Surveyor Robot 'Hibernates,

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31087, 16 June 1966, Page 15

Surveyor Robot 'Hibernates,

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) PASADENA (California), June 15. America’s picture-taking Surveyor robot went into hibernation in the moon yesterday as the long lunar night closed in and temperatures dropped to 260 degrees below zero.

The heaters aboard the 6201 b craft remained on as scientists kept a close watch on the battery charge and were prepared to turn off the heaters if the change dropped rapidly. A spokesman at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at Pasadena said that if the battery began to discharge too rapidly, the heaters would be turned off and the battery would be put tn “deep freeze” in an attempt to preserve the remaining power until sunrise on June 28. Scientists were hopeful that the camera would begin functioning again when the sun rose on the moon and ternneratures began warming, but they said there was no way to be sure if the battery and other vital parts would survive the cold. “The (better the charge In

the battery at sunrise, the better chance we have of reviving it,” one scientist said. Officials said no more pictures would be taken during the lunar night because the antenna had been positioned away from the earth. “We have positioned the antenna so that it will cast a long shadow in the earthshine," a spokesman said. This was done in hopes that the lunar orbitor which was scheduled to be launched from Cape Kennedy later this month might pick up a picture of its shadow. The Surveyor relayed 10.335 pictures of the moon’s surface and horizon during its two weeks on the moon. It made its soft landing on June 1 and began sending back photographs within minutes.