Surveyor 7

Surveyor 7 completed NASA's seven-flight Surveyor series with a January 10, 1968 landing on the highland ejecta north of Tycho crater. Because earlier Surveyors had already supported Apollo landing preparations, the final mission examined a scientifically distinct site outside the early Apollo candidate landing areas. It carried the series' most extensive instrument set, combining imaging, chemical analysis, soil sampling, and magnetic observations. Controllers used the sampler arm to free an alpha-scattering instrument that had not deployed fully, then repositioned it to compare undisturbed soil, a rock, and excavated material. Trenching and bearing tests explored the surface's mechanical properties. The mission returned more than 21,000 pictures and operated during portions of two lunar days, ending in February 1968.