Preface

Surveyor 3 was one of five automated spacecraft that successfully soft-landed
and operated on the lunar surface, acquired a vast amount of new scientific and
engineering data, and provided a firm foundation for subsequent manned
landings on the Moon.

When we designed and launched these Surveyors, there was no plan for
them to be visited by astronauts in subsequent manned missions. Some of us,
however, had the quiet hope that, at some later date, astronauts would walk
up to a landed Surveyor, examine and photograph it and the surrounding
terrain, and remove and return to Earth selected components for engineering
and scientifc studies.

Such an opportunity was provided by the Apollo 12 mission. Thirty-one
months after Surveyor 3 landed, the crew of Apollo 12 photographed the
spacecraft and its landing site, and removed and brought back a number of
selected components. These parts, which included the television camera, were
analyzed to determine the effects on the hardware of the long exposure to the
lunar environment.

The returned material and photographs have been studied and evaluated
bv 40 teams of engineering and scientific investigators over a period of more than
1 year. A few tasks are still in process and several proposals for additional studies
have been received.

This report represents a compilation of the main engineering and scientific
results to date.

Engineering studies of the television camera show that the complex
electromechanical components, optics, and solid-state electronics were remarkably
resistant to the severe lunar surface environment over 32 lunar day/night
cycles with their extremes of temperature and long exposure to solar and cosmic
radiation. These results indicate that the state of technology, even as it existed
some years ago, is capable of producing reliable hardware that makes feasible
long-life lunar and planetary installations.

Scientific studies of the returned Surveyor parts provide new data in many
fields and provide further confirmation that specially designed recoverable
experiments should have great value in the study of the space environment.

May 1971

BENJAMIN MILWITKKY
Assistant Director, Engineering
(Special Projects)
Apollo Program