40 years ago today the US govt sent a taxpayer-funded robot to invade an alien hostile world The surviving members of the Viking Mars probe team have been celebrating the 40th anniversary of the first probe to make it down onto the surface of the Red Planet, send back pictures, and perform scientific experiments. The Viking 1 lander hit dirt on Mars on July 20, 1976, 16 days late. The probe had been planned for …
I remember devouring an issue of National Geographic devoted to the Viking missions. Especially the bits about the microbe-attracting substance nicknamed "chicken soup". My grandmothers were both big chicken soup makers and I understood just what the Mars boffins were up to.
And no - there were no topless tribal shots in that issue of National Geographic. It needs saying before one of you people makes a gag about it.
Regarding the "scratch the surface" of Mars comment: The lander surface sampler (scoop) backhoes were used to dig trenches six or so inches deep, from which soil samples were collected for analysis.
The Viking project was an incredible engineering and scientific success, expanding humanity's knowledge of Mars enormously. I recently attended the 40th anniversary celebration in Denver Colorado, near the Lockheed Martin (then Martin Marietta) plant that designed and built the landers. Also attending were dozens of people who worked on the project back in the day, and it was a pleasure to meet some of them in person. I was a teenager in 1976, and I recall watching the first picture from Viking 1 emerge on the TV. Fantastic! I've been interested in Viking ever since.
In recent years I've been seriously researching the lander hardware, to help document and preserve its legacy. I have been creating a high-fidelity 3D model (using SketchUp) that is about half done. Here are a couple of videos I've created. The video descriptions on YouTube include links to the actual SketchUp model file and to the research material I have collected.
Animation of lander leg mechanisms: https://youtu.be/tKiiQpMdnTM
Making-of video: https://youtu.be/1vyzoWudom8
What I remember was a brilliantly executed UK TV programme called "Alternative 3". Billed as a "documentary" it followed a story about scientists involved in the Mars mission going missing and ended with a "classified" film clip that showed something scuttling under the Martian surface when Viking landed.
I was 11 at the time, so thought it was real ....
And the fact and fiction loosely danced in "CapricornOne"
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