VIKING

either of two unmanned U.S. spacecraft launched by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration on Aug. 20 and Sept. 9, 1975. After 10 months, Vikings 1 and 2 entered orbits around Mars and released landers that touched down at sites (designated Chryse and Utopia, respectively) 6,500 km (about 4,000 miles) apart on July 20 and Sept. 3, 1976. The landers relayed measurements of properties of the atmosphere and soil of Mars and colour photographs of the rocky surface. Experiments designed to detect evidence of living organisms provided no convincing evidence of life on the surface of the planet. The orbiters transmitted photographs of large expanses of the Martian surface. also called Norseman, or Northman, member of the Scandinavian seafaring warriors who raided and colonized wide areas of Europe from the 9th to the 11th century and whose disruptive influence profoundly affected European history. These pagan Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish warriors were probably prompted to undertake their raids by a combination of factors ranging from overpopulation at home to the relative helplessness of victims abroad. The Vikings were made up of landowning chieftains and clan heads, their retainers, freemen, and any energetic young clan members who sought adventure and booty overseas. At home these Scandinavians were independent farmers, but at sea they were raiders and pillagers. During the Viking period the Scandinavian countries seem to have possessed a practically inexhaustible surplus of manpower, and leaders of ability, who could organize groups of warriors into conquering bands and armies, were seldom lacking. These bands would negotiate the seas in their longships and mount hit-and-run raids at cities and towns along the coasts of Europe. Their burning, plundering, and killing earned them the name vikingr, meaning pirate in the early Scandinavian languages. The exact ethnic composition of the Viking armies is unknown in particular cases, but the Vikings' expansion in the Baltic lands and in Russia can reasonably be attributed to the Swedes. On the other hand, the nonmilitary colonization of the Orkneys, Faroes, and Iceland was clearly due to the Norwegians.