Space Technology in the 70’s
One big technological advance in
space exploration was the Viking Mission to Mars by NASA. This mission was
mostly created to obtain high-resolution images of the surface, structure,
composition, atmosphere, and evidence of life on the planet of mars. The Viking
Mission to Mars was carried out by two spacecrafts Viking 1 and Viking 2. Each
of these spacecrafts carried an orbiter and a lander. The mission began when
Viking 1 was launched off on August 20, 1975. Viking 1 arrived at Mars on June
19, 1976, its first job was to orbit the planet of mars for about a month,
taking pictures of the surface while also finding appropriate landing sites for
the Viking landers. On July 20, 1976 the first Viking lander touched down on
the surface of Mars at an area called Chryse Planitia. The second Viking
spacecraft launched on September 9, 1975 and reached the orbit of Mars on
August 7, 1976. On September 3, 1976 the second Viking lander touched down on
mars at an area called Utopia Planitia. Both landers took surface samples and
analyzed them for composition and signs of life. Also, the landers studied
atmospheric meteorology, deployed seismometers, and took over 1,400 images on
both sights. While the landers were working on the surface the Orbiters were
busy imaging the whole surface of mars at a resolution of 150 to 300 meters
with a total of around 50,000 images.
The Viking Mission to Mars proved
to be very successful it gave us a complete overview of what mars was truly
like and also provided us with the mysterious question of, is there really life
on mars? The final answer to that question was, no. But, this mission did show
us the incredible complexity and structure of the planet mars, which ranges
from big volcanoes to giant canyons. One can even see the photos today, they
are easily viewable online. The Viking Orbiters were powered down by August 17,
1980 after making a total of 2106 orbits around mars combined. The landers
stopped communication by November 13, 1982 after a successful 6 years on Mars. This
event was very exciting in the 70’s considering the U.S. had just completed
their first space exploration adventure the decade before. However, the project
did turn out to be very pricey, and the estimated cost was around one billion
dollars for the Mission to Mars of Viking 1 and 2 spacecrafts.
This is amazing. I love space and anything that deals with space exploration. This year was great because we finally went back to Mars. I wonder if people were disappointed that there didn't seem to be any life on Mars? I would've been disappointed, but when you look at Mars, you can kind of tell it wouldn't really be a very good planet to support life anyway. That's pretty amazing that it made 2106 orbits around Mars before being shut off. That's incredible. What makes this truly amazing to me is that just a few short years before this, humanity was just beginning missions into space. First we had to achieve orbit around Earth, then land on the moon, and then finally we reached Mars. Hopefully we can actually put people on Mars someday. I would go right now if they had the option to.
ReplyDeleteIt is awesome to read about this country’s first real encounter with Mars. It is especially awesome that we went back this year, but that information on Mars had been building for a long time. It must have been exciting for NASA and space enthusiasts to know that we had reached and were gathering information about our closest neighbor. I like that while the Vikings were collecting samples, the Orbiters were imaging the surface, that’s some true team work. I have one question though, was the cost 1 billion then or is that current dollars?
ReplyDeleteThose are some expensive pictures, one billion dollars is a lot of money but it definitely seems to be well worth it. The knowledge NASA as well as the government has gained from that trip seems to be extensive. It is nice that the pictures are up for viewing by the public online. I think it is funny that the names of the shuttles are Viking 1 and Viking 2 because the Vikings discovered America, and did eventually find a new life form (at least to them it seemed as a new life form). Do you think they believed they would discover another life form? Do you think this is why they had shuttles without people on it, and just took pictures during this exploration?
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