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