The summer of 1976 marked the beginning of an exciting new dimension in Mars exploration:

studying the planet from its surface rather than from above. On July 20, an American spacecraft called Viking 1 separated from its orbiter, parachuted down, and landed on Mars in an area known as Chryse Planitia. As the lander was programmed to do, it immediately photographed one of its footpads and sent the picture back to mission control. The image showed that the footpad was resting on the surface, rather than buried in deep Martian dust. The spacecraft continued transmitting photos, and as scientists studied them they were ecstatic. For the first time in history, they were staring at close-up color images of the surface of Mars. Carl Sagan, who was part of the Viking mission team, described his reaction:

Iremember being transfixed by the first lander image to show...