| Description | Says that 'You no doubt have seen or will shortly see the preliminary Surveyor reports and this [letter] is to emphasize some of the points and to give you my own opinion as to how they may affect future moon exploration' e.g. talks about the properties of particles in the vicinity of Surveyor III and elsewhere on the moon; says that 'It is fairly certain that the ground is generally convenient for future exploration, reasonably comfortable to walk on or to drive vehicles over, not uncomfortably soft though considerably softer than almost all terrestrial soils'; says that 'The areas of difficulty that are suggested by the Surveyor experimentation so far concern adhesion of a fine film of small particles. It is a common experience with fine rock dust that in bulk it clogs to itself rather than to other materials, but nevertheless that it has a great tendency to leave a fine film adhering on any surface that has been brought into contact with it'; says 'Whether freedom from subsurface hollows is assured is not yet known. Dangers like those posed by crevasses on glaciers may exist, particularly in regions where there is evidence of much distortion of the ground'. |