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NASA's Mars Orbiter Photographs Rovers and Viking Landers- Video …
Images from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter show three additio …
12/5/06
Viking-Mars Trailblazer-30th Anniversary Super Spotlight Web Vide …
Participants in the Viking 1 & 2 missions reflect on their feelin …
6/22/06
Viking 1
Viking 1 launched aboard a Tital IIIE rocket August 20, 1975 and …
8/1/08
Description Viking 1 launched aboard a Tital IIIE rocket August 20, 1975 and arrived at Mars on June 19, 1976. The first month was spent in orbit around the martian planet and on July 20, 1976 Viking Lander 1 separated from the Orbiter and touched down at Chryse Planitia.
Date 8/1/08
MOLA Surface Topography with Viking Texture Map
Title MOLA Surface Topography with Viking Texture Map
Abstract Rotating Mars with the MOLA Surface Topography with Viking Texture Map
Completed 2000-03-01
NASA Destination Tomorrow - DT5 - The Viking Project
NASA Destination Tomorrow Segment describing the first mission to …
6/1/03
Description NASA Destination Tomorrow Segment describing the first mission to land a spacecraft safely on the surface of another planet.
Date 6/1/03
Mars
Title Mars
Abstract The true global geography of Mars first emerged with comprehensive maps from Mariner 9 and Viking during the 1970's. This visualization tours the Red Planet using the Viking dataset, hitting such features as the Valles Marineris canyons and the Olympus Mons volcano.
Completed 1999-01-21
Mars Odyssey: Mars' Northern Hemisphere
Title Mars Odyssey: Mars' Northern Hemisphere
Abstract NASA's Mars Odyssey detected water ice in the northern hemisphere. During the winter months, the icy soil is covered by a thick layer of carbon dioxide ('dry ice') frost obscuring the water ice signature.This animation is match-framed to #2779 and #2780. Its purpose is to establish a frame of reference using a true color dataset. In this case, that data is from Viking.
Completed 2003-06-25
Push in South of the Hellas Basin using Viking Imagery
Title Push in South of the Hellas Basin using Viking Imagery
Completed 1999-11-22
Sagan and Viking
title Sagan and Viking
description Famous for his television series "Cosmos," Dr. Carl Sagan poses with a model of the Viking lander in Death Valley, Calif. *Image Credit*: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Viking Lander 1's U.S. Flag on Mars Surface
PIA00565
Sol (our sun)
Camera 1
Title Viking Lander 1's U.S. Flag on Mars Surface
Original Caption Released with Image The flag of the United States with the rocky Martian surface in the background is seen in this color picture taken on the sixth day of Viking Lander 1 on Mars (July 26). The flag is on the RTG (Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator) wind screen. Below the flag is the bicentennial logo and the Viking symbol which shows an ancient Viking ship. This Viking symbol was designed by Peter Purol of Baltimore, winner of the Viking logo contest open to high school science students. To the right is the Reference Test Chart used for color balancing of the color images. At the bottom is the GCMS Processor Distribution Assembly with the wind screens unfurled demonstrating that the GCMS cover was deployed properly. The scene in the background is looking almost due west on Mars. The lighter zone at the far horizon is about 3 km (nearly 2 miles) from the Lander. The darker line below this is a hill crest much closer to the Lander (about 200 m or about 650 feet). The picture was taken at local Mars Time of 7:18 A.M., hence the relatively dark sky and the far horizon illuminated by the sun just rising behind the Lander.
NASA Destination Tomorrow - DT6 - Mars Exploration
NASA Destination Tomorrow Segment highlighting NASA's contemporar …
6/1/03
Description NASA Destination Tomorrow Segment highlighting NASA's contemporary exploration of Mars.
Date 6/1/03
NASA Connect - GoE - Navigation To Mars and More Ellipses
NASA Connect Segment that explores how NASA scientists use geomet …
12/1/99
Description NASA Connect Segment that explores how NASA scientists use geometry to navigate spacecraft from Earth to Mars. It also explains the goals and accomplishments of the Viking Mission.
Date 12/1/99
Viking 2's 30th!
PIA08723
Sol (our sun)
Mars Orbiter Camera
Title Viking 2's 30th!
Original Caption Released with Image 3 September 2006 Viking 2 landed 30 years ago today, on 3 September 1976. It was the second of the two Viking landings on Mars. Viking 1 touched down on 20 July 1976. Since the Viking missions of the 1970s, only 3 additional spacecraft have successfully landed and conducted their scientific investigations: Mars Pathfinder (1997), Mars Exploration Rover Spirit (2004-present), and Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity (2004-present). Two new U.S. Mars landed missions are currently in the works: Phoenix, launching in August 2007, and MSL (Mars Science Laboratory), launching in 2009. As with the 30th anniversary of the Viking 1 landing in July (see PIA08616 [ http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA08616 ]), for the Viking 2 30th anniversary, we show here the best Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) view of the landing site. On that day 30 years ago, Viking 2 landed in Utopia Planitia, west of Mie Crater, near 48.0°N, 225.7°W. At the time, it was considered that this might be a good place to look for evidence of life in the martian regolith. This middle north latitude site is often obscured by clouds in the winter and dust hazes in the spring. The surface was observed by the lander to be dusted by thin coatings of frost during the winter months. The exact location of the Viking 2 lander was uncertain until MOC obtained the high resolution view, shown above, in 2004. These images were previously released by the MOC team on 5 May 2005, along with what was then considered to be the best candidate for the Mars Polar Lander site (see "MGS Finds Viking 2 Lander and Mars Polar Lander (Maybe)" [ http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2005/05/05/ ]). The candidate Polar Lander site was further imaged in 2005 and found not to be the lander (see PIA03044 [ http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA03044 ]). Figure 1 shows (A) a mosaic of Viking Orbiter images obtained in the 1970s at a resolution of 75 m/pixel, (B) a typical MGS MOC narrow angle camera view at about 3 meters/pixel (25x higher resolution than the Viking images), and (C, D) sections of a MOC image obtained at ~0.5 m/pixel. Figure 2 shows an extreme enlargement of the feature identified as Viking Lander 2, compared to a schematic drawing of the lander in the orientation determined during the Viking mission.
Viking 2's 30th!
PIA08723
Sol (our sun)
Mars Orbiter Camera
Title Viking 2's 30th!
Original Caption Released with Image 3 September 2006 Viking 2 landed 30 years ago today, on 3 September 1976. It was the second of the two Viking landings on Mars. Viking 1 touched down on 20 July 1976. Since the Viking missions of the 1970s, only 3 additional spacecraft have successfully landed and conducted their scientific investigations: Mars Pathfinder (1997), Mars Exploration Rover Spirit (2004-present), and Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity (2004-present). Two new U.S. Mars landed missions are currently in the works: Phoenix, launching in August 2007, and MSL (Mars Science Laboratory), launching in 2009. As with the 30th anniversary of the Viking 1 landing in July (see PIA08616 [ http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA08616 ]), for the Viking 2 30th anniversary, we show here the best Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) view of the landing site. On that day 30 years ago, Viking 2 landed in Utopia Planitia, west of Mie Crater, near 48.0°N, 225.7°W. At the time, it was considered that this might be a good place to look for evidence of life in the martian regolith. This middle north latitude site is often obscured by clouds in the winter and dust hazes in the spring. The surface was observed by the lander to be dusted by thin coatings of frost during the winter months. The exact location of the Viking 2 lander was uncertain until MOC obtained the high resolution view, shown above, in 2004. These images were previously released by the MOC team on 5 May 2005, along with what was then considered to be the best candidate for the Mars Polar Lander site (see "MGS Finds Viking 2 Lander and Mars Polar Lander (Maybe)" [ http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2005/05/05/ ]). The candidate Polar Lander site was further imaged in 2005 and found not to be the lander (see PIA03044 [ http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA03044 ]). Figure 1 shows (A) a mosaic of Viking Orbiter images obtained in the 1970s at a resolution of 75 m/pixel, (B) a typical MGS MOC narrow angle camera view at about 3 meters/pixel (25x higher resolution than the Viking images), and (C, D) sections of a MOC image obtained at ~0.5 m/pixel. Figure 2 shows an extreme enlargement of the feature identified as Viking Lander 2, compared to a schematic drawing of the lander in the orientation determined during the Viking mission.
Viking 2's 30th!
PIA08723
Sol (our sun)
Mars Orbiter Camera
Title Viking 2's 30th!
Original Caption Released with Image 3 September 2006 Viking 2 landed 30 years ago today, on 3 September 1976. It was the second of the two Viking landings on Mars. Viking 1 touched down on 20 July 1976. Since the Viking missions of the 1970s, only 3 additional spacecraft have successfully landed and conducted their scientific investigations: Mars Pathfinder (1997), Mars Exploration Rover Spirit (2004-present), and Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity (2004-present). Two new U.S. Mars landed missions are currently in the works: Phoenix, launching in August 2007, and MSL (Mars Science Laboratory), launching in 2009. As with the 30th anniversary of the Viking 1 landing in July (see PIA08616 [ http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA08616 ]), for the Viking 2 30th anniversary, we show here the best Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) view of the landing site. On that day 30 years ago, Viking 2 landed in Utopia Planitia, west of Mie Crater, near 48.0°N, 225.7°W. At the time, it was considered that this might be a good place to look for evidence of life in the martian regolith. This middle north latitude site is often obscured by clouds in the winter and dust hazes in the spring. The surface was observed by the lander to be dusted by thin coatings of frost during the winter months. The exact location of the Viking 2 lander was uncertain until MOC obtained the high resolution view, shown above, in 2004. These images were previously released by the MOC team on 5 May 2005, along with what was then considered to be the best candidate for the Mars Polar Lander site (see "MGS Finds Viking 2 Lander and Mars Polar Lander (Maybe)" [ http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2005/05/05/ ]). The candidate Polar Lander site was further imaged in 2005 and found not to be the lander (see PIA03044 [ http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA03044 ]). Figure 1 shows (A) a mosaic of Viking Orbiter images obtained in the 1970s at a resolution of 75 m/pixel, (B) a typical MGS MOC narrow angle camera view at about 3 meters/pixel (25x higher resolution than the Viking images), and (C, D) sections of a MOC image obtained at ~0.5 m/pixel. Figure 2 shows an extreme enlargement of the feature identified as Viking Lander 2, compared to a schematic drawing of the lander in the orientation determined during the Viking mission.
Viking Texture Zoom Down to Gravity Map Revealing Hidden Channel
Title Viking Texture Zoom Down to Gravity Map Revealing Hidden Channel
Completed 2000-06-19
Viking Texture Zoom Down (slow)
Title Viking Texture Zoom Down (slow)
Completed 2000-06-19
Viking Texture Zooming Down to Reveal a Hidden Channel (fast)
Title Viking Texture Zooming Down to Reveal a Hidden Channel (fast)
Completed 2000-06-19
Push in South of the Hellas Basin using Viking Imagery
Title Push in South of the Hellas Basin using Viking Imagery
Completed 1999-11-22
Mars Odyssey Epithermal Neutron Data overlayed on MGS/MOLA Topogr …
Title Mars Odyssey Epithermal Neutron Data overlayed on MGS/MOLA Topography Data (Full Globe, Viking True Color)
Abstract Mars Odyssey's Gamma-ray spectrometer (GRS) instrument has detected large amounts of Hydrogen on Mars, particularly near the south pole. This is an indication that water ice exists in the upper meter of these areas of the Martian surface. The epithermal neutron data ranges from 0 to about 12 counts per second. The blue areas indicate high concentrations of Hydrogen (low epithermal neutron counts). A series of animations was generated to support a Space Science Update (SSU) on the topic. These animations were match-rendered with unsmoothed, smoothed, and Viking true-color data.
Completed 2002-05-28
Mars Odyssey Epithermal Neutron Data overlayed on MGS/MOLA Topogr …
Title Mars Odyssey Epithermal Neutron Data overlayed on MGS/MOLA Topography Data (Flyover, Viking True Color)
Abstract Mars Odyssey's Gamma-ray spectrometer (GRS) instrument has detected large amounts of Hydrogen on Mars, particularly near the south pole. This is an indication that water ice exists in the upper meter of these areas of the Martian surface. The epithermal neutron data ranges from 0 to about 12 counts per second. The blue areas indicate high concentrations of Hydrogen (low epithermal neutron counts). A series of animations was generated to support a Space Science Update (SSU) on the topic. These animations were match-rendered with unsmoothed, smoothed, and Viking true-color data.
Completed 2002-05-28
Viking Checkup
title Viking Checkup
date 05.20.1971
description A technician checks the soil sampler on an earlier generation of Mars lander - Viking - in this 1971 photo. Viking 1 became the first spacecraft to land safely on Mars on July 20, 1976. The robotic arm scooped samples of the Martian soil, emptied it into a hopper on the lander, which analyzed it with three scientific instruments. NASA's Viking Lander was designed, fabricated, and tested by the Martin Marietta Corp. of Denver, Colorado, under the direction of the Viking Progect Office at Langley Research Center, Hampton, Virginia. The lander drew heavily on the experience gained from the Ranger, Surveyor and the Apollo Programs in the areas of radar, altimeters, facsimile, cameras, soil samplers and landing gear. *Image Credit*: NASA
Trench Left By Sampler Scoop
PIA00526
Sol (our sun)
Camera 1
Title Trench Left By Sampler Scoop
Original Caption Released with Image A shallow 12-inch-long trench was dug by Viking 2 s surface sampler scoop yesterday (September 12) on Mars. The trench is difficult to see in this photo because it is in the shadow of a rock (out of view to the right). The sampler scoop stopped operating sometime after soil was excavated from the trench and delivered to Viking 2 s biology instrument.
Viking Lander 1's U.S. Flag
title Viking Lander 1's U.S. Flag
Description The flag of the United States with the rocky Martian surface in the background is seen in this color picture taken on the sixth day of Viking Lander 1 on Mars (July 26). The flag is on the RTG (Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator) wind screen. Below the flag is the bicentennial logo and the Viking symbol which shows an ancient Viking ship. This Viking symbol was designed by Peter Purol of Baltimore, winner of the Viking logo contest open to high school science students. To the right is the Reference Test Chart used for color balancing of the color images. At the bottom is the GCMS Processor Distribution Assembly with the wind screens unfurled demonstrating that the GCMS cover was deployed properly. The scene in the background is looking almost due west on Mars. The lighter zone at the far horizon is about 3 km (nearly 2 miles) from the Lander. The darker line below this is a hill crest much closer to the Lander (about 200 m or about 650 feet). The picture was taken at local Mars Time of 7:18 A.M., hence the relatively dark sky and the far horizon illuminated by the sun just rising behind the Lander.
Launch of Titan III-Centaur, Viking 1 Lander
Name of Image Launch of Titan III-Centaur, Viking 1 Lander
Date of Image 1975-08-20
Full Description The Titan III-Centaur carrying the Viking 1 Lander lifted off on August 20, 1975. The Viking Lander conducted a detailed scientific investigation of the planet Mars.
MOLA Surface Topography with Viking Texture Map
Title MOLA Surface Topography with Viking Texture Map
Abstract Rotating Mars with the MOLA Surface Topography with Viking Texture Map
Completed 2000-03-01
Polar Orbiter: Fly Up to 4 Possible Landing Sites (Yellow)
Title Polar Orbiter: Fly Up to 4 Possible Landing Sites (Yellow)
Completed 1999-08-25
Mars Rotate (True Color)
Title Mars Rotate (True Color)
Completed 1999-05-24
Polar Orbiter: Fly Up to Primary Landing Site with Roughness Map
Title Polar Orbiter: Fly Up to Primary Landing Site with Roughness Map
Abstract dark blue = smooth, green = rough
Completed 1999-08-25
Technician Checks Soil Sampler on Viking Lander
Title Technician Checks Soil Sampler on Viking Lander
Full Description A technician checks the soil sampler of the Viking lander. An arm will scoop up a sample of the Martian soil, empty it into a hopper on the lander which will route the sample to each of the three scientific instruments, biology, gas chromatograph/mass spectrometer and water analysis. NASA's Viking Lander was designed, fabricated, and tested by the Martin Marietta Corp. of Denver, Colorado, under the direction of the Viking Progect Office at Langley Research Center, Hampton, Virginia. The Lander drew heavily on the experience gained from the Ranger, Surveyor and the Apollo Programs in the areas of radar, altimeters, facsimile, cameras, soil samplers, landing gear, etc.
Date 05/20/1971
NASA Center Headquarters
Viking 2 Image of Mars Utopian Plain
Title Viking 2 Image of Mars Utopian Plain
Full Description The boulder-strewn field of red rocks reaches to the horizon nearly two miles from Viking 2 on Mars' Utopian Plain. Scientists believe the colors of the Martian surface and sky in this photo represent their true colors. Fine particles of red dust have settled on spacecraft surfaces. The salmon color of the sky is caused by dust particles suspended in the atmosphere. Color calibration charts for the cameras are mounted at three locations on the spacecraft. Note the blue starfield and red stripes of the flag. The circular structure at top is the high-gain antenna, pointed toward Earth. Viking 2 landed September 3, 1976, some 4600 miles from its twin, Viking 1, which touched down on July 20.
Date 11/23/1976
NASA Center Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Viking I Spacecraft in Cleanroom
Title Viking I Spacecraft in Cleanroom
Full Description The planetary landing spacecraft Viking, which includes stereo cameras, a weather station, an automated stereo analysis laboratory and a biology instrument that can detect life, is under assembly at Martin Marietta Aerospace near Denver, Colorado. This Viking spacecraft will travel more than 460 million miles from Earth to a soft landing on Mars in 1976 to explore the surface and atmosphere of the red planet. Martin Marietta is prime and integration contractor for the Viking mission to NASA's Langley Research Center, Hampton, Virginia. The lander will be powered by two nuclear generators.
Date 05/01/1974
NASA Center Headquarters
The Meteorology Instrument on Viking Lander 1
title The Meteorology Instrument on Viking Lander 1
Description Those Martian weather reports, received here daily from more than 200 million miles away, start right here at Viking l's meteorology instrument. Mounted atop the extended boom, the meteorology sensors face away from the spacecraft. They stand about four feet above the surface and measure atmospheric pressure, temperature, wind velocity and wind direction. The cable parallel to the boom is connected inside the spacecraft body with the electronics for operating the sensors, reading the data and preparing it for transmission to Earth. A second Mars weather station will begin operation next month when Viking 2 lands somewhere in the planet's northern latitude Viking 2 arrives at Mars and goes into orbit tomorrow (August 7).
Viking Lander 2's First Picture On The Surface Of Mars
PIA00396
Sol (our sun)
Camera 1
Title Viking Lander 2's First Picture On The Surface Of Mars
Original Caption Released with Image Viking 2 s first picture on the surface of Mars was taken within minutes after the spacecraft touched down on September 3. The scene reveals a wide variety of rocks littering a surface of fine-grained deposit. Boulders in the 10 to 20-centimeter (4 to 8-inch) size range-- some vesicular (holes) and some apparently fluted by wind--are common. Many of the pebbles have tabular or platy shapes, suggesting that they may be derived from layered strata. The fluted boulder just above the Lander s footpad displays a dust-covered or scraped surface, suggesting it was overturned or altered by the foot at touchdown. Just as occurred with Viking l s first picture on July 20, brightness variations at the beginning of the picture scan (left edge) probably are due to dust settling after landing. A substantial amount of fine-grained material kicked up by the descent engines has accumulated in the concave interior of the footpad. Center of the image is about 1.4 meters (5 feet) from the camera. Field of view extends 70 from left to right and 20 from top to bottom. Viking 2 landed at a region called Utopia in the northern latitudes about 7500 kilometers (4600 miles) northeast of Viking l s landing on the Chryse plain 45 days earlier.
Afternoon on Chryse Planitia - Viking Lander 1 Camera 1 Mosaic
PIA03165
Sol (our sun)
Camera 1
Title Afternoon on Chryse Planitia - Viking Lander 1 Camera 1 Mosaic
Original Caption Released with Image During the Viking Mission, the Viking Lander Camera System acquired many high-resolution images of the scene at Chryse Planitia. Using individual camera events, which occurred on many days throughout the mission, computer mosaics have been created for the site as viewed by each of the two cameras on the spacecraft. Two sets of mosaics were produced of Chryse Planitia, one pair for camera 1 and 2 images acquired in the early morning and one pair for camera 1 and 2 images acquired in the mid-afternoon. Each complete mosaiced scene extends 342.5 degrees in azimuth, and from approximately 5 degrees above the horizon to 60 degrees below. A complete mosaic incorporated approximately 15 million picture elements (pixels). This mosaic was produced in the early morning (14:00-15:30) by the Camera 1 system on Viking Lander 1. See PIA03166 [ http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA03166 ]for the afternoon Camera 2 mosaic and PIA03163 [ http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA03163 ]and PIA03164 [ http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA03164 ]for the morning mosaics.
Morning on Chryse Planitia - Viking Lander 1 Camera 2 Mosaic
PIA03164
Sol (our sun)
Camera 1
Title Morning on Chryse Planitia - Viking Lander 1 Camera 2 Mosaic
Original Caption Released with Image During the Viking Mission, the Viking Lander Camera System acquired many high-resolution images of the scene at Chryse Planitia. Using individual camera events, which occurred on many days throughout the mission, computer mosaics have been created for the site as viewed by each of the two cameras on the spacecraft. Two sets of mosaics were produced of Chryse Planitia, one pair for camera 1 and 2 images acquired in the early morning and one pair for camera 1 and 2 images acquired in the mid-afternoon. Each complete mosaiced scene extends 342.5 degrees in azimuth, and from approximately 5 degrees above the horizon to 60 degrees below. A complete mosaic incorporated approximately 15 million picture elements (pixels). This mosaic was produced in the early morning (7:00-8:00) by the Camera 2 system on Viking Lander 1. See PIA03163 [ http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA03163 ]for the morning Camera 1 mosaic and PIA03165 [ http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA03165 ]and PIA03166 [ http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA03166 ]for the afternoon mosaics.
Morning on Chryse Planitia - Viking Lander 1 Camera 1 Mosaic
PIA03163
Sol (our sun)
Camera 1
Title Morning on Chryse Planitia - Viking Lander 1 Camera 1 Mosaic
Original Caption Released with Image During the Viking Mission, the Viking Lander Camera System acquired many high-resolution images of the scene at Chryse Planitia. Using individual camera events, which occurred on many days throughout the mission, computer mosaics have been created for the site as viewed by each of the two cameras on the spacecraft. Two sets of mosaics were produced of Chryse Planitia, one pair for camera 1 and 2 images acquired in the early morning and one pair for camera 1 and 2 images acquired in the mid-afternoon. Each complete mosaiced scene extends 342.5 degrees in azimuth, and from approximately 5 degrees above the horizon to 60 degrees below. A complete mosaic incorporated approximately 15 million picture elements (pixels). This mosaic was produced in the early morning (7:00-8:00) by the Camera 1 system on Viking Lander 1. See PIA03164 [ http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA03164 ]for the morning Camera 2 mosaic and PIA03165 [ http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA03165 ]and PIA03166 [ http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA03166 ]for the afternoon mosaics.
Afternoon on Chryse Planitia - Viking Lander 1 Camera 2 Mosaic
PIA03166
Sol (our sun)
Camera 1
Title Afternoon on Chryse Planitia - Viking Lander 1 Camera 2 Mosaic
Original Caption Released with Image During the Viking Mission, the Viking Lander Camera System acquired many high-resolution images of the scene at Chryse Planitia. Using individual camera events, which occurred on many days throughout the mission, computer mosaics have been created for the site as viewed by each of the two cameras on the spacecraft. Two sets of mosaics were produced of Chryse Planitia, one pair for camera 1 and 2 images acquired in the early morning and one pair for camera 1 and 2 images acquired in the mid-afternoon. Each complete mosaiced scene extends 342.5 degrees in azimuth, and from approximately 5 degrees above the horizon to 60 degrees below. A complete mosaic incorporated approximately 15 million picture elements (pixels). This mosaic was produced in the early morning (14:00-15:30) by the Camera 2 system on Viking Lander 1. See PIA03165 [ http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA03165 ]for the afternoon Camera 1 mosaic and PIA03163 [ http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA03163 ]and PIA03164 [ http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA03164 ]for the morning mosaics.
