Викинг-2: Исследование Марса на орбите и на поверхности.

Space orbiter and lander sent to Mars

The craft was launched on September 9, 1975. Following launch using a Titan/Centaur launch vehicle and a 333 day cruise to Mars, the Viking 2 Orbiter began returning global images of Mars prior to orbit insertion. The orbiter was inserted into a 1,500 x 33,000 km, 24.6 h Mars orbit on August 7, 1976, and trimmed to a 27.3 h site certification orbit with a periapsis of 1,499 km and an inclination of 55.2 degrees on August 9. The orbiter then began taking photographs of candidate landing sites, which were used to select the final landing site.

The regolith, referred to often as "soil", resembled those produced from the weathering of basaltic lavas. The tested soil contained abundant silicon and iron, along with significant amounts of magnesium, aluminum, sulfur, calcium, and titanium. Trace elements, strontium and yttrium, were detected. The amount of potassium was one fifth of the average for the Earth's crust. Some chemicals in the soil contained sulfur and chlorine that were like those remaining after the evaporation of sea water. Sulfur was more concentrated in the crust on top of the soil than in the bulk soil beneath. The sulfur may be present as sulfates of sodium, magnesium, calcium, or iron. A sulfide of iron is also possible. The Spirit rover and the Opportunity rover both found sulfates on Mars. Minerals typical weathering products of mafic igneous rocks were found. All samples heated in the gas chromatograph mass spectrometer (GCMS) gave off water. However, the way the samples were handled prohibited an exact measurement of the amount of water. But, it was around 1%. Studies with magnets aboard the landers indicated that the soil is between 3 and 7 percent magnetic materials by weight. The magnetic chemicals could be magnetite and maghemite, which could come from the weathering of basalt rock. Subsequent experiments carried out by the Mars Spirit rover (landed in 2004) suggest that magnetite could explain the magnetic nature of the dust and soil on Mars.

Viking 2 carried a biology experiment whose purpose was to look for life. The Viking 2 biology experiment weighed and consisted of three subsystems: the Pyrolytic Release experiment (PR), the Labeled Release experiment (LR), and the Gas Exchange experiment (GEX). In addition, independent of the biology experiments, Viking 2 carried a Gas Chromatograph/Mass Spectrometer (GCMS) that could measure the composition and abundance of organic compounds in the Martian soil. The results were unusual and conflicting: the GCMS gave a negative result; the PR gave a positive result, the GEX gave a negative result, and the LR gave a positive result. Viking scientist Patricia Straat stated in 2009, "Our (LR) experiment was a definite positive response for life, but a lot of people have claimed that it was a false positive for a variety of reasons." Many scientists believe that the data were due to inorganic chemical reactions of the soil; however, this view may be changing due to a variety of discoveries and studies since Viking, including, the discovery of near surface ice near the Viking landing zone, the possibility of perchlorate destruction of organic matter, and the reanalysis of GCMS data by scientists in 2018. Some scientists still believe the results were due to living reactions. The formal declaration at the time of the mission was that the discovery of organic chemicals was inconclusive. Mars has almost no ozone layer, unlike the Earth, so UV light sterilizes the surface and produces highly reactive chemicals such as peroxides that would oxidize any organic chemicals. The Phoenix Lander discovered the chemical perchlorate in the Martian soil. Perchlorate is a strong oxidant, so it may have destroyed any organic matter on the surface. Perchlorate is now considered widespread on Mars, making it hard to detect any organic compounds on the Martian surface.

The Viking Orbiters resulted in massive discoveries about the concept water on Mars. Huge river valleys were found in many areas. They showed that floods of water carved deep valleys, eroded grooves into bedrock, and traveled thousands of kilometers. Areas of branched streams, in the southern hemisphere, suggested that rain once fell. The images below are mosaics of many small, high resolution images.