it began here at the Kennedy Space
Center Florida last summer a pair of
spacecraft Viking 1 and Viking 2 were
readied for their separate journeys to
Mars
each is really two spacecraft in one a
5,000 pound orbiter with cameras and
communications gear and sealed inside to
saucer-like capsules at the other end
the Viking landing craft a camera
equipped automated biological and
chemistry laboratory and seismic station
which has been purged of earthly
organisms by being heated in a huge oven
the 11-month 420 million mile trip for
the two Viking orbiter Landers was set
in motion by two launches one in August
one in September Earth shrinks smaller
and smaller as the two Vikings head
toward their Martian rendezvous then
braking rockets fire on command slowing
the first Viking Explorer II enough that
it goes into orbit around Mars for the
next two weeks the orbiting spacecraft
will survey the surface below
transmitting pictures of possible
landing sites to scientists on earth the
Martian surface should be a study in
contrasts from vast dust swept plains to
immense canyons and frost covered
plateaus huge gullies and channels
photographed by earlier Mariner
spacecraft are believed to have been
caused by running water sometime in the
distant past if all goes as planned the
first Viking Lander will separate from
the orbiting command ship and descend to
the Martian surface landing at 9:40 p.m.
Eastern Daylight Time July 4th the
second Viking is scheduled to land on
September 4 1000 miles to the northeast
of Viking 1 how will Viking go about
looking for life on Mars we asked dr.
Richard Young NASA's chief of planetary
biology we look for life on Mars in much
the same way we would look for life on
Earth
if we were forced to use an automated
device and we don't send a scientist
along if we were sending a little wagon
out into the Sahara Desert or one of the
dry valleys of the Antarctic which had
to function all by itself with automated
equipment this is probably exactly what
we would sing and let me say by the way
that we're looking primarily for
microorganisms it would be rather
fruitless of us for to look for horses
on Mars we wouldn't look for horses on
earth if we were looking for life
because the chances would be medium to
one against finding them with a random
search Vikings mechanical arm pulls in a
scoop full of Martian soil and drops it
into a one cubic foot box that's really
three completely automated testing
laboratories it is here that the
possibilities for or against the
presence of life will be determined what
will it mean to earthlings if life is
found on Mars it must mean that the
universe is is literally an inhabited
universe with many planets that have
life on it now if there are many planets
that have life on it
there is no doubt at all that to rest
your life is not going to be the most
advanced civilization the most highest
level of consciousness we must be
somewheres in the broad spectrum of
possibility and that drives you to the
conclusion is that there may be
conscious life elsewhere in the universe
Vikings to Mars and the search for life
there this country's first close-up
scientific exploration of the Red Planet
you