Dust storm in the Thaumasia region of Mars
PIA02985
Sol (our sun)
Title Dust storm in the Thaumasia region of Mars
Original Caption Released with Image This Viking Orbiter 2 image shows a large dust storm over the Thaumasia region on Mars. This large disturbance soon grew into the first global dust storm observed by the Viking Orbiters. This image was taken at 9:00 local time near perihelion when heating of Mars is at a maximum. The image is at 1400 km across and north is at 1:00. (Viking Orbiter 176B02)
Viking 1 Launch
Title Viking 1 Launch
Full Description Viking 1 was launched by a Titan/Centaur rocket from Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 5:22 p.m. EDT to begin a half-billion mile, 11-month journey through space to explore Mars. The 4-ton spacecraft went into orbit around the red planet in mid-1976.
Date 8/20/1975
NASA Center Kennedy Space Center
Viking Aeroshell
Title Viking Aeroshell
Full Description The Viking aeroshell which protected the lander during its entry into the Martian atmosphere.
Date 2/13/1973
NASA Center Langley Research Center
Mars North Pole flyover
Title Mars North Pole flyover
Abstract MOLA takes elevation data of Mars North Pole combined with Viking colormap.
Completed 2000-03-15
Valles Marineris Flyover (short version)
Title Valles Marineris Flyover (short version)
Abstract This view of Valles Marineris was constructed by combining the Viking color texture with MOLA altimetry data. There is no vertical exaggeration applied to the surface displacement.
Completed 2000-03-09
Olympus Mons Flyover.
Title Olympus Mons Flyover.
Abstract This view of Olympus Mons was constructed by combining the Viking color texture with MOLA altimetry data. There is no vertical exaggeration applied to the surface displacement.
Completed 2000-03-09
Valles Marineris Flyover (Long Version)
Title Valles Marineris Flyover (Long Version)
Abstract This view of Valles Marineres was constructed by combining the Viking color texture with MOLA altimetry data. There is no vertical exaggeration applied to the surface displacement.
Completed 2000-03-09
Viking Phase III
PIA00531
Sol (our sun)
Camera 2
Title Viking Phase III
Original Caption Released with Image VIKING PHASE III - With the incredible success of the Viking missions on Mars, mission operations have progressed though a series of phases - each being funded as mission success dictated its potential. The Viking Primary Mission phase was concluded in November, 1976, when the reins were passed on to the second phase - the Viking Extended Mission. The Extended Mission successfully carried spacecraft operations through the desired period of time needed to provided a profile of a full Martian year, but would have fallen a little short of connecting and overlapping a full Martian year of Viking operations which scientists desired as a means of determining the degree of duplicity in the red planet's seasons - at least for the summer period. Without this continuation of spacecraft data acquisitions to and beyond the seasonal points when the spacecraft actually began their Mars observations, there would be no way of knowing whether the changing environmental values - such as temperatures and winds atmospheric dynamics and water vapor, surface thermal dynamics, etc. - would match up with those acquired as the spacecraft began investigations during the summer and fall of 1976. This same broad interest can be specifically pursued at the surface - where hundreds of rocks, soil drifts and other features have become extremely familiar during long-term analysis. This picture was acquired on the 690th Martian day of Lander 1 operations - 4009th picture sequence commanded of the two Viking Landers. As such, it became the first picture acquired as the third phase of Viking operations got under way - the Viking Continuation Mission. Between the start of the Continuation Mission in April, 1978, until spacecraft operations are concluded in November, the landers will acquire an additional 200 pictures. These will be used to monitor the two landscaped for the surface changes. All four cameras, two on Lander 1 and two on Lander 2, continue to operate perfectly. Both landers will also continue to monitor weather conditions - recording atmospheric pressure and its variations, daily temperature extremes, and wind behavior at the two lander locations.
High Resolution Image From Viking Lander 1
PIA00385
Sol (our sun)
Camera 2
Title High Resolution Image From Viking Lander 1
Original Caption Released with Image Viking 1 took this high-resolution picture today, its third day on Mars. Distance from the camera to the nearfield (bottom) is about 4 meters (13 feet), to the horizon, about 3 kilometers (1.8 miles). The photo shows numerous angular blocks ranging in size from a few centimeters to several meters. The surface between the blocks is composed of fine-grained material. Accumulation of some fine-grained material behind blocks indicates wind deposition of dust and sand downwind of obstacles. The large block on the horizon is about 4 meters (13 feet) wide. Distance across the horizon is about 34 meters (110 feet).
Viking Lander's Buried Footpad #3
PIA00390
Sol (our sun)
Camera 1
Title Viking Lander's Buried Footpad #3
Original Caption Released with Image One of Viking l's three feet, which should be visible in this view, lies buried beneath a cover of loose Martian soil. This picture, taken Sunday (August 1), is the first to show the buried footpad #3. If not buried, the edge of the foot would be seen extending across the picture about midway between top and bottom. The foot sank about five inches, and fine-grained soil slumped into the depression and over the foot. The cracked nature of the surface near the slump area and the small, steep cliff at left indicates that the material is weakly cohesive. The surface material here is very similar mechanically to lunar soil.
The Collector Head Of Viking Lander 1's Surface Sampler
PIA00395
Sol (our sun)
Camera 2
Title The Collector Head Of Viking Lander 1's Surface Sampler
Original Caption Released with Image The collector head of Viking l's surface sampler is full of Martian soil destined for the gas chromatograph mass spectrometer, the instrument which analyzes the surface material for the presence of organic molecules. The material was scooped out of the surface on August 3, but the sampler arm stopped operating while transporting it to the instrument. The Martian soil will be deposited into the instrument's processor today. The surface sampler is operating properly, but the cause of last week's problem is not yet known. This picture, taken Monday (August 9), was made for operational purposes, focusing on the collector head. Hence, the out-of-focus view of the Martian surface.
Color view of Chryse Planitia by the Viking 1 Lander
title Color view of Chryse Planitia by the Viking 1 Lander
date 08.30.1976
description Viking 1 Lander image of Chryse Planitia looking over the lander. The large white object at lower left and center, with the American flag on the side, is the radiothermal generator (RTG) cover. The high-gain S-band antenna is at upper right. The view, from 22 N, 50 W, is to the northwest. Chryse Planitia is a wide, low plain covered with large rocks and loose sand and dust. The image was taken on 30 August 1976, a little over a month after landing. (Viking 1 Lander, 12B069) *Image Credit*: NASA
Ice on Mars Again
Title Ice on Mars Again
Full Description This high resolution photo of the surface of Mars was taken by Viking Lander 2 at its Utopia Planitia landing site on May 18, 1979, and relayed to Earth by Orbiter 1 on June 7th. It shows a thin coating of water ice on the rocks and soil. The time of the frost appearance corresponds almost exactly with the build up of frost one Martian year (23 Earth Months) ago.
Date 05/18/1979
NASA Center Headquarters
The Meteorology Instrument on Viking Lander 1
PIA00392
Sol (our sun)
Camera 1
Title The Meteorology Instrument on Viking Lander 1
Original Caption Released with Image Those Martian weather reports, received here daily from more than 200 million miles away, start right here at Viking l's meteorology instrument. Mounted atop the extended boom, the meteorology sensors face away from the spacecraft. They stand about four feet above the surface and measure atmospheric pressure, temperature, wind velocity and wind direction. The cable parallel to the boom is connected inside the spacecraft body with the electronics for operating the sensors, reading the data and preparing it for transmission to Earth. A second Mars weather station will begin operation next month when Viking 2 lands somewhere in the planet's northern latitude Viking 2 arrives at Mars and goes into orbit tomorrow (August 7).
First Color Image of the Viking Lander 2 Site
PIA00568
Sol (our sun)
Camera 2
Title First Color Image of the Viking Lander 2 Site
Original Caption Released with Image The first color picture taken by Viking 2 on the Martian surface shows a rocky reddish surface much like that seen by Viking 1 more than 4000 miles away. The planned location for the collection of soil for on-board analysis is seen in the lower part of the photo. The Lander s camera #2 is looking approximately to the northeast. The right edge of the picture is due east of the spacecraft. The sun is behind the camera in the Martian afternoon. As at Chryse Planitia where Viking 1 landed in July, the sky over Utopia is pink. Colors of the rocks and soil also are almost identical at the two landing sites. Because the spacecraft is tilted about 8 to the west, the horizon appears tilted. In fact, it is nearly level.
Valles Marineris: The Grand Canyon of Mars
Title Valles Marineris: The Grand Canyon of Mars
Explanation The largest canyon in the Solar System [ http://www.nineplanets.org/overview.html ] cuts a wide swath across the face of Mars [ http://www.nineplanets.org/mars.html ]. Named Valles Marineris [ http://astrogeology.usgs.gov/Projects/VallesMarineris/ ], the grand valley extends over 3,000 kilometers long, spans as much as 600 kilometers across, and delves as much as 8 kilometers deep. By comparison, the Earth's Grand Canyon [ http://www.aqd.nps.gov/grd/parks/grca/ ] in Arizona, USA is 800 kilometers long, 30 kilometers across, and 1.8 kilometers deep. The origin of the Valles Marineris [ http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mep/science/vm.html ] remains unknown, although a leading hypothesis holds that it started as a crack [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap980310.html ] billions of years ago as the planet cooled [ http://helio.estec.esa.nl/intermarsnet/redreport/node20.html ]. Recently [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap020531.html ], several geologic processes have been identified in the canyon [ http://www.windows.ucar.edu/cgi-bin/tour.cgi?link=/mars/interior/Valles_Marineris.html&sw=false&sn=4444&d=/mars/interior&edu=mid&br=graphic&back=/mars/exploring/MGS_altimeter_OMons.html&cd=false&tour=&fr=f ]. The above mosaic [ http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/photo_gallery/photogallery-mars.html ] was created [ http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/photo_gallery/caption/marsglobe1.txt ] from over 100 images of Mars [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/mars.html ] taken by Viking [ http://pds.jpl.nasa.gov/planets/welcome/viking.htm ] Orbiters in the 1970s.
First Mars Surface Photo
Title First Mars Surface Photo
Full Description The image above is the first photograph ever taken from the surface of Mars. It was taken by the Viking 1 lander shortly after it touched down on Mars on July 20, 1976. Part of footpad #2 can be seen in the lower right corner, with sand and dust in the center of it, probably deposited during landing. The next day, color photographs were also taken on the Martian surface. The primary objectives of the Viking missions, which was composed of two spacecraft, 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 on Mars.
Date 07/20/1976
NASA Center Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Mars Cutaway
Title Mars Cutaway
Abstract Mars Globe showing a cutaway revealing the MOHO data.
Completed 2000-03-01
Viking Lander 2's First Picture On The Surface Of Mars
title Viking Lander 2's First Picture On The Surface Of Mars
Description Viking 2 s first picture on the surface of Mars was taken within minutes after the spacecraft touched down on September 3. The scene reveals a wide variety of rocks littering a surface of fine- grained deposit. Boulders in the 10 to 20-centimeter (4 to 8-inch) size range-- some vesicular (holes) and some apparently fluted by wind--are common. Many of the pebbles have tabular or platy shapes, suggesting that they may be derived from layered strata. The fluted boulder just above the Lander s footpad displays a dust-covered or scraped surface, suggesting it was overturned or altered by the foot at touchdown. Just as occurred with Viking l's first picture on July 20, brightness variations at the beginning of the picture scan (left edge) probably are due to dust settling after landing. A substantial amount of fine- grained material kicked up by the descent engines has accumulated in the concave interior of the footpad. Center of the image is about 1.4 meters (5 feet) from the camera. Field of view extends 70 from left to right and 20 from top to bottom. Viking 2 landed at a region called Utopia in the northern latitudes about 7500 kilometers (4600 miles) northeast of Viking l s landing on the Chryse plain 45 days earlier.
Valles Marineris: The Grand Canyon of Mars
Title Valles Marineris: The Grand Canyon of Mars
Explanation The largest canyon in the Solar System [ http://www.nineplanets.org/overview.html ] cuts a wide swath across the face of Mars [ http://www.nineplanets.org/mars.html ]. Named Valles Marineris [ http://astrogeology.usgs.gov/Projects/VallesMarineris/ ], the grand valley extends over 3,000 kilometers long, spans as much as 600 kilometers across, and delves as much as 8 kilometers deep. By comparison, the Earth's Grand Canyon [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Canyon ] in Arizona, USA is 800 kilometers long, 30 kilometers across, and 1.8 kilometers deep. The origin of the Valles Marineris [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valles_Marineris ] remains unknown, although a leading hypothesis holds that it started as a crack [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap980310.html ] billions of years ago as the planet cooled [ http://helio.estec.esa.nl/intermarsnet/redreport/node20.html ]. Recently [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap020531.html ], several geologic processes have been identified in the canyon [ http://www.windows.ucar.edu/cgi-bin/tour.cgi?link=/mars/interior/Valles_Marineris.html&sw=false&sn=4444&d=/mars/interior&edu=mid&br=graphic&back=/mars/exploring/MGS_altimeter_OMons.html&cd=false&tour=&fr=f ]. The above mosaic [ http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/photo_gallery/photogallery-mars.html ] was created [ http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/photo_gallery/caption/marsglobe1.txt ] from over 100 images of Mars [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/mars.html ] taken by Viking [ http://pds.jpl.nasa.gov/planets/welcome/viking.htm ] Orbiters in the 1970s.
Viking I Spacecraft in Cleanroom
title Viking I Spacecraft in Cleanroom
description The planetary landing spacecraft Viking, which includes stereo cameras, a weather station, an automated stereo analysis laboratory and a biology instrument that can detect life, under assembly at Martin Marietta Aerospace near Denver, Colorado. This Viking spacecraft will travel more than 460 million miles from Earth to a soft landing on Mars in 1976 to explore the surface and atmosphere of the red planet. Martin Marietta is prime and integration contractor for the Viking mission to NASA's Langley Research Center, Hampton, Virginia. The lander will be powered by two nuclear generators. *Image Credit*: NASA
Salmon Sky
title Salmon Sky
description The boulder-strewn field of red rocks reaches to the horizon nearly two miles from Viking 2 on Mars' Utopian Plain. Scientists believe the colors of the Martian surface and sky inthis photo represent their true colors. Fine particles of red dust have settled on spacecraft surfaces. The salmon color of the sky is caused by dust particles suspended in the atmosphere. Color calibration charts for the cameras are mounted at three locations on the spacecraft. Note the blue starfield and redstripes of the flag. The circular structure at top is the high-gain antenna, pointed toward Earth. Viking 2 landed September 3, 1976 - about 4,600 miles from its twin, Viking 1, which touched down on July 20. *Image Credit*: NASA
Mars Odyssey Epithermal Neutron Data overlayed on MGS/MOLA Topogr …
Title Mars Odyssey Epithermal Neutron Data overlayed on MGS/MOLA Topography Data (Full Globe, Viking True Color)
Abstract Mars Odyssey's Gamma-ray spectrometer (GRS) instrument has detected large amounts of Hydrogen on Mars, particularly near the south pole. This is an indication that water ice exists in the upper meter of these areas of the Martian surface. The epithermal neutron data ranges from 0 to about 12 counts per second. The blue areas indicate high concentrations of Hydrogen (low epithermal neutron counts). A series of animations was generated to support a Space Science Update (SSU) on the topic. These animations were match-rendered with unsmoothed, smoothed, and Viking true-color data.
Completed 2002-05-28
Mars Odyssey Epithermal Neutron Data overlayed on MGS/MOLA Topogr …
Title Mars Odyssey Epithermal Neutron Data overlayed on MGS/MOLA Topography Data (Full Globe, Viking True Color)
Abstract Mars Odyssey's Gamma-ray spectrometer (GRS) instrument has detected large amounts of Hydrogen on Mars, particularly near the south pole. This is an indication that water ice exists in the upper meter of these areas of the Martian surface. The epithermal neutron data ranges from 0 to about 12 counts per second. The blue areas indicate high concentrations of Hydrogen (low epithermal neutron counts). A series of animations was generated to support a Space Science Update (SSU) on the topic. These animations were match-rendered with unsmoothed, smoothed, and Viking true-color data.
Completed 2002-05-28
Mars Odyssey Epithermal Neutron Data overlayed on MGS/MOLA Topogr …
Title Mars Odyssey Epithermal Neutron Data overlayed on MGS/MOLA Topography Data (Full Globe, Viking True Color)
Abstract Mars Odyssey's Gamma-ray spectrometer (GRS) instrument has detected large amounts of Hydrogen on Mars, particularly near the south pole. This is an indication that water ice exists in the upper meter of these areas of the Martian surface. The epithermal neutron data ranges from 0 to about 12 counts per second. The blue areas indicate high concentrations of Hydrogen (low epithermal neutron counts). A series of animations was generated to support a Space Science Update (SSU) on the topic. These animations were match-rendered with unsmoothed, smoothed, and Viking true-color data.
Completed 2002-05-28
Mars Odyssey Epithermal Neutron Data overlayed on MGS/MOLA Topogr …
Title Mars Odyssey Epithermal Neutron Data overlayed on MGS/MOLA Topography Data (Flat, Viking True Color)
Abstract Mars Odyssey's Gamma-ray spectrometer (GRS) instrument has detected large amounts of Hydrogen on Mars, particularly near the south pole. This is an indication that water ice exists in the upper meter of these areas of the Martian surface. The epithermal neutron data ranges from 0 to about 12 counts per second. The blue areas indicate high concentrations of Hydrogen (low epithermal neutron counts). A series of animations was generated to support a Space Science Update (SSU) on the topic. These animations were match-rendered with unsmoothed, smoothed, and Viking true-color data.
Completed 2002-05-28
Mars Odyssey Epithermal Neutron Data overlayed on MGS/MOLA Topogr …
Title Mars Odyssey Epithermal Neutron Data overlayed on MGS/MOLA Topography Data (Flyover, Viking True Color)
Abstract Mars Odyssey's Gamma-ray spectrometer (GRS) instrument has detected large amounts of Hydrogen on Mars, particularly near the south pole. This is an indication that water ice exists in the upper meter of these areas of the Martian surface. The epithermal neutron data ranges from 0 to about 12 counts per second. The blue areas indicate high concentrations of Hydrogen (low epithermal neutron counts). A series of animations was generated to support a Space Science Update (SSU) on the topic. These animations were match-rendered with unsmoothed, smoothed, and Viking true-color data.
Completed 2002-05-28
Mars Odyssey Epithermal Neutron Data overlayed on MGS/MOLA Topogr …
Title Mars Odyssey Epithermal Neutron Data overlayed on MGS/MOLA Topography Data (Flyover, Viking True Color)
Abstract Mars Odyssey's Gamma-ray spectrometer (GRS) instrument has detected large amounts of Hydrogen on Mars, particularly near the south pole. This is an indication that water ice exists in the upper meter of these areas of the Martian surface. The epithermal neutron data ranges from 0 to about 12 counts per second. The blue areas indicate high concentrations of Hydrogen (low epithermal neutron counts). A series of animations was generated to support a Space Science Update (SSU) on the topic. These animations were match-rendered with unsmoothed, smoothed, and Viking true-color data.
Completed 2002-05-28
Mars Odyssey Epithermal Neutron Data overlayed on MGS/MOLA Topogr …
Title Mars Odyssey Epithermal Neutron Data overlayed on MGS/MOLA Topography Data (Flyover, Viking True Color)
Abstract Mars Odyssey's Gamma-ray spectrometer (GRS) instrument has detected large amounts of Hydrogen on Mars, particularly near the south pole. This is an indication that water ice exists in the upper meter of these areas of the Martian surface. The epithermal neutron data ranges from 0 to about 12 counts per second. The blue areas indicate high concentrations of Hydrogen (low epithermal neutron counts). A series of animations was generated to support a Space Science Update (SSU) on the topic. These animations were match-rendered with unsmoothed, smoothed, and Viking true-color data.
Completed 2002-05-28
Mars Odyssey Epithermal Neutron Data overlayed on MGS/MOLA Topogr …
Title Mars Odyssey Epithermal Neutron Data overlayed on MGS/MOLA Topography Data (Flyover, Viking True Color)
Abstract Mars Odyssey's Gamma-ray spectrometer (GRS) instrument has detected large amounts of Hydrogen on Mars, particularly near the south pole. This is an indication that water ice exists in the upper meter of these areas of the Martian surface. The epithermal neutron data ranges from 0 to about 12 counts per second. The blue areas indicate high concentrations of Hydrogen (low epithermal neutron counts). A series of animations was generated to support a Space Science Update (SSU) on the topic. These animations were match-rendered with unsmoothed, smoothed, and Viking true-color data.
Completed 2002-05-28
VL1 Digs A Deep Hole On Mars
PIA00529
Sol (our sun)
Camera 1
Title VL1 Digs A Deep Hole On Mars
Original Caption Released with Image VIKING LANDER DIGS A DEEP HOLE ON MARS -- This six-inch-deep, 12- inch-wide, 29-inch-long hole was dug Feb. 12 and 14 by Viking Lander 1 as the first sequence in an attempt to reach a foot beneath the surface of the red planet. The activity is in the same area where Lander 1 acquired its first soil samples last July. The trench was dug by repeatedly backhoeing in a left-right-center pattern. The backhoe teeth produced the small parallel ridges at the far end of the trench (upper left). The larger ridges running the length of the trench are material left behind during the backhoe operation. What appears to be small rocks along the ridges and in the soil at the near end of the trench are really small dirt clods. The clods and the steepness of the trench walls indicate the material is cohesive and behaves something like ordinary flour. After a later sequence, to be performed March 1 and 2, a soil sample will be taken from the bottom of the trench for inorganic soil analysis and later for biology analysis. Information about the soil taken from the bottom of the trench may help explain the weathering process on Mars and may help resolve the dilemma created by Viking findings that first suggest but then cast doubt on the possibility of life in the Martian soil. The trench shown here is a result of one of the most complex command sequences yet performed by the lander. Viking l has been operating at Chryse Planitia on Mars since it landed July 20, 1976.
Viking 2 Image of Mars Utopian Plain
PIA01522
Sol (our sun)
Camera 1
Title Viking 2 Image of Mars Utopian Plain
Original Caption Released with Image The boulder-strewn field of red rocks reaches to the horizon nearly two miles from Viking 2 on Mars' Utopian Plain. Scientists believe the colors of the Martian surface and sky in this photo represent their true colors. Fine particles of red dust have settled on spacecraft surfaces. The salmon color of the sky is caused by dust particles suspended in the atmosphere. Color calibration charts for the cameras are mounted at three locations on the spacecraft. Note the blue star field and red stripes of the flag. The circular structure at top is the high-gain antenna, pointed toward Earth. Viking 2 landed September 3,1976, some 4600 miles from its twin, Viking 1, which touched down on July 20.
Photomosiac of the Tharsis Region
PIA02987
Sol (our sun)
Title Photomosiac of the Tharsis Region
Original Caption Released with Image Viking 1 Orbiter color mosaic of the eastern Tharsis region on Mars. At left, from top to bottom, are the three 25 km high volcanic shields, Ascraeus Mons, Pavonis Mons, and Arsia Mons. The shield at upper right is Tharsis Tholus. The canyon system at lower right is Noctis Labyrinthus, the westernmost extension of Valles Marineris. The smooth area at bottom center is Syria Planum. The distance between the calderas of Ascraeus and Pavonis Mons is 800 km. North is up. The images used to produce this mosaic were taken during orbit 1334 on 22 February 1980. (Viking 1 Orbiter MG01N104-334S0)
Color Mosaic of Olympus Mons
PIA02982
Sol (our sun)
Title Color Mosaic of Olympus Mons
Original Caption Released with Image Color mosaic of Olympus Mons volcano on Mars from the Viking 1 Orbiter. The mosaic was created using images from orbit 735 taken 22 June 1978. Olympus Mons is about 600 km in diameter and the summit caldera is 24 km above the surrounding plains. The complex aureole terrain is visible at the top of the frame. North is up. (Viking 1 Orbiter MH20N133-735A)
The United States Flag Stands On The Surface Of Mars
PIA00388
Sol (our sun)
Camera 1
Title The United States Flag Stands On The Surface Of Mars
Original Caption Released with Image The flag of the United States stands on the surface of Mars. It is mounted on the housing of Viking 1's nuclear power system. Also seen are the U.S. Bicentennial symbol and a student designed Viking emblem. The bright flat surface near the center is the seismometer container. This picture was taken on July 23 at about 2:30 p.m. Mars time. The view is west of the spacecraft and includes a series of low hills. The blocky hill in the center appears to be part of a crater rim. The dark, rocky stripes may be material ejected from the crater. The light areas are dune-like and may be accumulations of windblown sand or dust.
