By 
July 20th, 2026
NASA 1976 Viking 2 lander image of the Mars Utopian Plain.
Credit: NASA/JPL-CalTech
In looking back and commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Viking missions to Mars, one is struck by the bold and audacious undertaking.
Twin spacecraft missions — each consisting of a lander and an orbiter – made their way to Mars and into the history books.
The Viking 1 lander planted its legs on the terrain of Chryse Planitia on July 20, 1976, with the Viking 2 lander touching down months later at Utopia Planitia on September 3.
Key question
Credit: NASA/Ben Clark
Among their duties, the dual landers scooped up the first soil samples of Mars and deposited those precious collectibles into onboard, specialized equipment.
Viking scientists had tightly boxed up their cares and woes and sent that science gear to pose a key question: Is there life on Mars?
But is it possible that the two robots actually radioed back a very clear comeback: “Can you repeat the question?’’
For full details, go to my new Space.com story – “Did Viking 1 find life on Mars 50 years ago? Here’s why the debate continues” – at:
Viking Mars Missions Education & Preservation Project
Credit: VMMEPP
Posted in Space News
“Each of the reasons supporting a non-biological interpretation of the LR Mars data has now been shown deficient…new evidence, together with the review of the old,leaves the biological interpretation standing alone. The scientific process forces me to my new conclusion: the Viking LR experiment detected living microorganisms in the soil of Mars”. –Dr. Gilbert V. Levin in Mars: The Living Planet (7-27-1997)
The majority of the NASA scientific community maintains the current Mars environment is incapable of supporting even simple microorganisms. They base this opinion on the biology tests conducted by the Viking Landers in 1976, claiming “no evidence” of life was found. But one of the biology experiments, Dr. Gilbert Levin’s Labeled Release experiment, produced intriguing and still-unexplained reactions that more likely than not constitute an unacknowledged discovery of life on Mars. This revolutionary conclusion is supported by the August 1996 announcement by NASA of possible fossilized bacteria found in a Martian meteorite collected in Antarctica. If life existed in the geologic past, it could still exist on Mars today, adapting to ever-changing environmental conditions. Advances in microbiology since 1976 further bolster the case for life on Mars, as life is found in places on Earth long considered unsuitable, such as miles-deep aquifers and rock environments. What was once considered unlikely – microbial life on Mars – is now up for serious reconsideration. Barry DiGregorio’s thorough exploration of the Mars life issue and the provocative comments supplied by Dr. Gilbert Levin himself in Chapter Nine challenge the prevailing scientific dogma. In addition to an overview of Mars’ environment and biological potential and an informative discussion of the biology experiments carried out by the 1976 Viking Mission, DiGregorio looks at political obstacles within NASA itself. He asks if the discovery of life on another planet is such a belief-shattering scientific finding that it threatens fundamentalist religious ideas (perhaps adversely affecting funding for future research). The author – as well as contributing scientists Levin and Patricia Ann Straat – also discuss NASA’s desire to bring a Mars soil sample to Earth for testing, which risks endangering the Earth’s ecosystem should Martian lifeforms find this planet a comfortable breeding ground.
https://books.google.com/books/about/Mars.html?id=2zKEQgAACAAJ&source=kp_book_description