Could the Rover restart the Lander? IIRC the Viking Landers (well one of them) was accidently shut off, is there a reset button that perhaps could be reset by the Rover?
After 25+ years, wouldn’t the batteries be dead? I’m sure that many years exposed to the harsh Martian weather would likely have damaged other components, as well.
Also, wouldn’t the observers freak out for a second if they DID see Viking sitting in the distance?
The Viking power system is thermonuclear in nature and should last for a very long time. I think it was launched in the 70’s and accidentally shut down in '86.
And it would be really freaky for the rover to stumble across another space probe, even if it was ours.
Oi, you’ve been watching Red Planet once too often perhaps? I was just wondering what way there would be to do this if there was a reset button of some sort. Aren’t the “arms” on Spirit for gathering soil samples only? Would there be anyway of beaming a message to the Viking after all this time, how would it receive anything if shut down?
P.S. I don’t think anyone would freak out either unless the Viking suddenly sprouted a heat ray and yelled ULLAH! at Spirit 
Don’t you think that the people at NASA would know whether the latest rovers were set down within a few hundred yards of Viking? And that they might have said something about it before now?
The rovers can only move a very short distance. Despite the name “rover,” they are not roving around Mars but merely across an extremely limited area.
It ain’t gonna happen.
Uhh, I doubt there’s a big “on” switch anyone could just press. What if we did that to every probe and all these that land the martians just hit the off button. But now that explains everything…
Look at this map of the landing sites. The current rovers Spirit and Opportunity are pretty danged far from either of the Vikings. Even the Pathfinder would’ve been (rough eyeball estimate here) at least hundreds of miles away from Viking 1.
they could mate, breed, & populate Mars with a race of Evil Space Probes, like the one the 6 Million Dollar Man fought.
Yes?
Yes?
No, no! They’d merge into one machine, return to their point of origin, and sterilize, STERILIZE!
I think the exact landing site of the 2 viking landers are not truly known and could be off by some distance. The Spirt Rover has mobile arms and tools such as rock abration tools. I would think it could use such an arm to press a button or flip a switch. I don’t think it can actually handle objects though.
Also I don’t think it beyond reason for the viking landers to have some reset button, this seems almost essentail during testing.
It wouldn’t surprise me at all if it had a reset button, but it would very much surprise me if it was located out in the open somewhere where a simple robot arm or a simple piece of flying debris could activate it.
Ah, they’re 1970s style point-of-origin sterilizers.
FYI…Viking 1 was shut down accidentally (via radio command) in 1982. Viking 2, on the other hand, went offline in 1980, after it’s “batteries failed.”
Apparently, NASA had plans to keep Viking 1 operating until at least 1994, when it was shut down. I don’t know if that means there’d be any juice left onboard, or if the over 20 years of sitting exposed to the Martian climate would leave it still functional, even WITH a power supply.
If the Rover came upon the Lander, I think the Rover would be like all, “Hey, what’s up?” and the Lander would be all, “Just chillin’.” And the Rover would be like, “Wan’ comps?” And the Lander would be all, “Free planet.” And the Rover would be like, “Yo, the 'nauts back n da hood like not heard from you, what’s up wid dat?” And the Lander would be all “Nuttin ta speaks bout.” And the Rover would be like, “Hear ya, bro.” And the Rover would then stop transmitting, too.
Would the Viking use 70’s slang instead?
“Hey, jive turkey!”
Check the link that Earthling gave again. We know where the Vikings are and we’re talking half a planet’s distance.
Spirit was designed to move a total of about half a mile.
And here’s a picture of the Viking lander. I don’t see a big reset button anywhere.
Rover: Of course Nixon’s not president any more. He’s dead!
Viking: Dead? I didn’t even know he was sick!
Ford was President. July, 1976. Made me durn proud. We weren’t doing anything with manned spaceflight, but I figured we’d be getting back to the Moon within a few years. Unfortunately, I don’t make policy.
Yeah, but Ford’s not dead, and I really really needed to use that joke.
Thanks for ruining my fun, creep.
I guess it depends on which one of the Vikings the Rover runs into first. I mean, if the Rover runs into Fran Tarkenton, he’d probably just pitch it off to Chuck Foreman and try to pick up some short yards and maybe hand off to Brent McClanahan on second down. If the Rover is in zone coverage, look for Tarkenton to connect with Sammy White or Ahmad Rashad. I don’t think your basic Mars Rover is going to be able to keep the ball away from Ahmad, and the Rover is going to have some work to do coming into the second half.
What?