Original vintage glossy 10 x 8 silver gelatin photograph of the first image ever taken on the surface of Mars, captured by the Viking 1 lander on July 20, 1976, showing the lander's footpad on the rocky Martian surface. Reverse bears “A Kodak Paper” watermarks and an affixed mimeographed NASA press caption, in part: "This is the first photograph ever taken on the surface of the planet Mars. It was obtained by Viking 1 just minutes after the spacecraft landed successfully early today. The center of the image is about 1.4 meters (five feet) from Viking Lander camera #2. We see both rocks and finely granulated material—sand or dust…At right is a portion of footpad #3. Small quantities of fine grained sand and dust are seen at the center of the footpad near the strut and were deposited at landing. The shadow to the left of the footpad clearly exhibits detail, due to scattering of light either from the Martian atmosphere or from the spacecraft, observable because the Martian sky scatters light into shadowed areas." In fine condition.
From the Tony C.D. Knight Collection.
