Space Topics: Mars
The Year in Pictures: 2006
Viking Landers Found
Viking Lander 2
Credit: NASA / JPL / University of Arizona
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November 21. After beginning its primary science operations, Mars
Reconnaissance Orbiter quickly -- and for the first time -- located
the Viking 1 and Viking 2 landers. Their
landing sites had been approximately located from detailed analysis of the
shape of the horizon visible from each lander, but ambiguous features had made
it impossible to definitively locate either one, even with the help of Mars
Orbiter Camera images. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter images are definitive,
giving us our first view of these spacecraft since they fell silent in 1982
and 1980.
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