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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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...

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.

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 !

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.

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.

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

Surveyor! Loved these missions, and that picture with Apollo 12 in the background is iconic. Often it is my laptop backdrop.

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

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.

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!

“A Fall of Moondust” is a great story. “This is the best cup of coffee I’ve had since arriving on the Moon!”

It amazes me that people are astonished by what these devices did without computers. We've had electricity for far longer than we've had computers. What do you think they did for the first 150 years?

Makes you appreciate the genius of the engineers that were able to do this successfully with all the limitations of computing power , communication and technology in it's infancy in the early 60's

The unmanned missions were fascinating--we learned so much. This year is the 60th anniversary of Mariner IV, the first flyby of Mars, and the first time we saw photos of Mars from other than Earth based telescopes. Grainy and low resolution by today's standards, we saw craters for the first time! It was awe inspiring! It's hard to believe that by the time we finally set human feet on the surface Mars we will know far more about Mars than Neil Armstrong knew about the surface of the moon.

Amazing how popular is Apollo program and how uncovered is the rest of the moon exploration.

The Ranger missions were maddening, since the first six attempts were failures. We finally got photos with Rangers 7, 8, and 9. Surveyor had a better success record, with five of seven missions successfully landing on the moon. I was lucky enough while in high school in the sixties to attend a Caltech lecture by Dr. Ronald F. Scott, the researcher responsible for the Surveyor's scoop shovel. Dr. Scott noted the Surveyors 2 and 4 failed in their missions to Sinus Medii. I recall Scott pointing at a large image of the moon on the display screen in Beckman Auditorium and saying, "At JPL we were concluding that either even numbers were unlucky, or someone at Sinus Medii didn't like us." We had a good laugh in the middle of a great talk. (It was one of the reasons I enrolled at Caltech a couple of years later.)

how awesome to land there for humans and just walk up to another spacecraft already sitting there to retrieve stuff... 😍

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!

Brilliant as usual Scott. I can remember the excitement on the BBC, with Patrick Moore and James Burke. I was 9 or 10 (born Jan 57) during Surveyor, and it was all part of the build up to Apollo. One thing the deny people ignore is the pre Apollo missions to the moon. Bless 'em.

This is an extremely important history lesson that flies over most heads. Well worth watching. Bravo, SM..

Thanks for this. I remember these missions - and the uproar when Sputnik went up - but was unaware that a few of the Surveyors relit their engines after they had landed. All these years and I’m still learning things about these old missions. What’s astounding is that there are people who STILL refuse to believe that we’ve been to the moon. Billions of taxpayer dollars spent, ten of thousands of people involved. Stupidity on an unfathomable scale. Thanks for the history lesson.

Great overview of the Surveyor program. Thanks for sharing.

Thank you Scott! I was 9 years old in 1968 and remember all of this. The "Space Race" made a huge impression on me back then! 😀👍

low center of mass for stability .... maybe a good idea to copy from the past ;-)

Could we land on the moon? Back then: yes Now: it's a struggle

One of the best episode in a few months..

That's such a cool adventure to imagine, to fly up there on Apollo 12 and walk over and check out the old surveyor. Very exciting!

Pięknie dziękuję!!!Pozdrawiam z Warszawy, Poland!

My mom always said, "Every generation gets worse at landing shit on the moon."

Love the Arthur C Clarke shoutouts

brilliant work as always scott, I look forward to your videos

yeah, but could they land upside down? no...

That “can do” attitude that won WWII got us to the moon with this ancient tech.

really best video on surveyor missions..good job scott

Great presentation! I remember the Surveyor missions, but did not know all the details you shared. So cool, that they were able to relight the engine/thrusters to reposition it. I never knew they did that. Smart engineers!

Can't believe we did all that in a matter of 2 years back then, and had a good chunk of them be successful. Perhaps sometimes simpler and old school analog tech just works better. Compared to the Complex computer guidance of these modern probes, sure it's more modern, but also much more complex and therefore a lot more potential points of failure.

sometimes I beleive those analog circuits were more reliable than thousands of lines of modern code in digital computers, the simpler the system, less likely there will be a "bug", less points of failure.

