What was the Viking program?
Q: What was the Viking program?
A: The Viking program was a NASA mission that sent two spacecraft, Viking 1 and Viking 2, to the planet Mars.
Q: What were the orbiters and landers used for in the Viking program?
A: The orbiters took pictures from their orbit and sent information to Earth, while the landers gathered scientific data on the surface of the planet.
Q: When were both Viking spacecraft launched and when did they reach Mars?
A: Both Viking spacecraft were launched in 1975 and both reached Mars in 1976.
Q: How did scientists choose the landing places for both landers?
A: Scientists chose landing places for both landers from the pictures that the orbiters had taken.
Q: How long did all of the spacecraft keep working?
A: All of the spacecraft, including both orbiters and both landers, kept working for longer than they had been planned to. Viking 2 Orbiter stopped working in 1978, Viking 1 Orbiter and Viking 2 Lander in 1980, and Viking 1 Lander in 1982.
Q: How successful was the Viking program?
A: The Viking program was very successful. Most of the knowledge about Mars until the late 1990s came from the Viking mission.
Q: How much did the Viking program cost?
A: The program cost a total of US$1 billion.
