Douglas Isbell

Headquarters, Washington, DC July 15, 1996

(Phone: 202/358-1753)

Tammy Jones
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
(Phone: 301/286-5566)

Diane Ainsworth
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA
(Phone: 818/354-5011)

Catherine Watson
Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA
(Phone: 757/864-6122)

RELEASE: 96-141

ACTIVITIES PLANNED TO COMMEMORATE

20TH ANNIVERSARY OF FIRST MARS LANDING

Twenty years ago, on July 20, 1976, the Viking 1

lander became the first spacecraft to successfully land on
the surface of Mars. Several events this week will examine
the legacy and impact of Viking on future international Mars
missions and the two U.S. robotic missions scheduled for
launch to Mars in November and December. The events are:

¥ NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin and Dr. Chris McKay

of NASA's Ames Research Center, Mountain View, CA, will
discuss the history and future of Mars exploration in a
public lecture organized by The Planetary Society at 7 p.m.,
Thursday, July 18, at the National Academy of Sciences (NAS)
in Washington, DC.

¥ NASA, The Planetary Society and the Lockheed Martin

Corp. are co-hosting a symposium entitled, "Mars Revisited: A
Look Forward" at the NAS from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Friday, July
19.

¥ The Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space

Museum in Washington, DC, will present "Mars Day," a day-long
family program offering hands-on activities and science
demonstrations from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Saturday, July 20.
Events and activities include views of the Martian surface
and Viking landing sites in 3-D, one-on-one talks with
experts about the Viking landing sites and NASA's upcoming
Mars Surveyor program, an interactive computer flyover of
Valles Marineris in the 'Mars Virtual Exploration Control
Center,' and other activities.
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The Viking 1 lander operated on the Plain of Chryse

(Chryse Planitia) until November 1982. The Viking 2 lander
set down on the Plain of Utopia (Utopia Planitia) on Aug. 7,
1976, and operated until April 1980. The two landers took
4,500 unprecedented images of the surrounding surface and
radioed more than 3 million weather-related measurements back
to Earth, while their two companion orbiters took 52,000
images of sections of the Martian globe, imaging 97 percent
of it.

The Viking missions provided numerous new insights

into the nature and history of Mars, producing a vivid
overall picture of a cold weathered surface with reddish
volcanic soil under a thin, dry carbon dioxide atmosphere,
clear evidence for the existence of ancient river beds and
vast floods, and no detectable seismic activity.

Viking probably will be most remembered for its

tantalizing search for signs of life on Mars. Each Viking
lander conducted experiments using cameras, a gas
chromatograph/mass spectrometer and a suite of biology
instruments capable of detecting evidence of life in the
Martian soil. State-of-the-art at the time, the biology
experiment package contained instruments that searched the
Martian soil for evidence of metabolic processes like those
found in bacteria, green plants and animals on Earth.

"Scientists finally concluded that we found no

evidence of life on Mars," said Viking Project Scientist Dr.
Gerald Soffen, now director of the Office of University
Programs at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt,
MD. "But this doesn't prove there is not life on Mars. It
simply says that, in the two distinct places on the planet
that we landed, there are probably no living organisms."

Although no traces of life were found, analysis of the

Martian atmosphere and soil indicated that all elements
essential to life on Earth -- carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen,
oxygen and phosphorus -- were present on Mars. Liquid water
is also considered an essential requirement for life. Viking
found ample evidence of water in two of its three phases --
vapor and ice -- and evidence for large amounts of
permafrost. But it is impossible for water to exist in its
liquid phase on the surface of Mars under current conditions.

NASA's Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA, had

overall responsibility for managing Project Viking, based
partly on the center's successful management of the Lunar
Orbiter project. James Martin, who had been the assistant
project manager for the Lunar Orbiter project, was chosen to
lead the Viking project. Israel Taback was chosen as deputy
project manager.

"One of the biggest engineering challenges of the

Viking project was designing and testing the flight computer
on Viking," Taback said. "In those times the computers were
a lot more difficult to obtain than they are now. In fact,
we battled for about three years to get about 18,000 words
into the computer. Nowadays, of course, you can get
megabytes for just a few pennies."

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Langley turned Project Viking over to NASA's Jet

Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), in Pasadena, CA, in April 1978.
Today, JPL is leading the development of the Mars Global
Surveyor orbiter, due for launch on November 6, and the Mars
Pathfinder lander and rover, due for launch on December 2,
with landing in July 1997.

The Mars Global Surveyor and the Mars Pathfinder

lander and rover missions begin a decade-long program of Mars
exploration designed to answer key questions about the role
of water in Mars' early evolution, and whether the planet
could have supported life very early in its history. The
missions will measure elements in the Martian atmosphere to
help deduce conditions in the planet's early history, and
observe surface volatiles such as frosts and dust as they
migrate from the northern to the southern hemisphere.
 "This time we will go back to make a detailed survey
of the planet over an entire Martian year, to observe changes
in the surface and atmosphere as Mars goes through seasonal
cycles," said Dr. Arden Albee, Project Scientist on the Mars
Global Surveyor mission.

"We'll get down to a new level of detail about Mars,

understanding the planet rather than simply observing it,"
said Dr. Daniel McCleese, chief scientist for the decade-long
Mars Surveyor program. "We've got fantastic reconnaissance
data from Viking to work with, and with modern technologies
emerging in the next 10 years, we will be able to address a
variety of topics about Mars in depth."

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EDITOR'S NOTE: Members of the media interested in attending

the NAS lecture or symposium should register by contacting
Catherine Watson at 757/864-6122. For public reservations
and further information, contact Judy Cole, Symposium
Coordinator, Science and Technology Corporation, 804/865-
7604; Fax: 804/865-8721; e-mail: cole@stcnet.com.