Space electronics: Automatic checkout for missions to Mars: Unmanned extraterrestrial landings call for reliable premission testing of complex guidance and communications systems

On the heels of some of the most dramatic results obtained to date from unmanned spacecraft (see Box, page 45), the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is scheduled to launch two Viking spacecraft from Cape Kennedy, Fla., in the fall of 1975 to answer the centuries-old question of whether life once existed, now exists, or could exist on Mars.