Surveyor crater is a small crater in Oceanus Procellarum on the Moon. The name of the crater was formally adopted by the IAU in 1973.
History On April 20, 1967, the Surveyor 3 spacecraft landed within the crater near the east rim. Surveyor 3 was the third lander of the American uncrewed Surveyor program sent to explore the surface of the Moon.
The Apollo 12 astronauts Pete Conrad and Alan Bean landed the Lunar Module (LM) Intrepid north of Surveyor crater on November 19, 1969, and eventually walked over to Surveyor 3. During their descent, Surveyor crater was a major landmark, and is the largest crater at the landing site. To the west of Surveyor is Head crater. To the southwest are Bench crater and Sharp crater (now called Sharp-Apollo). To the south is Halo crater. A distinct crater on the northeast rim is called Block crater.
Block crater was described in the Apollo 12 Preliminary Science Report:Apollo 12 Preliminary Science Report, NASA Special Publi PDFcation 235, 1970. PDF At Block Crater, high on the north wall of Surveyor Crater, nearly all the ejected blocks are sharply angular, which suggests that the crater is very young. Many of the blocks clearly show lines of vesicles similar in appearance to vesicular lavas on Earth. The blocks are probably derived from the older, coarse blocky ejecta deposit underlying the rim that resulted from the Surveyor Crater event. The regolith at Block Crater may be a meter or less thick.
Samples Many samples were collected in and around Surveyor crater.Apollo 12 Preliminary Science Report, NASA Special Publication 235, 1970. Figure 10-1 (Traverse Map). Samples taken near the LM on the north rim of Surveyor crater include drive tube sample 12026,Sample 12026 and contingency samples 12073 (regolith breccia)Sample 12073 and 12075 (olivine basalt).Sample 12075 Soil Sample 12042 was collected on the southwest rim near Halo crater.Sample 12042 Samples 12043 (pigeonite basalt),Sample 12043 12044 (soil),Sample 12044 12051 (ilmenite basalt),Sample 12051 and 12054 (glass-coated ilmenite basalt)Sample 12054 were collected on the south rim. Samples 12056,Sample 12056 12062,Sample 12062 12063,Sample 12063 12064Sample 12064 (all ilmenite basalts), and 12065 (pigeonite basalt)Sample 12065 were all likely collected in the interior of the crater near the east rim and northeast of the Surveyor 3 lander. Samples 12045,Sample 12045 12046,Sample 12046 and 12047Sample 12047 (all ilmenite basalts) were collected at Block crater on the north rim of Surveyor crater.
External links Lunar Orbiter 3 image 154 H2, used for planning the mission (landing site is left of center). Lunar Orbiter 1 sequence of images 157, 158, and 159, showing the Apollo 12 landing site and vicinity
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