Chemical analysis experiment for the Surveyor lunar mission

Abstract

An experiment has been designed to determine the chemical composition of the lunar surface on the Surveyor soft-landing science missions to the moon. The instrument utilizes the characteristic spectrums of backward-scattered α particles and protons from (α, p) reactions to establish the elements present in a sample. The instrument can determine the amounts of most elements present in rocks with a sensitivity and accuracy of about 1 atomic %. Satisfactory analyses of a variety of terrestrial samples have been obtained.