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
Wikidata facts
- Diameter
- 10.684
- Orbital period
- 1547.472818505513
Show 14 more facts
- provisional designation
- 1988 VO6
- time of discovery or invention
- 1975-10-03
Article · Русский
(10262) Самойлов (лат. Samoilov) — типичный астероид главного пояса, который был открыт 3 октября 1975 года советским астрономом Людмилой Черных в Крымской астрофизической обсерватории и 28 марта 2002 года назван в честь советского и российского актёра Евгения Самойлова. 10262 Samoilov Discovered 1975 Oct. 3 by L. I. Chernykh at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory. Evgenij Valerianovich Samoilov (b. 1912) is a well-known Russian dramatic actor and People's Artist of the former U.S.S.R. He performs at the State Academic Maly Theatre in Moscow. REF: 20020328/MPCPages.arc; MPC 45232 — Discovery Circumstances
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