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Ephemeris: 07/04/2025 – Mars, 49 years ago today

July 4, 2025 Comments off

This is Ephemeris for Independence Day, Friday, July 4th. Today the Sun will be up for 15 hours and 28 minutes, setting at 9:31, and it will rise tomorrow at 6:03. The Moon, 2 days past first quarter, will set at 1:56 tomorrow morning.

Forty-nine years ago today the Viking 1 spacecraft was orbiting Mars looking for a spot to land. NASA was hoping they could land it on July 4th, of our national Bicentennial, but they were having trouble trying to find a smooth enough spot to land. NASA eventually thought they found a smooth enough spot. The lander part of the spacecraft touched down on July 20th 1976, the 7th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing on the Moon. Though the landing was successful, the area was a lot rougher than we would consider a safe spot to land today. Currently, The United States has two Rovers on the surface studying Mars. It’s an achievement a scientifically advanced democracy can do. I wonder if we will keep it intact for the two hundred and fifty year mark, only one year away?

The astronomical event times given in this blog are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (Lat 44.7° N, Long 85.7° W; EDT, UT – 4 hours) unless stated otherwise. Times will be different for other locations.

Addendum

Models of the Viking orbiter and Lander. Two identical spacecraft, Viking 1 and 2 were sent to Mars. Both spacecraft successfully orbited Mars and the Landers successfully landed. The Landers had several experiments looking for life, however they gave confusing results which proved to be inconclusive. Credit: NASA.
First Mars image from Viking 1
The first Mars image from Viking 1 taken moments after touchdown. The Viking landers used rockets to land, after a parachute descent, because the parachutes would not slow the lander enough in the thin Martian atmosphere. The reason to photograph the landing pad was to see how far it would sink into the surface. Needless to say, it didn’t. Credit NASA/JPL.
Categories: Anniversary, Ephemeris Program, History, Mars Tags: ,