Q156983

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

Franz Kaiser

Discovery site

Heidelberg

Discovery date

8 September 1913

Alternative designations

1913 SO

Observation arc

97.40 yr (35574 d)

Aphelion

3.0488 AU (456.09 Gm )

Perihelion

2.6751 AU (400.19 Gm)

Semi major axis

2.8619 AU (428.13 Gm)

Orbital period sidereal

4.842 yr (1,768.4 d)

Mean anomaly

114.79 °

Mean motion

0° 12 12.852 / day

Inclination

2.1605°

Longitude of ascending node

23.830°

Argument of perihelion

298.232°

Earth moid

1.66272 AU (248.739 Gm)

Jupiter moid

2.15087 AU (321.766 Gm)

Dimensions

20.763 ± 0.300 km

Synodic rotation period

57.96 h (2.415 d )

via Wikipedia infobox

Wikidata facts

Diameter

20.763

Orbital period

1769.158400466365

via Wikidata · CC0