Polar Orbiter: Fly Up to Primary Landing Site with Altitude Map
Title Polar Orbiter: Fly Up to Primary Landing Site with Altitude Map
Abstract white/red = high altitude (~3000 meters), blue = low altitude (~0 meters)
Completed 1999-08-25
Fly over of Mars Mesa, Tounge, Dunes, Sasquatch Crater
Title Fly over of Mars Mesa, Tounge, Dunes, Sasquatch Crater
Abstract Fly over of Mesa, Tounge, Dunes, Sasquatch Crater Based on MOLA data for topography and Viking data for color. Exaggeration is about 300x
Completed 1998-12-02
Rotating around the Tharsis Rise (True Color)
Title Rotating around the Tharsis Rise (True Color)
Completed 1999-05-24
Polar Orbiter: Fly Up to 4 Possible Landing Sites (Primary in Gre …
Title Polar Orbiter: Fly Up to 4 Possible Landing Sites (Primary in Green, Secondary in Yellow)
Completed 1999-08-25
Color Mosaic of Olympus Mons on Mars
title Color Mosaic of Olympus Mons on Mars
date 06.22.1978
description Color mosaic of Olympus Mons volcano on Mars from the Viking 1 Orbiter. The mosaic was created using images from orbit 735 taken 22 June 1978. Olympus Mons is about 600 km in diameter and the summit caldera is 24 km above the surrounding plains. The complex aureole terrain is visible at the top of the frame. North is up. (Viking 1 Orbiter MH20N133-735A) *Image Credit*: NASA
Candor and Ophir Chasmata
Title Candor and Ophir Chasmata
Explanation First imaged by the Mariner [ http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/mars/ mariner.html ] 9 spacecraft, Valles Marineris [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap020827.html ], the grand canyon of Mars, is a system of enormous depressions called chasmata that stretch [ http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/7_20_98_marineris_rel/ ] some 4,000 kilometers along the Martian equator. Looking north over the canyon's central regions [ http://astrogeology.usgs.gov/Projects/VallesMarineris/ candor_ref.html ], Candor chasma lies in the foreground of this spectacular view [ http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/imgcat/html/object_page/ vom_nj05s070.html ] with the steep walls of Ophir chasma near the top. Surface collapse and landslides are seen to be part of the complex geologic history of these dramatic features [ http://astrogeology.usgs.gov/Projects/ VallesMarineris/Anaglyph/mars_anaglyph.html ] but recent high resolution [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap980319.html ] images have also revealed layered deposits [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap001205.html ] within the canyon system. This picture represents a mosaic of images recorded in 1978 from Martian orbit by the Viking [ http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4212/on-mars.html ] 1 and 2 spacecraft. The full width of the picture covers about 800 kilometers.
Viking Lander 2 (Gerald A. Soffen Memorial Station) Imaged from O …
PIA01882
Sol (our sun)
HiRISE
Title Viking Lander 2 (Gerald A. Soffen Memorial Station) Imaged from Orbit
Original Caption Released with Image Annotated Version NASA's Viking Lander 2 landed on Mars on Sept. 3, 1976, in Utopia Planitia. The lander, which has a diameter of about 3 meters (10 feet), has been precisely located in this image from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Also, likely locations have been found for the heat shield and back shell. The lander location has been confirmed by overlaying the lander-derived topographic contours on the high-resolution camera's image, which provides an excellent match. Viking Lander 2 was one element of an ambitious mission to study Mars, with a four-spacecraft flotilla consisting of two orbiters and two landers. Four cutouts from this image are shown. The first is an overview showing the relative locations of the lander and candidate back shell and heat shield, and the others are enlargements of each of these components. Large boulders, dunes, and other features visible in Viking Lander 2 images can be located in the high-resolution camera's image. The polygonal pattern of the surface is typical at these latitudes and may be due to the presence of deep subsurface ice. As chance would have it, this image is blurred in some places due to the abrupt motion associated with the restart of the orbiter's high-gain antenna tracking during the very short image exposure. This is the first time after acquiring hundreds of pictures that a High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment image has been unintentionally smeared, overall performance has been excellent. A prime motivation for early viewing of the Viking sites is to calibrate imagery taken from orbit with the data previously acquired by the landers. In particular, determining what sizes of rocks can be seen from Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter aids the interpretation of data now being taken to characterize sites for future landers, such as the Phoenix Mars Lander mission to be launched in 2007. Images from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment and additional information about the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter are available online at: http://www.nasa.gov/mro [ http://www.nasa.gov/mro ] or http://HiRISE.lpl.arizona.edu [ http://HiRISE.lpl.arizona.edu ]. For information about NASA and agency programs on the Web, http://www.nasa.gov [ http://www.nasa.gov ]. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems is the prime contractor for the project and built the spacecraft. The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera was built by Ball Aerospace Corporation and is operated by the University of Arizona.
Viking Lander 2 (Gerald A. Soffen Memorial Station) Imaged from O …
PIA01882
Sol (our sun)
HiRISE
Title Viking Lander 2 (Gerald A. Soffen Memorial Station) Imaged from Orbit
Original Caption Released with Image Annotated Version NASA's Viking Lander 2 landed on Mars on Sept. 3, 1976, in Utopia Planitia. The lander, which has a diameter of about 3 meters (10 feet), has been precisely located in this image from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Also, likely locations have been found for the heat shield and back shell. The lander location has been confirmed by overlaying the lander-derived topographic contours on the high-resolution camera's image, which provides an excellent match. Viking Lander 2 was one element of an ambitious mission to study Mars, with a four-spacecraft flotilla consisting of two orbiters and two landers. Four cutouts from this image are shown. The first is an overview showing the relative locations of the lander and candidate back shell and heat shield, and the others are enlargements of each of these components. Large boulders, dunes, and other features visible in Viking Lander 2 images can be located in the high-resolution camera's image. The polygonal pattern of the surface is typical at these latitudes and may be due to the presence of deep subsurface ice. As chance would have it, this image is blurred in some places due to the abrupt motion associated with the restart of the orbiter's high-gain antenna tracking during the very short image exposure. This is the first time after acquiring hundreds of pictures that a High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment image has been unintentionally smeared, overall performance has been excellent. A prime motivation for early viewing of the Viking sites is to calibrate imagery taken from orbit with the data previously acquired by the landers. In particular, determining what sizes of rocks can be seen from Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter aids the interpretation of data now being taken to characterize sites for future landers, such as the Phoenix Mars Lander mission to be launched in 2007. Images from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment and additional information about the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter are available online at: http://www.nasa.gov/mro [ http://www.nasa.gov/mro ] or http://HiRISE.lpl.arizona.edu [ http://HiRISE.lpl.arizona.edu ]. For information about NASA and agency programs on the Web, http://www.nasa.gov [ http://www.nasa.gov ]. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems is the prime contractor for the project and built the spacecraft. The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera was built by Ball Aerospace Corporation and is operated by the University of Arizona.
Viking Lander 2 (Gerald A. Soffen Memorial Station) Imaged from O …
PIA01882
Sol (our sun)
HiRISE
Title Viking Lander 2 (Gerald A. Soffen Memorial Station) Imaged from Orbit
Original Caption Released with Image Annotated Version NASA's Viking Lander 2 landed on Mars on Sept. 3, 1976, in Utopia Planitia. The lander, which has a diameter of about 3 meters (10 feet), has been precisely located in this image from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Also, likely locations have been found for the heat shield and back shell. The lander location has been confirmed by overlaying the lander-derived topographic contours on the high-resolution camera's image, which provides an excellent match. Viking Lander 2 was one element of an ambitious mission to study Mars, with a four-spacecraft flotilla consisting of two orbiters and two landers. Four cutouts from this image are shown. The first is an overview showing the relative locations of the lander and candidate back shell and heat shield, and the others are enlargements of each of these components. Large boulders, dunes, and other features visible in Viking Lander 2 images can be located in the high-resolution camera's image. The polygonal pattern of the surface is typical at these latitudes and may be due to the presence of deep subsurface ice. As chance would have it, this image is blurred in some places due to the abrupt motion associated with the restart of the orbiter's high-gain antenna tracking during the very short image exposure. This is the first time after acquiring hundreds of pictures that a High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment image has been unintentionally smeared, overall performance has been excellent. A prime motivation for early viewing of the Viking sites is to calibrate imagery taken from orbit with the data previously acquired by the landers. In particular, determining what sizes of rocks can be seen from Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter aids the interpretation of data now being taken to characterize sites for future landers, such as the Phoenix Mars Lander mission to be launched in 2007. Images from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment and additional information about the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter are available online at: http://www.nasa.gov/mro [ http://www.nasa.gov/mro ] or http://HiRISE.lpl.arizona.edu [ http://HiRISE.lpl.arizona.edu ]. For information about NASA and agency programs on the Web, http://www.nasa.gov [ http://www.nasa.gov ]. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems is the prime contractor for the project and built the spacecraft. The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera was built by Ball Aerospace Corporation and is operated by the University of Arizona.
Viking Lander 2 (Gerald A. Soffen Memorial Station) Imaged from O …
PIA01882
Sol (our sun)
HiRISE
Title Viking Lander 2 (Gerald A. Soffen Memorial Station) Imaged from Orbit
Original Caption Released with Image Annotated Version NASA's Viking Lander 2 landed on Mars on Sept. 3, 1976, in Utopia Planitia. The lander, which has a diameter of about 3 meters (10 feet), has been precisely located in this image from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Also, likely locations have been found for the heat shield and back shell. The lander location has been confirmed by overlaying the lander-derived topographic contours on the high-resolution camera's image, which provides an excellent match. Viking Lander 2 was one element of an ambitious mission to study Mars, with a four-spacecraft flotilla consisting of two orbiters and two landers. Four cutouts from this image are shown. The first is an overview showing the relative locations of the lander and candidate back shell and heat shield, and the others are enlargements of each of these components. Large boulders, dunes, and other features visible in Viking Lander 2 images can be located in the high-resolution camera's image. The polygonal pattern of the surface is typical at these latitudes and may be due to the presence of deep subsurface ice. As chance would have it, this image is blurred in some places due to the abrupt motion associated with the restart of the orbiter's high-gain antenna tracking during the very short image exposure. This is the first time after acquiring hundreds of pictures that a High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment image has been unintentionally smeared, overall performance has been excellent. A prime motivation for early viewing of the Viking sites is to calibrate imagery taken from orbit with the data previously acquired by the landers. In particular, determining what sizes of rocks can be seen from Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter aids the interpretation of data now being taken to characterize sites for future landers, such as the Phoenix Mars Lander mission to be launched in 2007. Images from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment and additional information about the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter are available online at: http://www.nasa.gov/mro [ http://www.nasa.gov/mro ] or http://HiRISE.lpl.arizona.edu [ http://HiRISE.lpl.arizona.edu ]. For information about NASA and agency programs on the Web, http://www.nasa.gov [ http://www.nasa.gov ]. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems is the prime contractor for the project and built the spacecraft. The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera was built by Ball Aerospace Corporation and is operated by the University of Arizona.
Viking Lander 2 (Gerald A. Soffen Memorial Station) Imaged from O …
PIA01882
Sol (our sun)
HiRISE
Title Viking Lander 2 (Gerald A. Soffen Memorial Station) Imaged from Orbit
Original Caption Released with Image Annotated Version NASA's Viking Lander 2 landed on Mars on Sept. 3, 1976, in Utopia Planitia. The lander, which has a diameter of about 3 meters (10 feet), has been precisely located in this image from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Also, likely locations have been found for the heat shield and back shell. The lander location has been confirmed by overlaying the lander-derived topographic contours on the high-resolution camera's image, which provides an excellent match. Viking Lander 2 was one element of an ambitious mission to study Mars, with a four-spacecraft flotilla consisting of two orbiters and two landers. Four cutouts from this image are shown. The first is an overview showing the relative locations of the lander and candidate back shell and heat shield, and the others are enlargements of each of these components. Large boulders, dunes, and other features visible in Viking Lander 2 images can be located in the high-resolution camera's image. The polygonal pattern of the surface is typical at these latitudes and may be due to the presence of deep subsurface ice. As chance would have it, this image is blurred in some places due to the abrupt motion associated with the restart of the orbiter's high-gain antenna tracking during the very short image exposure. This is the first time after acquiring hundreds of pictures that a High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment image has been unintentionally smeared, overall performance has been excellent. A prime motivation for early viewing of the Viking sites is to calibrate imagery taken from orbit with the data previously acquired by the landers. In particular, determining what sizes of rocks can be seen from Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter aids the interpretation of data now being taken to characterize sites for future landers, such as the Phoenix Mars Lander mission to be launched in 2007. Images from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment and additional information about the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter are available online at: http://www.nasa.gov/mro [ http://www.nasa.gov/mro ] or http://HiRISE.lpl.arizona.edu [ http://HiRISE.lpl.arizona.edu ]. For information about NASA and agency programs on the Web, http://www.nasa.gov [ http://www.nasa.gov ]. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems is the prime contractor for the project and built the spacecraft. The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera was built by Ball Aerospace Corporation and is operated by the University of Arizona.
Viking Orbiter-Lander
title Viking Orbiter-Lander
Valles Marineris
PIA00422
Sol (our sun)
Title Valles Marineris
Original Caption Released with Image A color image of Valles Marineris, the great canyon of Mars, north toward top. The scene shows the entire canyon system, over 3,000 km long and averaging 8 km deep, extending from Noctis Labyrinthus, the arcuate system of graben to the west, to the chaotic terrain to the east. This image is a composite of Viking medium-resolution images in black and white and low-resolution images in color, Mercator projection. The image extends from latitude 0 degrees to 20 degrees S. and from longitude 45 degrees to 102.5 degrees. The connected chasma or valleys of Valles Marineris may have formed from a combination of erosional collapse and structural activity. Layers of material in the eastern canyons might consist of carbonates deposited in ancient lakes. Huge ancient river channels began from Valles Marineris and from adjacent canyons and ran north. Many of the channels flowed north into Chryse Basin, which contains the site of the Viking 1 Lander and the future site of the Mars Pathfinder Lander.
First Color Image From Viking Lander 1
PIA00563
Sol (our sun)
Camera 2
Title First Color Image From Viking Lander 1
Original Caption Released with Image This color picture of Mars was taken July 21--the day following Viking l's successful landing on the planet. The local time on Mars is approximately noon. The view is southeast from the Viking. Orange-red surface materials cover most of the surface, apparently forming a thin veneer over darker bedrock exposed in patches, as in the lower right. The reddish surface materials may be limonite (hydrated ferric oxide). Such weathering products form on Earth in the presence of water and an oxidizing atmosphere. The sky has a reddish cast, probably due to scattering and reflection from reddish sediment suspended in the lower atmosphere. The scene was scanned three times by the spacecraft's camera number 2, through a different color filter each time. To assist in balancing the colors, a second picture was taken of z test chart mounted on the rear of the spacecraft. Color data for these patches were adjusted until the patches were an appropriate color of gray. The same calibration was then used for the entire scene.
Five to Mars
Title Five to Mars
Explanation Come December 2003 - January 2004, an armada of five new invaders [ http://www.planetary.org/rrgtm/missions5.html ] from Earth should arrive on the shores of the Red Planet -- the Japanese ( ISAS [ http://www.isas.ac.jp/ ]) Nozomi [ http://www.isas.ac.jp/e/enterp/missions/nozomi/ index.html ] orbiter, the European Space Agency's Mars Express [ http://sci.esa.int/home/marsexpress/ ] orbiter carrying the Beagle 2 [ http://www.beagle2.com/index.htm ] lander, and NASA's own two Mars Exploration [ http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mer/ ] Rovers. While Nozomi began [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap980904.html ] its interplanetary voyage in 1998, the other spacecraft are scheduled for launch windows beginning this June. Clearly, earthdwellers remain intensely curious about Mars and the tantalizing [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap030221.html ] possibility of past or present martian life [ http://cmex-www.arc.nasa.gov/SiteCat/sitecat2/ stratex.htm ], with these robotic missions focussing on investigating the planet's atmosphere and the search for water [ http://www.psrd.hawaii.edu/Sept98/GusevMars.html ]. This mosaic [ http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/photo_gallery/caption/ marsglobe2.txt ] of over 100 Viking 1 orbiter images of Mars [ http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/photo_gallery/ photogallery-mars.html ] was recorded in 1980 and is projected to show the perspective seen from an approaching spacecraft at a distance of 2,000 kilometers. Exceptional [ http://skyandtelescope.com/observing/objects/planets/ article_929_1.asp ] views of Mars will be possible from earthbound telescopes in August and September.
Close Up Fly Over of Mars Polar Lander Landing Area in True Color
Title Close Up Fly Over of Mars Polar Lander Landing Area in True Color
Abstract This is one of a series of visualizations showing false-colored renderings of the Martian topography measured by MOLA in the vicinity of the Mars Polar Lander landing site. Blue tones represent elevations of less than 2 kilometers, while reddish tones are greater than about 2.8 kilometers, relative to the mean equatorial height of Mars. The elevation of the landing site is about 2.4 km, midway into the polar layered terrain. The 400 meters (1/4 mile) resolution of the MOLA data gives a smoothed but vertically exaggerated view of the topography. At this scale it is impossible to ascertain the actual roughness at the lander's destination, forcing project directors to make their best guesses based on available data.
Completed 1999-11-22
Valles Marineris Flyover (long version)
Title Valles Marineris Flyover (long version)
Abstract This view of Valles Marineris was constructed by combining the Viking color texture with MOLA altimetry data. There is no vertical exaggeration applied to the surface displacement.
Completed 2000-03-09
Push in South of the Hellas Basin using Viking Imagery
Title Push in South of the Hellas Basin using Viking Imagery
Completed 1999-11-22
Push in South of the Hellas Basin using Viking Imagery
Title Push in South of the Hellas Basin using Viking Imagery
Completed 1999-11-22
Valles Marineris Flyover (Long Version)
Title Valles Marineris Flyover (Long Version)
Abstract This view of Valles Marineres was constructed by combining the Viking color texture with MOLA altimetry data. There is no vertical exaggeration applied to the surface displacement.
Completed 2000-03-09
Valles Marineris Flyover (Long Version)
Title Valles Marineris Flyover (Long Version)
Abstract This view of Valles Marineres was constructed by combining the Viking color texture with MOLA altimetry data. There is no vertical exaggeration applied to the surface displacement.
Completed 2000-03-09
Viking 1 Picture of the Martian Surface
Title Viking 1 Picture of the Martian Surface
Full Description Viking 1 obtained this color picture of the Martian surface and sky on July 24, 1976. Camera number 1 facing southeast captured part of the gray structured spacecraft in the foreground. A bright orange cable leads to one of the descent rocket engines. Orange-red surface materials cover most of the surface, apparently forming a thin veneer over dark bedrock. A zone of large dark boulders is present in the far-field. The sky has a reddish cast, which is probably due to scattering and reflection from reddish sediment suspended in the lower atmosphere. This picture had been radiometrically calibrated, using information on camera performance acquired before launch. Although the colors are very vivid the fidelity with which the bright orange cable is reproduced suggests the intense colors of the Martian surface.
Date 07/26/1976
NASA Center Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Could Hydrogen Peroxide Life Survive on Mars?
Title Could Hydrogen Peroxide Life Survive on Mars?
Explanation Is there life on Mars? Although no unambiguous evidence for indigenous life on Mars has ever been found, a more speculative question -- "could" some life forms survive on Mars -- has taken on a new twist. Two planetary scientists recently speculated [ http://www.cosis.net/abstracts/EPSC2007/00439/EPSC2007-J-00439.pdf ] that were extremophile microbes [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap060122.html ] to involve a mixture of hydrogen peroxide [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_peroxide ] (H2O2) and water (H2O), these microbes might well be able survive the thin, cold, dry atmosphere on Mars. Life [ http://www.hlasek.com/brachinus_crepitans_2053.html ] that involves hydrogen peroxide [ http://www.h2o2.com/intro/faq.html ] does exist here on Earth [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap070325.html ], they note, and such life would be better able to absorb water on Mars [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars ]. They also claim that such life [ http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00001109/ ] would be consistent with the ambiguous results coming out from the life-detecting experiments [ http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/V/VikingGCMS.html ] aboard the old Viking Landers [ http://www.nasm.si.edu/exhibitions/GAL100/viking.html ]. Although such speculation is not definitive, debating possibilities for life on Mars [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap960207.html ] has again proven to be fun and a magnet for media attention. Pictured above [ http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA00571 ], the Viking Lander 2 [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viking_2 ] captured an unusual image of the Martian surface [ http://www.google.com/mars/ ] in 1979 sporting a thin layer of seasonal water ice [ http://www.howstuffworks.com/ice-rink.htm ].
Mars: Just The Facts
Title Mars: Just The Facts
Explanation Mars [ http://www.challenger.org/marsl.html ], the freeze-dried planet [ http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/marsfact.html ], orbits 137 million miles from the Sun or at about 1.5 times the Earth-Sun distance [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap960727.html ]. It has two diminutive moons [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap961222.html ], towering extinct volcanos [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap950719.html ], an immense canyon system [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap950720.html ], a thin atmosphere chiefly composed of carbon dioxide (CO2), a frigid average surface temperature of -63 degrees Celsius [ http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/staff/blynds/tmp.html ], and permanent frozen CO2 polar caps which contain some water ice. Mars' surface presently lacks liquid water [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap970316.html ] and has a reddish color because of an abundance of oxidized iron compounds (rust). A small terrestrial planet [ http://www.seds.org/nineplanets/nineplanets/mars.html ], fourth from the Sun [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap970528.html ], Mars has only about 3/8 the surface gravity of Earth. So for example, if you tip the scale at a hefty 200 pounds on Earth you'd be a 75 pound featherweight on Mars [ http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/mars/ ]. The low martian gravity will be good for NASA's Mars Pathfinder [ http://mpfwww.jpl.nasa.gov/ ] spacecraft scheduled to land on Mars [ http://bang.lanl.gov/solarsys/mars.htm ] next Friday, July 4th [ http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/imp/mission.success.html ]. Using rockets, parachutes, and airbags [ http://mars.sgi.com/mpf/realtime/edlpage.html ], Mars Pathfinder [ http://mpfwww.arc.nasa.gov/mpf/mission_ops.html ] will be the first spacecraft to touchdown on the planet since the Viking landers [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap960722.html ] in 1976. Pathfinder is also scheduled to begin the first ever mobile surface exploration [ http://cmex-www.arc.nasa.gov/ ] by releasing the robot rover [ http://ranier.hq.nasa.gov/telerobotics_page/coolrobots96.html ], "Mars Sojourner" [ http://mars.sgi.com/rover/about.html ].
The Face on Mars
Title The Face on Mars
Explanation This image, showing what looks to be a human face sculpted on the martian surface, was produced using data from NASA's Viking 1 orbiter [ http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/viking.html ] in 1976. Described in a press release as a "face-like hill" it caused some to offer the sensational speculation that it was an artificial construct built by an intelligent civilization on Mars! As a result, this image was splashed across the covers of many grocery store tabloids at the time. A detailed analysis of multiple images of this feature reveals a natural looking martian hill whose illusory face-like appearance depends on viewing angle and angle of illumination. For more information about the picture see the NSSDC Photo Gallery of Mars. [ http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/photo_gallery/PhotoGallery-Mars.html#controversy ] For a detailed discussion of the "Face on Mars" see Calvin J. Hamilton's Face on Mars page. [ http://www.c3.lanl.gov/~cjhamil/SolarSystem/face.html ]
Ejected Shroud on the Martian Surface
PIA00527
Sol (our sun)
Camera 2
Title Ejected Shroud on the Martian Surface
Original Caption Released with Image Shining on the Martian surface near the Viking 2 spacecraft is the aluminum shroud, or cover, which protected the collector head of the surface sampler instrument during Viking's year-long journey from Earth. On September 5, two days after Viking 2 landed, the surface sampler was rotated from its parked position atop the spacecraft and pointed downward about 40 degrees. The shroud was then ejected by a set of eight springs positioned around its base. It struck the porous rock at the bottom of the picture, bounced about 20 inches, hit the surface again and bounced another 20 inches. The scar left by the second bounce is faintly visible halfway between the shroud and the rock it struck. The shroud is 12 inches long and 4 1/2 inches in diameter. The large rock just beyond it is about 2 feet long and about a foot thick. At lower right is the support structure of one of the spacecraft s three landing legs.
