50 years after first successful Mars landing: 'A city on Mars isn't happening anytime soon'

Fifty years ago today, on July 20, 1976, the American Viking 1 lander achieved a historic milestone by successfully touching down on Mars. This marked the first fully successful mission to the Red Planet and delivered the first clear images directly from its surface.

The Viking 1 mission was a groundbreaking endeavor, arriving on Mars after an 11-month journey. While the Soviet Union had achieved the first soft landing in 1971 with Mars 3, that lander lost contact just 110 seconds after touchdown. Viking 1, however, proved remarkably resilient, operating for an astonishing 2,306 Earth days – more than six years beyond its planned mission duration. Contact was finally lost on November 11, 1982, after a faulty software update.

Minutes after its historic landing, Viking 1 transmitted the first clear photograph from the Martian surface. This image, along with thousands of others captured during its extensive mission, provided crucial insights for scientists. Although the primary objective of searching for life on Mars was not met, the data collected revealed compelling evidence that Mars once harbored substantial amounts of water, evidenced by features resembling dried riverbeds, deltas, and lakes.

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We will certainly send humans to Mars someday, but I don't see it happening in the next 20 years.

"When Viking 1 was launched, we knew very little about Mars," says Philippe Mollet of the Mira public observatory. "There was hope that we would find life there. But with every mission to Mars, that hope diminished. We are now almost certain that no form of biological life exists on the planet."

Looking ahead, the prospect of human habitation on Mars remains a distant goal. "We will certainly send humans to Mars someday, but I don't see it happening in the next 20 years," states Angelique Van Ombergen of the European Space Agency (ESA).

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When Viking 1 was launched, we knew very little about Mars. There was hope that we would find life there. But with every mission to Mars, that hope diminished. We are now almost certain that no form of biological life exists on the planet.