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If It’s Not Boeing, I’m Not Going

Mars Expedition 1969 at Astronautix

Image credit: NASA Lewis

Image source: National Archives

Northrop Lander

First manned landing on Mars! This Northrop sketch shows how a soft landing on the red planet might look from ground level. A steerable gliding cloverleaf parachute slows the craft down as the retrorockets start to fire. The parachute is then jettisoned, and the retrorockets perform the final maneuver for touchdown. Retrorocket braking was perfected in the 1960’s to provide the soft landings for the Surveyor moon probe.

Project Viking: Space Conquest Beyond the Moon

by Irwin Stambler
G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1970

Image credit: NASA

Image source: Numbers Station

Get To Da Choppa!

Project Viking: Space Conquest Beyond the Moon

by Irwin Stambler
G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1970

Image credit: NASA

Image source: Numbers Station

Viking by Russ Arasmith

Project Viking at Astronautix

Image credit: NASA

Image source: Mike Acs

Viking

Project Viking at Astronautix

Image credit: NASA

Image source: Mike Acs

A Laboratory on Mars

Prime goal of Project Viking is this National Aeronautics and Space Administration sketch, to land a biological laboratory on the surface of Mars. The picture shows a design in which the protective housing around the experiments unfolds in petal fashion once the laboratory is safely on the Martian surface.

Project Viking: Space Conquest Beyond the Moon

by Irwin Stambler
G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1970

Project Viking at Astronautix

Image credit: NASA

Image source: Numbers Station

Boeing Viking

Project Viking: Space Conquest Beyond the Moon

by Irwin Stambler
G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1970

Project Viking at Astronautix

Image credit: NASA

Image source: Numbers Station

The Path to Mars

Our World in Space
Robert McCall & Isaac Asimov
New York Graphic Society, 1974

Project Viking at Astronautix

Image credit: NASA

Image source: Numbers Station