Surveyor 5: A hole-in-one

Surveyor 5 (At least we found the right image), swept up by the LROC narrow-angle camera on-board LRO during orbit 870, September 4, 2009, from 122.38 km over the southeastern Sea of Tranquility. (Three cheers to the LROC team for not leaving us hanging out on a limb for very long, also for superior patience and eyesight). The JPL-operated robotic lander built by Hughes Aircraft sits silently within the rim of a 10 meter crater (1.41°N 23.18°E) ~24 km northwest of Tranquility Base. (LROC NAC M106726943LE, resolution 1.24 m/p, width ~480 meters [NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University].Mark RobinsonLROC News SystemSurveyor 5 landed on Mare Tranquillitatis on September 11, 1967, in what must have been a harrowing touchdown. As pictures arrived on the ground it became apparent that the spacecraft had landed on the steep slopes of a small impact crater. After careful analysis of the images, including star field pictures, the Surveyor team was able to determine that the local slope was 19.7°!Surveyor 5, area of LROC NAC image M106726943LE enlarged 4x [NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University].The spacecraft performed all its assigned tasks, returning thousands of detailed pictures and measuring the chemistry of the soil. Less than two years after Surveyor 5 landed Neil ...