@ Mark Ollig
The Soviet Union’s Mars 3 spacecraft soft-landed on Mars Dec. 2, 1971, but its surface signal lasted only about 20 seconds.
It transmitted the first lines of a TV frame, a featureless gray field, before the signal failed.
Viking 1 lifted off Aug. 20, 1975, aboard a Titan IIIE/Centaur rocket from Cape Canaveral toward Mars, about 160 million miles away.
The Centaur was a high-energy stage using twin RL-10 engines that burned liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen, known for their reliability and performance.
Because of its looping trajectory around the sun, Viking 1 traveled more than 400 million miles to reach Mars.
Viking 1 was a two-part spacecraft consisting of the Viking 1 orbiter (which would circle Mars) and the Viking 1 lander (designed to land on the surface).
The Titan IIIE core and solid boosters placed the Viking 1 spacecraft in a 104-mile parking orbit around Earth, a temporary holding orbit before departure to Mars.
The Centaur upper stage then restarted from that orbit to perform the trans-Mars injection, sending the spacecraft on its way.
Approximately four minutes later, the upper stage successfully separated from the Viking 1 spacecraft.
As Viking 1 moved outward toward Mars, its speed around the sun fell from about 73,000 mph near Earth’s orbit to roughly 48,000 mph near Mars’ orbit.
The spacecraft performed three trajectory-correction maneuvers on its journey to Mars: Aug. 27, 1975; June 10, 1976; and June 15, 1976.
During its 11-month journey to the Red Planet, the Viking 1 lander was secured in a protective aeroshell that acted as a heat shield.
It was connected to the Viking 1 orbiter via mechanical latches and an electrical umbilical for power and signals.
The Viking 1 spacecraft entered Mars orbit June 19, 1976.
For the next four weeks, mission controllers from Earth observed images of the Mars surface from the Viking 1 orbiter and confirmed a safe landing site for the Viking 1 lander.
A timed sequence then triggered the release of the lander using pyrotechnic devices, while springs pushed it onto its descent path.
The Viking 1 lander touched down in Chryse Planitia July 20, 1976.
Because radio signals take time to travel between Earth and Mars, the lander relied on its onboard computer for many tasks.
It drew power from two radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs, which convert heat from radioactive decay into electricity), while the orbiter used solar power.
The lander carried twin panoramic cameras and three biology experiments, returning the first US photos from the Martian surface and conducting the first life-detection experiments (searching for signs of life) on another planet.
Its weather package measured temperature, pressure, and wind, giving Earth the first day-to-day weather reports from Mars.
I recall hearing it said on a 1976 television news broadcast, “Today, the temperature reached 72 degrees Fahrenheit in the northern equatorial region on the planet Mars.”
Viking 1 operated until November 1982. The Viking 1 orbiter ended its mission July 25, 1978; the Viking 1 orbiter ended Aug. 17, 1980.
Decades after Viking, another milestone arrived; 45 years later, NASA’s Perseverance rover touched down in Jezero Crater Feb. 18, 2021.
Perseverance operates autonomously to handle communication delays with Earth efficiently.
It uses AutoNav on the Vision Compute Element (VCE) to navigate and avoid obstacles, while AEGIS helps select targets and gather SuperCam data.
The rover is powered by a plutonium Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (MMRTG).
Ingenuity, a helicopter carried by Perseverance, first flew April 19, 2021.
It is solar-powered and uses a Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor to navigate autonomously.
In 72 flights, Ingenuity traveled more than 10 miles, took more than 18,000 images, reached about 79 feet in altitude, and flew up to 2,300 feet in one flight.
Ingenuity’s final flight on Mars took place Jan. 18, 2024.
Looking to the future, Mars Sample Return, a joint NASA-European Space Agency campaign, is being replanned; NASA expects to confirm the mission design in 2026 and target robotic sample delivery in the 2030s.
The Perseverance rover captured images of a streak of light in the Martian sky, sparking speculation about the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS.
However, NASA has not yet confirmed the sighting as comet 3I/ATLAS.
The European Space Agency released official images of comet 3I/ATLAS from its Mars orbiters, the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter and the Mars Express, around the same time.
Ultimately, the Perseverance mission supports NASA’s broader goal of preparing for future human exploration of Mars, which builds upon the Artemis program’s mission to the moon.
Artemis II will send four astronauts around the moon on a roughly 10-day flight to test Orion’s systems.
The Artemis III mission will be the first south-polar landing of astronauts since Dec. 11, 1972.
NASA aims for the first crewed missions to Mars sometime in the 2030s.
Hurry up, NASA. I’m not getting any younger.
Viking 1 is remembered as the mission that set the standard for future missions to Mars – and beyond.
