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
- 17.519
- Orbital period
- 2097.067367833002
Show 13 more facts
- provisional designation
- 1987 QP7
- time of discovery or invention
- 1982-11-13
Article · Русский
(5021) Крылания (лат. Krylania) — типичный астероид главного пояса, который был открыт 13 ноября 1982 года советским астрономом Людмилой Карачкиной в Крымской астрофизической обсерватории и назван в честь супруги Петра Капицы . 5021 Krylania Discovered 1982-11-13 by Karachkina, L. G. at Nauchnyj. Named in honor of Anna Alexeevna Kapitsa (1903— ), the daughter of Alexei Nikolaevich Krylov. She was an outstanding Russian mathematician and the wife of famous physicist Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa. Name proposed by the discoverer following a suggestion by Maria Sergeevna Kapitsa. REF: DISCOVERY.DB; MPC 22505 — Discovery Circumstances
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