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PIA00395: The Collector Head Of Viking Lander 1's Surface Sampler
The collector head of NASA's Viking 1's surface sampler is full of Martian soil destined for the gas chromatograph mass spectrometer, the instrument which analyzes the surface material for the presence of organic molecules.
 Target Name:  Mars
 Is a satellite of:  Sol (our sun)
 Mission:  Viking 
 Spacecraft:  Viking Lander 1
 Instrument:  Camera 2 
 Product Size:  259 x 402 pixels (w x h) 
 Produced By:  JPL 
 Producer ID:  P17463  
 Addition Date:  1996-12-12 
 Primary Data Set:  Viking EDRs 
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA00395.tif (17.72 kB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA00395.jpg (7.968 kB)  

Click on the image above to download a moderately sized image in JPEG format (possibly reduced in size from original)

Original Caption Released with Image:

The collector head of Viking l's surface sampler is full of Martian soil destined for the gas chromatograph mass spectrometer, the instrument which analyzes the surface material for the presence of organic molecules. The material was scooped out of the surface on August 3, but the sampler arm stopped operating while transporting it to the instrument. The Martian soil will be deposited into the instrument's processor today. The surface sampler is operating properly, but the cause of last week's problem is not yet known. This picture, taken Monday (August 9), was made for operational purposes, focusing on the collector head. Hence, the out-of-focus view of the Martian surface.

Image Credit:
NASA/JPL

Image Addition Date:
1996-12-12