I remember those Surveyor missions and how fascinating it was to see the moon "up close". Love your channel!❤

These are the videos i love from You scott! Thanks!

The simplicity and effectiveness of the early landers makes you wonder if modern landers are doing too much. Did we lose something important in the switch from control using clever feedback loops, to control using in-memory terrain maps?

So 60's Lunar probes had more reliable analog guiding systems than nowadays fancy software.

I had no idea we had visited a previous lander on the Moon! Wild!

Direct descent (not from lunar orbit), with a solid rocket motor it lit at ~75 km, burning all the way down to ~10km. Impressive indeed!

Surveyors were the result of simple, sound, intelligent engineering. What they were able to achieve, 58-55 years ago was just outstanding. The fact that today we are considering a major milestone what has been instead a failed lunar landing leaves me quite skeptical. Just looking at the difference in the overall architecture of the spacecraft (including the one of the manned LM) would make you realize that the narrow landing leg stance and the high CG of Odysseus was a recipe for disaster. And they forgot to turn on a switch, as if a flight checklist was never invented. 50 years ago I would have been enthusiastic about this "first" attempt. Today I would have expected even real time 4K images of the landing.

70 years ago they landed on the moon easily & now they struggle🤷‍♀️ Ok. I totally believe u 😒

Oh how I have been waiting for a Surveyor video from Scott MUNley!

I didn't know a lot of this, so a huge thank you for another great episode!

This was a great video, learned so much and genuinely amazed how sophisticated the surveyor program was. I never knew 80% of what was presented in this video.

Thank you very much. Such great explanations help so much to understand what is important about these landings. And what considerations went before it back then. Your videos are always educational. No wonder so many love your channel.

Thank you for the beautiful simulations, as usual!

Then as now, Space is hard...just cause the Moon is closer than anything else to us doesn't change that, just the problems involved. This was really interesting ( always is ) so thanks for uploading

Great video! I kept up with all the Surveyor landings. It was a real treat seeing the Surveyor sitting in the crater when Apollo 12 landed.

Thank you Scott, very interesting subject, beautifully made video!

Thanks for the history lesson, Scott! 😊 Stay safe there with your family! 🖖😊

This is great! I love these historical looks back into our early space programs.

Mr Manley your Channel is a fountain of Knowledge, Cant Stop coming back drinking up more information 😉

"There's no hazard avoidance capability, this was the 1960s." I love that line

Somehow I failed to remember that Apollo 12 landed near Surveyor 3 and brought back pieces of it. Maybe I didn't realize how amazing that is the first time I learned it, probably as a kid back in the 70s or 80s? Wow!

Great history lesson Scott. Amazing what can be achieved with 60’s engineering and a spirit of adventure.

Really interesting video Scott. I learned heaps. Thanks mate!

Scott, you make awesome videos. Thank you very much :)

Surveyor always was, and still is my favorite moon probe.

Seeing surveyor 3 having tracks around it right before you mention apollo 12 was a great moment

Best overview of Surveyor I have seen.

***GREAT*** feature, Scott! There was a lot of film about Surveyor which I have never seen before, so many thanks for collecting and sharing it! You're absolutely right to point out the critical role the unsung Surveyors played in preparing for manned lunar missions (and of course Lunar Orbiter was a mind-boggling technological triumph. I hope you do a feature about it because some of the tech involved is nothing short of astonishing). And I absolutely LOVE your tie-in to today's efforts with robot probes as pathfinders. And I know that *you* know this, but for other viewers: the camera retrieved from Surveyor III by the Apollo 12 Intrepid crew (Pete Conrad & Alan Bean) is on display in the Apollo Lunar exhibits section of US National Air & Space Museum in Washington DC, and like Scott Manley, I have seen it with my own eyes. Fun fact: the parts of Surveyor 3 which Apollo 12 brought back were initially examined in the Lunar Receiving Laboratory in Houston, TX (which contains America's crown jewels [moon rocks]) and had been sandblasted by the regolith kicked up by Intrepid when it landed about 535 ft (~163m ft) away from Surveyor.

