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
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Followed by
- (35317) 1997 AQ23
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 4.18
- Orbital period
- 1650.055443816386
Show 16 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Marco Cavagna
- time of discovery or invention
- 1997-01-11
- site of astronomical discovery
- Osservatorio Astronomico Sormano
- provisional designation
- 1999 RK109
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.121119311744509
- orbital inclination
- 12.32781552435613
- periapsis
- 2.401762144421857
- apoapsis
- 3.063740002835847
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.732751073628852
- mean anomaly
- 40.97663579986476
- longitude of ascending node
- 333.8592195177384
- argument of periapsis
- 261.4311796782992
- absolute magnitude
- 14.55
- albedo
- 0.254
- time of periapsis
- 2460812.684108414
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0