Rocky Martian Plain
PIA00364
Sol (our sun)
Camera 2
Title Rocky Martian Plain
Original Caption Released with Image The rocky Martian plain surrounding Viking 2 is seen in high resolution in this 85-degree panorama sweeping from north at the left to east at right during the Martian afternoon on September 5. Large blocks litter the surface. Some are porous, sponge-like rocks like the one at the left edge (size estimate: 1 1/2 to 2 feet), others are dense and fine-grained, such as the very bright rounded block (1 to 1 1/2 feet across) toward lower right. Pebbled surface between the rocks is covered in places by small drifts of very fine material similar to drifts seen at the Viking 1 landing site some 4600 miles to the southwest. The fine-grained material is banked up behind some rocks, but wind tails seen by Viking 1 are not well-developed here. On the right horizon, flat-topped ridges or hills are illuminated by the afternoon sun. Slope of the horizon is due to the 8-degree tilt of the spacecraft.
Martian Dune Field
PIA00393
Sol (our sun)
Camera 1
Title Martian Dune Field
Original Caption Released with Image This spectacular picture of the Martian landscape by the Viking 1 Lander shows a dune field with features remarkably similar to many seen in the deserts of Earth. The dramatic early morning lighting - 7:30 a.m. local Mars time--reveals subtle details and shading. Taken yesterday (August 3) by the Lander s camera #1, the picture covers 100 , looking northeast at left and southeast at right. Viking scientists have studied areas very much like the one in this view in Mexico and in California (Kelso, Death Valley, Yuma). The sharp dune crests indicate the most recent wind storms capable of moving sand over the dunes in the general direction from upper left to lower right. Small deposits downwind of rocks also indicate this wind direction. Large boulder at left is about eight meters (25 feet) from the spacecraft and measures about one by three meters (3 by 10 feet). The meteorology boom, which supports Viking s miniature weather station, cuts through the picture s center. The sun rose two hours earlier and is about 30 above the horizon near the center of the picture.
Earth-Mars planet comparisons (true color)
Title Earth-Mars planet comparisons (true color)
Abstract This is a visualization showing the relative size of Mars compared to that of Earth. This version uses true color textures (there are corresponding false color versions as well).
Completed 2003-12-18
25 Years Ago: Vikings on Mars
Title 25 Years Ago: Vikings on Mars
Explanation On July 20, 1976 [ http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast20jul_1.htm ], NASA's Viking 1 lander became the first [ http://www.star.le.ac.uk/edu/solar/sovmars.html ] U.S. spacecraft to land on Mars [ http://cmex-www.arc.nasa.gov/ ], followed weeks later by its twin robot explorer, the Viking 2 lander. Operating [ http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/ PIAGenCatalogPage.pl?PIA00563 ] on the Martian surface [ http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/photo_gallery/ photogallery-mars.html#surface ] into the early 1980s, the Vikings took [ http://history.nasa.gov/SP-425/cover.htm ] thousands of pictures, conducted [ http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/viking.html ] sophisticated chemical searches for life [ http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4212/ch11-6.html ], and studied the martian weather [ http://www-k12.atmos.washington.edu/k12/resources/ mars_data-information/mars_overview.html ] and geology. In the dramatically detailed image above, a field of rocks and boulders is viewed from the Viking 1 landing site on Chryse Planitia (the Plain of Chryse). Viking 1's dusty foot pad is just visible at the lower right. The image was created [ http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/photo_gallery/caption/ vikinglander1-2.txt ] by combining high resolution black and white images with lower resolution color images of the same area. NASA is continuing its well chronicled [ http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4212/on-mars.html ] martian exploration program as the Mars Odyssey [ http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/odyssey/ ] spacecraft is scheduled to arrive at the mysterious [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap970528.html ] Red Planet on October 24th. What's Mars like today [ http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ ast16jul_1.htm ]?
Vikers Viking Amphibian - biplane
Title Vikers Viking Amphibian - biplane
Description Vikers Viking Amphibian - biplane: Initially procured in 1921 by the U.S. Navy during their studies of foreign designs, the Vickers Viking IV became NACA 17 during its short period of study at Langley.
Date 08.21.1924
Mars landscape - Utopian plain with Viking Lander 2
Title Mars landscape - Utopian plain with Viking Lander 2
Description Caption: "This boulder strewn field reaches to the horizon, nearly 2 miles distant from Viking Lander 2's position on Mars' Utopian Plain." Scientists believe the colors of the Martian surface and sky in this photo represent their true colors. Fine particles of red dust have settled on spacecraft surfaces. The salmon color of the sky is caused by dust particles suspended in the atmosphere. Color calibration charts for the cameras are mounted at three locations on the spacecraft. Note the blue starfield and red stripes of the flag. The circular structure at top is the high-gain antenna, pointed toward Earth. Viking 2 landed September 3, 1976, some 4600 miles from its twin, Viking 1, which touched down on July 20. Photograph and caption published in Winds of Change, 75th Anniversary NASA publication (pages 107), by James Schultz.
Date 06.21.1976
Fly up to Sasquatch Crater view one
Title Fly up to Sasquatch Crater view one
Completed 1998-12-02
Polar Orbiter: Fly Up to the Primary Landing Site (Green)
Title Polar Orbiter: Fly Up to the Primary Landing Site (Green)
Completed 1999-08-25
Hellas Crater Flat Flyover (True Color)
Title Hellas Crater Flat Flyover (True Color)
Completed 1999-05-24
Mars North Polar Fly In From Above And Tilt
Title Mars North Polar Fly In From Above And Tilt
Completed 1998-12-02
Fly up to Sasquatch Crater view two
Title Fly up to Sasquatch Crater view two
Completed 1998-12-02
High Slow Fly around Pole
Title High Slow Fly around Pole
Completed 1998-12-02
Fly up to Dunes- thought to cover ice
Title Fly up to Dunes- thought to cover ice
Completed 1998-12-02
Mars: Fly Straight over Pole
Title Mars: Fly Straight over Pole
Completed 1998-12-02
Tharsis Rise (True Color)
Title Tharsis Rise (True Color)
Completed 1999-05-24
Dr. James C. Fletcher
Title Dr. James C. Fletcher
Full Description Dr. James C. Fletcher served as NASA Administrator from April 27, 1971, to May 1, 1977, and from May 12, 1986, to April 8, 1989. During his first administration at NASA, Dr. Fletcher was responsible for beginning the Shuttle effort, as well as the Viking program that sent landers to Mars. He oversaw the Skylab missions and Viking probes and approved the Voyager space probe, the Hubble Space Telescope and the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project. During his second tenure, he presided over the effort to recover from the Challenger accident. Dr. Fletcher died in December 1991 of lung cancer.
Date UNKNOWN
NASA Center Headquarters
Surface Changes in Chryse Planitia
PIA00532
Sol (our sun)
Camera 1
Title Surface Changes in Chryse Planitia
Original Caption Released with Image At the conclusion of the Viking Continuation Mission (May to November, 1978), all four cameras on the Viking Landers - two on each spacecraft - continued to function normally. During the two and one-half years since the landers touched down on Mars, images totaled 2,255 for Viking Lander 1 and 2,016 for Viking Lander 2. The surface around the landers was completely photographed by the end of 1976, subsequent images acquired during 1977-1978 have concentrated on searching for changes in the scene - changes which can be used to infer both the types of erosive processes which modify the landscape around the landers and the rates at which these processes may occur. The major surface changes have included the water-ice snow seen by Lander 2 during the winter at Utopia Planitia, and a thin dust layer deposited at both sites during the dust storms of 1977. The most recently identified change occurred at Chryse Planitia between VL-1 sols 767 (Sept. 16, 1978) and 771 (Sept. 20, 1978) as seen in the lower photo. Picture at top, selected to show similar lighting conditions, was taken during sol 25 (August 15, 1976). The change (A) appears as a small circle-like formation on the side of a drift in the lee, or downwind, side of Whale Rock. This is believed to have been a small-scale landslide of an unstable dust layer which had accumulated behind the rock. Interpretation of this feature would be difficult without an earlier change (B) near Big Joe, a slump which occurred between sols 74 and 183. The new slump is approximately 25- 35 meters from the lander, and just under a meter across. The slumping probably was initiated by the daily heating and cooling of the surface by solar radiation. More importantly, it is now believed that, based on the repeated occurrence of such slumping features, a dust layer which overlies the surface may in fact be redistributed fairly regularly during periods of high wind activity. There are no obvious indications of fossil slump features, therefore similar features must be destroyed on a regular basis. After the end of February, when Viking operations essentially terminate, Lander 1 will continue preselected observations over a period of possibly up to 10 years, following the instructions stored in its computer memory. Earth commands will be required only to initiate data transmission to Earth. During this time, it is now anticipated that one of the yearly planetwide global dust storms may reach an intensity necessary to shift the dust cover around the lander significantly.
Hubble Finds Cloudy, Cold Weather Conditions for Mars-Bound Space …
Title Hubble Finds Cloudy, Cold Weather Conditions for Mars-Bound Spacecraft
The Target
PIA04304
Sol (our sun)
Visual Imaging Subsystem - Camera A
Title The Target
Original Caption Released with Image This mosaic of Mars is a compilation of images captured by the Viking Orbiter 1. The center of the scene shows the entire Valles Marineris canyon system, over 3,000 km long and up to 8 km deep, extending from Noctis Labyrinthus, the arcuate system of graben to the west, to the chaotic terrain to the east.
Gusev Crater
PIA04274
Sol (our sun)
Visual Imaging Subsystem
Title Gusev Crater
Original Caption Released with Image Released April 11, 2003 The designated landing site for the first Mars Exploration Rover mission is Gusev Crater, seen here in its geological context from NASA Viking images. Details of the Gusev Crater designated landing site are added with topographic information and higher-resolution imaging from instruments on the Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Odyssey orbiters.
Meridiani Planum
PIA04275
Sol (our sun)
Visual Imaging Subsystem
Title Meridiani Planum
Original Caption Released with Image Released April 11, 2003 The designated landing site for the second Mars Exploration Rover mission is Meridiani Planum, seen here in its geological context from NASA Viking images Details of the Meridiani Planum designated landing site are added with topographic information and higher-resolution imaging from instruments on the Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Odyssey orbiters.
Photomosiac of Olympus Mons
PIA02984
Sol (our sun)
Title Photomosiac of Olympus Mons
Original Caption Released with Image Viking Orbiter 1 photomosaic of Olympus Mons summit caldera. The caldera comprises a series of craters formed by repeated collapses after eruptions.
Example of Weathering And Sun Angle
PIA00386
Sol (our sun)
Camera 1
Title Example of Weathering And Sun Angle
Original Caption Released with Image The letter 'B' or perhaps the figure '8' appears to have been etched into the Mars rock at the left edge of this picture taken yesterday by the Viking 1 Lander. It is believed to be an illusion caused by weathering processes and the angle of the sun as it illuminated the scene for the spacecraft camera. The object at lower left is the housing containing the surface sampler scoop.
Magnetic Particles Are Found In The Martian Atmosphere
PIA00394
Sol (our sun)
Camera 2
Title Magnetic Particles Are Found In The Martian Atmosphere
Original Caption Released with Image The dark bullseye pattern seen at the top of Viking l's camera calibration chart indicates the presence of magnetic particles in the fine dust in the Martian atmosphere. A tiny magnet is mounted at that spot to catch wind-borne magnetic particles. The particles may have been tossed into the atmosphere surrounding the spacecraft at the time of landing and during the digging and delivery of the Mars soil sample by the surface sampler scoop. This picture was taken August 4.
Bright Summer Afternoon on the Mars Utopian Planitia
PIA00569
Sol (our sun)
Camera 2
Title Bright Summer Afternoon on the Mars Utopian Planitia
Original Caption Released with Image A UTOPIAN BRIGHT SUMMER AFTERNOON ON MARS--Looking south from Viking 2 on September 6, the orange-red surface of the nearly level plain upon which the spacecraft sits is seen strewn with rocks as large as three feet across. Many of these rocks are porous and sponge-like, similar to some of Earth's volcanic rocks. Other rocks are coarse-grained such as the large rock at lower left. Between the rocks, the surface is blanketed with fine-grained material that, in places, is piled into small drifts and banked against some of the larger blocks. The cylindrical mast with the orange cable is the low-gain antenna used to receive commands from Earth.
Geologic 'Face on Mars' Formation
PIA01141
Sol (our sun)
Visual Imaging Subsystem - Camera A
Title Geologic 'Face on Mars' Formation
Original Caption Released with Image NASA's Viking 1 Orbiter spacecraft photographed this region in the northern latitudes of Mars on July 25, 1976 while searching for a landing site for the Viking 2 Lander. The speckled appearance of the image is due to missing data, called bit errors, caused by problems in transmission of the photographic data from Mars to Earth. Bit errors comprise part of one of the 'eyes' and 'nostrils' on the eroded rock that resembles a human face near the center of the image. Shadows in the rock formation give the illusion of a nose and mouth. Planetary geologists attribute the origin of the formation to purely natural processes. The feature is 1.5 kilometers (one mile) across, with the sun angle at approximately 20 degrees. The picture was taken from a range of 1,873 kilometers (1,162 miles).
Frost at the Viking Lander 2 Site
PIA00573
Sol (our sun)
Camera 2
Title Frost at the Viking Lander 2 Site
Original Caption Released with Image Photo from Viking Lander 2 shows late-winter frost on the ground on Mars around the lander. The view is southeast over the top of Lander 2, and shows patches of frost around dark rocks. The surface is reddish-brown, the dark rocks vary in size from 10 centimeters (four inches) to 76 centimeters (30 inches) in diameter. This picture was obtained Sept. 25, 1977. The frost deposits were detected for the first time 12 Martian days (sols) earlier in a black-and-white image. Color differences between the white frost and the reddish soil confirm that we are observing frost. The Lander Imaging Team is trying to determine if frost deposits routinely form due to cold night temperatures, then disappear during the warmer daytime. Preliminary analysis, however, indicates the frost was on the ground for some time and is disappearing over many days. That suggests to scientists that the frost is not frozen carbon dioxide (dry ice) but is more likely a carbon dioxide clathrate (six parts water to one part carbon dioxide). Detailed studies of the frost formation and disappearance, in conjunction with temperature measurements from the lander?s meteorology experiment, should be able to confirm or deny that hypothesis, scientists say.
Vivid Colors of the Viking Lander 1 Scene
PIA00564
Sol (our sun)
Camera 1
Title Vivid Colors of the Viking Lander 1 Scene
Original Caption Released with Image Viking 1 obtained this color picture of the Martian surface and sky on July 24. Camera Number 1 facing southeast, captured part of the spacecraft's gray structure in the foreground. A bright orange cable leads to one of the descent rocket engines. Orange-red surface materials cover most of the surface, apparently forming a thin veneer over darker bedrock. A zone of large dark boulders is present in the far-field. The sky has a reddish cast, which is probably due to scattering and reflection from reddish sediment suspended in the lower atmosphere. This picture has been radiometrically calibrated, using information on camera performance acquired before launch. Although the colors are very vivid, the fidelity with which the bright orange cable is reproduced suggests that the intense colors of the Martian surface are, in fact, real.
Debris Kicked Up By Impact of A Protective Cover from Viking Land …
PIA00384
Sol (our sun)
Camera 2
Title Debris Kicked Up By Impact of A Protective Cover from Viking Lander 1
Original Caption Released with Image The patch of dark material toward the top of this picture (arrow) taken by the Viking 1 Lander is the debris kicked up by the impact of a protective cover ejected from the spacecraft at 1 a.m. today. The cylindrical cover, which bounced out of view of the camera, protects the scoop at the end of the soil sampler arm. (The scoop will dig into the Martian surface for the first time on July 28). Dust and debris atop the footpad remains as it was seen in the Lander's first picture taken immediately after landing two days ago. No wind modification is apparent. On the surface, a variety of block sizes, shapes and tones are seen, and some rocks are Partially buried.
Sunset at the Viking Lander 1 Site
PIA00567
Sol (our sun)
Camera 2
Title Sunset at the Viking Lander 1 Site
Original Caption Released with Image This color image of the Martian surface in the Chryse area was taken by Viking Lander 1, looking southwest, about 15 minutes before sunset on the evening of August 21. The sun is at an elevation angle of 3 or 4 degrees above the horizon and about 50 degrees clockwise from the right edge of the frame. Local topographic features are accentuated by the low lighting angle. A depression is seen near the center of the picture, just above the Lander?s leg support structure, which was not evident in previous pictures taken at higher sun angles. Just beyond the depression are large rocks about 30 centimeters (1 foot) across. The diffuse shadows are due to the sunlight that has been scattered by the dusty Martian atmosphere as a result of the long path length from the setting sun. Toward the horizon, several bright patches of bare bedrock are revealed.
Ice On Mars
PIA00533
Sol (our sun)
Camera 2
Title Ice On Mars
Original Caption Released with Image ICE ON MARS AGAIN -- This high-resolution photo of the surface of Mars was taken by Viking Lander 2 at its Utopia Planitia landing site on May 18, 1979 and relayed to Earth by Viking Orbiter 1 on June 7. It shows a thin coating of water ice on the rocks and soil. The time the frost appeared corresponds almost exactly with the buildup of frost one Martian year (23 Earth months) ago. Then it remained on the surface for about 100 days. Scientists believe dust particles in the atmosphere pick up bits of solid water. That combination is not heavy enough to settle to the ground. But carbon dioxide, which makes up 95 percent of the Martian atmosphere, freezes and adheres to the particles and they become heavy enough to sink. Warmed by the Sun the surface evaporates the carbon dioxide and returns it to the atmosphere leaving behind the water and dust. The ice seen in this picture, like that which formed one Martian year ago is extremely thin perhaps no more than one-thousandth of an inch thick.
A Face On Mars
Title A Face On Mars
Explanation This image, showing what looks to be a human face [ http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/facts/HTML/FS-016-HQ.html ] (above center) and other features of the Cydonia region on the Martian surface [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap960207.html ], was produced using data from NASA's Viking 1 [ http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/viking.html ] orbiter in 1976. Described in a NASA press release [ http://barsoom.msss.com/education/facepage/pio.html ] as a "rock formation which resembles a human head", some have since offered the extraordinary explanation that the face is an artificial construct built by a civilization on Mars [ http://www.seds.org/nineplanets/nineplanets/mars.html ]! However, most scientists have a more conventional view - that this feature [ http://barsoom.msss.com/education/facepage/face.html ] is indeed a natural Martian hill whose illusory face-like appearance [ http://barsoom.msss.com/education/happy_face/happy_face.html ] depends on illumination and viewing angle. This month [ http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/releases/98/cydonia2.html ], the Mars Global Surveyor [ http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mgs/ ] satellite will be in position to take new pictures [ ftp://ftp.hq.nasa.gov/pub/pao/pressrel/1998/98-050.txt ] of this region of controversial Martian features along with areas around the Mars Pathfinder [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap971010.html ] and Viking landing [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap960722.html ] sites.
Mars: Looking For Viking
Title Mars: Looking For Viking
Explanation On July 20, 1976, the Viking 1 lander [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap960720.html ] touched down on the Martian Chryse Planitia. Its exact landing site is somewhere [ http://cmex-www.arc.nasa.gov/MarsTools/MarsAtlasMaps/ MarsAtlasMaps.html ] in the white rectangle above. Unfortunately, this wide angle Mars Global Surveyor image [ http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mgs/msss/camera/images/ 4_14_98_vl1_release/index.html ] taken on April 12 reveals a substantial dust storm in the area with light colored plumes apparently blowing toward the upper right of the picture. Attempts to find the first spacecraft to land on Mars [ http://www.uapress.arizona.edu/online.bks/mars/chap13.htm ] in the corresponding high resolution narrow field images have not been successful due in part to the increased atmospheric haze. The region shown here is about 100 miles across.
Mars: Just The Fiction
Title Mars: Just The Fiction
Explanation For centuries, astronomers have observed Mars [ http://humbabe.arc.nasa.gov/mgcm/fun/mars_chro.html ], patiently compiling many facts [ http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/marsfact.html ] and theories. Like a distant mirror of Earth dwellers' hopes and fears for the future, Mars, the fourth planet from the sun [ http://esther.la.asu.edu:80/asu_tes/TES_Editor/ CURRIC_GUIDES/95_96GUIDE/read_list.html ], has inspired profound works of fiction [ http://www.reston.com/astro/mars/fiction.html ] as well. Classics of the science fiction genre with visions [ http://www-personal.engin.umich.edu/~cerebus/mars/bib1.html ] of Earth's alluring planetary neighbor include H.G. Wells' [ http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~brians/science_fiction/warofworlds.html ] terrifying [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap951031.html ]"War of the Worlds" [ http://www.literature.org/Works/H-G-Wells/war-of-the-worlds/ ], Edgar Rice Buroughs' [ http://www.wowdesign.com/erb/ ] John Carter adventure series (Thuvia, Maid of Mars [ http://www.literature.org/Works/Edgar-Rice-Burroughs/ thuvia-maid-of-mars/ ], The Gods of Mars [ http://www.literature.org/Works/Edgar-Rice-Burroughs/gods-of-mars/ ], A Princess of Mars [ http://www.literature.org/Works/Edgar-Rice-Burroughs/princess-of-mars/ ], The Warlord of Mars [ http://www.literature.org/Works/Edgar-Rice-Burroughs/warlord-of-mars/ ]), Robert Heinlein's [ http://home.t-online.de/home/herb.sev./rah.htm ] youthful "Podkayne of Mars" [ http://www.acdev.com/~fabrice/crit/mars.htm ], and Ray Bradbury's reflective and philosophical [ http://humbabe.arc.nasa.gov/mgcm/fun/pop.html ]"The Martian Chronicles" [ http://www.wsu.edu:8000/~brians/science_fiction/ martian_chronicles.html ]. Through the years scientific theories about Mars have been disproven [ http://www.mk.net/~dt/Bibliomania/NonFiction/Lowell/Mars/index.html ], but the sense of wonder and adventure embodied in these works of fiction remain with us. As two spacecraft [ http://ic-www.arc.nasa.gov/ic/projects/bayes-group/ Atlas/Mars/VSC/views/entrance/entrance.html ] from Earth now draw close to the red planet- in dreams, desires [ http://www-personal.engin.umich.edu/~cerebus/mars/index.html ], and a quest for knowledge [ http://cmex-www.arc.nasa.gov/ ] - we are once again bound for Mars [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap970522.html ].
Views of Mars with MOLA+Viking data
Title Views of Mars with MOLA+Viking data
Abstract These views of Mars were generated for the National Geographic Society as reference materials for their February 2001 'Mars Revealed' poster.
Completed 2000-08-11
Views of Mars with MOLA+Viking data
Title Views of Mars with MOLA+Viking data
Abstract These views of Mars were generated for the National Geographic Society as reference materials for their February 2001 'Mars Revealed' poster.
Completed 2000-08-11
Views of Mars with MOLA+Viking data
Title Views of Mars with MOLA+Viking data
Abstract These views of Mars were generated for the National Geographic Society as reference materials for their February 2001 'Mars Revealed' poster.
Completed 2000-08-11
Views of Mars with MOLA+Viking data
Title Views of Mars with MOLA+Viking data
Abstract These views of Mars were generated for the National Geographic Society as reference materials for their February 2001 'Mars Revealed' poster.
Completed 2000-08-11
Views of Mars with MOLA+Viking data
Title Views of Mars with MOLA+Viking data
Abstract These views of Mars were generated for the National Geographic Society as reference materials for their February 2001 'Mars Revealed' poster.
Completed 2000-08-11
Views of Mars with MOLA+Viking data
Title Views of Mars with MOLA+Viking data
Abstract These views of Mars were generated for the National Geographic Society as reference materials for their February 2001 'Mars Revealed' poster.
Completed 2000-08-11
Views of Mars with MOLA+Viking data
Title Views of Mars with MOLA+Viking data
Abstract These views of Mars were generated for the National Geographic Society as reference materials for their February 2001 'Mars Revealed' poster.
Completed 2000-08-11
Views of Mars with MOLA+Viking data
Title Views of Mars with MOLA+Viking data
Abstract These views of Mars were generated for the National Geographic Society as reference materials for their February 2001 'Mars Revealed' poster.
Completed 2000-08-11
Push in South of the Hellas Basin using Viking Imagery
Title Push in South of the Hellas Basin using Viking Imagery
Completed 1999-11-22
Viking 1's 30th!
PIA08616
Sol (our sun)
Mars Orbiter Camera
Title Viking 1's 30th!
