Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer)
Newsgroups: net.space
Subject: Re: moondust & creationism - (nf)
Message-ID: <3284@utzoo.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 26-Oct-83 17:53:53 EDT
Article-I.D.: utzoo.3284
Posted: Wed Oct 26 17:53:53 1983
Date-Received: Wed, 26-Oct-83 17:53:53 EDT
References: <3411@uiucdcs.UUCP>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
Lines: 12

One of the major jobs of the Surveyor missions was to determine, once
and for all, the solidity of the lunar surface.  The Surveyor landing
gear was carefully designed so that the ground pressure it exerted was
exactly the same as that planned for the Lunar Module.  And the very
first picture sent by Surveyor 1 was a closeup of one of its footpads
and the surrounding surface.  The Surveyor missions pretty well killed
the deep-dust theory, with Ranger and Lunar Orbiter photographs helping.
But the possibility of there being *some* areas of deep dust was still
taken seriously at the time of the first Apollo landings, I think.
-- 
				Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
				{allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henry