![]() Scientists waited until Viking 2 was in orbit before making their final determination on where to go. The final selection on Viking 2's landing site also took time its prime landing site at Cydonia looked treacherous in Viking 1's photographs. ![]() NASA had made the initial decision on a landing site based on Mariner 9's pictures, but Viking 1's superior picture resolution showed a far more perilous terrain than originally thought. Viking 1 famously postponed its landing several weeks to July 20, 1976, because a close-up view of its prime landing site showed it was a perilous spot for a lander. Viking2 landed in September 1976 and lasted through 1980. 11,1982, six years after completing its initial 90-day mission. By July 20, Viking 1 made history as the firstsuccessful landing on Mars when it set down in ChrysePlanitia (The Plains of Gold).The lander waspowered by a radioisotope thermoelectric generator and went silent on Nov. Launched in June 1976, Viking 1 - a massivespacecraft equipped with both an orbiter and lander - arrived at Mars after a10-month trek from Earth. NASA's Viking probes were the first ever to successfully setfootpad on Mars in a powered landing. There was a hair-raising few minutes during launch when all data from the spacecraft ceased flowing to Earth, but it picked up again. 9, 1975, following in the footsteps of its twin, Viking 1. Viking 2 took its ride into space on a Titan rocket on Sept. If one mission failed, at least there would be a backup, but it would be a high-profile failure: Mars missions usually get the attention of the world. Meanwhile, the orbiters would carry the landers to Mars and send scientific information back to Earth. The landers would function for at least 90 Earth days or 120 Martian "sols" on the surface. If all went as planned, NASA would do two "soft" landings on Mars – something the agency had never attempted before. That's not to say that Viking was unambitious. The agency was facing a money crunch, and elected to shelve the program in favor of something simpler. ![]() ![]() However, NASA had less money to go around after the Apollo program finished and congressional priorities shifted. The Voyager lander would last two Earth years on the surface. Voyager was supposed to fly to Mars using a Saturn V rocket, the same rocket that took astronauts to the moon between 19. (This shouldn't be confused with the solar system probes Voyager 1 and Voyager 2, which inherited the name after the Mars program was cancelled.) While that is a large sum, this is actually half the cost of a proposed NASA Mars landing program called Voyager. The entire Viking program hardware – two orbiters and two landers – cost $1 billion in 1970s dollars, or anywhere from $4 billion to $6 billion today. ![]()
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