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The last picture from the surface of Mars -- after this.

November 13  The Last Picture from Mars

Four years ago on today's date Viking 1 sent back the last picture from
Mars.  It was the final curtain on a remarkable mission that had lasted
for more than six years -- and had given us the first views of the
landscape and weather changes on Mars from the planet's surface.

There were originally two Viking spacecraft.  They arrived at Mars a
few weeks apart during the summer of l976.  Each craft had two parts --
an orbiter and a lander.  The orbiters circled Mars while the landers
headed down to the martian surface.

Viking 1 landed first -- on July 20, l976 -- in an area called the
Chryse Planitia.  The very first image Viking 1 sent back was a clear
sharp picture of its own foot.  Then the camera aimed higher.  It
revealed a distant horizon under a pink martian sky -- with small
boulders scattered on sandy, red ground.

One by one over the years the orbiters and the other Viking lander fell
silent.  But for six long years Viking 1 faithfully continued to return
its data to Earth.  On today's date in the year 1982 a picture came in
on schedule.  Dark shadows on the ground indicated that perhaps a dust
storm was underway.  The next transmission never came.

Engineers at the Jet Propulsion Lab in California worked for several
months to try to get a signal.  Perhaps the lander's batteries failed
-- or perhaps an error in a computer command misdirected an antenna.
We probably won't know for sure until someone from Earth visits Viking
1 -- now standing silent on the plains of Mars.

Script by Diana Hadley.
(c) Copyright 1985, 1986 McDonald Observatory, University of Texas at Austin