SURFACE OF MOON

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30057, 15 February 1963, Page 13

SURFACE OF MOON

U.S. Plans For Test Flights

(N.Z. Press Assn—Copyright) WASHINGTON, Feb. IS. America's space agency plans to began flight tests next year on an unmanned space vehicle to explore and analyse the moon’s surface. The 21001 b surveyor-lander craft will try to help determine the areas of the moon that may be safe for later exploration by Apollo spacecraft crews, the Associated Press reported. The director of lunar and planetary programmes for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Mr O. W. Nicks, said yesterday the surveyor-lander programme will overlap N.A.S.A.’s sur-yeyor-orbiter programme, a sister project starting about one year after the first lander flight. The orbiter craft is designed to' take pictures of a large area of the moon and send them back to earth for analysis, Mr Nicks told a conference of 3000 representatives of manufacturers .of spacecraft equipment. Mr Nicks said the orbiter and lander spacecraft would be teamed for close study of lunar landing sites leading up to manned exploration of the moon before the end of the decade.