2031 BAM

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

L. Chernykh

Discovery site

Crimean Astrophysical Obs.

Discovery date

8 October 1969

Named after

Baikal–Amur Mainline , (Siberian railway line)

Alternative designations

1969 TG 2 · 1939 VB, 1959 TW · 1972 NQ

Minor planet category

main-belt · ( inner ) , Flora

Observation arc

77.39 yr (28,268 days)

Aphelion

2.6203 AU

Perihelion

1.8477 AU

Semi major axis

2.2340 AU

Orbital period sidereal

3.34 yr (1,220 days)

Mean anomaly

124.02 °

Mean motion

0° 17 42.72 / day

Inclination

4.7524°

Longitude of ascending node

169.28°

Argument of perihelion

213.58°

Dimensions

7.14 km (calculated) , 8.14 ± 0.36 km

Synodic rotation period

10.774 ± 0.004 h

via Wikipedia infobox