Pasadena (California), July 26: Commands relayed to Mars from U.S. scientists on earth apparently straightened out a hitch in Viking’s soil-sampling arm yesterday.
But another key experiment the seismology probe, appeared to be beyond the reach of earth-bound repairmen.
Pictures from the Viking lander on Sunday showed a tiny lockpin lying on the Martian dust. That meant the pin believed to have caused the jamming of the soil sampler’s arm, had fallen away as planned.
Late last week after the problem cropped up scientists discovered through a model of the lander at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) that by extending the arm a bit the problem pin would drop free. That was what happened yesterday on Mars, scientists said.
“Everybody is very happy about it and we are ready to move right along,” said the Viking Project Manager, Mr. James Martin. “We are moving right on ahead.”
New closeup pictures of the Chryse plain on Mars revealed what appeared to be a rock bearing the Roman letters “B” and “C” and the Arabic numeral “2”. Scientists said the characters were optical illusions caused by shadowing.
“People are great at imagining things”, said Dr. Carl Sagan. Dr. Bruce Murray, Director of the Jet Propulsion laboratory agreed.
Published - July 27, 2026 01:05 am IST