Q157356

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

Max Wolf

Discovery site

Heidelberg

Discovery date

24 September 1916

Alternative designations

1916 AJ; 1948 CF;, 1952 BW1; 1954 UH1

Observation arc

95.57 yr (34908 d)

Aphelion

3.0122 AU (450.62 Gm )

Perihelion

2.2193 AU (332.00 Gm)

Semi major axis

2.6158 AU (391.32 Gm)

Orbital period sidereal

4.23 yr (1545.2 d )

Mean anomaly

263.01 °

Mean motion

0° 13 58.692 / day

Inclination

12.605°

Longitude of ascending node

338.211°

Argument of perihelion

339.558°

Earth moid

1.21054 AU (181.094 Gm)

Jupiter moid

2.32416 AU (347.689 Gm)

Mean radius

10.195 ± 0.4 km

Synodic rotation period

10.366 h (0.4319 d )

via Wikipedia infobox

Wikidata facts

Diameter

20.39

Orbital period

1544.574576551599

via Wikidata · CC0