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it began here at the Kennedy Space

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Center Florida last summer a pair of

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spacecraft Viking 1 and Viking 2 were

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readied for their separate journeys to

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Mars

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each is really two spacecraft in one a

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5,000 pound orbiter with cameras and

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communications gear and sealed inside to

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saucer-like capsules at the other end

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the Viking landing craft a camera

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equipped automated biological and

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chemistry laboratory and seismic station

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which has been purged of earthly

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organisms by being heated in a huge oven

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the 11-month 420 million mile trip for

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the two Viking orbiter Landers was set

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in motion by two launches one in August

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one in September Earth shrinks smaller

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and smaller as the two Vikings head

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toward their Martian rendezvous then

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braking rockets fire on command slowing

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the first Viking Explorer II enough that

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it goes into orbit around Mars for the

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next two weeks the orbiting spacecraft

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will survey the surface below

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transmitting pictures of possible

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landing sites to scientists on earth the

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Martian surface should be a study in

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contrasts from vast dust swept plains to

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immense canyons and frost covered

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plateaus huge gullies and channels

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photographed by earlier Mariner

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spacecraft are believed to have been

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caused by running water sometime in the

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distant past if all goes as planned the

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first Viking Lander will separate from

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the orbiting command ship and descend to

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the Martian surface landing at 9:40 p.m.

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Eastern Daylight Time July 4th the

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second Viking is scheduled to land on

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September 4 1000 miles to the northeast

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of Viking 1 how will Viking go about

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looking for life on Mars we asked dr.

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Richard Young NASA's chief of planetary

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biology we look for life on Mars in much

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the same way we would look for life on

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Earth

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if we were forced to use an automated

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device and we don't send a scientist

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along if we were sending a little wagon

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out into the Sahara Desert or one of the

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dry valleys of the Antarctic which had

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to function all by itself with automated

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equipment this is probably exactly what

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we would sing and let me say by the way

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that we're looking primarily for

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microorganisms it would be rather

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fruitless of us for to look for horses

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on Mars we wouldn't look for horses on

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earth if we were looking for life

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because the chances would be medium to

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one against finding them with a random

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search Vikings mechanical arm pulls in a

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scoop full of Martian soil and drops it

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into a one cubic foot box that's really

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three completely automated testing

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laboratories it is here that the

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possibilities for or against the

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presence of life will be determined what

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will it mean to earthlings if life is

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found on Mars it must mean that the

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universe is is literally an inhabited

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universe with many planets that have

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life on it now if there are many planets

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that have life on it

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there is no doubt at all that to rest

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your life is not going to be the most

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advanced civilization the most highest

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level of consciousness we must be

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somewheres in the broad spectrum of

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possibility and that drives you to the

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conclusion is that there may be

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Vikings to Mars and the search for life

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there this country's first close-up