Very informative and interesting video. Thanks Scott.

My uncle worked on Surveyor, it's so interesting to learn more about it. I remember he used to talk about how surreal it was to see Surveyor 3 again when the Apollo astronauts visited it.

Great video! Which not being able to live up to my past self is a fear I have so seeing us fail to land a craft upright and hadle it well makes me feel better.

This was back when I religiously and rigorously followed the U. S. and Soviet Space Program . . . I loved the Ranger, Surveyor and Lunar Orbiter programs. Naturally, I was encouraged early enough to also anxiously await the "Prospector" missions, where a wheeled robotic mobile soft lander would careen around the craters of the moon and analyze dust and rock, routinely drilling into the surface and reporting results to Earth. Since following the difficulties of the Soviet Lunar soft landers (who ultimately became first to soft land on the moon) and that series of failures, I hardly expected the course of Surveyor I to be much different. Following that event, I still remember that June day of 1966 when it (surprisingly!) made it to the moon successfully on its first try! How amazing that was! Followed by Surveyor III, V, VI and VII successfully. What have we lost in the last 50 years? We've definitely gotten out of practice doing these feats. Such good technology we had back then. Sadly, Prospector, was never mounted as a progressive follow-up to Surveyor. Would have been a great series of missions.

A Fall of Moondust is still a gripping novel. It was already outdated when I read it on the mid '70s, but it's great - an old-fashioned disaster movie setting like the Posieden Adventure - a bunch of cliched characters stuck in a location with the clock running out on their survival options, with a hero and some (mostly) decent science to figure out a solution. Its one flaw is it was founded on a dodgy premise.

I've been your subscribers for over 11 years now, finished my studies and worked up to being a real energy engineer in Scandinavia. Your passion and level of content carried me all this way and continues to fuel me! Thank you, mr. Scott Manley!

Great video, Scott...👍

I had forgotten sooo much about Surveyor, my memories were overwritten by Apollo. Wow, we did a lot with a little. The analog feedback descent guidance system worked very well.

lots of great images, thank you

what a simple and ingenious method for orienting the spacecraft during landing. wow!

Scott, I watched a video by Anton Petrov this morning discussing Voyager I. He was lamenting the loss of information surrounding the computer on Voyager. I remember looking for details about the computer years ago but coming up with nothing. Is this something you'd be interested in researching ?

Awesome little bit of history. I love you.

Thanks for this. I knew a fair bit about Surveyor but not how its landing system worked.

Outstanding job. This was the stuff I lived for when I was 10 years old. I'd follow each Surveyor mission reading Aviation Week & Space Technology among other newsmagaines. I even had a lunar map and looked up each landing site. A good way to fill the time between the Gemini and Apollo programs.

Thanks for the mention of "A Fall of Moondust". One of my favorites by Clarke.

the 60s spacecraft were so cool, you work with you got and do your best. a lot of genius solutions

Incredible. Thanks for the great insight

Great video! I'm 63 and renember vividly how exiting it was when the Apollo 12 astronauts took a short walk to Surveyour 3.

Thank you, Scott, for this great summary of the Surveyor missions to the Moon. Maybe you can do a similar "tour de force" of the Viking missions and contrast them with the current fleet that is orbiting and crashing into Mars.

In my mind the single greateet picture taken by an unmanned lunar mission was the Lunar Orbiter picture of Tycho taken at a low angle. It made the Moon an actual world in the publics eye.

Exactly the question that space nerds are asked by people who get their info (or lack thereof) from the mainstream media. A big thank you!

The Surveyor 3 TV camera which was returned to earth by Apollo 12 astronauts is now on display in the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. Hardly any visitors look at it because they don't know the heroic story behind it. P.S. You can see one of the astronauts (not sure which one) touching the TV camera at 11:44 .

Outstanding film. Thank you.

Thanks Scott, I had no idea they used these landers.

For extra viewing I can recommend the “Destination Moon” episode of the “JPL and the Space Age” series on UKposts and NASA TV.

Thanks for mentioning the Lunar Orbiter project. My father worked on that for Kodak.