Ĭosting around $1 billion (or $3.8 billion today), the Viking program was the most expensive U.S. This longevity would remain unbeaten until the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Opportunity quietly surpassed the operating duration of its predecessor on. The spacecraft also afforded humanity our best and most complete perspective of the planet for the next two decades and the Viking 1 lander survived for 2,307 days from its touchdown on 20 July 1976 through its End of Mission (EOM) on 11 November 1982. Viking 1 became the first spacecraft in history to soft-land on Mars and complete its mission, picking up the baton from the Soviet Union’s failed Mars 3, which had successfully alighted on alien soil in December 1971 and produced a partial, though unintelligible image, before transmission ended and contact was lost. Today, these missions are remembered principally for their close-up, clear and in-situ perspectives of the Martian surface, but the twin Vikings-whose orbiters were designed for a 120-day operational lifetime and whose landers for about 90 days’ activity on the Red Planet-endured far longer than intended. The findings of Viking 1, and its twin, Viking 2, launched a few weeks later, would literally rewrite the textbooks and reveal Mars in a wholly different light. and Soviet spacecraft had secured promising results, but repeated efforts to reach the Red Planet met with failure and frustration, and on 20 August 1975 NASA began an audacious attempt to deliver an orbiter and soft-land a stationary vehicle. Yet 40 years ago, today, the case was quite different. These run the gamut from the oldest to the youngest arrivals-the 2001-launched Mars Odyssey to last year’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) and Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM)-and also encompass the sole remaining Mars Exploration Rover (MER), Opportunity, together with Europe’s hugely successful Mars Express, the Curiosity rover in Gale Crater and the multi-role Mars Reconaissance Orbiter (MRO). Today, in 2015, no fewer than seven spacecraft are operational in orbit around the Red Planet or on its surface. Spacecraft from the United States, Russia, Europe and India have circled this seemingly most Earth-like of worlds, whilst a flotilla of stationary and mobile landing vehicles have alighted on its ochre-hued plains, revealing tantalizing clues of ancient lakes and oceans, past volcanism and geology which originated in wet environments. In the second decade of the 21st century, we have grown accustomed to a steady output of scientific data and imagery from our robotic emissaries in orbit and upon the surface of Mars. The lander and its orbiter were launched 40 years ago, today, on 20 August 1975. The first “clear” image of the surface of Mars, captured by Viking 1 in July 1976.
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