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File:Mars Viking 12a001.png

Summary

Description This is the first "clear" image ever transmitted from the surface of Mars (see File:Mars 3 Image.png for actual first image transmitted from Mars - but unclear and "nothing identifiable"). The Viking 1 image was taken only a few minutes after the landing. Engineers decided to program the probe to quickly take and send an image of a footpad (in this case footpad number 3) because it was feared that earlier Soviet probes, which stopped transmitting shortly after touchdown, may have sank into quicksand. If Viking 1 met the same fate, they wanted to know about it this time. Some speculate that the cloudiness on the left side is due to dust left over from the landing. The cameras scanned one vertical strip at a time such that by the time the scanning moved to the center of the image, the dust had allegedly settled. The large rock near the centre is about 10 cm across.
Date 2007-07-10; original photo was taken 1976-07-20.
Source Own work based on an image in the NASA Viking image archive
Author "Roel van der Hoorn ( Van der Hoorn)"
Permission
( Reusing this file)

I used the original 12a001.bb1 image from the NASA Viking image archive, converted it to .png, manually removed the noise and finally increased the brightness and contrast by 20. Except for the conversion, this was all done in Adobe Photoshop CS2. The original file by NASA is in the public domain, and so is this new one.

Licensing

PD-icon.svg This work has been released into the public domain by its author, Van der Hoorn at the English Wikipedia project. This applies worldwide.

In case this is not legally possible:
Van der Hoorn grants anyone the right to use this work for any purpose, without any conditions, unless such conditions are required by law.

The image is based on an original image from NASA to which the following copyright statement is applicable:

Public domain This file is in the public domain because it was solely created by NASA. NASA copyright policy states that "NASA material is not protected by copyright unless noted". (See Template:PD-USGov, NASA copyright policy page or JPL Image Use Policy.)
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 Warnings:
  • Use of NASA logos, insignia and emblems are restricted per US law 14 CFR 1221.
  • The NASA website hosts a large number of images from the Soviet/ Russian space agency, and other non-American space agencies. These are not necessarily in the public domain.
  • Materials based on Hubble Space Telescope data may be copyrighted if they are not explicitly produced by the STScI. See also {{ PD-Hubble}} and {{ Cc-Hubble}}.
  • The SOHO (ESA & NASA) joint project implies that all materials created by its probe are copyrighted and require permission for commercial non-educational use.
  • Images featured on the Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) web site may be copyrighted.
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