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• THE LUNAR EXPLORER ARCHIVES
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A R C H I V E S

The NASA - Viking Lander 2 touched down on Mars on the date of September, 3rd, 1976, about 200 Km West of the Crater Mie, in the Martian Region known as Utopia Planitia at 48°16'08" North Latitude - 225°59'24" West Longitude and at an altitude of 4,23 Km - relative to a reference ellipsoid with an Equatorial Radius of 3397,2 Km and a Flattening (remember that the so-called Flattening is a measure of the compression of a circle or a sphere along a certain given diameter, so to form, after the compression, an ellipse or an ellipsoid) of 0,0105 - at 09:49:05 Mars Local Solar Time.

Approximately 22 Kg of fuel were left at the time of the Landing. Besides, due to radar misidentification of either a Rock, or some other not better identified Highly Reflective Surface Feature located on the Martian Surface right under the landing Spacecraft, the thrusters fired for an extra time equal to 0,4" before ending the descent, thus cracking the Surface and raising Dust. The Viking Lander 2 settled down with one leg on a Rock, and therefore tilted of about  8,2°; its cameras started taking images of the Region immediately after Landing and it operated on the Martian Surface for 1281 Soles and was turned off on April, 11th, 1980, when its batteries failed. The Viking Lander 2 was actually far enough North that Frost was able to deposit on the Surface of Utopia Planitia during the long and dark Martian Winter and this image, taken in May 1979, shows a thin, white layer of Water Frost, estimated to be only a few microns thick, covering parts of the visible Surface. The orange/reddish areas are Soil and Rocks either not covered by the Frost or where the Frost had already sublimated (or evaporated, like some Scientists believe) at the time the picture was taken. Portion of the Spacecraft is also visible in the right (Dx) foreground.

This frame has been colorized in Absolute Natural Colors (such as the colors that a normal human eye would actually perceive if someone were on the Surface of Mars, near the NASA - Viking Lander 2,  and then looked towards the Horizon of Utopia Planitia), by using an original technique created - and, in time, dramatically improved - by the Lunar Explorer Italia Team