30th Anniversary of Viking Landing on Mars 201
ewhac writes "30 years ago today, mankind paid our first visit to Mars. Viking 1 made its powered landing on the red planet on 20 July 1976 at 05:12 after an 11-month flight. Images and data from the probe were soon seen all over Earth as we got our first close-up look at our planetary neighbor. Viking 2 landed a few weeks later. Like the Pathfinder rovers that followed in 1997, Viking was expected to last but a short time -- only three months -- but instead continued to gather and return data for six years."
Built to last (Score:4, Funny)
They just don't build them like they used to.
I can't even get a computer to last 3 months, let alone 6 years.
vikings landed on mars? (Score:5, Funny)
Transport vehicle (Score:2, Funny)
"...bloody Vikings..." -Monty Python
Re:Humans? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Also the anniversery of the 1st lunar landing (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Built to last (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Humans? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:vikings landed on mars? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Built to last (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Humans? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Imagine how NASA will do when they go metric! (Score:3, Funny)
I would like to see them switch to Discovery Channel measurements myself... distance in football fields, weight in tractor-trailer trucks, and volume in ping-pong balls.
Re:Humans? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Transport vehicle (Score:3, Funny)
SPAM, SPAM, SPAM, SPAM! Wonderful SPAM!
Note: SPAM (all caps) is a trademark of Hormel.
NSIWT (Score:4, Funny)
One of my favorite memories was a Xerox'ed cartoon of a lovely sylvan setting, Viking 1 parked by a meandering stream, three-eared rabbits running by, trees.... and a two-headed eagle flying away with the high-gain antenna.
Re:Built to last (Score:3, Funny)
it's still a tossup as to the rovers staying
alive past the Vista release date.
I'm siding with the rovers, even if Vista
doesn't become stable until 2010.
Re:You obvioulsy don't have kids. (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Also the anniversery of the 1st lunar landing (Score:2, Funny)
Insightful? WTF mods?
Funny? Maybe.
Delightfully sarcastic? Sure.
Inisghtful?
It's even funnier, because I'll be modded down as Troll or Flamebait...
Re:Also the anniversery of the 1st lunar landing (Score:2, Funny)
Gotta love Google Ads (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Humans? (Score:3, Funny)
dust removal (Score:2, Funny)
Right, because someone goes out at night and wipes the dust off the solar panels.
Re:Also the anniversery of the 1st lunar landing (Score:5, Funny)
To get the funding, NASA had to tell congress that it was actually an invasion mission in which the Lunarian race would be freed from the evil Man in the Moon.
Re:line by line (Score:2, Funny)
Re:line by line (Score:3, Funny)
No, that only happens in a vacuum. That is, the total intellectual vacuum of movie physics, not an actual physical vacuum.
Re:Humans? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Humans? (Score:2, Funny)
Only to Dan Quayle.