Explanation:
"Safe!"
In September 1967, during
regular season play,
the Surveyor 5 lander actually slid several feet
while making a successful soft landing on the
Moon's Mare Tranquillitatis.
Equipped with television cameras and soil sampling experiments,
the US Surveyor spacecraft were intended to determine
if the lunar surface at
chosen locations was safe for the planned
Apollo
landings.
Surveyor 5 touched down on the inside edge of a small
crater inclined at about 20 degrees.
Its footpad slipped and
dug the trench visible
in the picture.
Covered with dusty lunar soil,
the footpad is about half a meter in diameter.
