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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.
- Orbiter:
- Imaging system
- Atmospheric water detector
- Infrared thermal mapper
Lander:
- Imaging system
- Gas chromatograph mass spectrometer
- Seismometer
- X-ray fluorescence spectrometer
- Biological laboratory
- Weather instrument package
- Remote sampler arm
Aeroshell:
- Retarding potential analyzer
- Upper-atmosphere mass spectrometer
| Type: | Lander/Rover, Orbiter |
| Status: | Past |
| Launch Date: | August 20, 1975 5:22 p.m. EDT (21:22 UTC) |
| Launch Location: | Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida |
| Landing Date: | July 20, 1976 11:53 UTC |
| Mission End Date: | November 13, 1982 |
| Target: | Mars |
| Destination: | Chryse Planitia, Mars |
| Current Location: | › Click to view
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