Exploratour - The Atmosphere of Mars
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The Viking Mission on Mars
The Viking mission discovered just how large the global dust storms could become. The Viking I and Viking 2 missions were designed to both orbit Mars and land and make exploratory observations on the planet's surface.
Viking was launched in 1975. Immediately prior to entering orbit around Mars in 1976, Mars was completely enveloped in a Global Dust Storm, rendering the surface invisible to cameras for several months. It was the first time that scientists realized the extent and potential intensity of Martian dust storms. Eventually, pictures were returned by the Viking orbiter, but scientists sure did sweat about whether they were ever going to get pictures from Mars.