AN OVERVIEW OF VIKING NAVIGATION

W. J. O'Neil

Peer Reviewed

Abstract:	NASA soft-landed two Viking spacecraft on Mars in July and September 1976. The landings of these identical spacecraft more than 300 million km from earth were flawless. Viking-l landed within 30 km of its target - Viking-2 within 10 km. The science experiments onboard the Vikings are still operating, long after the tremendously successul primary surface missions. This paper describes the Viking flight path design and the actual inflight control of Viking-l’s path from earth launch to Mars landing. Since the control of Viking-2 was similar and less stressful, it will not be discussed.
Published in:	NAVIGATION: Journal of the Institute of Navigation, Volume 25, Number 1
Pages:	1 - 10
Cite this article:	O'Neil, W. J., "AN OVERVIEW OF VIKING NAVIGATION", NAVIGATION: Journal of The Institute of Navigation, Vol. 25, No. 1, Spring 1978, pp. 1-10.
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