1-154-849 - NASA/Oxford Science Archive/Heritage Images

View of Mars, August 1976. Taken from the Viking 2 Orbiter, this photograph shows the large Ascreaus Mons volcano swathed in clouds of ice crystals in the top right corner. Two Viking spacecraft were launched towards Mars in 1975, each carrying a lander spacecraft and an orbiter. Both successfully landed their probes on Mars to study the Martian environment, soil constituents and to search for simple life forms - none was found.