Virtual Viking, Images and animations of the Viking landing sites Options

[Phil Stooke]

In the past we've had some good Viking images here. Soon - all too soon - we will not have Phoenix any more, but despair not! Now we can re-live Viking by playing with old images. They can be searched by sol at the PDS.

As an example, I've made a composite of the very last Surface Sampler activities at either Viking site. This is work done on Viking 2 sol 957 and imaged on sol 957 and 959. (someone can animate it if they like!)

We see two separate trenching activities at the same place, and a soil dump (bottom) and a conical soil pile made by the second dump (middle). (more obvious in an animation, I just can't make one on this machine).

Phil

[Phil Stooke]

This is an image that, as far as I know, has never been compiled or published before. Earlier I posted mosaics of images taken underneath the two Viking landers using small mirrors on the sampler arm. This is another one. It's from Viking Lander 2, showing images taken over three sols far apart in the mission, looking at the area near Footpad 2. This footpad carried a temperature sensor. They needed to know if it was buried or not - Viking 1's was buried, this one is not. The sensor is near the right end of the mosaic, but I couldn't tell you which object it is.

Phil

(EDIT: I changed 'left' to 'right' in the last sentence - it's correct now. I forgot I had flipped it to remove the mirror reversal.)