Chryse Planitia

Chryse Planitia is the smooth plain where Viking 1 made the first successful long-term landing on Mars in 1976. Explore it in 3D at real scale.

Location

22.3° N, 48.0° W

Landed

Viking 1, 20 July 1976

First

first spacecraft to work for years on the Martian surface

Landscape

a low plain where ancient floods ended

Chryse Planitia, the "golden plain", is a low, smooth region in the northern hemisphere of Mars. Many of the great outflow channels, including Ares Vallis, empty into it, so it collected material washed down by ancient floods.

Viking 1 landed there on 20 July 1976, exactly seven years after Apollo 11 landed on the Moon. It sent back the first colour pictures from the Martian surface, ran experiments that looked for signs of life in the soil and kept working for more than six years.

What to look for

• Flat, rocky ground. The landscape Viking 1 photographed: fine dust, scattered rocks and drifts of sand.
• Flood channels. Follow the plain south and west to where outflow channels like Ares Vallis and Kasei Valles meet it.

Driving Chryse Planitia in Trawers

Viking 1 could not move, so every metre you drive here is new ground. The plain is a good place for long, steady drives on the leaderboard.