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Viking 1

Viking 1

The first spacecraft to successfully land on Mars, Viking 1 was part of a two-part mission to investigate the Red Planet and search for signs of life.

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Mission Statistics

Launch Date

Aug. 20, 1975

Type

Lander, Orbiter

Target

Mars

Status

Past

About the mission

The first spacecraft to successfully land on Mars, Viking 1 was part of a two-part mission to investigate the Red Planet and search for signs of life. Viking 1 consisted of both an orbiter and a lander designed to take high-resolution images, and study the Martian surface and atmosphere.

Operating on Mars' Chryse Planitia for more than six years, Viking 1 performed the first Martian soil sample using its robotic arm and a special biological laboratory. While it found no traces of life, Viking 1 did help better characterize Mars as a cold planet with volcanic soil, a thin, dry carbon dioxide atmosphere and strking evidence for ancient river beds and vast flooding.

Instruments

  • Imaging system
  • Atmospheric water detector
  • Infrared thermal mapper
  • Imaging system
  • Gas chromatograph mass spectrometer
  • Seismometer
  • X-ray fluorescence spectrometer
  • Biological laboratory
  • Weather instrument package
  • Remote sampler arm
  • Retarding potential analyzer
  • Upper-atmosphere mass spectrometer

More about Mars

Image .

Ingenuity and Perseverance Make Tracks

Image .

Eumenides Dorsum

Image .

Chaos

Image .

Perseverance Views Drifting Clouds

Image .

Icaria Fossae

Image .

South Polar Ice

Image .

South Polar Ice

Video .

Perseverance's Mastcam-Z Views Ingenuity's 47th Takeoff

Image .

Southern Dunes

News .

Engineers Keep an Eye on Fuel Supply of NASA’s Oldest Mars Orbiter

Fact Sheet (PDF)
Viking 1 & 2 - Mars Program Missions
Viking 1 Information on Solar System Exploration
Viking 1 Information on National Space Science Data Center

Explore Other Missions

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Mariner 9 (Mariner I)

Mariner 6

Mars Climate Orbiter

Mariner 8 (Mariner H)

InSight

Mariner 3

Perseverance Rover

MarCO

Mariner 4

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