![]() Volcanoes, lava plains, immense canyons, cratered areas, wind-formed features, and evidence of surface water are apparent in the Orbiter images. The results from the Viking experiments give our most complete view of Mars to date. They showed that floods of water broke through dams, carved deep valleys, eroded grooves into bedrock, and travelled thousands of kilometers. Huge river valleys were found in many areas. Mars image mosaic from the Viking 1 orbiter Viking 1 Orbiterīy discovering many geological forms that are typically formed from large amounts of water, the images from the orbiters caused a revolution in our ideas about water on Mars. The first month of orbit was devoted to imaging the surface to find appropriate landing sites for the Viking Landers. Following launch, Viking 1 made its 10-month cruise and arrived at Mars on June 19, 1976. Each orbiter-lander pair flew together and entered Mars orbit the landers then separated and descended to the planet’s surface. The primary mission objectives were to obtain high resolution images of the Martian surface, characterize the structure and composition of the atmosphere and surface, and search for evidence of life. In fact, two identical spacecraft, Viking 1 and Viking 2, each consisting of a lander and an orbiter, were built. mission to land a spacecraft safely on the surface of Mars and return images of the surface. Mars 6 failed during descent but did return some corrupted atmospheric data in 1974. ![]() It was also the Soviet‘s who succeeded first to send a probe safely to the Mars surface: Mars 2 lander on November 27, 1971, which failed during descent and Mars 3 lander on December 2, 1971, wwhose communication system failed about twenty seconds after the first Martian soft landing. The amount of data returned by probes increased dramatically as technology improved. On NovemMariner 9 became the first space probe to orbit another planet when it entered into orbit around Mars. The first successful fly-by of Mars was on July 14–15, 1965, by NASA‘s Mariner 4. The exploration of Mars began in 1960, when the Soviets launched a series of probes including the intended first flybys and hard (impact) landing. Back then in the 1970s, it seemed only to be a matter of a few years until the first manned Mars mission. Moreover, I remember the exciting messages in the news as a child, when the Viking lander began its descent to the surface and when the first pictures from the Mars surface came back to Earth. ![]() The Viking spacecraft was composed of two main parts: an orbiter designed to photograph the surface of Mars from orbit, and a lander designed to study the planet from the surface. ![]() The Viking program was was the most expensive and ambitious, but also highly successful mission ever sent to Mars. On August 20, 1975, NASA spacecraft Viking 1 was launched and sent to Mars. ![]()
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