NASA’s Viking Project

Celebrate the 40th anniversary of NASA’s Viking Missions, marking the first successful landings on the surface of Mars. Two identical spacecraft (Viking 1 and Viking 2), each consisting of a nuclear-powered lander and a solar-powered orbiter, were built. Each orbiter-lander was launched together and entered the Mars orbit in mid-1976; the landers then separated and descended to the planet’s surface. Both orbiters and landers returned a treasure trove of observations for several years. The missions had strong ties to our community—Viking Lander 1 and 2 were built in Denver at Martin Marietta’s Waterton Canyon facility.

This panel of engineers and scientists who worked on the Viking missions will share the challenges and triumphs, and how the findings have continued to shape our understanding of the Red Planet:

• Guy Beutelschies participated in spacecraft engineering teams for numerous planetary exploration missions and serves as director of space exploration systems at Lockheed Martin Space Systems.
• Dr. Ben Clark, from the Space Science Institute, developed the X-ray Fluorescence Spectrometer soil chemistry analyzers for the Viking Lander missions and served as Lockheed Martin’s chief scientist of space exploration systems.
• Dr. Bruce Jakosky, of LASP at the University of Colorado, participated in the Mars Atmospheric Water Detector experiment on the Viking Orbiter missions and serves as the principal investigator of the MAVEN mission currently operating at Mars.

Tickets: $12 – $15

More info and tickets: http://www.dmns.org/learn/adults/after-hours/nasas-viking-project/