Abstract
The Viking mission to Mars, one of t h e most exciting and significant events ever to occur in planetary science, is happening at the midpoint of a decade that has been full of new discoveries. Our understanding of the nature and evolution of the solar system has been profoundly enlarged by the Mariner 9 Mars mission (1971), the Mariner 10 mission to Venus and Mercury (1973), the encounters of Pioneer 10 and 11 with Jupiter (1973 and 1974), and t he Helios interplanetary probe (1974). Still to come are the Pioneer Venus orbiter and atmospheric probes (1978) and the dual Mariner Jupiter/Saturn spacecraft which will reach Jupiter in 1979 and Saturn in 1981. Other missions are in the planning stages (see the reports ‘Opportunities and Choices in Space Science,’ 1974, and ‘Report on Space Science,’ 1975, by the Space Science Board of the National Academy of Sciences).
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