Q142048

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

H. E. Wood

Discovery site

Johannesburg Obs.

Discovery date

4 August 1926

Named after

Willem van den Bos , (astronomer)

Alternative designations

1926 PE · 1928 DD, 1936 OM · 1948 BE, 1948 EG 1 · 1949 KE, 1950 XD · 1963 SC

Minor planet category

main-belt · Flora

Observation arc

88.62 yr (32,370 days)

Aphelion

2.6437 AU

Perihelion

1.8357 AU

Semi major axis

2.2397 AU

Orbital period sidereal

3.35 yr (1,224 days)

Mean anomaly

33.128 °

Mean motion

0° 17 38.76 / day

Inclination

5.3617°

Longitude of ascending node

83.196°

Argument of perihelion

275.24°

Dimensions

7.58 ± 0.67 km , 11.697 ± 0.048 km , 12.25 km (derived) , 13.537 ± 0.339 km

Synodic rotation period

155 ± 5 h (wrong) , 740 ± 10 h

via Wikipedia infobox