Surface of Moon, Day 018, Survey W-E

This elaborate lunar panorama was made by a Surveyor craft as part of NASA’s search for a site suitable for a manned landing. After landing on the moon’s surface, each Surveyor craft used a rotating mirror assembly to scan its surroundings, producing a lengthy series of still television images. These numerous exposures were beamed back to earth one at a time, rephotographed from television monitors, printed on standard gelatin silver paper, numbered and then assembled into complex composites on specially prepared mounts. The results are both richly informative and weirdly abstract, a fascinating union of message and medium, fact and artifice.