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.
Visit Mission WebsiteMission Statistics
Launch Date
Aug. 20, 1975
Type
Lander, OrbiterTarget
MarsStatus
PastAbout 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