Viking On Mars

Seven years to the day after the first manned landing on the Moon, Viking 1 successfully soft-landed on Mars. The Viking program, which included two landers, gave science its first comprehensive, close-up view of the Red Planet.

Viking also conducted the first search for life on Mars, and the results have been fussed over ever since. Three experiments were designed to look for life, and before the mission scientists generally agreed that positive results in any of the three would be taken as proof of life. In fact, positive results were obtained, but the majority of scientists backed away from embracing a momentous conclusion that might eventually be proven wrong, preferring explanations of the results based on Earthly contamination of the landers or non-biological processes. It was the conservative approach-- which may also have been correct. Still, a small minority of scientists to this day think Viking may well have found life on Mars.