Take On Mars

Take On Mars

Viking program
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"The Viking program comprised a pair of American space probes sent to Mars, Viking 1 and Viking 2. Each spacecraft was composed of two main parts: an orbiter designed to photograph the surface of Mars from orbit, and a lander designed to study the planet from the surface. The orbiters also served as communication relays for the landers once they touched down.

By discovering many geological forms that are typically formed from large amounts of water, the images from the orbiters caused a revolution in our ideas about water on Mars. Huge river valleys were found in many areas. They showed that floods of water broke through dams, carved deep valleys, eroded grooves into bedrock, and travelled thousands of kilometers. Large areas in the southern hemisphere contained branched stream networks, suggesting that rain once fell.

The flanks of some volcanoes are believed to have been exposed to rainfall because they resemble those caused on Hawaiian volcanoes. Many craters look as if the impactor fell into mud. When they were formed, ice in the soil may have melted, turned the ground into mud, then flowed across the surface. Normally, material from an impact goes up, then down.

It does not flow across the surface, going around obstacles, as it does on some Martian craters. Regions, called "Chaotic Terrain," seemed to have quickly lost great volumes of water, causing large channels to be formed. The amount of water involved was estimated to ten thousand times the flow of the Mississippi River.

Underground volcanism may have melted frozen ice; the water then flowed away and the ground collapsed to leave chaotic terrain.

It was the most expensive and ambitious mission ever sent to Mars, with a total cost of roughly US$1 billion.

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18 Comments
cyborg512 25 Jul, 2024 @ 3:14am 
You gotta be TOUGH to hold your breath and row to Mars!
Captain n00by 1 Apr, 2024 @ 2:20pm 
They came to Mars too?

Dayum...
Porter Foamer 19 Feb, 2021 @ 11:40am 
i found this a little funny
randomcze010 14 Dec, 2020 @ 11:14am 
Pretty accurate, ngl.
FoxSinBaan 6 Nov, 2020 @ 2:10pm 
and it was a sign of ancient civilisation
FoxSinBaan 6 Nov, 2020 @ 2:10pm 
imagine if it was an actual picture taken on mars
Astronaut 15 Apr, 2018 @ 1:41pm 
Face On Mars #2
Scorn Sorna 24 Jul, 2015 @ 7:20pm 
What a... O_o
blueshark 19 Apr, 2015 @ 4:03pm 
I see what you did there.
Turret problems 3 Mar, 2015 @ 8:35am 
viking space program!