miles along the horizon.""

history.nasa.gov/SP-168/p58a.jpg

Scale(?), engineering(?) model, mockup(?) of a Surveyor lunar lander on a nicely detailed simulated lunar surface. A conscientious attempt at replicating reality, to include the lighting.

Based on the slope (with the spacecraft being in a small crater), its overall orientation and the instrumentation on it, I'm thinking it's depicting Surveyor V.