text: When the first picture was taken in 1976, technology was not as great as it is now or even in 2001. Each pixel in the 2001 image spans 1.56 meters, compared oto 43 meters per pixel in the best 1976 Viking photo. Meaning the qualtiy of picture taken in 1976, which convinced most people of alien, did not have great or even decent quality. On April 5, 1998, Mars Global Surveyor flew over Cydonis for the first time, Michael Malin and his Mars Orbiter Camera (MOS) team snapped a picture ten times sharper than the orginal Viking photo.