THE VIKING LANDERS AND THE SURFACE OF MARS

"Seeing" Mars Close-up
and "Feeling" Mars Dirt

This Viking Lander 2 Surface Material Map is used in Exercise 1.
(Click on image to obtain full size Map )

EXERCISES

Here are five exercises that might be fun and instructive for young students. They will "see" Mars close-up and will gain a "feeling" for the surface of Mars. The exercises can be adapted and developed for students of different ages and abilitities. The exercises are summarized below.

The time to load each exercise in seconds, dominated by its images, is indicated [in brackets]. Test conditions: Unix, large systems, dial up ppp protocol, 26 KBaud modems. Direct connect, via high speed interfaces may be faster while serial, dial up interfaces will respond slower.

EXERCISE 1 suggests that students can prepare reduced- or full-scale models of the Martian surface in front of the landers using Surface Material Maps (and/or Rock Files). The full-scale models could be used to test "rovers" built by students. [12 sec]

EXERCISE 2 employs images of the Viking Lander 1 footpads to illustrate the evidence for two different types of soils or "dirts" at the Lander 1 site and suggests simple experiments to gain a "feeling" for the strengths of the "dirts." [37 secs; 0.194 MBytes of images; two images]. Click here for (Text only, with linked Images)

EXERCISE 3 employs images of a Viking Lander 2 surface sampler test to illustrate the evidence for the properties of a soil or "dirt" at the Lander 2 site and suggests simple experiments to gain a "feeling" for the strength of the "dirt." [176 secs; 0.943 MBytes of images; seven images] Click here for (Text only, with linked Images)

EXERCISE 4 requires identification of a life-like rock (Mr. Toad) shown in Viking Lander 2 images and locating the named rock on a Lander 2 Sample Field Map. [37 sec; 0.892 MBytes of images; five images] Click here for (Text only, with linked Images)

EXERCISE 5 involves the interpretation of Viking Lander 1 images to discover the response of the surface to a wind storm and locating features on a Lander 1 Sample Field Map. [252 secs; 1.183 MBytes of images; twelve images] Click here for (Text only, with linked images)

Abstracts and Site Maps

Hank Moore and John Keller describe the surface materials, rock populations, and other characteristics of each of the Viking landing sites and present maps for each.

Lander 1 Surface Material Map [1.045 MBytes]
Lander 2 Surface Material Map [1.054 MBytes]

Rock files

Rock files give the locations (coordinates) and sizes of rocks that were used to prepare the Surface Material Maps above.

Lander 1 Rock File [ASCII 26.5 KBytes]
Lander 2 Rock File [ASCII 30.5 KBytes]

Sample field maps

Sample field maps summarize the surface sampler activities at the end of the extended mission for each lander and include detailed planviews of the landers.

Lander 1 and 2 Sample Field Maps