The Surveyor Program comprised unmanned spaceflights to the Moon, with soft landings, without returning (although Surveyor 6 became the first spacecraft to lift off the moon).
It was initiated and carried out to demonstrate the feasibility of soft landing on the Moon. This was done in preparation for the Apollo Program. The program was implemented by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and performed other several services beyond its primary goal. The ability for a spacecraft to make midcourse corrections was demonstrated, and the landers carried instruments to assist with evaluation of the suitability of their landing sites for manned Apollo landings.
The Surveyor Shovel was a project to determine the composition of the Moon's surface. The robotic shovel was designed to dig at the surface and determine the composition of the materials. Before this project, it was unknown how deep the dust on the moon was. If the dust were to be too deep, then no Astronaut could land. Today, of course, we now know that the Astronauts could walk the face of the Moon, as evidenced by the photographs of their footprints.
There were seven Surveyor missions, five were successful. Surveyor 2 and 4 failed. Each consisted of a single unmanned spacecraft designed and built by Hughes Aircraft Company.
- Surveyor 1 - Launched May 30, 1966; landed on Oceanus Procellarum, June 2, 1966
- Surveyor 2 - Launched September 20, 1966; crashed near Copernicus crater, September 23, 1966
- Surveyor 3 - Launched April 17, 1967; landed on Oceanus Procellarum, April 20, 1967
- Surveyor 4 - Launched July 14, 1967; crashed on Sinus Medii, July 17, 1967
- Surveyor 5 - Launched September 3, 1967; landed on Mare Tranquillitatis, September 11, 1967
- Surveyor 6 - Launched November 7, 1967; landed on Sinus Medii, November 10, 1967
- Surveyor 7 - Launched January 7, 1968; landed near Tycho crater, January 10, 1968
Apollo 12 landed within walking distance of the Surveyor 3 landing site.
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