dipper@utastro.UUCP (Debbie Byrd) (11/13/86)
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
david@elroy.UUCP (David Robinson) (11/14/86)
In article <1400@utastro.UUCP>, dipper@utastro.UUCP (Debbie Byrd) writes: > November 13 The Last Picture from Mars > Four years ago on today's date Viking 1 sent back the last picture from > Mars. ... > 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. It is known how it died. The lander was having battery troubles which is not unexpected for a piece of equipment designed to last less than a year. The expert on the software system of the lander who had since moved on to other projects was called in to try some fancy programming to try and help out the ailing batteries. Because of one of many possible explainations a wrong command was sent to the lander and the antenna (its only link to earth) is now pointed at the ground! They tried a variety of things including blasting the lander with high intensity radio waves hoping a reflection off of the ground would be picked up. But all failed. The lander is officially dead but still a tremendous success in the history of NASA. -- David Robinson elroy!david@csvax.caltech.edu ARPA seismo-------!cit-vax!elroy!david UUCP ihnp4!cithep/ Disclaimer: No one listens to me anyway!