July 28, 1976
Viking Lander 1
76-H-580
P-17254This image, received today, shows the trench excavated by Viking 1 surface sampler. The trench was dug by extending the surface sampler collection head in a direction from lower right toward the upper left and then withdrawing the surface sampler collector head. Lumpy piles of material at [the] end of [the] trench at lower right was pulled by plowing from [the] trench by the backhoe... The trench ... is about 3 inches wide, 2 inches deep and 6 inches long. Steep dark crater walls show the grains of the Martian surface material stick together (have adhesion). The doming of the surface at [the] far end of the trench show the granular material is dense. The Martian surface material behaves somewhat like moist sand on Earth.....
-from NASA Press Release July 28, 1976
The samples taken from the surface of Mars were placed into the inorganic chemical
and biology instruments to determine the chemistry of the soil and possibility
of life forms on Mars.
Find out what they determined.