Original Caption Released with Image 20 July 2006 Viking 1 landed 30 years ago today, on 20 July 1976. It was the first U.S. landing on Mars and a very exciting time for Mars exploration. Since that time, four additional spacecraft have successfully landed on Mars and conducted their science investigations. Today, new missions to the martian surface are in the works, with landings expected in 2008 (Phoenix) and 2010 (Mars Science Laboratory). The Viking 1 lander is difficult to see in Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) images. The western Chryse Planitia landing site is often obscured by dust hazes and occasional storms, especially during northern winter, which would otherwise be the best time to look for the lander from orbit because the sun casts longer shadows in winter. When the atmosphere is clearest, in portions of the spring and summer, the sun is higher in the sky as seen from MGS's orbit. The spacecraft always passes over the landing site region around 2 p.m. in the afternoon. The suite of pictures shown here describes the best MOC view of the landing site. These were previously released in May 2005 [ http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2005/05/09/ ], but the MOC team felt that 20 July 2006 is an appropriate time to review this story. The first figure (left) visually tells how the lander was found. The initial observations of the location of Viking 1, as originally determined by members of the Viking science team based on sightlines to various crater rims seen in the lander images (black lines), did not show the detailed features we knew from the lander pictures (middle) to be in the area. Using geodetic measurements, the late Merton Davies of the RAND Corporation, a MGS MOC Co-Investigator, suggested that we should image areas to the east and north of where Viking 1 was thought to be. Timothy J. Parker of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (Pasadena, California), using sightlines to crater rims seen in the lander images (white lines), deduced a location very close to that suggested by Davies. The MOC image of that location, acquired in 2003, showed additional near-field features (rocks associated with a nearby crater) that closely matched the Viking 1 images (center and right frame, where B denotes "Volkswagen Rock"). The inset (upper right) is an enlargement that shows the location of the Viking 1 lander. The MOC image of the Viking 1 lander site (right) was acquired during a test of the MGS Pitch and Roll Observation (PROTO) technique conducted on 11 May 2003. (Following initial tests, the "c" part of "cPROTO" was begun by adding compensation for the motion of the planet to the technique). The PROTO or cPROTO approach allows MOC to obtain images with better than its nominal 1.5 meters (5 ft) per pixel resolution. The image shown here (right) was map projected at 50 centimeters (~20 inches) per pixel. The full 11 May 2003 image can be viewed in the MOC Gallery [ http://www.msss.com/moc_gallery/ ], it is image, R05-00966 [ http://www.msss.com/moc_gallery/r03_r09/images/R05/R0500966.html ]. In addition to celebrating the 30th anniversary of the first U.S. robotic Mars landing, we note that 20 July is also the 37th anniversary of the first human landing on the Moon, on 20 July 1969. There are two dates that are most sacred in the space business (three, if you count the 4 October 1957 launch of Sputnik 1). The other date is 12 April, which celebrates the 1961 launch of the first human in space, and the 1981 launch of the first space shuttle orbiter.
Movement of Whole Martian Dunes Difficult to Detect or Confirm
PIA02355
Sol (our sun)
Mars Orbiter Camera
Title Movement of Whole Martian Dunes Difficult to Detect or Confirm
Original Caption Released with Image Dunes on Earth move downwind at different speeds depending upon the local wind conditions, the amount of loose sand available to be transported by wind, the shape and volume of the dunes, and overgrowths of vegetation. Typically, smaller dunes move faster than larger dunes. On Earth, some of the fastest-moving dunes that have been measured (e.g., in the deserts of Peru) move 10 to 30 meters (33 to 100 feet) per year. Small dunes usually have an almost crescent-shape to them, and are known to geologists as barchan dunes. To look for evidence of dune movement on Mars, the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) has been used to re-visit some areas of known barchan dunes--because these types move the fastest--that were observed by the Mariner 9 orbiter in 1972 and the Viking 1 and 2 orbiters between 1976 and 1980. The picture above, left, shows a MOC high-resolution image taken December 25, 1999. The classic, crescentic shape of the dark barchan dunes can be seen in this picture. The steep slopes, also known as the dune slip faces, on these dunes are facing toward the southwest (north is up in both pictures). Thus, the shape of the dunes indicates that they are moving toward the southwest. The picture above right shows the MOC image from December 1999 superimposed on a Viking 1 image taken May 27, 1978. During the 11 1/2 Mars years that passed between these two dates, it turns out that no difference can be detected in the position of the dunes seen in the MOC image and the Viking image. The earlier Viking image had a resolution of about 17 meters (56 ft) per pixel, while the MOC image had a resolution of about 3.8 meters (12 ft) per pixel. Although it looks like the dunes didn't move between the Viking and MOC images, this observation is limited by the resolution of the Viking image. It is entirely possible that the dunes have moved as much as 17-20 meters (16-66 ft) and one would not be able to tell by comparing the images. As it is, movement of less than 20 meters (66 ft) in 11 martian years (nearly 22 Earth years) is slower than some dunes of similar size and shape on Earth. Thus, it appears that martian dunes are not "experiencing" the level of activity commonly reported for some of the modern desert dunes found on Earth. The dune field illustrated in these pictures is located in a western Arabia Terra crater at 1.6°N, 351.6°W. Both the Viking and MOC images are illuminated from the left.
Movement of Whole Martian Dunes Difficult to Detect or Confirm
PIA02355
Sol (our sun)
Mars Orbiter Camera
Title Movement of Whole Martian Dunes Difficult to Detect or Confirm
Original Caption Released with Image Dunes on Earth move downwind at different speeds depending upon the local wind conditions, the amount of loose sand available to be transported by wind, the shape and volume of the dunes, and overgrowths of vegetation. Typically, smaller dunes move faster than larger dunes. On Earth, some of the fastest-moving dunes that have been measured (e.g., in the deserts of Peru) move 10 to 30 meters (33 to 100 feet) per year. Small dunes usually have an almost crescent-shape to them, and are known to geologists as barchan dunes. To look for evidence of dune movement on Mars, the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) has been used to re-visit some areas of known barchan dunes--because these types move the fastest--that were observed by the Mariner 9 orbiter in 1972 and the Viking 1 and 2 orbiters between 1976 and 1980. The picture above, left, shows a MOC high-resolution image taken December 25, 1999. The classic, crescentic shape of the dark barchan dunes can be seen in this picture. The steep slopes, also known as the dune slip faces, on these dunes are facing toward the southwest (north is up in both pictures). Thus, the shape of the dunes indicates that they are moving toward the southwest. The picture above right shows the MOC image from December 1999 superimposed on a Viking 1 image taken May 27, 1978. During the 11 1/2 Mars years that passed between these two dates, it turns out that no difference can be detected in the position of the dunes seen in the MOC image and the Viking image. The earlier Viking image had a resolution of about 17 meters (56 ft) per pixel, while the MOC image had a resolution of about 3.8 meters (12 ft) per pixel. Although it looks like the dunes didn't move between the Viking and MOC images, this observation is limited by the resolution of the Viking image. It is entirely possible that the dunes have moved as much as 17-20 meters (16-66 ft) and one would not be able to tell by comparing the images. As it is, movement of less than 20 meters (66 ft) in 11 martian years (nearly 22 Earth years) is slower than some dunes of similar size and shape on Earth. Thus, it appears that martian dunes are not "experiencing" the level of activity commonly reported for some of the modern desert dunes found on Earth. The dune field illustrated in these pictures is located in a western Arabia Terra crater at 1.6°N, 351.6°W. Both the Viking and MOC images are illuminated from the left.
Viking Lander 1 (Thomas A. Mutch Memorial Station) Imaged from Or …
PIA01881
Sol (our sun)
HiRISE
Title Viking Lander 1 (Thomas A. Mutch Memorial Station) Imaged from Orbit
Original Caption Released with Image Annotated Version NASA's Viking Lander 1 touched down in western Chryse Planitia on July 20, 1976. The lander, which has a diameter of about 3 meters (10 feet), has been precisely located in this image from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Also, likely locations have been found for the heat shield, back shell, and parachute attached to the back shell. The lander location has been confirmed by overlaying the lander-derived topographic contours on the high-resolution camera's image, which provides an excellent match. Viking Lander 1 was one element of an ambitious mission to study Mars, with a four-spacecraft flotilla consisting of two orbiters and two landers. Four cutouts from this image are shown. The first is an overview showing the relative locations of the lander and candidate back shell and heat shield, and the others are enlargements of each of these components. Large boulders, dunes, and other features visible in Lander images can be located in the image. A prime motivation for early viewing of these Viking sites is to calibrate imagery taken from orbit with the data previously acquired by the landers. In particular, determining what sizes of rocks can be seen from Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter aids the interpretation of data now being taken to characterize sites for future landers, such as the Phoenix Mars Lander mission to be launched in 2007. Images from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment and additional information about the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter are available online at: http://www.nasa.gov/mro [ http://www.nasa.gov/mro ] or http://HiRISE.lpl.arizona.edu [ http://HiRISE.lpl.arizona.edu ]. For information about NASA and agency programs on the Web, http://www.nasa.gov [ http://www.nasa.gov ]. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems is the prime contractor for the project and built the spacecraft. The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera was built by Ball Aerospace Corporation and is operated by the University of Arizona.
Viking Lander 1 (Thomas A. Mutch Memorial Station) Imaged from Or …
PIA01881
Sol (our sun)
HiRISE
Title Viking Lander 1 (Thomas A. Mutch Memorial Station) Imaged from Orbit
Original Caption Released with Image Annotated Version NASA's Viking Lander 1 touched down in western Chryse Planitia on July 20, 1976. The lander, which has a diameter of about 3 meters (10 feet), has been precisely located in this image from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Also, likely locations have been found for the heat shield, back shell, and parachute attached to the back shell. The lander location has been confirmed by overlaying the lander-derived topographic contours on the high-resolution camera's image, which provides an excellent match. Viking Lander 1 was one element of an ambitious mission to study Mars, with a four-spacecraft flotilla consisting of two orbiters and two landers. Four cutouts from this image are shown. The first is an overview showing the relative locations of the lander and candidate back shell and heat shield, and the others are enlargements of each of these components. Large boulders, dunes, and other features visible in Lander images can be located in the image. A prime motivation for early viewing of these Viking sites is to calibrate imagery taken from orbit with the data previously acquired by the landers. In particular, determining what sizes of rocks can be seen from Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter aids the interpretation of data now being taken to characterize sites for future landers, such as the Phoenix Mars Lander mission to be launched in 2007. Images from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment and additional information about the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter are available online at: http://www.nasa.gov/mro [ http://www.nasa.gov/mro ] or http://HiRISE.lpl.arizona.edu [ http://HiRISE.lpl.arizona.edu ]. For information about NASA and agency programs on the Web, http://www.nasa.gov [ http://www.nasa.gov ]. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems is the prime contractor for the project and built the spacecraft. The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera was built by Ball Aerospace Corporation and is operated by the University of Arizona.
Viking Lander 1 (Thomas A. Mutch Memorial Station) Imaged from Or …
PIA01881
Sol (our sun)
HiRISE
Title Viking Lander 1 (Thomas A. Mutch Memorial Station) Imaged from Orbit
Original Caption Released with Image Annotated Version NASA's Viking Lander 1 touched down in western Chryse Planitia on July 20, 1976. The lander, which has a diameter of about 3 meters (10 feet), has been precisely located in this image from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Also, likely locations have been found for the heat shield, back shell, and parachute attached to the back shell. The lander location has been confirmed by overlaying the lander-derived topographic contours on the high-resolution camera's image, which provides an excellent match. Viking Lander 1 was one element of an ambitious mission to study Mars, with a four-spacecraft flotilla consisting of two orbiters and two landers. Four cutouts from this image are shown. The first is an overview showing the relative locations of the lander and candidate back shell and heat shield, and the others are enlargements of each of these components. Large boulders, dunes, and other features visible in Lander images can be located in the image. A prime motivation for early viewing of these Viking sites is to calibrate imagery taken from orbit with the data previously acquired by the landers. In particular, determining what sizes of rocks can be seen from Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter aids the interpretation of data now being taken to characterize sites for future landers, such as the Phoenix Mars Lander mission to be launched in 2007. Images from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment and additional information about the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter are available online at: http://www.nasa.gov/mro [ http://www.nasa.gov/mro ] or http://HiRISE.lpl.arizona.edu [ http://HiRISE.lpl.arizona.edu ]. For information about NASA and agency programs on the Web, http://www.nasa.gov [ http://www.nasa.gov ]. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems is the prime contractor for the project and built the spacecraft. The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera was built by Ball Aerospace Corporation and is operated by the University of Arizona.
Viking Lander 1 (Thomas A. Mutch Memorial Station) Imaged from Or …
PIA01881
Sol (our sun)
HiRISE
Title Viking Lander 1 (Thomas A. Mutch Memorial Station) Imaged from Orbit
Original Caption Released with Image Annotated Version NASA's Viking Lander 1 touched down in western Chryse Planitia on July 20, 1976. The lander, which has a diameter of about 3 meters (10 feet), has been precisely located in this image from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Also, likely locations have been found for the heat shield, back shell, and parachute attached to the back shell. The lander location has been confirmed by overlaying the lander-derived topographic contours on the high-resolution camera's image, which provides an excellent match. Viking Lander 1 was one element of an ambitious mission to study Mars, with a four-spacecraft flotilla consisting of two orbiters and two landers. Four cutouts from this image are shown. The first is an overview showing the relative locations of the lander and candidate back shell and heat shield, and the others are enlargements of each of these components. Large boulders, dunes, and other features visible in Lander images can be located in the image. A prime motivation for early viewing of these Viking sites is to calibrate imagery taken from orbit with the data previously acquired by the landers. In particular, determining what sizes of rocks can be seen from Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter aids the interpretation of data now being taken to characterize sites for future landers, such as the Phoenix Mars Lander mission to be launched in 2007. Images from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment and additional information about the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter are available online at: http://www.nasa.gov/mro [ http://www.nasa.gov/mro ] or http://HiRISE.lpl.arizona.edu [ http://HiRISE.lpl.arizona.edu ]. For information about NASA and agency programs on the Web, http://www.nasa.gov [ http://www.nasa.gov ]. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems is the prime contractor for the project and built the spacecraft. The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera was built by Ball Aerospace Corporation and is operated by the University of Arizona.
Viking Lander 1 (Thomas A. Mutch Memorial Station) Imaged from Or …
PIA01881
Sol (our sun)
HiRISE
Title Viking Lander 1 (Thomas A. Mutch Memorial Station) Imaged from Orbit
Original Caption Released with Image Annotated Version NASA's Viking Lander 1 touched down in western Chryse Planitia on July 20, 1976. The lander, which has a diameter of about 3 meters (10 feet), has been precisely located in this image from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Also, likely locations have been found for the heat shield, back shell, and parachute attached to the back shell. The lander location has been confirmed by overlaying the lander-derived topographic contours on the high-resolution camera's image, which provides an excellent match. Viking Lander 1 was one element of an ambitious mission to study Mars, with a four-spacecraft flotilla consisting of two orbiters and two landers. Four cutouts from this image are shown. The first is an overview showing the relative locations of the lander and candidate back shell and heat shield, and the others are enlargements of each of these components. Large boulders, dunes, and other features visible in Lander images can be located in the image. A prime motivation for early viewing of these Viking sites is to calibrate imagery taken from orbit with the data previously acquired by the landers. In particular, determining what sizes of rocks can be seen from Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter aids the interpretation of data now being taken to characterize sites for future landers, such as the Phoenix Mars Lander mission to be launched in 2007. Images from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment and additional information about the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter are available online at: http://www.nasa.gov/mro [ http://www.nasa.gov/mro ] or http://HiRISE.lpl.arizona.edu [ http://HiRISE.lpl.arizona.edu ]. For information about NASA and agency programs on the Web, http://www.nasa.gov [ http://www.nasa.gov ]. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems is the prime contractor for the project and built the spacecraft. The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera was built by Ball Aerospace Corporation and is operated by the University of Arizona.
The Mountains of Mars
Title The Mountains of Mars
Explanation Volcanic activity on Mars has produced towering mountains. The largest one, Olympus Mons, is pictured here in this Viking Orbiter [ http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/viking.html ] image. Olympus Mons is a shield volcano nearly 15 miles high and over 300 miles wide at its base. By comparison, Earth's largest volcano, Mauna Loa in Hawaii, is just over 5 miles high and about 12 miles wide. For more information about volcanic mountains on Mars see Calvin J. Hamilton's Mars page. [ http://www.c3.lanl.gov/~cjhamil/SolarSystem/marsvolc.html ] The exploration of Mars is chronicled by the Center For Mars Exploration. [ http://cmex-www.arc.nasa.gov/ ]
The Exploration of Mars
Title The Exploration of Mars
Explanation Thirty years ago NASA's exploration of Mars began. In July of 1965 the Mariner 4 spacecraft [ http://www.c3.lanl.gov/~cjhamil/SolarSystem/sc_views.html#marin4 ] flew within 6,000 miles of Mars and returned 21 pictures of the mysterious red planet. NASA's continued exploration of Mars has produced detailed views of the red tinged Martian surface like the one shown above which is a composite of 102 images from the Viking missions to Mars [ http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/viking.html ]. The composite was constructed by the US Geological Survey. [ http://info.er.usgs.gov/USGSHome.html ] For more information about the picture see the NSSDC Photo Gallery of Mars. [ http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/photo_gallery/PhotoGallery-Mars.html ] The exploration of Mars is chronicled by the Center For Mars Exploration. [ http://cmex-www.arc.nasa.gov/ ]
The Grand Canyon of Mars
Title The Grand Canyon of Mars
Explanation The Mariner Valley, also known as the Valles Marineris canyon system, appears in this mosaic of images from NASA's Viking spacecraft [ http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/viking.html ] as a huge gouge across the red planet. This "Grand Canyon" of Mars is about 2500 miles long and up to 4 miles deep. By comparison, the Earth's Grand Canyon is less than 500 miles long and 1 mile deep. For more information about Mars see Calvin J. Hamilton's Mars Page. [ http://www.c3.lanl.gov/~cjhamil/SolarSystem/mars.html ] The exploration of Mars is chronicled by the Center For Mars Exploration. [ http://cmex-www.arc.nasa.gov/ ]
Dr. William H. Pickering
Dr. William H. Pickering served as the fourth director of the Jet …
Description Dr. William H. Pickering served as the fourth director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, from 1954 to 1976. The period during which he led JPL spanned the eras from JPL's creation of the first U.S. satellite, Explorer I, through the formation of NASA, the Ranger, Surveyor and Mariner missions of the 1960s and the Viking mission of the 1970s.
First Image of Mars
title First Image of Mars
date 07.20.1976
description The image above is the first photograph ever taken from the surface of Mars. It was taken by the Viking 1 lander shortly after it touched down on Mars on July 20, 1976. Part of footpad #2 can be seen in the lower right corner, with sand and dust in the center of it, probably deposited during landing. The next day, color photographs were also taken on the Martian surface. The primary objectives of the Viking missions, which was composed of two spacecraft, 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 on Mars.
Global Mosaic of Mars Centered on Valles Marineris
title Global Mosaic of Mars Centered on Valles Marineris
date 02.22.1980
description Global mosaic of 102 Viking 1 Orbiter images of Mars taken on orbit 1,334, 22 February 1980. The images are projected into point perspective, representing what a viewer would see from a spacecraft at an altitude of 2,500 km. At center is Valles Marineris, over 3000 km long and up to 8 km deep. Note the channels running up (north) from the central and eastern portions of Valles Marineris to the dark area, Acidalic Planitia, at upper right. At left are the three Tharsis volcanoes and to the south is ancient, heavily impacted terrain. (Viking 1 Orbiter, MG07S078-334SP) *Image Credit*: NASA
Uranius Tholus
title Uranius Tholus
description This Viking orbiter image shows Uranius Tholus, one of the smaller volcanos in the Tharsis region of Mars. It is only 60 kilometers across and 3 kilometers higher than the surrounding plains. In comparison with Olympus Mons, the greater number of impact craters near Uranius Tholus implies that it is substantially older than Olympus Mons. One such crater in the top center of the image has been flooded by lava from the surrounding plains. Because this crater must have formed after the volcano but before the plains, the plains must be younger than the volcano. (This is an example of using superposition relationships to determine the relative age of a series of features by determining which features lie on top of other features.) This area is believed to be more than 3 billion years old. This image was taken by NASA's Viking 1 orbiter in 1977. *Image Credit*: NASA
Mars Mission, Viking I on Titan III Centaur Rocket Launch
Title Mars Mission, Viking I on Titan III Centaur Rocket Launch
Description Launch of the Mars mission Viking I payload on Titan III Centaur rocket, August 20, 1975. The interplanetary cruise phase of the Viking spacecraft lasted 310 days until Mars orbit insertion. The Viking I orbiter high-gain antenna was put into operation November 12, 1975. The high-gain antenna was repositioned daily to keep the radio beams aimed directly at the Earth.
Date 08.27.1975
First Color Image From Viking Lander 1
title First Color Image From Viking Lander 1
Description This color picture of Mars was taken July 21--the day following Viking l's successful landing on the planet. The local time on Mars is approximately noon. The view is southeast from the Viking. Orange- red surface materials cover most of the surface, apparently forming a thin veneer over darker bedrock exposed in patches, as in the lower right. The reddish surface materials may be limonite (hydrated ferric oxide). Such weathering products form on Earth in the presence of water and an oxidizing atmosphere. The sky has a reddish cast, probably due to scattering and reflection from reddish sediment suspended in the lower atmosphere. The scene was scanned three times by the spacecraft's camera number 2, through a different color filter each time. To assist in balancing the colors, a second picture was taken of z test chart mounted on the rear of the spacecraft. Color data for these patches were adjusted until the patches were an appropriate color of gray. The same calibration was then used for the entire scene.
Colorful Water Clouds Over Mars
Title Colorful Water Clouds Over Mars
Explanation One place where water can be found on Mars [ http://www.nineplanets.org/mars.html ] is in clouds [ http://www-airs.jpl.nasa.gov/html/edu/clouds/What_are_clouds.html ]. In the above picture [ http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/PIAGenCatalogPage.pl?PIA03213 ] colorful water clouds [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap971013.html ] are visible just after sunrise in and around a maze of canyons [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap980212.html ] known as Noctis Labyrinthus [ http://ic-www.arc.nasa.gov/ic/projects/bayes-group/Atlas/Mars/features/n/noctis_labyrinthus.html ] (the labyrinth of the night). Scientists don't yet know, however, why these clouds formed [ http://apod.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search?clouds+and+mars ], and why some stick to the canyons [ http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-bib_query?bibcode=1997LPI....28.1413T ]. One exciting possibility is that water sometimes condenses [ http://faldo.atmos.uiuc.edu/w_unit/LESSONS/condensation.html ] in shaded regions [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap980306.html ] of the canyon [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap950720.html ]s, only to evaporate [ http://school.discovery.com/homeworkhelp/worldbook/atozscience/e/187400.html ] into clouds when exposed to the morning Sun [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap991110.html ]. Water in any form on the Martian surface [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000514.html ] might be important to sustaining life and possible future human exploration [ http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/science/human/index.html ]. Viking Orbiter 1 [ http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/viking.html ], which visited Mars [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/mars.html ] in 1976, took the above picture [ http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/PIAGenCatalogPage.pl?PIA03213 ]. The region shown is about 100 kilometers across.
Icy Mars
title Icy Mars
date 05.18.1979
description This high resolution photo of the surface of Mars was taken by Viking Lander 2 at its Utopia Planitia landing site on May 18, 1979, and relayed to Earth by Orbiter 1 on June 7th. It shows a thin coating of water ice on the rocks and soil. The time of the frost appearance corresponds almost exactly with the build up of frost one Martian year (23 Earth Months) ago. *Image Credit*: NASA
South Polar Residual Ice Cap
PIA00301
Sol (our sun)
Visual Imaging Subsystem - Camera B
Title South Polar Residual Ice Cap
Original Caption Released with Image This mosaic is composed of 18 Viking Orbiter images (6 each in red, green, and violet filters), acquired on September 28, 1977, during revolution 407 of Viking Orbiter 2. The south pole is located just off the lower left edge of the polar cap, and the 0 degree longitude meridian extends toward the top of the mosaic. The large crater near the right edge (named "South") is about 100 km in diameter. These images were acquired during southern summer on Mars (Ls = 341 degrees), the sub-solar declination was 8 degrees S., and the south polar cap was nearing its final stage of retreat just prior to vernal equinox. The south residual cap is approximately 400 km across, and the exposed surface is thought to consist dominantly of carbon-dioxide frost. This is in contrast to the water-ice surface of the north polar residual cap. It is likely that water ice is present in layers that underlie the south polar cap and that comprise the surrounding layered terrains. Near the top of this image, irregular pits with sharp-rimmed cliffs appear "etched", presumably by wind. A series of rugged mountains (extending toward the upper right corner of the image) are of unknown origin.
