VIKING75

The Viking mission to Mars consisted of four spacecraft: the two orbiters VO1 and VO2, and two landers VL1 and VL2. During cruise to Mars, the landers were attached to the orbiters; the combined spacecraft were then known as Viking 1 and 2. The role of the orbiters was to transport the landers to Mars, to carry reconnaissance instruments for certifying the landing sites, to act as relay stations for lander data, and to perform their own scientific investigations. The initial orbit periapses were placed over the candidate landing sites to allow for maximum viewing resolution and relay of the lander data. After the primary lander missions were completed, the orbiters' orbits were allowed to drift so that the entire planetary surface could be systematically mapped by the three remote sensing experiments. The Viking 1 spacecraft was launched August 20, 1975, and arrived at Mars on June 19, 1976. Lander 1 was deployed to the Mars surface on July 20, 1976. The VO1 orbital inclination of 38-39 degrees was chosen to optimize communication with VL1. Viking 2 was launched September 9, 1975 and arrived at Mars August 7, 1976. VL2 landed on September 3, 1976, at a more northerly site than VL1. The VO2 orbit was correspondingly more inclined than VO1; initially 55 degrees, it was later adjusted to 80 degrees, providing particularly good coverage of polar regions. The areocentric locations of VL1 and VL2 have since been determined to be (22.270N, 48.264W) and (47.669N, 226.032W), respectively.

VIKING

SPICE-corrected image locations and searching capabilities using a navigable map, user selectable image constraints, bulk-download and image processing using POW

Planetary Image Locator Tool

PDS Image Atlas

Text-based and an interactive map-based search interface for finding and downloading desired orbital observations

Viking 1 and 2

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