Mark Schuler (American, B. 1951) "First Landing on Mars 1976" Signed lower left. Original Mixed Media painting on Illustration Board. Provenance: Collection of James A. Helzer (1946-2008), Founder of Unicover Corporation. This artwork was originally published on the Republic of the Marshall Islands 45c First Landing On Mars stamp issued November 24, 1989. America's Viking Space Program to Mars held the entire world in suspense. For almost a year, the sparkling Viking I spacecraft, followed closely by its identical twin, Viking II, winged toward Mars nearly half a billion miles away. For the scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, who were the mission planners, the suspense escalated when Viking entered orbit. Viking's approach photographs of the Martian surface had revealed disquieting geologic features where the spacecraft was scheduled to land. Etched tablelands and deep craters -- clear evidence that Mars had once seen water -- presented all kinds of landing difficulties. A rock only a foot high could puncture the electronics-laden belly of Viking's Lander. On July 20, 1976 at 12:47 a.m. Pasadena time -- seven years to the day after Apollo II's Eagle had landed on the moon -- flight controllers ordered the Viking Lander, an awkward looking bird about the size of a jeep, to separate from the Orbiter and begin a thirty-minute engine burn that would take it out of orbit. Then at 4:13 Mars time, the Lander touched down on a rocky, rolling Martian plain, just missing a large fatal boulder. It took nineteen minutes for the news to travel through space from Mars to JPL in Pasadena. Suddenly, wild whoops filled Mission Control. Within an hour, the Lander's first picture from Mars' surface began to form, one strip at a time ... and the first triumphant exploration of Mars had begun. Image Size: 12 x 12 in. Overall Size: 20 x 20 in. Unframed. (B12183)