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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

August Kopff

Discovery site

Heidelberg

Discovery date

7 March 1907

Alternative designations

1907 XT

Observation arc

109.12 yr (39856 d)

Aphelion

2.6931 AU (402.88 Gm )

Perihelion

2.4696 AU (369.45 Gm)

Semi major axis

2.5813 AU (386.16 Gm)

Orbital period sidereal

4.15 yr (1514.8 d )

Mean anomaly

325.02 °

Mean motion

0° 14 15.54 / day

Inclination

11.527°

Longitude of ascending node

112.123°

Argument of perihelion

207.566°

Mean radius

24.86 ± 1.2 km

Synodic rotation period

16.1783 h (0.67410 d )

Geometric albedo

0.1426 ± 0.015

via Wikipedia infobox