Learning never ends, but requires both subject matter and participants.

(Left to right) Dr. Gerald A. Soffen: Viking Project Scientist, Carl Sagan, Rachel Tillman: Viking Preservation Project Founder (as child in red) at Cape Canaveral. Photographer: James Eugene Tillman, Viking Meteorology Team member and Viking Preservation Project Education Director

Viking lessons are building blocks for Space Exploration!

Creativity, engineering, problem solving, teamwork, testing, prototyping, analysis and so much more!

WE believe that critical thinking and problem solving skills support collaborative, innovative and complex programs. The future depends upon the ability of youth to learn, and practice them.

We believe that many of these skills can be learned by exposure to the science, history, and human lessons of Viking. Viking embodies a broad set of firsts, is multidisciplinary in nature, used an integrated approach to mission planning and operations, and can offer these lessons in a comparative context to current missions, and social – cultural – industrial –scientific environments of then and now.

We know that Viking is relevant today, as has been demonstrated by the requests from scholars, institutes, and students alike since we began this project.

Institutional heritage is being lost, and with it a knowledge base that can contribute to current programs. Institutes cannot afford to maintain physical libraries dedicated to each project they are responsible for. We are dedicated to doing so for Viking, and will make digital archives accessible to institutes that donate their physical archives and artifacts.

The Viking Mars Missions Education and Preservation Project will:

• Collaborate with Institutes globally
• Preserve and share materials relevant to and stemming from the Viking Missions for education
• Digitally reproduce, restore, and archive documents, manuals, correspondence, notes, press kits and other materials from the Viking Mars Missions

THE SOLUTION
The Archive is used to create educational materials, and to support the awareness of the national and global historic, scientific, and human achievement impact that Viking has had.  The materials also have the breadth and depth to teach the science, math, problem solving, collaboration and other lessons to supplement school’s teaching.

The Archive represents critical knowledge that has become fragmented since Viking. One of the centerpiece educational interactive experiences being developed (currently referred to as “The Genealogy of Influence”) reflects the simple but profound message that human development throughout time is influenced by discoveries we make, both accidental and intentional, tools we create, events, and leaders that emerge from inspirations around them. Viking embodied all of these, and along with the history of the mission, we will demonstrate the impact Viking had on the following areas:

• Individuals’ contributions as Scientists, Teachers, Artists, Philanthropists, Leaders
• Bodies of knowledge from scientific discoveries
• Instruments, technologies, and products developed for or influenced by Viking
• Works of art influenced by Viking and subsequent Mars exploration
• Impact to the economy
• Models of innovation and collaboration

Viking was also a project with collaboration from diverse educational and cultural contributors in a time where collaboration beyond borders was impeded by historical circumstance.

The Digital Archive of “all things Viking” achieves numerous benefits to the Educational, Historical, Cultural, and Aerospace communities

• Creates ease of access to valuable content by being the single point for students, educators and researchers to learn about the historical and scientific elements of the Viking mission
• Provides valuable engineering and scientific data in the form of reports, research, raw data, images, and commentary to enhance scientific and engineering investigation for current and future missions
• Saves time and resources that educational and aerospace institutes might have to spend to find and use subsets of the included material that are currently dispersed broadly dispersed or are not available except through our collection
• Preserves the data in a manner that it can withstand the degradation of history though loss by individuals and institutes. Access will be broad (shared with multiple institutes) to ensure the integrity of the archive and history

Educational Materials developed for public and academic audiences to extend the “Reach and Teach” opportunities to learn about the mission technologies and techniques, the systems and instruments, and the data (some of which has not yet been analyzed completely to date)

• The online Viking Mission Museum has been launched and is available for public viewing and will be updated regularly
• Media elements both in modules and aggregated into presentations and exhibits will be made available as both viewable experiences (in Museums and Institutes) and as standalone pieces to be used for events and education
• Printed materials for educational and historical purposes such as curriculum, papers, and books
• In person outreach and teaching about elements of Viking by VMMEPP, Vikings, and Partner Institutions

Partnerships and Resources include relationships we design that meet the needs of specific institutes with one-time activities, materials, or unique programs. We partner with Museums, Planetariums, academic institutes, maker spaces, and other nonprofits. 

• Programs for individuals to engage in education, research, exploration and career development
• Collaborative custom programs with Partners supporting both entities Missions