1917 Cuyo

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

C. U. Cesco , A. G. Samuel

Discovery site

El Leoncito Complex

Discovery date

1 January 1968

Named after

Universidad Nacional de Cuyo

Alternative designations

1968 AA

Minor planet category

NEO · Amor

Observation arc

65.08 yr (23,769 d)

Earliest precovery date

6 May 1954

Aphelion

3.2353 AU

Perihelion

1.0624 AU

Semi major axis

2.1488 AU

Orbital period sidereal

3.15 yr (1,151 d)

Mean anomaly

129.40 °

Mean motion

0° 18 46.44 / day

Inclination

23.962°

Longitude of ascending node

188.31°

Argument of perihelion

194.53°

Earth moid

0.0716 AU (27.8938 LD )

via Wikipedia infobox