070-mars-orbit-insertion-dixon – This illustration depicts The Viking One spacecraft executing its orbit insertion burn above Mars to slow down and become the first spacecraft to orbit another planet. A brilliant blue exhaust plume expands into the vacuum of space from the rocket nozzle, silhouetted against the dark, unilluminated hemisphere of the planet. Below, the sunlit Martian surface displays majestic geological features, including massive volcanic shields, canyon complexes, and cratered highlands under a thin, blue atmospheric haze along the curved horizon. ; gouache on illustration board, 1975 (digitally remastered)
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