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
- Orbital period
- 1195.568183323255
Show 12 more facts
- provisional designation
- 9560 P-L
- time of discovery or invention
- 1960-10-17
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.1163484458124929
Article · Nederlands
11430 Lodewijkberg is een planetoïde uit de hoofdgordel die om de zon draait in 1195,554 dagen (3 siderisch jaar en 100 dagen). De planetoïde werd op 17 oktober 1960 ontdekt door Kees van Houten en Ingrid van Houten-Groeneveld in de Sterrenwacht van Leiden. Zij vonden het object op foto's van de Samuel Oschintelescoop in het Palomar-observatorium in San Diego. Het object kreeg de voorlopige aanduiding 9560 P‑L en werd op 28 september 2007 vernoemd naar de Nederlands-Amerikaanse ruimtevaarder Lodewijk van den Berg.
Abstract from DBpedia / Wikipedia · CC BY-SA