text: The Viking 1 photo is 40 years-old. The quality of it is not near;y the same as the Mars Global Surveyor. The Face of Mars may have only been seen because of weather conditions that day. In 1998, the Mars Global Surveyor took a picture ten times sharper than the already 22 years-old. The Mars Orbiter Camera took a picture that was a lot clearer but still not good enough for some.