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30th Anniversary of Viking Landing on Mars

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the little-green-men dept.

ewhac writes "30 years ago today, mankind paid our first visit to Mars. Viking 1 made its powered landing on the red planet on 20 July 1976 at 05:12 after an 11-month flight. Images and data from the probe were soon seen all over Earth as we got our first close-up look at our planetary neighbor. Viking 2 landed a few weeks later. Like the Pathfinder rovers that followed in 1997, Viking was expected to last but a short time -- only three months -- but instead continued to gather and return data for six years."

13 of 201 comments (clear)

  1. Humans? by WinEveryGame · · Score: 5, Interesting

    So, when will humans get there?

    1. Re:Humans? by 0racle · · Score: 5, Funny

      Why? Mars ain't the kind of place to raise your kids.

      --
      "I use a Mac because I'm just better than you are."
    2. Re:Humans? by lottameez · · Score: 5, Funny

      In fact, it's cold as hell.

      --
      Yeah? Well I think you're overrated too.
    3. Re:Humans? by nickheart · · Score: 5, Funny

      And there's no one there to raise them, if you did.

  2. vikings landed on mars? by RelliK · · Score: 5, Funny

    Those vikings! First they colonized North America. Now we find out they went to Mars too! They were one tough bunch! Masters of intergallactic navigation.

    --
    ___
    If you think big enough, you'll never have to do it.
  3. Enough with the americocentrism by Saven+Marek · · Score: 5, Interesting

    OK the article starts with "The solar system had welcomed its first interplanetary visitor from Earth, a triumphant moment that marked the start of mankind's efforts to probe its neighbor planet for signs of life and set the sights for every Martian mission to follow." So why is this, when russians sent many probes to mars beforehand? Admittedly none of them the success of Viking but russians still reached the surface first. This stinks.

    My cousin was even taught at school that Sally Ride was the first woman into space when this is patently untrue. Why the revisionism? is it just for the sake of a good first few paragraphs or is it something worse?

    1. Re:Enough with the americocentrism by CaptainCarrot · · Score: 5, Informative

      Sally Ride indeed "was American" but she wasn't the first woman in space. That would be Valentina Tereshkova, who orbited the earth 20 years earlier. Sally Ride wasn't the second woman either. That was Svetlana Savitskaya, a year prior. Ride was in fact the third woman in space, albeit the first American woman.

      It is, however, true that no Soviet probes successfully landed on Mars. It's not true that they never launched. They launched 9 of them. Two failed to reach Earth orbit, two failed while in Earth orbit, one was lost en route, one missed. One made it into Martian orbit and sent back a number of images before failing. One lander crashed on the surface, the next and last separated early and didn't encounter the surface at all. The Viking missions were the first probes to successfully land on the planet and return data.

      --
      And the brethren went away edified.
    2. Re:Enough with the americocentrism by Saven+Marek · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You may be technically correct, but they didn't achieve anything meaningful on the surface before the Viking probes. (As far as flyby missions, both countries had sent prior probes.) Therefore, the article summary really isn't the affront to history that you make it out to be.

      Except the article summary says "The solar system had welcomed its first interplanetary visitor from Earth" which is also completely wrong, as the USSR had reached venus in 1970, and venus is still part of the solar system. It landed safely, and sent back data. Venera 7, 8, 9 and 10 all landed on venus and sent back data before viking touched down on mars.

  4. Dont forget by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful


    http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html

    Still running and still producing valuable data
    reliability is what companies should really strive for, consumer throw-away disposable culture is a nasty disease and the sooner its extinct the better

  5. Mod parent down by CRCulver · · Score: 5, Informative

    So if you think some other woman got into space first, put up or shutup, She was and she was american.

    The Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova was first, in 1963. Even if one doesn't remember her exact name, any of us nerds should know something of the history of the space program, like the fact that the Russians put a woman up there first.

  6. Re:Also the anniversery of the 1st lunar landing by Apraxhren · · Score: 5, Funny

    Pssh that wasn't even real!

  7. Gotta love Google Ads by Tablizer · · Score: 5, Funny

    You know the ads are bogus script tricks when a Google search turns up an ad that says, "Compare prices on Viking Mars Landers and save!". For NASA, it is a little too late to think about that.

    --
    Table-ized A.I.
  8. Re:Also the anniversery of the 1st lunar landing by afaik_ianal · · Score: 5, Funny
    I have to wonder though if there might be some kind of ulterior motive going on with it


    To get the funding, NASA had to tell congress that it was actually an invasion mission in which the Lunarian race would be freed from the evil Man in the Moon.