Q459031

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

K. Reinmuth

Discovery site

Heidelberg

Discovery date

9 August 1923

Alternative designations

1923 NW

Observation arc

92.68 yr (33850 days)

Aphelion

3.1787 AU (475.53 Gm )

Perihelion

2.0450 AU (305.93 Gm)

Semi major axis

2.6118 AU (390.72 Gm)

Orbital period sidereal

4.22 yr (1541.8 d )

Mean anomaly

352.050 °

Mean motion

0° 14 0.6 / day

Inclination

9.7603°

Longitude of ascending node

214.972°

Argument of perihelion

128.034°

Mean radius

8.95 km

Synodic rotation period

22.77 h (0.949 d )

Geometric albedo

0.1994 ± 0.051

via Wikipedia infobox

Wikidata facts

Diameter

16.848

Orbital period

1542.789584034522

via Wikidata · CC0