First Photograph Taken On Mars Surface
This is the first photograph ever taken on the surface of the planet
Mars. It was obtained by Viking 1 just minutes after the spacecraft
landed successfully early today. The center of the image is about
1.4 meters (five feet) from Viking Lander camera #2. We see both
rocks and finely granulated material--sand or dust. Many of the small
foreground rocks are flat with angular facets. Several larger rocks
exhibit irregular surfaces with pits and the large rock at top left shows
intersecting linear cracks. Extending from that rock toward the
camera is a vertical linear dark band which may be due to a one-minute
partial obscuration of the landscape due to clouds or dust intervening
between the sun and the surface. Associated with several of the rocks
are apparent signs of wind transport of granular material. The large
rock in the center is about 10 centimeters (4 inches) across and shows
three rough facets. To its lower right is a rock near a smooth portion of
the Martian surface probably composed of very fine-grained material.
It is possible that the rock was moved during Viking 1 descent
maneuvers, revealing the finer- grained basement substratum; or that
the fine- grained material has accumulated adjacent to the rock. There
are a number of other furrows and depressions and places with
fine- grained material elsewhere in the picture. At right is a portion of
footpad #2. Small quantities of fine grained sand and dust are seen at
the center of the footpad near the strut and were deposited at landing.
The shadow to the left of the footpad clearly exhibits detail, due to
scattering of light either from the Martian atmosphere or from the
spacecraft, observable because the Martian sky scatters light into
shadowed areas.
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