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As our search for other forms of intelligent life began, two probes were sent to Mars to study it's surface. Both Vikings were launched from Cape Canaveral on powerful Titan-Centaur rockets. Each Viking spacecraft had a mother craft which weighed 2.4 tons! When the probes got to Mars the landing craft separated from the main craft which continued to orbit while the landing craft fell to the surface to explore. Unlike Spirit and Oppritunity, these could not move and stayed on Mars. The Viking landers were covered in a biological shield to prevent them from contaminating Mars' surface. Once on the surface they used TV cameras to survey the surface and soil. Viking II continued sending data about Mars till the mid-1990s.
The orbiters orbited around Mars collecting photographs of the terrain and surface.
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