A long time ago, before I was even born, NASA launched a rocket carrying a spacecraft they called Viking 1. In a world where the PC was but a nerd’s dream and the handheld calculator was a relatively recent development, NASA sent a spacecraft not only to Mars, but to land on its surface. When Viking 1 reached Mars on June 19, 1976 I was only a few weeks old and the best was yet to come.
Originally scheduled for the nation’s Bicentennial, the landing of Viking 1 on the Martian surface was delayed after the original landing site was determined to be too rocky by the orbiter. A new site was found and the lander separated from the orbiter on July 20, 1976. It successfully landed and began taking photos and sampling the Martian surface. It ran experiments and photographed its surrounding landscape until a command sent on November 11, 1982 overwrote the antennae aiming software and contact was lost.
Viking 1 was not the first craft to reach Mars. The US and Soviet Union had been sending orbiters for years. It was the first to land on Mars. It marked the first time we as a nation and as a race had put another craft on Mars. In 1975, the Soviets had put Venera 9 on the surface of Venus. All without the computing power, modelling software and knowledge of interplanetary travel we’ve gained over the last 40 years.
I applaud JPL’s success with the Curiosity rover, but I have to tip my metaphorical hat to the pioneers that made it possible.
[Image Credit: NASA]