Vikings is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and settled throughout parts of Europe.
In the aerospace context, Viking refers to a series of missions sent by NASA in the 1970s to explore Mars. The Viking program was composed of two missions, Viking 1 and Viking 2, which were launched in 1975 and landed on Mars in 1976.
The Viking program was one of the most ambitious and comprehensive missions sent to Mars at that time. The two Viking landers were equipped with a variety of scientific instruments, including cameras, a weather station, a seismometer, and a soil sampling arm, which were used to study the Martian surface, atmosphere, and geology.
The Viking landers also carried a biological experiment, which was designed to search for evidence of life on Mars. Although the experiment did not provide any definitive evidence of life, the Viking missions were highly successful and returned a wealth of data and images that are still being studied today.
The Viking program was one of the first successful missions to Mars and it laid the foundation for future missions to the planet, including the recent Mars rovers such as the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) mission and the current Mars 2020 mission, which is currently active on Mars and is exploring the Jezero crater.
The Viking program was a major milestone in the history of planetary exploration, and the data and images returned by the Viking landers continue to be used by scientists to understand the geology, atmosphere, and potential habitability of Mars.