874 Rotraut

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

M. F. Wolf

Discovery site

Heidelberg Obs.

Discovery date

25 May 1917

Named after

Schön Rotraut , (poem by Eduard Mörike )

Alternative designations

A917 KK · 1976 WJ, 1917 CC

Minor planet category

main-belt · ( outer ) background

Observation arc

102.67 yr (37,499 d)

Aphelion

3.4039 AU

Perihelion

2.8992 AU

Semi major axis

3.1515 AU

Orbital period sidereal

5.59 yr (2,044 d)

Mean anomaly

171.80 °

Mean motion

0° 10 34.32 / day

Inclination

11.141°

Longitude of ascending node

190.63°

Argument of perihelion

9.4547°

Dimensions

51.1 km × 37.7 km

Mean diameter

56.47 ± 5.5 km 58.287 ± 0.198 km 59.38 ± 0.73 km

via Wikipedia infobox