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Picture of the Day · NASA

Pathfinder on Mars

2026-07-04

On July 4th, 1997, using its own array of fireworks, a parachute, and a cocoon of airbags, the Mars Pathfinder spacecraft bounced like a giant beach ball at least 15 times before it came to rest on the surface of Mars at 10:07 AM Pacific Daylight Time. After its then novel airbag-assisted landing sequence was completed, Pathfinder transmitted this color mosaic to mission operators on Earth. In the scene from another world, the Mars Sojourner robot rover is visible in the foreground, crouched on top of the unfolded Pathfinder. About the size of a large house cat, the six-wheeled, solar-powered Sojourner became the first successful Martian rover. Surrounding Pathfinder are deflated airbags and the rock-strewn terrain of the Ares Vallis floodplain. In the distance Martian hills appear against a dusty brownish sky. The Pathfinder lander was subsequently renamed the Carl Sagan Memorial Station.

via NASA APOD

Key facts

Discovered by

Raymond Smith Dugan

Discovery site

Heidelberg

Discovery date

19 April 1904

Alternative designations

1904 NZ

Observation arc

114.43 yr (41794 d)

Aphelion

3.1166 AU (466.24 Gm )

Perihelion

2.8421 AU (425.17 Gm)

Semi major axis

2.9794 AU (445.71 Gm)

Orbital period sidereal

5.14 yr (1878.4 d )

Mean anomaly

290.755 °

Mean motion

0° 11 29.94 / day

Inclination

6.5586°

Longitude of ascending node

180.352°

Argument of perihelion

35.265°

Mean radius

15.54 ± 0.8 km

Synodic rotation period

11.654 h (0.4856 d )

Geometric albedo

0.2479 ± 0.028

via Wikipedia infobox

Wikidata facts

Diameter

30.819

Orbital period

1879.398584585506

via Wikidata · CC0