Mars Pathfinder

Mars Pathfinder was an American robotic spacecraft that landed a base station with a roving probe on Mars in 1997. It consisted of a lander, renamed the Carl Sagan Memorial Station, and a lightweight, 10.6 kg (23 lb) wheeled robotic Mars rover named Sojourner, the first rover to operate outside the Earth–Moon system. The mission terminated in 1998.

Launched on December 4, 1996, by NASA aboard a Delta II booster a month after the Mars Global Surveyor, it landed on July 4, 1997, on Mars's Ares Vallis. The region is called Chryse Planitia, a part of the Oxia Palus quadrangle. The lander carried a series of scientific instruments to analyze the Martian atmosphere, climate, and geology. Analysis of the rocks and soil was a key objective. It was the second project from NASA's Discovery Program, which promotes the use of low-cost spacecraft and frequent launches under the "cheaper, faster, and better" motto promoted by then-administrator Daniel Goldin. The mission was directed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), a division of the California Institute of Technology, responsible for NASA's Mars Exploration Program. The project manager was JPL's Tony Spear.