Thursday, July 8, 1999

Viking 2

  1975-083A


The Viking A spacecraft was launched on 1975 Sep 9 at 1839 by Titan IIIE Centaur from Cape Canaveral and became Viking 2.

The initial injection had a closest approach at 1976 Aug 9 0919 UTC with a miss distance of 655575 km (BT,BR= 581970, -301786).

Once in solar orbit, the MC1 burn was made on Sep 19 to correct the trajectory. An approach burn was made on 1976 Jul 27.

Mars Orbit Insertion was on 1976 Aug 7. A series of orbit trim burns were made to synchronize the orbit, ending with MOT4 on Aug 27. The Lander was separated on Sep 3. In this case, the bioshield base remained attached to the Orbiter, VO-2.

After a propulsion test on Sep 29, a major orbit change was made on Sep 30, with the inclination increased to 75 deg. The Viking Extended Mission began on 1976 Dec 14. On 1977 Mar 2, VO-2 had re-synchronized its orbit over the VL-2 landing site. On 1977 Apr 18, the Survival Automatic Mission was begun while Mars approached perihelion (Apr 30).

On 1977 Sep 26, VO-2 trimmed its orbit to approach Deimos. Another burn on Oct 9 synchronized the orbit with that of Deimos. Deimos encounters followed on Oct 10, Oct 12, Oct 15, and twice more in the Oct 16-22 period. The Oct 15 encounter was only 33km from the center of Deimos. A burn on Oct 23 ended the Deimos encounter period.

The Bioshield base was finally jettisoned on 1978 Mar 3. After Mars aphelion on Apr 9, the Viking Contination Mission began on May 31. However, VO-2's attitude gas was exhausted at 0601 on 1978 Jul 24 and the mission came to a close.


VO2 
 

DateTimeEventOrbit  





1975 Sep 9  1839:00  Launch by Titan TC-3 
 1840:52  St 1 burn 
 1841:02  SRM sep 
 1843:21  St 1 cutoff 
 1843:21  St 1 sep, St 2 burn 
 1843:33  CSS sep 
 1846:50  St 2 MECO 
 1846:53  St 2 sep 
 1847:05  Centaur MES 1 
 1849:13  Centaur MECO 1, 20 min coast  185? x 185? x 28.6? 
 1907:27  Centaur MES 2 
 1912:27  Centaur MECO 2  178 x -65940 x 29.3  
1975 Sep 9  1916:07  Centaur sep  279259 km miss dist 
1975 Sep 9  2047:00  Bioshield cap sep 
1975 Sep 10  0314 Viking pass EL1:4 
1975 Sep 10  0322? Centaur pass EL1:4 
1975 Sep 14  0010 Viking leave ELS1 sphere 
1975 Sep 14  0132  Perihelion of post-MC1 orbit 
1975 Sep 14  0213  Perihelion of pre-MC1 orbit 
1975 Sep 14  0230? Centaur leave ESL1 sphere 
1975 Sep 19    1.00659 x 1.66949 AU x 2.92 
1975 Sep 19  1630? MC1 1.00658 x 1.67114 AU x 2.92 
1976 Jul 28   Approach  7775 x -26940 x 42.81  
1976 Jul 28  0100 AMC Approach trim 1653 x -20782 x 55.18  
1976 Aug 2  2007? Enter Mars sphere 
1976 Aug 7 1129:52  MOI burn 39:35 1.101 km/s 
 1209:27  MOI complete  27.6h 1519 x ? x 55.0 
1976 Aug 9 1716:00 MOT1 6s 4.1m/s 27.32h 1499 x35531 x 55.2 50.4 
1976 Aug 14 0831:15 MOT 2 1.8m/s 3s  
1976 Aug 25 1748:29 MOT3 42.7m/s 78s  
1976 Aug 27  2025:38 MOT4 11.3m/s 19s sync  24.62h 1489 x 32605 x 55.4 52.2 
1976 Sep 3  1920 Lander sep 
1976 Sep 29  0433:20 MOT5A 5.0m/s   
1976 Sep 30  2107:38 MOT5 342.6m/s  26.78h 1518 x 34933 x 75.1 63.6 
1976 Dec 14   Viking Extended Mission 
1976 Dec 20   MOT8  26.48h 778 x 35350 x 80.1 -60.6 
1977 Mar 2   MOT9  24.73h 751 x 33464 x 80.2 54.4 
1977 Apr 18  MOT10  22.73h 723 x 31251 x 80.5 51.9 
1977 Apr 18  Survival Automatic Mission 
1977 Sep 26   MOT11  24.29h 712 x 33015 x 80.3 34.3 
1977 Oct 9   MOT12  24.22h 594 x 33056 x 80.3 32.6 
1977 Oct 10   Deimos pass 
1977 Oct 12   Deimos pass 
1977 Oct 15   Deimos pass 
1977 Oct 17?   Deimos pass 
1977 Oct 22?   Deimos pass 
1977 Oct 23   MOT13  23.98h 302 x 33080 x 80.3 24.8 
1978 Mar 3   Bio base jettison 
1978 May 31   Viking Continuation Mission 
1978 Jul 24  0601  end of ops


1975-083C

Viking Lander 2 (VL-2) landed on Mars on 1976 Sep. The biology unit operated until 1977 May 28 and the data storage memory failed on 1979 Nov 19. Low battery voltage on 1980 Apr 12 caused the end of VL-2's mission.


VL2 
 

DateTimeEventOrbit  

1976 Sep 3  1919:29  Sep from VO2 
 1926:30 S+7:01 Deorbit 23 min burn 156m/s 
 1948:46  S+29:17 end burn  -103 x 31205 x 55.5  
 2228:46  S+3:09:17 entry 244 km 4.6121km/s -17.08 deg 
 2236:00 S+3:16:31 Parachute deploy 5.9 km  
  Aeroshell base sep 5.0 km 
  Aeroshell top sep 
 2237:04  S+3:17:35 Terminal descent 1.5 km 
 2237:50 S+3:18:21 Touchdown 
 2244  Biology PDA lid deploy 
 2255 First pictures 
1976 Sep 5  1005  Arm cover eject 
1976 Sep 7  1439  GCMS PDA lid deploy 
1977 May 28   Biology unit off 
1980 Apr 12   end of tx 
1996 Jul 20   Renamed Gerald A. Soffen Memorial Station 

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