Fifty years ago | Viking craft lands on Mars, sends back clear pictures

Pasadena, July 20: The American unmanned Viking space probe lander touched its three slender aluminium legs down on Mars today after an 11-month 800 million-kilometre voyage from Earth, and sent back two “unbelievably” clear photographs showing hills and small rocks.

Scientists at Mission Control here speculated that the terrain seen in the second photo up to three of five kilometres from the 600 kg craft on the Martian plain of Chryse could be made of volcanic lava or basalt.

The ground was soft with rocks and gravel, but the aluminium legs did not sink in. One leg could be seen in the first photo. Several of the rocks about 30 cm across had sharp angles as if they had been broken by sandstorm.

Alongside the hills in the second panoramic picture were “kinds of dunes”. The first photo was taken only 25 seconds after the craft touched down. The camera took five minutes to complete each picture, line by line, as it swept the scene. It took the photos 35 minutes to reach earth.