Surveyor 1: Testing the Ground on the Moon
Before astronauts could ever leave footprints on the Moon, scientists faced a serious mystery: what was the lunar surface actually made of? Through telescopes, the Moon looked dry, rocky, and covered in gray powder. However, nobody had ever touched it. Some researchers worried that billions of years of meteor strikes had ground the lunar rock into an endless ocean of fine, fluffy dust. If a heavy spacecraft tried to land, would it safely stop on firm ground, or would it sink out of sight like a pebble dropped into quicksand?
To solve this puzzle, the American space agency, NASA, built a robotic scout named Surveyor 1. Unlike earlier probes that took pictures as they crashed directly into the Moon, Surveyor 1 was designed to do something much harder. It had to perform a soft landing. That meant it needed to slow down from thousands of miles per hour to a gentle stop, setting down smoothly without breaking its delicate instruments.
- vacuum:
- An area of space that is completely empty of air and other matter.
- distribute:
- To spread something out evenly over an area.
- radar:
- An electronic system that uses radio waves to find the distance and speed of objects.
- exhaust:
- The hot gases released by an engine when it burns fuel.
- crust:
- The hard, solid outer layer of a planet or moon.
- probes:
- Unmanned robotic spacecraft sent to explore space and collect scientific data.
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Preview questions from this passageShowHide
- 1What mystery about the Moon worried scientists before spacecraft could land there?
- 2How was Surveyor 1 different from earlier probes sent to the Moon?
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About this explanatory article passage for 4th Grade
“Surveyor 1: Testing the Ground on the Moon” is a explanatory article reading passage about Surveyor 1 lunar mission, written for 4th Grade. It takes about 3 minutes to read (474 words) and comes with an interactive quiz and a printable worksheet with comprehension questions and an answer key.