Historical Photo of the Month - September 2006

Viking Science Test Lander
Photograph Number P-16124Ac

The August Historical Photo of the Month described the atrium or "Mars yard" that was constructed in 1975 to house the Viking Science Test Lander. Above, the test lander is shown in the finished atrium with a hand-colored panoramic photo in the background.

The lander was about 10 feet across and 7 feet tall. In this photo, the dish-shaped S-band high gain antenna can be seen mounted on the top of the lander. The two large white cylinders below it are cameras. The meteorology boom extends upward on the right side. The 10-foot retractable surface sampler boom is in the foreground, with the collector head digging into the "soil". Its small protective shroud is lying to the left of the lander, after being ejected. The gold cylinder near the boom is one of three terminal descent engines.

The test lander allowed scientists nearly one year between launch and landing to test programming and procedures that were to be used in operating the surface sampler, other instruments, and cameras when the two landers reached Mars in July and September 1976. In January 1979 a Viking lander model similar to the one above was transferred by NASA to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, where it is on display in the Milestones of Flight gallery.

For more information about Viking or about the history of JPL, contact the JPL Archives. [Archival sources: The Viking Mission to Mars, fact sheets, On Mars: Exploration of the Red Planet, 1958-1978 (NASA SP-4212), photograph index, various Lab-Oratory articles]

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