The Surprising Success of NASA's First Moon Landings - The Surveyor Program 1966-1968

The Surveyor program was originally the grand plan for lunar exploration in the 1960's until Kennedy decided to prioritize putting humans on the moon. Instead the Surveyor missions, developed and operated by JPL, became precursor missions to test technologies and measure the lunar surface to make sure humans could safely land on the moon.
After recent lunar landing missions experienced various levels of success, I was really curious as to how the landing guidance operated on a 60 year old spacecraft without fully digital computers. Using 4 radar beams the spacecraft's analogue guidance system was able to descend under control and cancel its velocity for the soft landing.

Follow me on Twitter for more updates:

I have a discord server where I regularly turn up:

If you really like what I do you can support me directly through Patreon

[thomasfholland]

Thanks for bringing this up again. That was one of the series at my Dad worked on. He spent his entire working career first working at NASA (Surveyor and the little known the US first try at building the first space station - just because the USSR had already built a space station for 2 cosmonauts) and then being relocated to NASA/JPL. It was really cool going with him to work. He was an engineer for this series. He retired being the mission controller for Galileo.

[Noubers]

The pace of these missions is mind boggling compared to today. All seven flown in less than two years.

[patrickradcliffe]

I think it was really cool that Apollo 12 was able to do a precision landing and bring home pieces if Surveyor 3. A true testament to slide rules and computers that fill up a room.

[Cmdr_Krella]

I'm 75, I can vividly recall seeing the Ranger impact photos and being thrilled and amazed.

[johnstewart]

Thank you for this video. I remember how impressive it was for Apollo 12 to make a pinpoint landing so close to Surveyor in 1969

[scott]

That analogue radar guidance is brilliant. So in the 60s without computers or lasers they nailed the landing on the first try. Didn't fall over or land on it's solar panels. And no one forgot to arm the system.

[MarsJenkar]

This reminded me of an animation by MetaBallStudios depicting all the lunar missions that have ever happened, and the fact was that this was in the days when the failure rate of lunar missions was still very high. The fact that five of the seven Surveyor missions succeeded, in that context, makes the Surveyor program a resounding success.

[politicsuncensored]

I was a young boy in the 60's excitingly watching this on my grandparents B/W TV. My son would not be born until after the Apollo 11 landing and grandchildren much later. I hope to live to see the next moon landings with all of them. Thanks for bring back great memories. Shalom

[rockymountainhiker]

Scott, your videos are always interesting. But your videos about early space travel are not only interesting because we learn new things, but also so much fun because of the space vintage vibe! Those were heady times. Thanks for putting this together.

[dbaider]

Scott, you have said it many times - don't rely on software to solve your problems, unless it is ALL correct. These landers were autonomous without a million lines of code...

[montylc]

Great video. I'm and avionics technician of 50 years, fully understand how analog systems work without any kind of computer help. I've worked on analog aircraft autopilots that work just as well as the new computer driven ones.

[T_Mo]

Nice to see the Surveyor coverage. Real steely-eyed missions. I always love that image that shows both the Apollo 12 LM and Surveyor 3 in the same shot. And the image at the end, should have been a self-timer portrait of Al and Pete next to the Surveyor, except when the moment came, they couldn't find the wind-up timer in the carrier bag. Later when he became an artist, Al did an oil painted version of how that photo would have turned out.

[Bora_H]

Margaret Hamilton, the director of the Software Engineering Division of the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory, which developed on-board flight software for NASA's Apollo program is still working in Cambridge. Interview her if possible !

[GlutenEruption]

Things like this definitely put into perspective how spoiled we've become as engineers in certainly ways today, with endless amounts of processing power, memory, all sorts of sensors, actuators, and readymade solutions of all types available cheap off the shelf allowing us to essentially brute force solutions to the vast majority of problems. The level of ingenuity required to do so much, so efficiently and so elegantly with so little never ceases to amaze me. From that perspective, it's not surprising they were able to achieve a whole series of successful robotic soft landings on the moon in a handful of years while we struggle to do the same thing in triple the time. KISS principals are phenomenally important.

[SchrodingerZX]

The things that NASA achieved back then, considering the tech available to them, was truly astounding. A triumph of science and engineering. Wonderful video.

[jaimeduncan]

Great overview of the Surveyor program. Thanks for sharing.

[EdisonDiBlasi]

15:05 For those wondering, "sinus medii" is Latin for "middle bay." 

Bay, the geographic feature, fits with the sea-themed names on the moon. But sinus can also be translated as a "fold" because a bay is where the land folds around the sea. So yes, the anatomical sinuses are related to the same word.

[janhofmann]

Pure analog PID-controllers and (i guess) some rotary sequencer. Also the jettisoned solid fuel motor that provided the bulk of delta-v is great!

[Spherical_Cow]

I just love, how Scott actually pronounces Mün correctly! 😂❤

[uzha]

6:16 nice egg & sacrificial radar combo

And a fascinating attitude control system, and the panorama splicing bowl also gets a high grade honorable mention!