1976 July-September - NASA Ames History Office

Nattonal Aeronautics and
Space Adminislration
Ames Research Center
Moffe~t Field. California 94035
VOLUME XVlll NUMBER 23
Successful landing on Mars for Viking 1
Upper left
July 29, 1976
Viking I Landed in one of the kywest regions on
the surface of Mars. Center oJ the Landing ellipse
inscribed on this photomosaic of j?ames is located at
22.4° A~ Lat.. 4Z5° W. Lo~lg., bl ChrysePLa~itta. The
new location is about 740 kilometers (460 mffes)
northwest of the original July 4 landing sue and
240 kilometers (150 miles) west alan alternate site
where the spacecraft was to touch down on July 1 Z
This area ts neart~ three kilometers (two miles)
below Mars’ mean "sea level "’ It is a channelled towland
northeast of the great Martian volcanoes and
the TharsL~ PLateau. the high altitude equatorial
region
Lower left
l-irst panoramic fiew b3 Viking I from the sur-
]ace of Mars. (Top) The out-of-focus spacecraft
c~mlr~nent to~,ard left center ts the housing for the
~Tking sample arm. whieh i~ not vet deptos ed. Parallel
line~g in the sky are an artifact and are not real
t~atures Howe~er, the change of breghtness from
horizon towards zenith and towards the rtgh:t (west)
is accuratet) r(fle~ted in tht~" picture, taken in late
Martian a tternoon. At the horizon to the left ~ a
plateau-like prominence much brighter than the
]breground material between the rocks. The horizon
features are approxirnateO" three kilometers
(1 8miles) awal’ At l(ft is a collection of finegrained
material reminiscent of sand dune~. The
dark sinuous markings in left toreground are of
unkm;wn origin Some umdentffied shapes can be
percened on the hill.v eminence at the horizon
toward.~ tile right Parches of bright sand can be
dt;cented amoprg the rocks and boxdders in middle
distatlcc [, right fbreground are tw~ pecullarl)’
ghaped roeks a,hic’h ma~ possibl~ be venrtfacts produeed
b~ wmdabn~ston on Mars A horizontal ckyud
stratum can be made out ha[t]~,al tkt)m the horizon
to the top of the picture (Bottom) At let? is seen
the low gain antenna for receipt t~f eomtr~dnds.frt~m
lhe ~.~rlh Tf~e proiections on or near the flatiron
tnav rt~pr~,sent the rims dL~tant impact craters. ]n
right fi)regroz&tld are color charts t~kr Lander catnera
calibration, a m~rror for the I’ikulg mag~etic propew
tws experiment and part of a grid t~tl the top ~.tthe
Lander bad1. At upper r~ght ts the high-gain dish
antentta .for dzrect contmttnication between Landed
spaeecra]~ and Earth. Toward the right edge i~ an
array of smooth fine-grained material ~hich shows
some hint of ripple structure and may be the beginning
of a klrge dune (hqd off m the right of the
picture, which /alas with dunes seea at the top left
in this dO0~ panoramic view. Some of the racks
appear to be undercut on otle sid~ and partiall~
buried hi" drifting sand on the o ther