A projectile almost hit Viking 2!	index

deformed cruise stage cone shaped head of projectile with trail on ground

Do you remember that Viking 2 had a 9 hours blackout after landing? The mystery about this was never solved and maybe this projectile has something to do with it. The cone shaped object has the same shape as a military warhead of a strategical missile. It did not explode and just skidded on the ground, leaving a trail in the sand. I found this in May 1999 on pictures of Camera 2 in the location -10° elevation and 90° azimuth. cut and 2x enlarged 22A190 22A190

Image ID 22G101 (BB4) 2x enlarged	cut from 22G101 (BB4) The trail is continued after a few meters up to the upper left corner. (click on image for same cut without markings)

Some new remarks:

1. About the 9 hours blackout I read in a book. Now, I'm not sure anymore if it really was 9 hours. Some sources at NASA claim only a 9 minute blackout. However, it was a unexplained blackout and restart of the lander-electronics by itself.
2. The gravity on the surface is only 1/3 of Earth gravity, so the skid-trail and impact crater is less deep than it was on Earth.
3. Cone-shaped meteorits has been found on Earth. These meteorits are by no way so perfect shaped as this one on Mars! And a meteorit of this size would not lay on the surface but in a hundred meter wide crater.
4. If it is not a missile projectile it is some other artifical created object. Maybe a part of a statue or building which was blown in pieces, like the remains around all three Mars landings sites suggests (VL 1, VL 2, Pathfinder).

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or search at the NASA/JPL Viking Lander Image Database

All original images courtesy of JPL/NASA/Caltech.