UMSF space history photo of the month Options

[Guest_PhilCo126_*]

Maybe we could make this a monthly item, in which we could look back at the history of Unmanned Space missions.
For January 2008 I've chosen an image showing the coverage of the Sun by early Pioneer 5-8 spacecraft.
Pioneer 5 to 8, or Pioneer V to VIII using the system of Roman numerals in vogue during the early 1960s for spacecraft designations, were directed towards the Sun along the earth's orbit to monitor solar activity. Pioneer V was launched on 11th March 1960 and provided the very first space weather report 4 to 8 hours before a solar storm hit the Earth.
Some of this Pioneer quartet, Pioneer 6-7-8 even provided updates on our Sun's activity during the early Apollo Moon landings in order to check the damaging potential of solar flares to affect the astronauts.

[Guest_PhilCo126_*]

Surveyor photos continued this month but this time I'll use the Roman numerals in vogue at the time for designations:
While we’re used on seeing high resolution photos of today’s spacecraft’ parts, it’s great to see the same kind of images of older spacecraft. Here’s an example of the footpad of the Surveyor V lunar spacecraft showing the magnet assembly on footpad 2 of the lander.
These footpad magnetic assemblies were attached to footpad 2 of Surveyors V, VI , VII and on footpad 3 of Surveyor VII.. The purpose of the magnet tests was to determine differences in amount of magnetic material in Maria and in the Highlands.
The last of the Surveyors was a dedicated scientific mission and in addition to the magnets on footpads 2 & 3, Surveyor VII had two rectangular horseshoe magnets embedded side by side in the back of the surface sampler door.