MORE MOON DATA, PICTURES RECEIVED

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31077, 4 June 1966, Page 17

MORE MOON DATA, PICTURES RECEIVED

(N.Z.P.A. Reuter—Copyright)

CAPE KENNEDY, June 3.

America s Surveyor spacecraft perched on the moon and scanned the dry, dead terrain today, supplying pictures and other information which will be vital to the first human explorers.

Exhausted engineers, who nursed the Surveyor through its 240,000-mile journey to success yesterday on America’s first soft-landing attempt, turned off the Surveyor’s television system after preliminary analysis of 144 welldefined photographs.

They used it again early today when more than 100 pictures were transmitted to earth showing detailed views of what may be the landing site for astronauts.

The Surveyor, expected to “live” another 10 days, is 500 miles south-east of the dead Soviet Lunar IX, the first softanded spacecraft, which arrived on the moon on February 3.

Although the television camera was turned off, other instruments fed engineering ata throughout yesterday to he 85ft dish antennas at Johannesburg and Canberra. The television pictures were o be sent to the Goldstone, California, antenna. Some of the most important information yesterday concerned the range of temperatures as the moon revolved towards its high noon when the sun’s full blaze will force the Surveyor to stand virtually silent for 72 hours to avoid overheating its instruments. The Surveyor was equipped with wide angle and telephoto lenses so that it could scan miles of lunar surface or zoom in for close-ups down to onesixteenth of an inch.

The 6201 b spiderlike spacecraft, carrying a small American flag, took 63 hours for its flight to the moon. Last night’s pictures were “beautifully clear,” scientists said. They ranged from Panoramic views of the moon and its horizon, to close-ups of the spacecraft, in which even its nuts and bolts were plainly visible.

The camera then captured

the greyish blankness of the sky surrounding the moon.

Scientists indicated that if the moon was relatively flat, the horizon—as seen by Surveyor’s camera— would be only a mile and a half away. The pictures showed many bumps on the terrain, probably rocks. There was no sign of dust on the moon, but there was reflection from the surface. Scientists immediately began ordering the camera to take a sector survey of the moon’s surface.

Snapping about a 75-degree view a sector by moving the camera up and across and then down and across the scientists hope to piece the sectors into a complete photograph of the moon.