Posted on May 21, 2021

APOD: 2021 May 21 - Utopia on Mars

Maj William W. 'Bill' Price

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Good Red Friday morning, Rallypoint. Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) is titled "Utopia on Mars." Anyone remember NASA's Project Viking (a few hands should go up)? Viking 1 and Viking 2 were launched in 1975, Both missions had an orbiter and a lander. The Viking 1 Lander touched down on July 20, 1976 (a scant seven years after the first Moon landing). Viking 2 touched down later that year on September 3rd.

The Viking 2 landing site was Utopia Planitia, and today's APOD is one of the photos taken by Viking 2. You can see the lander's foot at the lower right, the jettisoned cover for its sampling arm, and the two trenches dug by the sampling arm. The samples were placed in the lander's internal gas chromatograph mass spectrometer for analysis. The Chinese succeeded in placing their first lander/rover on a site in Utopia Planitia a week ago today.

APOD: 2021 May 21 - Utopia on Mars

Posted from apod.nasa.gov

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LTC Stephen F.

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Jimmy Buffett "Cheeseburger In Paradise/He Went To Paris" Live

From the 2008 DVD "Scenes You Know By Heart"

Thank you my friend Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. for posting the NASA for posting the Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) for Friday, May 21, 2021 entitled "Utopia on Mars."

Image: Utopia on Mars - Image Credit -NASA, The Viking Project, M. Dale-Bannister (Washington University)

APOD Background
"Explanation: Expansive Utopia Planitia on Mars is strewn with rocks and boulders in this 1976 image. Constructed from the Viking 2 lander's color and black and white image data, the scene approximates the appearance of the high northern martian plain to the human eye. For scale, the prominent rounded rock near center is about 20 centimeters (just under 8 inches) across. Farther back on the right side of the frame the a dark angular boulder spans about 1.5 meters (5 feet). Also in view are two trenches dug by the lander's sampler arm, the ejected protective shroud that covered the soil collector head, and one of the lander's dust covered footpads at the lower right. On May 14, China’s Zhurong Mars rover successfully touchdown on Mars and has returned the first images of` its landing site in Utopia Planitia."

Since another name for utopia is paradise
Here is a tongue-in-cheek
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yizU-P8HdFs

FYI COL Mikel J. Burroughs SMSgt Lawrence McCarter Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D., Sgt Albert Castro SSG Samuel Kermon Maj Robert Thornton PO2 (Join to see) TSgt David L. SSG Michael Noll SSG Franklin Briant CPL Douglas Chrysler MAJ Dale E. Wilson, Ph.D. SMSgt Tom Burns LTC (Join to see) Sgt (Join to see)Wayne Soares MSgt James Clark-Rosa SGT Charlie Lee PO1 William "Chip" Nagel

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LTC Stephen F.

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