NASA’s Viking 2 marked the second US landing on Mars on this day in 1976: Read more

NASA’s Viking 2 was a joint orbiter-lander mission that saw second US landing on Mars on this day today, i.e. September 3, back in 1976. Viking 2 mission was a part of American Viking program to Mars and it consisted of an orbiter and a lander essentially identical to that of Viking 1 mission. second mission’s lander operated on surface for 1316 days and was turned off on April 12, 1980, when its batteries failed. 

As lander spent over three Earth years on surface of Red Planet, it took almost 16,000 ims in 706 orbits around Mars. It analysed regolith in front of it and even conducted life experiments. Viking 2 took snapshots of craters, channels and or Mars feature from above as well. 

Viking program gave researchers a sense of what it's like to live and work on Red planet. When lander sent back result of ir life experiments, NASA reportedly said at that time that re was definitive evidence of life. That has been called into question in deces since. 

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Back n, US ncy h informed that while Viking 1 lander touched down on western slope of Chryse Planitia ( Plains of Gold), Viking 2 lander settled down at Utopia Planitia. Both landers functioned for at least 90 Earth days or 120 Martian ‘sols’ on surface. NASA h informed that Viking 2 took its ride into on a Titan rocket on September 9, 1975, following footsteps of its twin, Viking 1. 

second lander to Mars, Viking 2, took ims of regolith, referred to often as ‘soil’. pictures show that soil resembled those produced from wearing of basaltic lavas. According to NASA, tested soil contained abundant silicon and iron, along with significant amounts of magnesium, aluminium, sulfur, calcium and titanium. Trace elements, strontium and yttrium, were also detected. 

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Viking 2’s biology experiment 

Furrmore, Viking 2 also carried a biology experiment whose purpose was to look for life. As per reports, second lander’s biology experiment weighed 15.5kg and consisted of three subsystems - Pyrolytic Release experiment (PR), Labeled Release experiment (LR), and Gas Exchange experiment (GEX). In dition, independent of biology experiments, second lander carried a Gas Chromatograph/Mass Spectrometer (GCMS) that could measure composition and abundance of organic compounds in Martian soil. 

Both Viking 2 and its twin, Viking 1, carried primitive tools to search for Mars life. Viking experiments h several parts to ir life detection experiments. landers didn't find any life, however, researchers in years following were curious about wher experiments were equately designed to detect lifeforms.

(Ims: NASA/JPL) 

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