Amphitrites Patera
PIA00410
Sol (our sun)
Title Amphitrites Patera
Original Caption Released with Image A color image of the Amphitrites Patera region of Mars, north toward top. The scene shows several indistinct ring structures and radial ridges of an old volcano named Amphitrites Patera. A patera (Latin for shallow dish or saucer) is a volcano of broad areal extent with little vertical relief. This image is a composite of Viking medium-resolution images in black and white and low-resolution images in color. The image extends from latitude 55 degrees S. to 62 degrees S. and from longitude 292 degrees to 311 degrees, Lambert projection. Amphitrites Patera is a 138-km-diameter feature on the south rim of Hellas impact basin and is one of many indistinct ring structures in the area. The location of the paterae in this area of Hellas indicates that their source magma may have been influenced by the transition fractures of the basin. The radial ridges of Amphitrites extend for about 400 km north into the Hellas basin.
Fine Channel Networks
PIA00413
Sol (our sun)
Title Fine Channel Networks
Original Caption Released with Image A color image of fine channel networks on Mars, north toward top. The scene shows heavily cratered highlands dissected by dendritic open channel networks that dissect steep slopes of impact crater walls. This image is a composite of Viking high-resolution images in black and white and low-resolution images in color. The image extends from latitude 9 degrees S. to 5 degrees S. and from longitude 312 degrees to 320 degrees, Mercator projection. The dendritic pattern of the fine channels and their location on steep slopes leads to the interpretation that these are runoff channels. The restriction of these types of channels to ancient highland rocks suggests that these channels are old and date from a time on Mars when conditions existed for precipitation to actively erode rocks. After the channels reach a low plain, they appear to end. Termination may have resulted from burial by younger deposits or perhaps the flows percolated into the surface materials and continued underground.
Elysium
PIA00412
Sol (our sun)
Title Elysium
Original Caption Released with Image A color image of the Elysium Region of Mars, north toward top. The scene shows the Elysium Mons volcano (center), Hecates Tholus (to the north), Albor Tholus (to the south), and the depressions of Elysium Fossae. Mons is a Latin term for mountain, the term tholus designates a small mountain or dome. This image is a composite of Viking medium-resolution images in black and white and low-resolution images in color. The image extends from latitude 16 degrees N. to 35 degrees N. and from longitude 206 degrees to 220 degrees, Mercator projection. The Elysium region contain the second largest volcanic complex on Mars, surpassed in size by only the Tharsis complex. Elysium Mons, whose summit elevation is 16,000 m above the Martian datum, is at the crest of a regional topographic rise that emerges steeply and abruptly from the surrounding plains. The relief of Hecates is about 6,000 m and the relief of Albor is only about 4,000 m, because Hecates is on the edge of the rise whereas Albor is on it. After degradation of ancient cratered terrain within the northern lowlands, volcanic rocks erupted from Elysium Mons, Hecates Tholus, and Albor Tholus in Elysium Planitia. Elysium Fossae are volcano/tectonic troughs that parallel graben in the area. Some troughs are connected with channels to the east indicating an interaction between volcanic and hydrothermal systems.
Hadriaca Patera
PIA00415
Sol (our sun)
Title Hadriaca Patera
Original Caption Released with Image A color image of Hadriaca Patera on the northeast rim of Hellas basin of Mars, north toward top. The scene shows a central circular depression surrounded by low radial ridges and, at the bottom of the image, the channel of Dao Vallis. A patera (Latin for shallow dish or saucer) is a volcano of broad areal extent with little vertical relief. This image is a composite of Viking medium-resolution images in black and white and low-resolution images in color. The image extends from latitude 27 degrees S. to 37 degrees S. and from longitude 263 degrees to 273 degrees, Mercator projection. Hadriaca Patera is less than 2 km high, has a 60-km-diameter caldera at its center, and is surrounded by a 300-km-wide ring of low ridges. The radial ridges may be lava flows with lava channels at their crests. South of Hadriaca, Dao Vallis begins at a steep-walled depression 40 km across but forms a much shallower channel that extends 800 km southwest into the floor of the Hellas basin. The channel is very likely fluvial in origin, with the release of water being triggered by volcanic activity.
'Mister Badger' Pushing Mars Rock
PIA00528
Sol (our sun)
Camera 2
Title 'Mister Badger' Pushing Mars Rock
Original Caption Released with Image Viking's soil sampler collector arm successfully pushed a rock on the surface of Mars during the afternoon of Friday, October 8. The irregular-shaped rock was pushed several inches by the Lander's collector arm, which displaced the rock to the left of its original position, leaving it cocked slightly upward. Photographs and other information verified the successful rock push. Photo at left shows the soil sampler's collector head pushing against the rock, named 'Mister Badger' by flight controllers. Photo at right shows the displaced rock and the depression whence it came. Part of the soil displacement was caused by the collector s backhoe. A soil sample will be taken from the site Monday night, October 11. It will then be delivered to Viking s organic chemistry instrument for a series of analyses during the next few weeks. The sample is being sought from beneath a rock because scientists believe that, if there are life forms on Mars, they may seek rocks as shelter from the Sun s intense ultraviolet radiation.
Crater Moreux
PIA00420
Sol (our sun)
Title Crater Moreux
Original Caption Released with Image Color image of part of the Ismenius Lacus region of Mars (MC-5 quadrangle) containing the impact crater Moreux (right center), north toward top. The scene shows heavily cratered highlands in the south on relatively smooth lowland plains in the north separated by a belt of dissected terrain, containing flat-floored valleys, mesas, and buttes. This image is a composite of Viking medium-resolution images in black and white and low-resolution images in color. The image extends from latitude 36 degrees N. to 50 degrees N. and from longitude 310 degrees to 340 degrees, Lambert conformal conic projection. The dissected terrain along the highlands/lowlands boundary consists of the flat-floored valleys of Deuteronilus Mensae (on left) and Prontonilus Mensae (on right) and farther north the small, rounded hills of knobby terrain. Flows on the mensae floors contain striae that run parallel to valley walls, where valleys meet, the striae merge, similar to medial moraines on glaciers. Terraces within the valley hills have been interpreted as either layered rocks or wave terraces. The knobby terrain has been interpreted as remnants of the old, densely cratered highland terrain perhaps eroded by mass wasting.
Tyrrhena Patera
PIA00421
Sol (our sun)
Title Tyrrhena Patera
Original Caption Released with Image A color image of the Tyrrhena Patera Region of Mars, north toward top. The scene shows a central circular depression surrounded by circular fractures and highly dissected horizontal sheets. A patera (Latin for shallow dish or saucer) is a volcano of broad areal extent with little vertical relief. This image is a composite of Viking medium-resolution images in black and white and low-resolution images in color. The image extends from latitude 17 degrees S. to 25 degrees S. and from longitude 250 degrees to 260 degrees, Mercator projection. Tyrrhena Patera has a 12-km-diameter caldera at its center surrounded by a 45-km-diameter fracture ring. Around the fracture ring, the terrain is highly eroded forming ragged outward-facing cliffs, as though successive flat-lying layers had been eroded back. Cut into the sequence are several flat-floored channels that extend outward as far as 200 km from the center of the volcano. The structure may be composed of highly erodible ash layers and the channels may be fluvial, with the release of water being triggered by volcanic activity (Carr, 1981, The surface of Mars, Yale Univ. Press, New Haven, 232 p.).
Scamander Vallis
PIA00419
Sol (our sun)
Title Scamander Vallis
Original Caption Released with Image A color image of Scamander Vallis on Mars, north toward top. The scene shows heavily cratered highlands dissected by the slightly sinuous gully of Scamander Vallis. The channel begins by dissecting a steep slope of an impact crater wall and abruptly ends about 180 km north of the crater. This image is a composite of Viking medium-resolution images in black and white and low-resolution images in color. The image extends from latitude 13 degrees N. to 19 degrees N. and from longitude 330 degrees to 332 degrees, Mercator projection. The lack of tributaries, fairly straight path, and steep walls of the channel suggest spring sapping as a mode of origin. The abrupt termination may have resulted from burial by younger deposits or perhaps the flows percolated into the surface materials and continued underground.
Northeast View from Viking Landing Site
PIA00387
Sol (our sun)
Camera 1
Title Northeast View from Viking Landing Site
Original Caption Released with Image This Mars view looks northeast from Viking 1 and completes the 360 panorama of the landing site begun earlier with the spacecraft's other camera. A layer of haze can be seen in the Martian sky. Large dark boulders dominate the scene. The largest boulder (center) is about 3 meters (10 feet) wide and one meter (3 feet) high. Rocks in the foreground are lighter and appear mottled. The rocks may have been derived from lava flows or stream deposits which are visible on orbiter images. These deposits may have been redistributed by impact craters. The fine material visible between the rocks has dune morphology and appears to have been deposited by wind.
Trench Excavated By Viking 1 Surface Sampler
PIA00389
Sol (our sun)
Camera 1
Title Trench Excavated By Viking 1 Surface Sampler
Original Caption Released with Image This image, received today, shows the trench excavated by Viking 1 surface sampler. The trench was dug by extending the surface sampler collection head in a direction from lower right toward the upper left and then withdrawing the surface sampler collector head. Lumpy piles of material at end of trench at lower right was pulled by plowing from trench by the backhoe which will be used to dig trenches later in the mission. Area around trench has ripple marks produced by Martian wind. The trench which was dug early on Sol 8, is about 3 inches wide, 2 inches deep and 6 inches long. Steep dark crater walls show the grains of the Martian surface material stick together (have adhesion). The doming of the surface at far end of the trench show the granular material is dense. The Martian surface material behaves somewhat like moist sand on Earth. Evidence from the trench indicate a sample was collected and delivered to the experiments after repeated tries. The biology experiment level full indicator indicates a sample was received for analysis. The X-Ray fluorescence experiment has no indication to show it received a sample. The GCMS experiment level full indicator suggests no sample was received but this matter is being investigated.
Noctis Labyrinthus
PIA03213
Sol (our sun)
Visual Imaging Subsystem
Title Noctis Labyrinthus
Original Caption Released with Image As the sun rises over Noctis Labyrinthus (the labyrinth of the night), bright clouds of water ice can be observed in and around the tributary canyons of this high plateau region of Mars. This color composite image, reconstructed through violet, green, and orange filters, vividly shows the distribution of clouds against the rust colored background of this Martian desert. The picture was reconstructed by JPL's Image Processing Laboratory using in-flight calibration data to correct the color balance. Scientists have puzzled why the clouds cling to the canyon areas and, only in certain areas, spill over onto the plateau surface. One possibility is that water which condensed during the previous afternoon in shaded eastern facing slopes of the canyon floor is vaporized as the early morning sun falls on those same slopes. The area covered is about 10,000 square kilometers (4000 square miles), centered at 9 degrees South, 95 degrees West, and the large partial crater at lower right is Oudemans. The picture was taken on Viking Orbiter 1's 40th orbit.
Viking Lander's Buried Footpad #3
title Viking Lander's Buried Footpad #3
Description One of Viking l's three feet, which should be visible in this view, lies buried beneath a cover of loose Martian soil. This picture, taken Sunday (August 1), is the first to show the buried footpad #3. If not buried, the edge of the foot would be seen extending across the picture about midway between top and bottom. The foot sank about five inches, and fine-grained soil slumped into the depression and over the foot. The cracked nature of the surface near the slump area and the small, steep cliff at left indicates that the material is weakly cohesive. The surface material here is very similar mechanically to lunar soil.
The Search for Life on Mars
Title The Search for Life on Mars
Explanation Although images of Mars taken from space revealed the planet to have a barren and cratered surface, scientists did not give up the search for martian life. In 1976 NASA's Viking project [ http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/viking.html ] succeeded in landing two robot probes on the surface of Mars. These landers were able to carry out sophisticated chemical experiments to look for signs of microscopic life in the martian soil. However, the experiments failed to produce any convincing evidence for life on Mars. Cameras onboard the Viking Landers also returned spectacular photos of the rocky martian landscape, like the one above, which showed no sign of martian animal or plant life. For more information about the picture see The NSSDC Mars Photo Gallery [ http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/photo_gallery/PhotoGallery-Mars.html#surface ]. The exploration of Mars is chronicled by the Center For Mars Exploration. [ http://cmex-www.arc.nasa.gov/ ]
Phobos Over Mars
Title Phobos Over Mars
Explanation Hurtling through space a mere 3,000 miles above the Martian surface [ http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/mars_panoramas.html ], the diminutive moon Phobos [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap980914.html ] (below and left of center) was imaged against the backdrop of a large shield volcano [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap981019.html ] by the Viking 2 Orbiter [ http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/database/www-nmc?75-083A ] in 1977. This dramatic picture [ http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/imgcat/html/object_page/vo2_304b88.html ] looks down from the Orbiter's viewpoint about 8,000 miles above the volcano, Ascraeus Mons. Phobos itself is 5,000 miles below the Orbiter. North is toward the top with the Sun illuminating the scene from the South (black dots are reference marks). For scale, Ascraeus Mons is about 200 miles across at its base while asteroid sized [ http://stardate.utexas.edu/resources/ssguide/asteroids.html ] Phobos is about 15 miles in diameter. In this spectacular moon-planet [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap990311.html ] image, volcanic calderas (craters) are visible at the [ http://volcano.und.nodak.edu/vwdocs/planet_volcano/mars/Overview.html ] summit of Ascraeus Mons -- while impact craters on the sunlit side of Phobos [ http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/nineplanets/nineplanets/phobos.html ]' surface can also be seen!
Evidence for Recent Liquid Water on Mars
Title Evidence for Recent Liquid Water on Mars
Full Description Gullies eroded into the wall of a meteor impact crater in Noachis Terra. This high resolution view (top left) from the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) shows channels and associated aprons of debris that are interpreted to have formed by groundwater seepage, surface runoff, and debris flow. The lack of small craters superimposed on the channels and apron deposits indicates that these features are geologically young. It is possible that these gullies indicate that liquid water is present within the martian subsurface today. The MOC image was acquired on September 28, 1999. The scene covers an area approximately 3 kilometers (1.9 miles) wide by 6.7 km (4.1 mi) high (note, the aspect ratio is 1.5 to 1.0). Sunlight illuminates this area from the upper left. The image is located near 54.8S, 342.5W. The context image (above) shows the location of the MOC image on the south-facing wall of an impact crater approximately 20 kilometers (12 miles) in diameter. The context picture was obtained by the Viking 1 orbiter in 1980 and is illuminated from the upper left. The large mound on the floor of the crater in the context view is a sand dune field. The Mars Orbiter Camera high resolution images are taken black-and-white (grayscale), the color seen here has been synthesized from the colors of Mars observed by the MOC wide angle cameras and by the Viking Orbiters in the late 1970s. A brief description of how the color was generated: The MOC narrow angle camera only takes grayscale (black and white) pictures. To create the color versions seen here, we have taken much lower resolution red and blue images acquired by the MOC's wide angle cameras, and by the Viking Orbiter cameras in the 1970s, synthesized a green image by averaging red and blue, and created a pallete of colors that represent the range of colors on Mars. We then use a relationship that correlates color and brightness to assign a color to each gray level. This is only a crude approximation of martian color. It is likely Mars would not look like this to a human observer at Mars.
Date 06/22/2000
NASA Center Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Viking Pre-Launch Test Flight
Title Viking Pre-Launch Test Flight
Full Description The Titan booster is a two-stage liquid-fueled rocket, with two additional large, solid-propellant rockets attached. It is a member of the Titan family that was used in NASA's Gemini program. The Centaur is a liquid oxygen- liquid hydrogen, high- energy upper stage used on Surveyor flights to the Moon and on Mariner flights to Mars. At liftoff, the solid rockets provide 9.61 million newtons (2.16 million pounds) of thrust. When the solids burn out, the first stage of the Titan booster ignites, and followed by the second-stage ignition as the first stage shuts down. The Centaur ignites on second stage shutdown to inject the spacecraft into orbit. Then after a 30-minute coast around the Earth into position for re-start, the Centaur re-ignites to propel Viking on its Mars trajectory. Once this maneuver is completed the spacecraft separates from the Centaur, which subsequently is deflected away from the flight path to prevent its impact on the surface of Mars. Shortly after separating from the Centaur, the orbiter portion of the combined orbiter-lander spacecraft orients and stabilizes the spacecraft by using the Sun and a very bright star in the southern sky, Canopus, for celestial reference. For more information about Titan and Centaur, please see Chapters 4 and 8, respectively, in Roger Launius and Dennis Jenkins' book To Reach the High Frontier published by The University Press of Kentucky in 2002.
Date 01/20/1974
NASA Center Kennedy Space Center
Titan/Centaur Launch for Viking I
Name of Image Titan/Centaur Launch for Viking I
Date of Image 1975-08-20
Full Description The Titan III/Centaur, Viking 1, is sitting on the launch pad ready for blast off. The launch occurred on August 20, 1975. The mission was for the scientific investigation of Mars, and United States? first attempt to soft land a spacecraft on another planet.
If You Could Stand on Mars
Title If You Could Stand on Mars
Explanation If you could stand on Mars [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap960721.html ] - what would you see? Viking 1 robot landers answered this question in 1976 with pictures like the one shown above. The dark rocks, red soil, and green-tinged sky grace this rendition [ http://barsoom.msss.com/mars/pictures/viking_lander/ viking_lander.html ] of a normal Martian [ http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/nineplanets/nineplanets/mars.html ] afternoon. At the bottom corners of the picture are portions of Viking spacecraft. The red color of the rocks is caused by an abundance of iron in the soil. The Martian [ http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/photo_gallery/PhotoGallery-Mars.html ] surface is covered by rocks, huge craters [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap960203.html ], fantastic canyons [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap950720.html ], and gigantic volcanoes [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap950719.html ] that dwarf any on Earth [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap951216.html ]. No life has been found, but some speculate that since not all spacecraft reaching Mars [ http://cmex-www.arc.nasa.gov/ ] from Earth [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap950824.html ] had been fully decontaminated [ http://cmex-www.arc.nasa.gov/Exo_Strat/Docs/protection.html ], Earth born microbes [ http://www.discovery.com/DCO/doc/1012/world/nature/deceit/deceit4.1.html ] might live there now [ http://commtechlab.msu.edu/CTLProjects/dlc-me/news/ns1095ap4.html ].
Utopia on Mars
Title Utopia on Mars
Explanation The Viking 2 spacecraft was launched on the Road to Utopia [ http://ballet.cit.gu.edu.au/M/title-exact?title=Road+to+Utopia ] in September of 1975 (30 years after Bing, Dotty, and Bob). In August of 1976, after making the second successful Martian landing, Viking 2's lander began recording data used to produce this exquisitely detailed [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap960720.html ] image of the Martian surface [ http://bang.lanl.gov/solarsys/marssurf.htm ] in the area of Utopia Planitia (the Plain of Utopia). Visible at the lower right are the protective shroud that covered the lander's soil collector head, ejected after the descent, along with one of the lander's dust covered footpads. Seen near the center are shallow trenches dug by the sampler arm [ http://ceps.nasm.edu:2020/MARS/viking_lab.html#life ]. Mars looks red because its surface is covered with reddish iron oxide dust (rust). This dust, suspended in the thin carbon dioxide atmosphere [ http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/marsfact.html ], also filters the sunlight causing surface views [ http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/photo_gallery/ photogallery-mars.html#surface ] to take on a reddish tinge. The Vikings made the first successful landings [ http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/text/viking_20th.txt ] on Mars 20 years ago [ http://ceps.nasm.edu:2020/MARS/VIKING/CAPTIONS/cap_marsfirst.html ]. What does Mars look like today? [ http://cmex-www.arc.nasa.gov/MarsImages/MarsToday/MarsToday.html ]
A Rotating True Color View of the Martian South Pole
Title A Rotating True Color View of the Martian South Pole
Abstract This is one of a series of visualizations showing false-colored renderings of the Martian topography measured by MOLA in the vicinity of the Mars Polar Lander landing site. Blue tones represent elevations of less than 2 kilometers, while reddish tones are greater than about 2.8 kilometers, relative to the mean equatorial height of Mars. The elevation of the landing site is about 2.4 km, midway into the polar layered terrain. The 400 meters (1/4 mile) resolution of the MOLA data gives a smoothed but vertically exaggerated view of the topography. At this scale it is impossible to ascertain the actual roughness at the lander's destination, forcing project directors to make their best guesses based on available data.
Completed 1999-11-22
Mars North Pole flyover
Title Mars North Pole flyover
Abstract MOLA takes elevation data of Mars North Pole combined with Viking colormap.
Completed 2000-03-15
Mars North Pole flyover
Title Mars North Pole flyover
Abstract MOLA takes elevation data of Mars North Pole combined with Viking colormap.
Completed 2000-03-15
Mars North Pole flyover
Title Mars North Pole flyover
Abstract MOLA takes elevation data of Mars North Pole combined with Viking colormap.
Completed 2000-03-15
Mars North Pole flyover
Title Mars North Pole flyover
Abstract MOLA takes elevation data of Mars North Pole combined with Viking colormap.
Completed 2000-03-15
Mars North Pole flyover
Title Mars North Pole flyover
Abstract MOLA takes elevation data of Mars North Pole combined with Viking colormap.
Completed 2000-03-15
Mars North Pole flyover
Title Mars North Pole flyover
Abstract MOLA takes elevation data of Mars North Pole combined with Viking colormap.
Completed 2000-03-15
Mars Odyssey: Mars' Northern Hemisphere
Title Mars Odyssey: Mars' Northern Hemisphere
Abstract NASA's Mars Odyssey detected water ice in the northern hemisphere. During the winter months, the icy soil is covered by a thick layer of carbon dioxide ('dry ice') frost obscuring the water ice signature.This animation is match-framed to #2779 and #2780. Its purpose is to establish a frame of reference using a true color dataset. In this case, that data is from Viking.
Completed 2003-06-25
Olympus Mons Flyover.
Title Olympus Mons Flyover.
Abstract This view of Olympus Mons was constructed by combining the Viking color texture with MOLA altimetry data. There is no vertical exaggeration applied to the surface displacement.
Completed 2000-03-09
Olympus Mons Flyover.
Title Olympus Mons Flyover.
Abstract This view of Olympus Mons was constructed by combining the Viking color texture with MOLA altimetry data. There is no vertical exaggeration applied to the surface displacement.
Completed 2000-03-09
A Comparison of Visible and Topographic Data for the Martian Sout …
Title A Comparison of Visible and Topographic Data for the Martian South Pole: Version 2
Abstract This is one of a series of visualizations showing false-colored renderings of the Martian topography measured by MOLA in the vicinity of the Mars Polar Lander landing site. Blue tones represent elevations of less than 2 kilometers, while reddish tones are greater than about 2.8 kilometers, relative to the mean equatorial height of Mars. The elevation of the landing site is about 2.4 km, midway into the polar layered terrain. The 400 meters (1/4 mile) resolution of the MOLA data gives a smoothed but vertically exaggerated view of the topography. At this scale it is impossible to ascertain the actual roughness at the lander's destination, forcing project directors to make their best guesses based on available data.
Completed 1999-11-22
Earth-Mars Volcano Comparisons: True Color Mars
Title Earth-Mars Volcano Comparisons: True Color Mars
Abstract Despite the 2:1 relative size difference between Earth and Mars, the Martian volcano, Olympus Mons, dwarfs Earth's Mauna Loa, Hawaii volcano. When measured from the ocean floor, Mauna Loa is approximately 10km. high compared to Olympus Mons at 23km. This animation is one element of the Earth-Mars comparison, showing Mars in it's true color beauty. The beginning of this animation is match-framed to animations #2864 through #2872.
Completed 2003-12-18
Flyover of Mars' Valles Marineris (True Color)
Title Flyover of Mars' Valles Marineris (True Color)
Abstract Flyover of Mars' Valles Marineris (True Color). The height is based on MOLA data.
Completed 1999-05-24
Ophir Chasma
PIA00425
Sol (our sun)
Title Ophir Chasma
Original Caption Released with Image During its examination of Mars, the Viking 1 spacecraft returned images of Valles Marineris, a huge canyon system 5,000 km long, up to 240 km wide, and 6.5 km deep, whose connected chasma or valleys may have formed from a combination of erosional collapse and structural activity. This synthetic oblique view shows Ophir Chasma, the northern most one of the connected valleys of Valles Marineris, north toward top of frame, for scale, the large impact crater in lower right corner is 30 km (18 miles) wide. This point-perspective, digital image, centered at latitude 4 degrees S., longitude 71 degrees, is a composite of Viking 1 Orbiter high-resolution (about 80 m/pixel or picture element) images in black and white and low-resolution (about 250 m/pixel) images in color, no vertical exaggeration. The Viking 1 craft landed on Mars in July of 1976. Ophir Chasma is a large west-northwest-trending trough about 100 km wide. The Chasma is bordered by 4 km high walled cliffs, most likely faults, that show spur-and-gully morphology and smooth sections. The walls have been dissected by landslides forming reentrants, one area (upper left) on the north wall shows a young landslide about 100 km wide. The volume of the landslide debris is more than 1000 times greater than that from the May 18, 1980 debris avalanche from Mount St. Helens. The longitudinal grooves seen in the foreground are thought to be due to differential shear and lateral spreading at high velocities. The landslide passes between mounds of interior layered deposits on the floor of the chasma.
