Q157657

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 Observatory

Discovery date

11 March 1918

Minor planet category

main-belt Eos

Observation arc

95.39 yr (34842 days)

Aphelion

3.2017 AU (478.97 Gm )

Perihelion

2.8415 AU (425.08 Gm)

Semi major axis

3.0216 AU (452.02 Gm)

Orbital period sidereal

5.25 yr (1918.5 d )

Mean anomaly

174.471 °

Mean motion

0° 11 15.54 / day

Inclination

10.872°

Longitude of ascending node

160.683°

Argument of perihelion

90.307°

Mean radius

13.665 ± 0.85 km

Synodic rotation period

12.581 h (0.5242 d )

Geometric albedo

0.1153 ± 0.016

via Wikipedia infobox

Wikidata facts

Diameter

28.376

Orbital period

1918.749582557679

via Wikidata · CC0