4 ms·

The first photograph taken from the surface of Mars (1976)

75 points by gw5815 11y ago

julianpye 11y ago
Also really cool are the first pictures from Venus from the USSR Venera missions: http://www.space.com/18551-venera-13.html http://www.space.com/18551-venera-13.html The environmental challenge here was of course far greater than for Mars.
avian 11y ago
The technology used to record images from these early landings is quite interesting as well. It's pretty exotic if all you're used to are modern CCD sensors. More on Viking Lander Camera System: http://pdsimage.wr.usgs.gov/cdroms/Viking_Lander/vl_0001/document/volinfo.htm#S04 http://pdsimage.wr.usgs.gov/cdroms/Viking_Lander/vl_0001/doc... Details about Soviet space cameras: http://mentallandscape.com/V_Cameras.htm http://mentallandscape.com/V_Cameras.htm
peter303 11y ago
I am old enough to remember watching come in live on TV. It was painfully slow in those days: They showed the image build up scanline by scanline over tens of minutes. I forget which TV station had the patience to do this. Wouldnt happen nowadays.
- mseebach 11y ago
  There's no shortage of willingness to cover excruciatingly boring stories, as long as a "Breaking News" label can be slapped on it. I'm talking about live feeds from closed doors, behind which someone may or may not be having an important conversation, which may or may not conclude in the near future, and when it does, that person may or may not exit through this door. So why not a slowly appearing picture from another planet? They'll probably run it split screen along with a panel of bickering "analysts", though.
deepnet 11y ago
Viking 1 Orbiter, Photo No. AC85-0760-4 -- Early morning clouds in Noctis Labyrinthus on the Planet Mars. Condensate clouds are seen here in early morning in the canyons of Labyrinthus Noctis, which lies at the western end of the equatorial Valles Marineris system. http://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/images/content/73476main_Marsclouds.jpg http://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/images/content/73476main_Ma... and Viking II's photo of Water Ice on Utopia Planitia " This high-resolution color photo of the surface of Mars was taken by Viking Lander 2 at its Utopia Planitia landing site on May 18, 1979, and relayed to Earth by Orbiter 1 on June 7. It shows a thin coating of water ice on the rocks and soil. " http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA00571 http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA00571
adrianhoward 11y ago
First image of Mars ever taken from the surface of Mars — yes. The first image from Mars (although from all accounts not actually a successful picture of the martian surface) goes to the 70 scan lines that poor old Mars-3 sent in 1971 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_3#Entry.2C_descent.2C_landing.2C_and_transmission_failure https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_3#Entry.2C_descent.2C_lan...
ddingus 11y ago
That's engineering. They had nothing compared to what we have today, and they got it done. Love it.
colinprince 11y ago
I love the Viking missions. Also, the first images from the surface of Venus: http://www.unbelievable-facts.com/2013/08/the-soviets-landed-spacecraft-on-venus.html http://www.unbelievable-facts.com/2013/08/the-soviets-landed...
jakejake 11y ago
It's mind-boggling to me the effort it must have taken to get to Mars and send back photographs with the technology available in the 1970's. We're walking around with more computing power in our pocket than was probably available to all of NASA back then!
jakeogh 11y ago
The Avaneya project created software to decode the Viking Lander tapes. A few tapes contain images that were (as far as I know) never released. Beautiful results: https://gist.github.com/jakeogh/fa995a3277d500ab59b1 https://gist.github.com/jakeogh/fa995a3277d500ab59b1 https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Avaneya:_Viking_Lander_Remastered_DVD https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Avaneya:_Viking_Lander_Remast...

75 points by gw5815 11y ago

Also really cool are the first pictures from Venus from the USSR Venera missions: http://www.space.com/18551-venera-13.html http://www.space.com/18551-venera-13.html The environmental challenge here was of course far greater than for Mars.

avian 11y ago

The technology used to record images from these early landings is quite interesting as well. It's pretty exotic if all you're used to are modern CCD sensors. More on Viking Lander Camera System: http://pdsimage.wr.usgs.gov/cdroms/Viking_Lander/vl_0001/document/volinfo.htm#S04 http://pdsimage.wr.usgs.gov/cdroms/Viking_Lander/vl_0001/doc... Details about Soviet space cameras: http://mentallandscape.com/V_Cameras.htm http://mentallandscape.com/V_Cameras.htm

peter303 11y ago

I am old enough to remember watching come in live on TV. It was painfully slow in those days: They showed the image build up scanline by scanline over tens of minutes. I forget which TV station had the patience to do this. Wouldnt happen nowadays.

mseebach 11y ago
There's no shortage of willingness to cover excruciatingly boring stories, as long as a "Breaking News" label can be slapped on it. I'm talking about live feeds from closed doors, behind which someone may or may not be having an important conversation, which may or may not conclude in the near future, and when it does, that person may or may not exit through this door. So why not a slowly appearing picture from another planet? They'll probably run it split screen along with a panel of bickering "analysts", though.

deepnet 11y ago

Viking 1 Orbiter, Photo No. AC85-0760-4 -- Early morning clouds in Noctis Labyrinthus on the Planet Mars. Condensate clouds are seen here in early morning in the canyons of Labyrinthus Noctis, which lies at the western end of the equatorial Valles Marineris system. http://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/images/content/73476main_Marsclouds.jpg http://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/images/content/73476main_Ma... and Viking II's photo of Water Ice on Utopia Planitia " This high-resolution color photo of the surface of Mars was taken by Viking Lander 2 at its Utopia Planitia landing site on May 18, 1979, and relayed to Earth by Orbiter 1 on June 7. It shows a thin coating of water ice on the rocks and soil. " http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA00571 http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA00571

adrianhoward 11y ago

First image of Mars ever taken from the surface of Mars — yes. The first image from Mars (although from all accounts not actually a successful picture of the martian surface) goes to the 70 scan lines that poor old Mars-3 sent in 1971 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_3#Entry.2C_descent.2C_landing.2C_and_transmission_failure https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_3#Entry.2C_descent.2C_lan...

ddingus 11y ago

That's engineering. They had nothing compared to what we have today, and they got it done. Love it.

colinprince 11y ago

I love the Viking missions. Also, the first images from the surface of Venus: http://www.unbelievable-facts.com/2013/08/the-soviets-landed-spacecraft-on-venus.html http://www.unbelievable-facts.com/2013/08/the-soviets-landed...

jakejake 11y ago

It's mind-boggling to me the effort it must have taken to get to Mars and send back photographs with the technology available in the 1970's. We're walking around with more computing power in our pocket than was probably available to all of NASA back then!

jakeogh 11y ago

The Avaneya project created software to decode the Viking Lander tapes. A few tapes contain images that were (as far as I know) never released. Beautiful results: https://gist.github.com/jakeogh/fa995a3277d500ab59b1 https://gist.github.com/jakeogh/fa995a3277d500ab59b1 https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Avaneya:_Viking_Lander_Remastered_DVD https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Avaneya:_Viking_Lander_Remast...