Viking 1 on Mars
title Viking 1 on Mars
date 07.23.1976
description Sand dunes and large rocks are revealed in this panoramic image of Mars taken by Viking 1's Camera 1. The horizon is approximately 3 kilometers (2 miles) away. The late afternoon sun is high in the sky over the left side of the picture. The support struts of the S-band high-gain antenna extends to the top of the picture. The American flags are located on the two RTG (Radioisotope Thermoeletric Generator) wind screens. In the middle third of the picture the rocky surface is covered by thick deposits of wind-blown material, forming numerous dunes. At the center of the picture on the horizon are two low hills which may be part of the rim of the distant crater. Two very large rocks are visible in the middle ground, the nearer one is 3 meters (10 feet) in diameter and is 8 meters (25 feets) from the spacecraft. A cloud layer is visible halfway between the horizon and the top of the picture. The meterology boom is located right of center. Behind it, the "White Mesa" is visible. In the nearer ground are numerous rocks about 10cm (4 inches) across, with horse-shoe shaped scour marks on their upwind side and wind tails in their lee. The fine grained material in the front of them contains small pits formed by impact of material kicked out by the lander's descent rocket engines. *Image Credit*: NASA
Earth-Mars Volcano Comparisons: Mars inside a transparent Earth
Title Earth-Mars Volcano Comparisons: Mars inside a transparent Earth
Abstract Despite the 2:1 relative size difference between Earth and Mars, the Martian volcano, Olympus Mons, dwarfs Earth's Mauna Loa, Hawaii volcano. When measured from the ocean floor, Mauna Loa is approximately 10km. high compared to Olympus Mons at 23km. This animation not only shows the relative size differences between Mauna Loa and Olympus Mons, but also shows the size difference between these 2 planets. The equatorial radius of Mars is approximately 3397 km. compared to Earth's equatorial radius of 6378.1 km. This animation is match-framed to animations #2864 through #2872.
Completed 2003-12-18
Mars Cutaway
Title Mars Cutaway
Abstract Mars Globe showing a cutaway revealing the MOHO data.
Completed 2000-03-01
Earth-Mars Volcano Comparisons: Final Composite
Title Earth-Mars Volcano Comparisons: Final Composite
Abstract Despite the 2:1 relative size difference between Earth and Mars, the Martian volcano, Olympus Mons, still dwarfs Earth's Mauna Loa, Hawaii volcano. When measured from the ocean floor, Mauna Loa is 10km. high compared to Olympus Mons at 23km. This post-produced animation composite was created using various elements from animations #2865 through #2872.
Completed 2003-12-18
FUSE/MOLA: Mars Once Had Oceans
Title FUSE/MOLA: Mars Once Had Oceans
Abstract This visualization shows how Mars might look with an ocean at -500m where the lowest point on Mars is about -8000m and the highest point is about 22000m. Data from The FUSE spacecraft and from the Mars Global Surveyor/MOLA instrument where used to support this theory.
Completed 2001-12-04
Viking Lander
title Viking Lander
Viking Lander
title Viking Lander
Wind Drifts at Viking 1 Landing Site
PIA00990
Sol (our sun)
Title Wind Drifts at Viking 1 Landing Site
Original Caption Released with Image This image is of so-called wind drifts seen at the Viking 1 landing site. These are somewhat different from the features seen at the Pathfinder site in two important ways. 1) These landforms have no apparent slip-or avalanche-face as do both terrestrial dunes and the Pathfinder features, and may represent deposits of sediment falling from the air, as opposed to dune sand, which "hops" or saltates along the ground, 2) these features may indicate erosion on one side, because of the layering and apparent scouring on their right sides. They may, therefore have been deposited by a wind moving left to right, partly or weakly cemented or solidified by surface processes at some later time, then eroded by a second wind (right to left), exposing their internal structure. Mars Pathfinder is the second in NASA's Discovery program of low-cost spacecraft with highly focused science goals. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, developed and manages the Mars Pathfinder mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).
General Description Exploration Imagery
The 'Face on Mars'
title The 'Face on Mars'
Description Shortly after midnight Sunday morning (5 April 1998 12:39 AM PST), the Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) on the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) spacecraft successfully acquired a high resolution image of the 'Face on Mars' feature in the Cydonia region. The image was transmitted to Earth on Sunday, and retrieved from the mission computer data base Monday morning (6 April 1998). The image was processed at the Malin Space Science Systems (MSSS) facility 9:15 AM and the raw image immediately transferred to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) for release to the Internet. The images shown here were subsequently processed at MSSS. The picture was acquired 375 seconds after the spacecraft's 220th close approach to Mars. At that time, the 'Face', located at approximately 40.8° N, 9.6° W, was 275 miles (444 km) from the spacecraft. The 'morning' sun was 25° above the horizon. The picture has a resolution of 14.1 feet (4.3 meters) per pixel, making it ten times higher resolution than the best previous image of the feature, which was taken by the Viking Mission in the mid-1970's. The full image covers an area 2.7 miles (4.4 km) wide and 25.7 miles (41.5 km) long. In this comparison, the best Viking image has been enlarged to 3.3 times its original resolution, and the MOC image has been decreased by a similar 3.3 times, creating images of roughly the same size. In addition, the MOC images have been geometrically transformed to a more overhead projection (different from the mercator map projection of PIA01440 & 1441) for ease of comparison with the Viking image. The left image is a portion of Viking Orbiter 1 frame 070A13, the middle image is a portion of MOC frame shown normally, and the right image is the same MOC frame but with the brightness inverted to simulate the approximate lighting conditions of the Viking image. Photo Credit: NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems
Barsoom
Title Barsoom
Explanation Yes, I have been to Barsoom again ..." begins John Carter in Edgar Rice Burroughs' 1913 science fiction classic "The Gods of Mars" [ http://www.literature.org/Works/Edgar-Rice-Burroughs/gods-of-mars/ ]. In Burroughs' novels describing Carter's adventures on Mars, "Barsoom" is the local inhabitants' name [ http://humbabe.arc.nasa.gov/mgcm/fun/pop.html ] for the Red Planet. Long after Burroughs' stories were published, Mars continues [ http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4212/on-mars.html ] to inspire Earthdweller [ http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/mars/mars_crew.html ]s' interests [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap970627.html ] and imagination [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap970528.html ]. Soon it will again be invaded by spacecraft from Earth [ http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov ]. This dramatic picture of a crescent Mars was taken by NASA's Viking 2 [ http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/ database/www-nmc?75-083A ] spacecraft as it approached [ http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/files/images/captions/ p17442.txt ] Barsoom in 1976.
Phobos Over Mars
Title Phobos Over Mars
Explanation Hurtling through space a mere 3,000 miles above the Martian surface [ http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/ mars_panoramas.html ], the diminutive moon Phobos [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap980914.html ] (below and left of center) was imaged against the backdrop of a large shield volcano [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap981019.html ] by the Viking 2 Orbiter [ http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/database/ MasterCatalog?sc=1975-083A ] in 1977. This dramatic picture [ http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/imgcat/html/object_page/ vo2_304b88.html ] looks down from the Orbiter's viewpoint about 8,000 miles above the volcano, Ascraeus Mons. Phobos itself is 5,000 miles below the Orbiter. North is toward the top with the Sun illuminating the scene from the South (black dots are reference marks). For scale, Ascraeus Mons is about 200 miles across at its base while asteroid sized [ http://stardate.org/resources/ssguide/asteroids.html ] Phobos is about 15 miles in diameter. In this spectacular moon-planet [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap990311.html ] image, volcanic calderas (craters) are visible at the [ http://volcano.und.nodak.edu/vwdocs/planet_volcano/mars/ Overview.html ] summit of Ascraeus Mons -- while impact craters on the sunlit side of Phobos [ http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/nineplanets/nineplanets/ phobos.html ]' surface can also be seen!
Mars Pathfinder's Landing Site
Title Mars Pathfinder's Landing Site
Explanation Where is Mars Pathfinder [ http://mpfwww.jpl.nasa.gov/default.html ]? Follow the arrow in the above picture taken by the Viking Orbiter [ http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/viking.html ] in 1976. From the surface Mars [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap970705.html ] appears covered with rocks, but from orbit Mars [ http://mars.sgi.com/ops/sol6.html ] appears covered with craters. However, several familiar features are visible in this photograph [ http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/marsland.html ]. To the left (west) of Sagan Memorial Station [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap970710.html ] are the now-familiar twin peaks [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap970714.html ] that dominate the horizon of many Pathfinder photographs [ http://mars.sgi.com/default.html ]. These hills are about one kilometer from the landing site, twice the planned range of Sojourner [ http://mpfwww.jpl.nasa.gov/rover/faqs_sojourner.html ]. Two craters loom nearby: a small one to the east not easily visible here, and a big one to the south of Pathfinder. The landing site is in the dry flood channel named Ares Vallis [ http://members.aol.com/space7/exper.html ].
18 Miles From Deimos
Title 18 Miles From Deimos
Explanation Diminutive Deimos [ http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/nineplanets/nineplanets/ datamax.html#smallest ] is the smallest of the two tiny Moons of Mars. [ http://www.literature.org/Works/Edgar-Rice-Burroughs/ chessmen/prelude.html ] Potato-shaped and barely 6 miles wide this asteroid-like body [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap951003.html ] was visited by the Viking 2 orbiter in 1977. This image was made [ http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/imgcat/html/object_page/vo2_423b63.html ] when the spacecraft approached to within 18 miles of Deimos' surface. One of the most detailed pictures of a celestial body ever taken [ http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/imgcat/ ] by an orbiting spacecraft, the field of view is less than a square mile and features just under 10 feet across are visible. Craters and large chunks of rock are seen scattered on the surface while some of the craters appear to be covered by a layer of powdery soil or "regolith" [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap980327.html ].
Barsoom
Title Barsoom
Explanation Yes, I have been to Barsoom again ..." begins John Carter in Edgar Rice Burroughs' 1913 science fiction classic "The Gods of Mars" [ http://www.literature.org/Works/Edgar-Rice-Burroughs/gods-of-mars/ ]. In Burroughs' novels describing Carter's adventures on Mars, "Barsoom" is the local inhabitants' name [ http://humbabe.arc.nasa.gov/mgcm/fun/pop.html ] for the Red Planet. Long after Burroughs' stories were published, Mars continues [ http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/ ] to inspire Earthdweller [ http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/mars/mars_crew.html ]s' interests [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap970627.html ] and imagination [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap970528.html ]. Soon it will again be invaded by spacecraft from Earth [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap990108.html ]. This dramatic picture of a crescent Mars was taken by NASA's Viking 2 [ http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/database/www-nmc?75-083A ] spacecraft in 1976.
Mars Orbiter Camera Views the "Face on Mars" - Comparison with Vi …
PIA01442
Sol (our sun)
Mars Orbiter Camera
Title Mars Orbiter Camera Views the "Face on Mars" - Comparison with Viking
Original Caption Released with Image Shortly after midnight Sunday morning (5 April 1998 12:39 AM PST), the Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) on the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) spacecraft successfully acquired a high resolution image of the "Face on Mars" feature in the Cydonia region. The image was transmitted to Earth on Sunday, and retrieved from the mission computer data base Monday morning (6 April 1998). The image was processed at the Malin Space Science Systems (MSSS) facility 9:15 AM and the raw image immediately transferred to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) for release to the Internet. The images shown here were subsequently processed at MSSS. The picture was acquired 375 seconds after the spacecraft's 220th close approach to Mars. At that time, the "Face", located at approximately 40.8° N, 9.6° W, was 275 miles (444 km) from the spacecraft. The "morning" sun was 25° above the horizon. The picture has a resolution of 14.1 feet (4.3 meters) per pixel, making it ten times higher resolution than the best previous image of the feature, which was taken by the Viking Mission in the mid-1970's. The full image covers an area 2.7 miles (4.4 km) wide and 25.7 miles (41.5 km) long. In this comparison, the best Viking image has been enlarged to 3.3 times its original resolution, and the MOC image has been decreased by a similar 3.3 times, creating images of roughly the same size. In addition, the MOC images have been geometrically transformed to a more overhead projection (different from the mercator map projection of PIA01440 & 1441) for ease of comparison with the Viking image. The left image is a portion of Viking Orbiter 1 frame 070A13, the middle image is a portion of MOC frame shown normally, and the right image is the same MOC frame but with the brightness inverted to simulate the approximate lighting conditions of the Viking image. Processing Image processing has been applied to the images in order to improve the visibility of features. This processing included the following steps: * The image was processed to remove the sensitivity differences between adjacent picture elements (calibrated). This removes the vertical streaking. * The contrast and brightness of the image was adjusted, and "filters" were applied to enhance detail at several scales. * The image was then geometrically warped to meet the computed position information for a mercator-type map. This corrected for the left-right flip, and the non-vertical viewing angle (about 45° from vertical), but also introduced some vertical "elongation" of the image for the same reason Greenland looks larger than Africa on a mercator map of the Earth. * A section of the image, containing the "Face" and a couple of nearly impact craters and hills, was "cut" out of the full image and reproduced separately. See PIA01440-1442 for additional processing steps. Also see PIA01236 for the raw image. Malin Space Science Systems and the California Institute of Technology built the MOC using spare hardware from the Mars Observer, mission. MSSS operates the camera from its facilities in San Diego, CA. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Mars Surveyor Operations Project operates the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft with its industrial partner, Lockheed Martin Astronautics, from facilities in Pasadena, CA and Denver, CO.
1st Manned Lunar Landing and 1st Robotic Mars Landing Commemorati …
PIA03902
Sol (our sun)
Thermal Emission Imaging System
Title 1st Manned Lunar Landing and 1st Robotic Mars Landing Commemorative Release: Viking 1 Landing Site in Chryse Planitia - Visible Image
Original Caption Released with Image (Released 20 July 2002) The date July 20 marks two major milestones in humanity's grand push to explore the frontier of space. On this date, in 1969, the Apollo 11 lunar module Eagle landed the first men (Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin) on another celestial body, the Moon . In 1976, seven years to the day, the robotic Viking 1 Lander made the first successful landing on the ruddy rock strewn surface of Mars . To commemorate these milestones the THEMIS Team is releasing both an IR (Infra-Red) and Visible image of the Viking 1 landing site. THEMIS is currently imaging landing sites for future robotic missions including the twin Mars Exploration Rovers set to touchdown in January 2004. All of these missions anticipate the day when, hopefully in the not too distant future, astronauts will land on the red planet. So as we reflect on our rich tradition of space exploration let us also dream and plan on a wondrous future exploring the mysterious red planet. Viking 1 landed on a relatively smooth plain in Chryse Planitia (Plains of Gold), which is a low region of the northern hemisphere of Mars. The reported landing site is 22.48° N, 49.97° W. The landing site is marked with an X in the images. This region of Mars is dominated by plains, wrinkle ridges, and impact craters. This 4 framelet image is part of a 5 band image sequence. This image primarily contains plains, wrinkle ridges and craters. Some craters have ripples on their floors, which are probably dunes while other craters have some type of deposit on their floors. These deposits are most likely aeolian in nature. In places the wrinkle ridges appear to be buried or mantled with material that may be either volcanic and or fluvial in origin. The lander's view of the surface shows an undulating rocky surface with some finer grained materials present, and distant crater rims and wrinkle ridges.
1st Manned Lunar Landing and 1st Robotic Mars Landing Commemorati …
PIA03902
Sol (our sun)
Thermal Emission Imaging System
Title 1st Manned Lunar Landing and 1st Robotic Mars Landing Commemorative Release: Viking 1 Landing Site in Chryse Planitia - Visible Image
Original Caption Released with Image (Released 20 July 2002) The date July 20 marks two major milestones in humanity's grand push to explore the frontier of space. On this date, in 1969, the Apollo 11 lunar module Eagle landed the first men (Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin) on another celestial body, the Moon . In 1976, seven years to the day, the robotic Viking 1 Lander made the first successful landing on the ruddy rock strewn surface of Mars . To commemorate these milestones the THEMIS Team is releasing both an IR (Infra-Red) and Visible image of the Viking 1 landing site. THEMIS is currently imaging landing sites for future robotic missions including the twin Mars Exploration Rovers set to touchdown in January 2004. All of these missions anticipate the day when, hopefully in the not too distant future, astronauts will land on the red planet. So as we reflect on our rich tradition of space exploration let us also dream and plan on a wondrous future exploring the mysterious red planet. Viking 1 landed on a relatively smooth plain in Chryse Planitia (Plains of Gold), which is a low region of the northern hemisphere of Mars. The reported landing site is 22.48° N, 49.97° W. The landing site is marked with an X in the images. This region of Mars is dominated by plains, wrinkle ridges, and impact craters. This 4 framelet image is part of a 5 band image sequence. This image primarily contains plains, wrinkle ridges and craters. Some craters have ripples on their floors, which are probably dunes while other craters have some type of deposit on their floors. These deposits are most likely aeolian in nature. In places the wrinkle ridges appear to be buried or mantled with material that may be either volcanic and or fluvial in origin. The lander's view of the surface shows an undulating rocky surface with some finer grained materials present, and distant crater rims and wrinkle ridges.
1st Manned Lunar Landing and 1st Robotic Mars Landing Commemorati …
PIA03902
Sol (our sun)
Thermal Emission Imaging System
Title 1st Manned Lunar Landing and 1st Robotic Mars Landing Commemorative Release: Viking 1 Landing Site in Chryse Planitia - Visible Image
Original Caption Released with Image (Released 20 July 2002) The date July 20 marks two major milestones in humanity's grand push to explore the frontier of space. On this date, in 1969, the Apollo 11 lunar module Eagle landed the first men (Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin) on another celestial body, the Moon . In 1976, seven years to the day, the robotic Viking 1 Lander made the first successful landing on the ruddy rock strewn surface of Mars . To commemorate these milestones the THEMIS Team is releasing both an IR (Infra-Red) and Visible image of the Viking 1 landing site. THEMIS is currently imaging landing sites for future robotic missions including the twin Mars Exploration Rovers set to touchdown in January 2004. All of these missions anticipate the day when, hopefully in the not too distant future, astronauts will land on the red planet. So as we reflect on our rich tradition of space exploration let us also dream and plan on a wondrous future exploring the mysterious red planet. Viking 1 landed on a relatively smooth plain in Chryse Planitia (Plains of Gold), which is a low region of the northern hemisphere of Mars. The reported landing site is 22.48° N, 49.97° W. The landing site is marked with an X in the images. This region of Mars is dominated by plains, wrinkle ridges, and impact craters. This 4 framelet image is part of a 5 band image sequence. This image primarily contains plains, wrinkle ridges and craters. Some craters have ripples on their floors, which are probably dunes while other craters have some type of deposit on their floors. These deposits are most likely aeolian in nature. In places the wrinkle ridges appear to be buried or mantled with material that may be either volcanic and or fluvial in origin. The lander's view of the surface shows an undulating rocky surface with some finer grained materials present, and distant crater rims and wrinkle ridges.
1st Manned Lunar Landing and 1st Robotic Mars Landing Commemorati …
PIA03901
Sol (our sun)
Thermal Emission Imaging System
Title 1st Manned Lunar Landing and 1st Robotic Mars Landing Commemorative Release: Viking 1 Landing Site in Chryse Planitia - Infrared Image
Original Caption Released with Image (Released 20 July 2002) The date July 20 marks two major milestones in humanity's grand push to explore the frontier of space. On this date, in 1969, the Apollo 11 lunar module Eagle landed the first men (Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin) on another celestial body, the Moon . In 1976, seven years to the day, the robotic Viking 1 Lander made the first successful landing on the ruddy rock strewn surface of Mars . To commemorate these milestones the THEMIS Team is releasing both an IR (Infra-Red) and Visible image of the Viking 1 landing site. THEMIS is currently imaging landing sites for future robotic missions including the twin Mars Exploration Rovers set to touchdown in January 2004. All of these missions anticipate the day when, hopefully in the not too distant future, astronauts will land on the red planet. So as we reflect on our rich tradition of space exploration let us also dream and plan on a wondrous future exploring the mysterious red planet. Viking 1 landed on a relatively smooth plain in Chryse Planitia (Plains of Gold), which is a low region of the northern hemisphere of Mars. The reported landing site is 22.48° N, 49.97° W. The landing site is marked with an X in the images. This region of Mars is dominated by plains, wrinkle ridges, and impact craters. This one band IR (band 9 at 12.6 microns) image shows bright and dark textures, which are primarily due to differences in the abundance of rocks on the surface. The relatively cool (dark) regions during the day are rocky or indurated materials whereas fine sand and dust are warmer (bright). The brightness levels show daytime surface temperatures, which range from about minus 34 degrees to minus 22 degrees Celsius (minus 29 degrees to minus 8 degrees Fahrenheit). Many of the temperature variations are due to slope effects, with sun-facing slopes warmer than shaded slopes. The dark rings around several of the craters are due to the presence of rocky (cool) material ejected from the crater. These rocks are well below the resolution of any existing Mars camera, but THEMIS can detect the temperature variations they produce. Daytime temperature variations are produced by a combination of topographic (solar heating) and thermophysical (thermal inertia and albedo) effects. Due to topographic heating the surface morphologies seen in THEMIS daytime IR images are similar to those seen in previous imagery and MOLA topography. Smooth, undulating, and ridged plains dominate this scene. The major thermophysical variations seen in daytime images are associated with impact craters and the wrinkle ridges. Other than these ejecta deposits and the wrinkle ridges, there is little variation in the thermophysical properties of the surface materials.
Viking Lander - model
Title Viking Lander - model
Description Viking Lander model.
Date 09.14.1973
The viking spacecraft. weighing 7760 lb (3520 kg) consists of an …
Description The viking spacecraft. weighing 7760 lb (3520 kg) consists of an Orbiter and Lander (encapsulated in its bioshield in this picture). The Lander is an automated scientific laboratory designed to obtain information about the structure surface and atmosphere of Mars-- including the poss1ble existence of past or present life forms. Its data is radioed to the Orbiter from the surface of Mars through an antenna located on one of the Orbiter's 4 solar panels. The large dish antenna is used for the Orbiter-Earth radio link. Behind the dish is the Orbiter's movable science instrument platform. The white blanket from which the rocket motor nozzle protrudes controls propul- sion system temperatures. The end of the Orbiter's omnidirection radio antenna is visible behind the blanket.
Crater Wall In Noachis Mars Global Surveyor
Signs of water erosion and debris flow are seen in this high reso …
6/29/00
Date 6/29/00
Description Signs of water erosion and debris flow are seen in this high resolution view of gullies eroded into the wall of a meteor impact crater in Noachis Terra on Mars, taken by NASA's Mars Global Surveyor. The image shows channels and associated aprons of debris, interpreted to have formed by groundwater seepage, surface runoff, and debris flow. The lack of small craters superimposed on the channels and apron deposits indicates that these features are geologically young. It is possible that these gullies indicate that liquid water is present the below the surface of Mars today. This picture was acquired by Mars Global Surveyor on September 28, 1999. The scene covers an area approximately 3 kilometers (about 2 miles) wide by 6.7 kilometers (4.1 miles) high. Sunlight illuminates this area from the upper left. The area covered in the image is located near 54.8 degrees South by 342.5 degrees West. The Mars Orbiter camera high-resolution images are taken in black-and-white (grayscale), the color seen here has been synthesized from the colors of Mars observed by the spacecraft's wide-angle cameras and by NASA's Viking Orbiters in the late 1970s. The Mars Global Surveyor mission is managed for NASA's Office of Space Science by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology. ##### Images Credit: NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems
Supporting Media for MOLA release
Title Supporting Media for MOLA release
Completed 1990-07-10
Supporting Media for MOLA release
Title Supporting Media for MOLA release
Completed 1990-07-10
Supporting Media for MOLA release
Title Supporting Media for MOLA release
Completed 1990-07-10
Supporting Media for MOLA release
Title Supporting Media for MOLA release
Completed 1990-07-10
Supporting Media for MOLA release
Title Supporting Media for MOLA release
Completed 1990-07-10
Viking Lift - Off Sequence
Title Viking Lift - Off Sequence
Description Viking was the culmination of a series of missions to explore the planet Mars, they began in 1964 with Mariner 4, and continued with the Mariner 6 and 7 flybys in 1969, and the Mariner 9 orbital mission in 1971 and 1972. Viking was designed to orbit Mars and to land and operate on the planet's surface. Two identical spacecraft, each consisting of a lander and an orbiter, were built.
