Celebrating a Half-Century of Mars Exploration

Space.com

While not the very first lander sent to Mars, Viking 1 was the first to successfully land and operate. Dive into the history of this groundbreaking mission, which was planned for 90 days but lasted for over six years, paving the way for future exploration.

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00:00We're celebrating 50 years on Mars.

00:0350 years ago today, the first lander successfully touched down on Mars,

00:07making history and beginning humanity's incredible, enduring journey exploring the Red Planet's surface.

00:14NASA's Viking 1 lander arrived on Mars on July 20, 1976.

00:18And while it wasn't the first lander ever sent to the planet,

00:21it was the first to land successfully and survive the journey.

00:25Now, the Soviet Mars 3 lander technically landed on the planet a few years earlier in 1971,

00:30but it lost contact just seconds after touching down, so a lot of people don't count it for this first.

00:37This lander, which had everything from cameras to a sampling arm and even spectrometers,

00:42which use light to explore physical properties like mineral content,

00:46made history and set in motion decades of Martian exploration.

00:50But it did a lot more than just make history.

00:53Viking 1 took photographs of the Martian surface.

00:56These were the first photographs of the surface of Mars.

00:59In fact, this is the first photograph of the surface of Mars.

01:03Now, with NASA's Mars rovers, we might be used to seeing Mars up close today,

01:07but this was absolutely revolutionary at the time.

01:11The lander also conducted soil experiments exploring the possibility that life once existed on Mars,

01:16something we're still investigating to this day.

01:18In fact, people are still using Viking data to study Mars.

01:22The mission was only planned to continue for 90 days after landing,

01:26but over six years after its arrival, on November 11, 1982, Viking 1 stopped operating.

01:34Viking spent 2,307 days exploring the Martian surface, powered by two RTGs, or nuclear batteries.

01:42The lander worked in tandem with the Viking 1 orbiter, which studied the planet from orbit.

01:47And Viking 1 was also soon joined by Viking 2, another lander-orbiter pair that arrived later in 1976.

01:54So, as we celebrate 50 years on Mars, I can't help but wonder,

01:58what will progress on Mars look like in another 50 years?

02:02What do you think?

02:03Can't help just objetivo predict that?

02:03Okay.

02:03You

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