I was referring to this Voyager: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_program_(Mars) (Though, now actually looking at it, my statement doesn't seem quite as accurate now)
That was dead from start, why ?
based on 1960s technology it became bigger much bigger
in end the Lander was 10 tons heavy thing in size of Apollo capsule and needed a Saturn V to get two of them to Mars !
1967 NASA demanded 10 billion dollar (today value) for Mars Voyager and Capitol Hill say NO WAY
Irony 9 years later landed smaller and more efficient Viking probe on Mars for a total program cost of 3.5 billion dollar (today value).
More had to follow but thing went another way:
JPL vs Langley rivalry
after JPL lost Mars Voyager, Langley proposed what become Viking
for coming year were rivalry between JLP and Langley about "Who runs here the NASA Planetary program ?"
Shuttle ate the Budget
That Shuttle program became moloch that devoured more and more money
other programs became victim like Grant Tour became scaled down Voyager probes
David Stockman, evil czar of white House
under Reagan Administration in 1981, he sway the budget axe true NASA, killing almost entire Planetary program
only hand full program survived thank international treaty sign with Europe, Germany and Japan.
Red Planet is cursed for Commie probes
The Soviet union send allot of probes to Mars, all failure in every aspect, for partial to total.
After Viking they stop to send probes for almost 10 years then send Phobos 1&2 who were also Failure
So what if had Soviet manage successful Mars probe, Viking had go on ?
One idea was to send the Backup Viking probe to Mars (3 were build)
also to Modified the Lander to a Rover
German MBB collaborate on that, what could had lead to USA-German Join-Venture, save form evil David Stockman.
Another Idea was to send Modified Viking probe to land as rover on Mars Moon Phobos or Mars Sample Return probe based on Viking hardware.