Date 12.02.1981
A Rotating True Color View of the Martian South Pole
Title A Rotating True Color View of the Martian South Pole
Abstract This is one of a series of visualizations showing false-colored renderings of the Martian topography measured by MOLA in the vicinity of the Mars Polar Lander landing site. Blue tones represent elevations of less than 2 kilometers, while reddish tones are greater than about 2.8 kilometers, relative to the mean equatorial height of Mars. The elevation of the landing site is about 2.4 km, midway into the polar layered terrain. The 400 meters (1/4 mile) resolution of the MOLA data gives a smoothed but vertically exaggerated view of the topography. At this scale it is impossible to ascertain the actual roughness at the lander's destination, forcing project directors to make their best guesses based on available data.
Completed 1999-11-22
A Rotating True Color View of the Martian South Pole
Title A Rotating True Color View of the Martian South Pole
Abstract This is one of a series of visualizations showing false-colored renderings of the Martian topography measured by MOLA in the vicinity of the Mars Polar Lander landing site. Blue tones represent elevations of less than 2 kilometers, while reddish tones are greater than about 2.8 kilometers, relative to the mean equatorial height of Mars. The elevation of the landing site is about 2.4 km, midway into the polar layered terrain. The 400 meters (1/4 mile) resolution of the MOLA data gives a smoothed but vertically exaggerated view of the topography. At this scale it is impossible to ascertain the actual roughness at the lander's destination, forcing project directors to make their best guesses based on available data.
Completed 1999-11-22
Fly over of Mars Mesa, Tounge, Dunes, Sasquatch Crater
Title Fly over of Mars Mesa, Tounge, Dunes, Sasquatch Crater
Abstract Fly over of Mesa, Tounge, Dunes, Sasquatch Crater Based on MOLA data for topography and Viking data for color. Exaggeration is about 300x
Completed 1998-12-02
Martian Dune Field
title Martian Dune Field
Description This spectacular picture of the Martian landscape by the Viking 1 Lander shows a dune field with features remarkably similar to many seen in the deserts of Earth. The dramatic early morning lighting- - 7:30 a.m. local Mars time--reveals subtle details and shading. Taken yesterday (August 3) by the Lander s camera #1, the picture covers 100° , looking northeast at left and southeast at right. Viking scientists have studied areas very much like the one in this view in Mexico and in California (Kelso, Death Valley, Yuma). The sharp dune crests indicate the most recent wind storms capable of moving sand over the dunes in the general direction from upper left to lower right. Small deposits downwind of rocks also indicate this wind direction. Large boulder at left is about eight meters (25 feet) from the spacecraft and measures about one by three meters (3 by 10 feet). The meteorology boom, which supports Viking's miniature weather station, cuts through the picture's center. The sun rose two hours earlier and is about 30° above the horizon near the center of the picture.
Frost at the Viking Lander 2 Site
title Frost at the Viking Lander 2 Site
Description Photo from Viking Lander 2 shows late-winter frost on the ground on Mars around the lander. The view is southeast over the top of Lander 2, and shows patches of frost around dark rocks. The surface is reddish-brown, the dark rocks vary in size from 10 centimeters (four inches) to 76 centimeters (30 inches) in diameter. This picture was obtained Sept. 25, 1977. The frost deposits were detected for the first time 12 Martian days (sols) earlier in a black-and-white image. Color differences between the white frost and the reddish soil confirm that we are observing frost. The Lander Imaging Team is trying to determine if frost deposits routinely form due to cold night temperatures, then disappear during the warmer daytime. Preliminary analysis, however, indicates the frost was on the ground for some time and is disappearing over many days. That suggests to scientists that the frost is not frozen carbon dioxide (dry ice) but is more likely a carbon dioxide clathrate (six parts water to one part carbon dioxide). Detailed studies of the frost formation and disappearance, in conjunction with temperature measurements from the lander?s meteorology experiment, should be able to confirm or deny that hypothesis, scientists say.
Utopian Plain
title Utopian Plain
Description The boulder-strewn field of red rocks reaches to the horizon nearly two miles from Viking 2 on Mars' Utopian Plain. Scientists believe the colors of the Martian surface and sky in this photo represent their true colors. Fine particles of red dust have settled on spacecraft surfaces. The salmon color of the sky is caused by dust particles suspended in the atmosphere. Color calibration charts for the cameras are mounted at three locations on the spacecraft. Note the blue starfield and red stripes of the flag. The circular structure at top is the high- gain antenna, pointed toward Earth. Viking 2 landed September 3, 1976, some 4600 miles from its twin, Viking 1, which touched down on July 20. Note: Unsure if this is from Camera 1 or Camera 2. This image was scanned from physical media.
First Titan-Centaur Launch Test
Title First Titan-Centaur Launch Test
Full Description The first Titan/Centaur lifted off from Complex 41 at Cape Kennedy Air Force Station at 9:48 AM EDT. The Titan stages burned as programmed, but when the Centaur stage failed to ignite, the Range Safety Officer destroyed it. The new NASA rocket was launched on a proof of concept flight designed to prepare it for twin Viking launches to Mars in 1975 and other missions involving heavy payloads. The 160-foot-tall rocket combines the Air Force Titan III with the NASA high-energy Centaur final stage. The twin solid rocket boosters have a combined liftoff thrust of 2.4 million pounds. Aboard Titan/ Centaur on its proof of concept flight were a dynamic simulator of the Viking spacecraft and a small scientific satellite (SPHINX) designed to determine how high voltage solar cells, insulators, and conductors are affected by the charges particles in space. KSC's Unmanned Launch Operations Directorate conducted the launch. For more information about Titan and Centaur, please see Chapters 4 and 8, respectively, in Roger Launius and Dennis Jenkins' book To Reach the High Frontier published by The University Press of Kentucky in 2002.
Date 02/11/1974
NASA Center Kennedy Space Center
MC-24 Phaethontis Region
PIA00184
Sol (our sun)
Visual Imaging Subsystem - Camera A
Title MC-24 Phaethontis Region
Original Caption Released with Image Mars digital-image mosaic merged with color of the MC-24 quadrangle, Phaethontis region of Mars. The Phaethontis quadrangle is dominated by heavily cratered highlands and low-lying areas forming relatively smooth plains. Latitude range -65 to -30 degrees, longitude range 120 to 180.
MC-7 Cebrenia Region
PIA00167
Sol (our sun)
Visual Imaging Subsystem - Camera A
Title MC-7 Cebrenia Region
Original Caption Released with Image Mars digital-image mosaic merged with color of the MC-7 quadrangle, Cebrenia region of Mars. The northwestern two-thirds is dominated by light-colored and dark, relatively smooth plains. The southeastern part is marked by one of three prominent Elysium shield volcanoes, Hecates Tholus, and the ridge system of Phlegra Montes. Latitude range 30 to 65 degrees, longitude range -180 to -120 degrees.
MC-2 Diacria Region
PIA00162
Sol (our sun)
Visual Imaging Subsystem - Camera A
Title MC-2 Diacria Region
Original Caption Released with Image Mars digital-image mosaic merged with color of the MC-2 quadrangle, Diacria region of Mars. The northern two-thirds is dominated by relatively smooth plains. The southeastern part is marked by aureole deposits of the largest known volcano in the solar system, Olympus Mons. Latitude range 30 to 65 degrees, longitude range 120 to 180.
MC-5 Ismenius Lacus Region
PIA00165
Sol (our sun)
Visual Imaging Subsystem - Camera A
Title MC-5 Ismenius Lacus Region
Original Caption Released with Image Mars digital-image mosaic merged with color of the MC-5 quadrangle, Ismenius Lacus region of Mars. Heavily cratered highlands of the southern part are separated from the relatively smooth plains of the northern part by a belt of dissected terrain, containing mesas and buttes. Latitude range 30 to 65 degrees, longitude range -60 to 0 degrees.
Candor Chasm in Valles Marineris
PIA00199
Sol (our sun)
Visual Imaging Subsystem - Camera A
Title Candor Chasm in Valles Marineris
Original Caption Released with Image Part of Candor Chasm in Valles Marineris, Mars, from about latitude -9 degrees to -3 degrees and longitude 69 degrees to 75 degrees. Layered terrain is visible in the scene, perhaps due to a huge ancient lake. The geomorphology is complex, shaped by tectonics, mass wasting, and wind, and perhaps by water and volcanism.
MC-6 Casius Region
PIA00166
Sol (our sun)
Visual Imaging Subsystem - Camera A
Title MC-6 Casius Region
Original Caption Released with Image Mars digital-image mosaic merged with color of the MC-6 quadrangle, Casius region of Mars. Except for the highly dissected southwestern part, which contains faults, mesas, and buttes of Nilosyrtis Mensae, the Casius region is dominated by light-colored and dark, relatively smooth plains. Latitude range 30 to 65 degrees, longitude range -120 to -60 degrees.
MC-14 Amenthes Region
PIA00174
Sol (our sun)
Visual Imaging Subsystem - Camera A
Title MC-14 Amenthes Region
Original Caption Released with Image Mars digital-image mosaic merged with color of the MC-14 quadrangle, Amenthes region of Mars. The southern part includes heavily cratered highlands. The northern part is dominated by relatively smooth plains of Elysium Planitia and the eastern half of the Isidis basin. Latitude range 0 to 30 degrees, longitude range -135 to -90 degrees.
MC-1 Mare Boreum Region
PIA00161
Sol (our sun)
Visual Imaging Subsystem - Camera A
Title MC-1 Mare Boreum Region
Original Caption Released with Image Mars digital-image mosaic merged with color of the MC-1 quadrangle, Mare Boreum region of Mars. The central part is covered by a residual ice cap that is cut by spiral-patterned troughs exposing layered terrain. The cap is surrounded by broad flat plains and large dune fields. Latitude range 65 to 90, longitude range -180 to 180.
MC-3 Arcadia Region
PIA00163
Sol (our sun)
Visual Imaging Subsystem - Camera A
Title MC-3 Arcadia Region
Original Caption Released with Image Mars digital-image mosaic merged with color of the MC-3 quadrangle, Arcadia region of Mars. The southern part contains the large shield volcano, Alba Patera, and the highly faulted Tempe Terra province, which includes many small volcanoes. The northern part is dominated by relatively smooth plains. Latitude range 30 to 65 degrees, longitude range 60 to 120 degrees.
East Candor Chasma
PIA00424
Sol (our sun)
Visual Imaging Subsystem - Camera B
Title East Candor Chasma
Original Caption Released with Image During its examination of Mars, the Viking 1 spacecraft returned images of Valles Marineris, a huge canyon system 5,000 km long, up to 240 km wide, and 6.5 km deep, whose connected chasma or valleys may have formed from a combination of erosional collapse and structural activity. The view shows east Candor Chasma, one of the connected valleys of Valles Marineris, north toward top of frame, for scale, the impact crater in upper right corner is 15 km (9 miles) wide. The image, centered at latitude 7.5 degrees S., longitude 67.5 degrees, is a composite of Viking 1 Orbiter high-resolution (about 80 m/pixel or picture element) images in black and white and low-resolution (about 250 m/pixel) images in color. The Viking 1 craft landed on Mars in July of 1976. East Candor Chasma occupies the eastern part of the large west-northwest-trending trough of Candor Chasma. This section is about 150 km wide. East Candor Chasma is bordered on the north and south by walled cliffs, most likely faults. The walls may have been dissected by landslides forming reentrants, one area on the north wall shows what appears to be landslide debris. Both walls show spur-and-gully morphology and smooth sections. In the lower part of the image northwest-trending, linear depressions on the plateau are younger graben or fault valleys that cut the south wall. Material central to the chasma shows layering in places and has been locally eroded by the wind to form flutes and ridges. These interior layered deposits have curvilinear reentrants carved into them, and in one locale a lobe flows away from the top of the interior deposit. The lobe may be mass-wasting deposits due to collapse of older interior deposits (Lucchitta, 1996, LPSC XXVII abs., p. 779- 780), this controversial idea requires that the older layered deposits were saturated with ice, perhaps from former lakes, and that young volcanism and/or tectonism melted the ice and made the material flow.
West Candor Chasma
PIA00403
Sol (our sun)
Visual Imaging Subsystem - Camera A
Title West Candor Chasma
Original Caption Released with Image During its examination of Mars, the Viking 1 spacecraft returned images of Valles Marineris, a huge canyon system 5,000 km long, up to 240 km wide, and 6.5 km deep, whose connected chasma or valleys may have formed from a combination of erosional collapse and structural activity. The view shows west Candor Chasma, one of the connected valleys of Valles Marineris, north toward top of frame. The image is a composite of Viking high-resolution (about 80 m/pixel or picture element) images in black and white and low resolution (about 250 m/pixel) images in color. The Viking 1 craft landed on Mars in July of 1976. West Candor Chasma occupies the westernmost part of the large west-northwest-trending trough of Candor Chasma. This section is about 150 km wide. West Candor Chasma is bordered on the north and south by straight-walled cliffs, most likely faults, and on its west by two segments of north-northeast-trending cliffs. The north wall is dissected by landslide scars forming reentrants filled with landslide debris. The south wall shows spur-and-gully morphology and smooth sections. The high-standing central mesa, informally dubbed Red Mesa has several curvilinear reentrants carved into the caprock, whose anomalously colored layers were interpreted to be caused by young hydrothermal alteration products (Geissler et al., 1993, Icarus, v. 106, p. 380-391). Light-colored lobes flow away from the top of the interior stack and then flow around and embay the same layered stack from which they originated. One of these apparent flow features is composed of at least two or perhaps even three huge, superposed, vaguely layered, very rugged, light-colored lobes as much as 100 km long, 20 km wide, and over 2 km thick. The layered deposits below the caprock also merge with a chaotic material that has local lobate fronts and overlaps landslide deposits. Hummocky material, similar in hue to wall rock, fills the southwestern-most region of west Candor Chasma and is perhaps as much as 3 km thick (Lucchitta, 1990, Icarus, v. 86, p. 476- 509). The light-colored lobes, chaotic material, and hummocky fill may be mass wasting deposits due to wholesale collapse of older interior deposits (Lucchitta, 1996, LPSC XXVII abs., p. 779- 780), this controversial idea requires that the older layered deposits were saturated with ice, perhaps from former lakes and that young volcanism and/or tectonism melted the ice and made the material flow.
Valles Marineris Hemisphere
PIA00003
Sol (our sun)
Visual Imaging Subsystem - Camera A
Title Valles Marineris Hemisphere
Original Caption Released with Image Mosaic composed of 102 Viking Orbiter images of Mars, covering nearly a full hemisphere of the planet (approximate latitude -55 to 60 degrees, longitude 30 to 130 degrees). The mosaic is in a point-perspective projection with a scale of about 1 km/pixel. The color variations have been enhanced by a factor of about two, and the large-scale brightness variations (mostly due to sun-angle variations) have been normalized by large-scale filtering. The center of the scene shows the entire Valles Marineris canyon system, over 3,000 km long and up to 8 km deep, extending from Noctis Labyrinthus, the arcuate system of graben to the west, to the chaotic terrain to the east. Bright white layers of material in the eastern canyons may consist of carbonates deposited in ancient lakes. Huge ancient river channels begin from the chaotic terrain and from north-central canyons and run north. Many of the channels flowed into a basin called Acidalia Planitia, which is the dark area in the extreme north of this picture. The Viking 1 landing site (Mutch Memorial Station) is located in Chryse Planitia, south of Acidalia Planitia. The three Tharsis volcanoes (dark red spots), each about 25 km high, are visible to the west. The large crater with two prominent rings located at the bottom of this image is named Lowell, after the Flagstaff astronomer. The images were acquired by Viking Orbiter 1 in 1980 during early northern summer on Mars (Ls = 70 degrees), the atmosphere was relatively dust-free. A variety of clouds appear as bright blue streaks and hazes, and probably consist of water ice. Long, linear clouds north of central Valles Marineris appear to emanate from impact craters.
First Photograph Taken On Mars Surface
PIA00381
Sol (our sun)
Camera 2
Title First Photograph Taken On Mars Surface
Original Caption Released with Image This is the first photograph ever taken on the surface of the planet Mars. It was obtained by Viking 1 just minutes after the spacecraft landed successfully early today. The center of the image is about 1.4 meters (five feet) from Viking Lander camera #2. We see both rocks and finely granulated material--sand or dust. Many of the small foreground rocks are flat with angular facets. Several larger rocks exhibit irregular surfaces with pits and the large rock at top left shows intersecting linear cracks. Extending from that rock toward the camera is a vertical linear dark band which may be due to a one-minute partial obscuration of the landscape due to clouds or dust intervening between the sun and the surface. Associated with several of the rocks are apparent signs of wind transport of granular material. The large rock in the center is about 10 centimeters (4 inches) across and shows three rough facets. To its lower right is a rock near a smooth portion of the Martian surface probably composed of very fine-grained material. It is possible that the rock was moved during Viking 1 descent maneuvers, revealing the finer-grained basement substratum, or that the fine-grained material has accumulated adjacent to the rock. There are a number of other furrows and depressions and places with fine-grained material elsewhere in the picture. At right is a portion of footpad #2. Small quantities of fine grained sand and dust are seen at the center of the footpad near the strut and were deposited at landing. The shadow to the left of the footpad clearly exhibits detail, due to scattering of light either from the Martian atmosphere or from the spacecraft, observable because the Martian sky scatters light into shadowed areas.
First Panoramic View From The Surface Of Mars
PIA00382
Sol (our sun)
Camera 2
Title First Panoramic View From The Surface Of Mars
Original Caption Released with Image First panoramic view by Viking 1 from the surface of Mars. (Top): The out-of-focus spacecraft component toward left center is the housing for the Viking sample arm, which is not yet deployed. Parallel lines in the sky are an artifact and are not real features. However, the change of brightness from horizon towards zenith and towards the right (west) is accurately reflected in this picture, taken in late Martian afternoon. At the horizon to the left is a plateau-like prominence much brighter than the foreground material between the rocks. The horizon features are approximately three kilometers (1.8 miles) away. At left is a collection of fine-grained material reminiscent of sand dunes. The dark sinuous markings in left foreground are of unknown origin. Some unidentified shapes can be perceived on the hilly eminence at the horizon towards the right. Patches of bright sand can be discerned among the rocks and boulders in middle distance. In right fore-ground are two peculiarly shaped rocks which may possibly be ventifacts produced by wind abrasion on Mars. A horizontal cloud stratum can be made out halfway from the horizon to the top of the picture. (Bottom): At left is seen the low gain antenna for receipt of commands from the Earth. The projections on or near the horizon may represent the rims distant impact craters. In right foreground are color charts for Lander camera calibration, a mirror for the Viking magnetic properties experiment and part of a grid on the top of the Lander body. At upper right is the high-gain dish antenna for direct communication between landed space-craft and Earth. Toward the right edge is an array of smooth fine-grained material which shows some hint of ripple structure and may be the beginning of a large dune field off to the right of the picture, which joins with dunes seen at the top left in this 300 panoramic view. Some of the rocks appear to be undercut on one side and partially buried by drifting sand on the other.
First Panoramic View From The Surface Of Mars
PIA00383
Sol (our sun)
Camera 2
Title First Panoramic View From The Surface Of Mars
Original Caption Released with Image First panoramic view by Viking 1 from the surface of Mars. The out of focus spacecraft component toward left center is the housing for the Viking sample arm, which is not yet deployed. Parallel lines in the sky are an artifact and are not real features. However, the change of brightness from horizon towards zenith and towards the right (west) is accurately reflected in this picture, taken in late Martian afternoon. At the horizon to the left is a plateau-like prominence much brighter than the foreground material between the rocks. The horizon features are approximately three kilometers (1.8 miles) away. At left is a collection of fine-grained material reminiscent of sand dunes. The dark sinuous markings in left foreground are of unknown origin. Some unidentified shapes can be perceived on the hilly eminence at the horizon towards the right. A horizontal cloud stratum can be made out halfway from the horizon to the top of the picture. At left is seen the low gain antenna for receipt of commands from the Earth. The projections on or near the horizon may represent the rims distant impact craters. In right foreground are color charts for Lander camera calibration, a mirror for the Viking magnetic properties experiment and part of a grid on the top of the Lander body. At upper right is the high gain dish antenna for direct communication between landed spacecraft and Earth. Toward the right edge is an array of smooth fine-grained material which shows some hint of ripple structure and may be the beginning of a large dune field off to the right of the picture, which joins with dunes seen at the top left in this 300ø panoramic view. Some of the rocks appear to be undercut on one side and partially buried by drifting sand on the other.
Mars Orbiter Camera Views the "Face on Mars" - Best View from Vik …
PIA01439
Sol (our sun)
Mars Orbiter Camera
Title Mars Orbiter Camera Views the "Face on Mars" - Best View from Viking
Original Caption Released with Image Shortly after midnight Sunday morning (5 April 1998 12:39 AM PST), the Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) on the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) spacecraft successfully acquired a high resolution image of the "Face on Mars" feature in the Cydonia region. The image was transmitted to Earth on Sunday, and retrieved from the mission computer data base Monday morning (6 April 1998). The image was processed at the Malin Space Science Systems (MSSS) facility 9:15 AM and the raw image immediately transferred to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) for release to the Internet. The images shown here were subsequently processed at MSSS. The picture was acquired 375 seconds after the spacecraft's 220th close approach to Mars. At that time, the "Face", located at approximately 40.8° N, 9.6° W, was 275 miles (444 km) from the spacecraft. The "morning" sun was 25° above the horizon. The picture has a resolution of 14.1 feet (4.3 meters) per pixel, making it ten times higher resolution than the best previous image of the feature, which was taken by the Viking Mission in the mid-1970's. The full image covers an area 2.7 miles (4.4 km) wide and 25.7 miles (41.5 km) long. This Viking Orbiter image is one of the best Viking pictures of the area Cydonia where the "Face" is located. Marked on the image are the "footprint" of the high resolution (narrow angle) Mars Orbiter Camera image and the area seen in enlarged views (dashed box). See PIA01440-1442 for these images in raw and processed form. Malin Space Science Systems and the California Institute of Technology built the MOC using spare hardware from the Mars Observer mission. MSSS operates the camera from its facilities in San Diego, CA. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Mars Surveyor Operations Project operates the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft with its industrial partner, Lockheed Martin Astronautics, from facilities in Pasadena, CA and Denver, CO.
Mars Pathfinder Lander Preparations
Title Mars Pathfinder Lander Preparations
Full Description In Spacecraft Assembly and Encapsulation Facility-2 (SAEF-2), Jet Propulsion Laboratory workers are closing up the metal "petals" of the Mars Pathfinder lander. The Sojourner small rover is visible on one of the three petals.
Date 10/2/1996
NASA Center Kennedy Space Center
Mars Pathfinder Preparations
Title Mars Pathfinder Preparations
Full Description Workers at Launch Complex 17B on Cape Canaveral Air Station get one final look at the Mars Pathfinder before it is sealed inside a protective payload fairing for flight. The Pathfinder and its PAM-D upper stage booster are perched atop the Delta II expendable launch vehicle that will propel the spacecraft into orbit. Liftoff is set for December 2 at 2:09 a.m. EST.
Date 11/27/1996
NASA Center Kennedy Space Center
Reull Valles in Approximately Natural Color
PIA00322
Sol (our sun)
Visual Imaging Subsystem - Camera B
Title Reull Valles in Approximately Natural Color
Original Caption Released with Image Reull Valles, conspicuous southeast-trending fretted channel, dissects wall deposits of the large Hellas impact basin. Center of picture is at latitude 42 degrees S. longitude 258 degrees. Fretted channels are wide, flat-floored channels with steep walls, which may be runoff channels that have been modified and enlarged by mass wasting. Many nearby hills and mountains are surrounded by lobate debris aprons, which may have formed by slow creep of rock deposits aided by the presence of near-surface ice. Layering is exposed in the channel and crater walls. The color variations of the surface are very bland in this region, most of the variations seen in the enhanced-color version (PIA00153) are due to atmospheric scattering. Viking Orbiter Picture Numbers 126A08 (violet), 126A16 (green), and 126A24 (red) at 157 m/pixel resolution. Picture width is 161 km. North is 112 degrees clockwise from top.
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