667 Denise

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

23 July 1908

Alternative designations

1908 DN

Observation arc

107.73 yr (39350 d)

Aphelion

3.7913 AU (567.17 Gm )

Perihelion

2.5749 AU (385.20 Gm)

Semi major axis

3.1831 AU (476.18 Gm)

Orbital period sidereal

5.68 yr (2074.3 d )

Mean anomaly

205.803 °

Mean motion

0° 10 24.816 / day

Inclination

25.404°

Longitude of ascending node

153.256°

Argument of perihelion

305.863°

Earth moid

1.66044 AU (248.398 Gm)

Jupiter moid

1.53232 AU (229.232 Gm)

Mean radius

40.64 ± 0.85 km

Synodic rotation period

12.687 h (0.5286 d )

via Wikipedia infobox

Wikidata facts

Diameter

88.63

Orbital period

2078.169463246373

via Wikidata · CC0