"Viking 75" declassified documents

[sjastro]

The second greatest achievement after the Apollo Moon landings was NASA's Viking landings on Mars in 1976.

The Viking project was declassified years ago.
I have a whole stack of information including the project management timetables, interoffice memos, technical presentations etc.

Here are a few attachments.

Hope you find them interesting.

Regards

Steven

[iceman]

Nice! Great history.

[CraigS]

Now, don't tell me that letter included yourself, Steven. By my reckoning, you would've been way too young to be part of the team it refers to.
The mystery is .. how did you come across this document, eh?
(Perhaps a bit like that reporter who found Obama's security arrangements document in the gutter outside of Parliament House, eh? :P :) …. (just kidding)).

Anyway, the notorious "Integrated Biology Instrument" reminds me about the pile of controversy it subsequently caused. The scientist who designed this experiment recently released a paper arguing that the results should be revisited, as there is now sufficient geological evidence to support the contention that water is present on Mars and may have been in quantities in the past .. and apparently, none of this was believed to be the case when the Viking Biology experiment was devised. As a result of this evidence, alternative experiments are now available and could be delivered to Mars, in order to further research the inconclusive attempted life detection findings, originally returned by Viking.

Interestingly, MSL/Curiosity has no such experiments.
Most of MSL's instrumentation has been designed to (i) detect organic chemicals and (ii) attempt to separate soil organics if present, from the soil perchlorates. They are more targetted at figuring out whether the geology in the past, (or present), may have been/are able to support life.

Very interesting .. and thanks for a very interesting post!
Highly valuable memorabilia!

Cheers

Cheers

[Dennis]

Ahh, they were the good old days, when letters were typed up on typewriters in the typing pool, engineers used slide rules and graphical artists used pencils and paper!:)

Fascinating memorabilia - thanks for scanning and posting.:thumbsup:

Cheers

Dennis

[astroron]

Thanks Steven,very interesting,great piece of history :thanx:
Cheers:thumbsup:

[sjastro]

I was still in nappies.
(But don't ask me how old I was when I stopped wearing them.;))



Ah there is a story here. These documents were purported to be found in a used bookshop somewhere in the US. Somehow they found there way to my sister who is a collector of memorabilia. Having a PhD in a humanities subject and therefore completely oblivious of its scientific worth she gave them to me as a last minute birthday present.;)



I remember the "unusual" degree of chemical activity found in the Martian soil that could not be explained.

Attached is a picture of the infamous equipment.
Note the picture quality.:)

I'll post some more stuff.

Regards

Steven

[sjastro]

The first two attachments are the mission statements.
The next two are project management profiles.

Regards

Steven

[DavidU]

Interesting stuff Steven.

[sjastro]

These are not reproductions.
They are originals printed on Kodak printer paper.

Some have comments written on the prints.

http://users.westconnect.com.au/~sjastro/viking/vikinga.jpg
http://users.westconnect.com.au/~sjastro/viking/vikingb.jpg
http://users.westconnect.com.au/~sjastro/viking/vikingc.jpg
http://users.westconnect.com.au/~sjastro/viking/vikingd.jpg
http://users.westconnect.com.au/~sjastro/viking/vikinge.jpg
http://users.westconnect.com.au/~sjastro/viking/vikingf.jpg

Hope you enjoy them.

Steven.

[CraigS]

I remember those surface photos … the newspaper comic strips replicated them from a different perspective … ie: looking back towards the Viking Lander. These were, of course, much more informative ... as they clearly showed the faces of the martians on the other side of what the Viking photos led us to believe were only rocks.
:P :)
Cheers