Project Blue Book Socorro file

Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.

## SURVEYOR LANDING GEAR

Project Surveyor is a scientific task with the end requirement of successfully accomplishing a landing on the moon. The lunar vehicle lands on three legs. A shock absorber is incorporated in each leg to dissipate some of the touchdown energy and to store the balance. NWL is responsible for the design, production, and testing of these shock absorbers, Model 1859.

The design parameters are very severe. Temperatures range from $ + 2 7 5^{\circ} \mathrm{F} $ to $ - 3 0 0^{\circ} \mathrm{F} $ , pressures inside the unit go up to 15,000 psi, and pressures outside the unit drop to $ 1 0^{-1 4} $ torr. The required damping profile is both a function of unit velocity and unit stroke position.

The unit contains a gas charge at 1500 psi and will retain such a charge for 12 months. External moving parts are encapsulated by flexible metal bellows. The unit uses a special grade of titanium (13 Cr 11V 3 Al) heat treated to 185,000 psi minimum. A very detailed and comprehensive reliability program controls this project.

By the nature of its' end usage, the production of the shock absorber will be small. However, the engineering, product know-how, and special experience requirement are very large. This unit typifies NWL Company's capacity for small production runs on sophisticated hardware.